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Rep. Rush Holt Proposes New Jersey Battlefield Preservation Act

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - New Jersey Congressman Rush Holt has proposed a measure to preserve the dozens of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 sites across the Garden State.

The American Battlefield Protection Program Amendments Act would help preserve the sites by providing $10 million a year from 2014 to 2017.

WCBS 880's Levon Putney reports

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Former New Jersey Historical Society executive director Linda Caldwell Epps said she hopes Rep. Holt's measure becomes law.

"There's a lot of destroying and very little preservation here," Epps told WCBS 880's Levon Putney. "When we go on vacations, we visit the pyramids or we visit the Coliseum in Rome. What makes us think that our sacred ground is any less sacred and that they shouldn't be preserved?"

Some of the historic spots that would benefit from the funding include George Washington's camp in Morristown and the British campground in Middletown.

"People go by them everyday. They don't understand what they're passing. They don't understand the significance of that ground or of that building and why it's been preserved," Epps told Putney.

The old battleground sites could be used as teaching tools when children are learning about the American Revolution "because they can see what worked and what didn't work," Epps said.

The Senate has taken up a similar version of the bill.

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