Sponsors
The bill strengthens and clarifies limits on military ceremonial honors to avoid associating service members with January 6 violent conduct, at the cost of Congress directly singling out an individual and risking political backlash and precedent of legislative adjudication.
Military personnel and their families will not be required to provide ceremonial honors to a person Congress deems to have engaged in illegal violent conduct on January 6, 2021, protecting service members from association with that conduct and preserving ceremonial integrity and morale.
Reinforces standards for use of military ceremonial resources by denying honors to former service members whose post-service conduct meets the bill’s disqualifying illegal-conduct criteria, clarifying policy for taxpayer-funded ceremonial honors.
Allows Congress to single out an individual for ineligibility, creating a precedent of legislative adjudication of individual cases instead of using courts or administrative processes.
May provoke political controversy and public backlash from supporters of the affected individual, increasing polarization around military ceremonial decisions and risking perceptions that the military is drawn into partisan disputes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Declares Ashli Babbitt ineligible for military funeral honors under 10 U.S.C. § 985 due to illegal conduct during the January 6 attack.
Introduced March 17, 2026 by Ruben Gallego · Last progress March 17, 2026
Declares that Ashli Babbitt is ineligible to receive military funeral honors under the law because her entry into the Capitol on January 6, 2021 is judged to be illegal conduct that disqualifies her from those honors. The measure applies a specific statutory disqualification for military funeral honors to this individual. The change directs that military ceremonial honors authorized by 10 U.S.C. § 985 not be provided to the named person, which affects how the Department of Defense and military services handle requests for funeral honors in this single case.