SENATE MEMORIAL 23

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2026

INTRODUCED BY

Jay C. Block

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE FINANCE COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER FUNDING IN 2027 FOR PROJECTS THAT PLACE WREATHS ON VETERAN GRAVESITES.

 

     WHEREAS, on December 13, 2025, volunteers across the United States and in New Mexico at the Santa Fe national cemetery remembered the nation's heroes by placing wreaths on veteran gravesites as a tribute to those who served the country; and

     WHEREAS, honoring and remembering New Mexico veterans is a nonprofit organization in Santa Fe with the sole mission of ensuring that every veteran at the Santa Fe national cemetery is honored and remembered year after year with dignity and community support; and

     WHEREAS, five years of community building has led to an increase from two thousand three hundred wreaths placed by seventy-five volunteers in 2019 to nine thousand six hundred wreaths placed by seven hundred fifty volunteers in 2024. A future goal is to place a wreath on every single gravesite of a veteran interred at the Santa Fe national cemetery; and

     WHEREAS, as of December 13, 2025, the number of veterans interred at the Santa Fe national cemetery is seventy-nine thousand, with more burials expected in the future. The cost of each wreath is seventeen dollars ($17.00), and for seventy-nine thousand wreaths, the total cost is one million three hundred forty-three thousand dollars ($1,343,000); and

     WHEREAS, currently, residents of New Mexico have sponsored wreath purchases on behalf of deceased veterans in their families and have sponsored wreaths for other interred veterans solely for the purpose of honoring and remembering the veterans' service; and

     WHEREAS, it is important to provide funding for projects that honor and remember veterans buried at the Santa Fe national cemetery until the effort becomes self-sustaining;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative finance committee be requested to consider funding in 2027 for projects that place wreaths on veteran gravesites; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the director of the legislative finance committee and the secretary of veterans' services.

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