Jerry Moran: “Mr. Speaker, for the American people, Arlington National Cemetery is a special place honoring our military heroes. This…”

“Mr. Speaker, for the American people, Arlington National Cemetery is a special place honoring our military heroes. This national shrine has a fascinating history that began even before land began to be used as a national cemetery near the end of the Civil War. Arlington mansion was originally the home of Martha Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Curtis. His son-in-law, Robert E. Lee, lived there prior to the Civil War, and when the Civil War began, the Federal Government confiscated the estate for use as a fortification to protect Washington, D.C. As the decades passed, famous military leaders were buried in Arlington. President Taft was buried there, and the cemetery's prestige continued to grow. With the Arlington burial of President Kennedy in 1963, the cemetery became the one of the most visited places in the Washington area, and the pressure increased for interments in its limited space. Arlington's interment rate rose so quickly that if burial eligibility had not been restricted, the cemetery would have been full by 1968. Arlington today has a capacity of 243,373 gravesites, with only about 32,000 gravesites remaining as available.”