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House approves Medal of Honor Day bill

The House of Representatives has unanimously passed a resolution calling on a day to honor Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, but lawmakers now have to figure out a way around a procedural hurdle that prevents the measure from going to the president.

The resolution, approved 411-0, would make March 25 National Medal of Honor Day, to be celebrated by remembering the more than 3,400 people who have received the nation’s highest honor for valor.

Because of differences in how legislation is managed, the House-passed resolution is slightly different than a Medal of Honor Day measure passed earlier by the Senate. The Senate bill would make only one day — March 25, 2007 — Medal of Honor Day, while the House bill would apply to March 25 every year.

Congressional aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there is no controversy involved in the difference. The House and Senate have different procedures for resolutions designating special days. If the Senate resolution, sponsored by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, the veterans’ affairs committee chairman, had called for designating a day in perpetuity, it would have been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it would sit in a pile of other day-naming bills. But because it was a one-year resolution, the measure could quickly be approved.

How the differences will be worked out, is not immediately clear, aides said. “I am sure we will figure out something,” one aide said.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the House Armed Services Committee chairman and chief sponsor of the House-passed resolution, said the bill “seeks to recognize the heroism and sacrifice of the nation’s Medal of Honor recipients.”

The resolution asks, but does not require, a day of recognition to be designated by the president.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation has been pushing for the designation of a day of recognition for the award that was established in 1861 and has been given to 3,444 people, including 112 who are still living.

“We are thrilled that Congress has recognized the important legacy of recipients of the Medal of Honor and of all members of the Armed Forces,” said Nick Kehoe, president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. “An annual, national day of recognition is an excellent way to remember these American heroes and foster public appreciation for the important values these veterans represent.”