A. Donald McEachin’s legacy as a Richmond congressman will live on in the African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Act that he sponsored in February with others in the U.S. House and Senate.

That bill gives the federal government a small role in promoting preservation of the often neglected or disappeared cemeteries.

The legislation passed after being tucked into the $1.7 trillion spending package that Congress approved just before Christmas to keep the government in operation through Sept. 30, 2023. The president added his signature Tuesday to ensure it became law.

The cemetery preservation act is listed on page 2,954 of the massive omnibus funding bill. It establishes the first ever program in the National Park Service to provide grant opportunities and technical assistance to groups that research, identify, survey and preserve the sites.

The legislation provides the Park Service with $3 million a year through 2027 to award in grants.

Lenora McQueen, who has led the effort to preserve the once forgotten Shockoe Hill African Burial Ground, cheered the approval.

“I join with everyone else who supported this bill in expressing joy at the passage of this legislation,” Ms. McQueen said. “It represents an important first step in getting the federal government involved in this work.”

Congressman McEachin, who died Nov. 28, stated last Feb- ruary at the bill’s introduction that the legislation represents a start to ending the “unjust abuse and neglect the graves of African-African have suffered.

“These burial sites hold the untold stories of millions of African-Americans and the integral role they place in our nation’s trajectory,” Congressman McEachin continued. “The protection of these burial grounds is long overdue and critical to ensuring a more complete, comprehensive understanding of America’s history.”

He joined North Carolina Democratic Congresswoman Alma Adams and Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick in introducing the bill in the House. Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney spearheaded the legislation in the upper chamber. Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine also supported the legislation.

The legislation had the support of the Coalition for American Heritage, United Negro College Fund, Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society.

Other organizations that supported the legislation include the Archaeological Institute of America, American Anthropological Association, American Battlefield Trust, American History Press, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Action and the Society of Black Archaeologists Society for Historical Archaeology.

But the legislation had largely languished in committee before it was included in the omnibus.

Congressman McEachin also left his fingerprints on other areas of the omnibus bill.

His additions include $3 million to support creation of a north-south Pulse rapid-transit bus line along U.S. 1 in Richmond and $3.2 million to aid Petersburg to upgrade its emergency communications system.

He also joined Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine in securing $1.5 million in new support for Richmond’s Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership, $10.6 million for James River dredging to improve the port and $700,000 to improve Main Street Station’s safety and security.

Also, they gained $500,000 to support an initiative to preserve and restore the historic Byrd Park Pump House for public use.