Press Releases

Leger Fernández’s Small Cemetery Conveyance Act Passes in the House  

Washington, D.C. – Today, the House unanimously passed Congresswoman Leger Fernández’s (NM-03) bill, H.R. 4284, the Small Cemetery Conveyance Act. The bill would remove long-standing federal obstacles for rural, Tribal, and land-grant communities to care for ancestral cemeteries located on National Forest lands.

For generations, families laid their loved ones to rest on lands consecrated long before those lands were claimed by the federal government. Too many communities must navigate costly, time-consuming bureaucratic processes simply to maintain the cemeteries where their ancestors are buried. The Small Cemetery Conveyance Act addresses this by allowing the U.S. Forest Service to transfer small parcels of land containing historic cemeteries directly to states, local governments, federally recognized Tribes, and land-grant Mercedes without requiring a purchase or land exchange. The bill also authorizes the Forest Service to waive expensive survey and appraisal fees for communities that cannot afford them.

In New Mexico alone, at least eight cemeteries across four land-grant communities are potentially eligible for transfer under the legislation, with many more historic cemeteries throughout the National Forest System expected to benefit.

Watch the Congresswoman’s testimony on the bill HERE and the full hearing HERE.

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