WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, and Dave McCormick, R-Pennsylvania, introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate to expand burial benefits for veterans’ families.
The bill is called the Dennis and Lois Krisfalusy Act. It would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide memorial headstones or markers for veterans, their spouses, and children, regardless of when they died.
According to the senators, the bill is named in honor of Dennis “Denny” Krisfalusy, a U.S. Air Force veteran from Washington County, Pennsylvania, who served during the Vietnam War. In 1985, Dennis and his wife, Lois Krisfalusy, died during an earthquake in Mexico City, with neither of their remains recovered. Though Dennis received a memorial headstone at the Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania, Lois was ineligible to have her name added under current VA regulations due to an arbitrary date restriction.
The Dennis and Lois Krisfalusy Act removes these restrictions, allowing spouses like Lois to be memorialized alongside their veteran loved ones, according to the senators. Under current law, only spouses who died after Nov. 11, 1998, and before Oct. 1, 2025, are eligible for VA burial markers. This bill eliminates that limitation and permanently extends the benefit to all qualifying military families.
“We can never repay the debt we owe our veterans and their families for their sacrifices to keep our country safe. We have a responsibility to honor those sacrifices regardless of when a family member died,” Sen. Fetterman said. “Lois Krisfalusy should be honored with her husband, Dennis – but arbitrary barriers are preventing that. It’s common sense that families like theirs deserve to be laid to rest together, and I’m proud to lead a bipartisan effort to correct this injustice.”
“Our veterans put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms, and we owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid,” Sen. McCormick said. “I’m proud to support this commonsense bill amending restrictions on military memorial headstones for families of veterans before 1998. Bureaucracy should not stand in the way of our veterans and their families being laid to rest honorably while also recognizing their service.”
The House companion of the Dennis and Lois Krisfalusy Act was introduced by Representatives Guy Reschenthaler, R-PA, Chris Deluzio, D-PA, Mike Kelly, R-PA, Dan Meuser, R-PA, G.T. Thompson, R-PA, and Julia Brownley, D-California.