[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3544 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3544

 To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide guidelines for the 
 establishment of new national cemeteries by the Secretary of Veterans 
                    Affairs, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 9, 2009

  Mr. Filner introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide guidelines for the 
 establishment of new national cemeteries by the Secretary of Veterans 
                    Affairs, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Cemeteries Expansion Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW NATIONAL CEMETERIES BY THE SECRETARY OF 
              VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    Section 2404 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(h)(1) In selecting a location for the establishment of a new 
national cemetery under this chapter, the Secretary shall give priority 
to a location where at least 110,000 veterans reside within a 75-mile 
radius of the location.
    ``(2) In conducting an annual performance measure of the percentage 
of veterans who are served by any cemetery, the Secretary shall--
            ``(A) use census tracts, rather than counties, as the 
        primary geographic unit to test and identify potential 
        locations for new national cemeteries and to determine the 
        percentage of veterans served;
            ``(B) use methods to avoid the double counting of veterans 
        in overlapping service areas; and
            ``(C) count veterans who reside in counties bisected by a 
        service area using a proportional overlay method.''.
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