FUNDING FOR WREATHS ON VETERAN GRAVESITES

SM023

SENATE MEMORIAL 23

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

INTRODUCED BY

Jay C. Block and William E. Sharer and Anthony L. Thornton

and Gabriel Ramos

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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