[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 54 (Tuesday, April 20, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE NATIONAL CEMETERIES ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LANE EVANS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 20, 1999

  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I am today introducing the National 
Cemeteries Act of 1999. This legislation requires the Secretary of 
Veterans' Affairs to establish three new national cemeteries. Each of 
these new cemeteries will be established in an area of the country 
determined by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to be most in need of 
Cemetery space to serve veterans and their families.
  VA statistics show that demand for burial benefits will increase 
sharply in the near future, with interments increasing 42% from 1995 to 
2010. Unless new national cemeteries are established soon, VA will not 
be able to meet the need for burial services for veterans in several 
metropolitan areas of the country.
  I am concerned that too many veterans lack access to the final--and 
for many, the only--veterans benefit they will receive from our 
grateful nation. The number of veterans who lack adequate access to 
burial in a national cemetery will increase during the next decade, and 
the Department of Veterans Affairs has not demonstrated a commitment to 
establishing obviously-needed new national cemeteries. I was deeply 
disappointed that the Administration FY 2000 budget for VA failed to 
include a request for the funding required to initiate new national 
cemeteries. When we on the Veterans Affairs Committee finally agreed 
last year to enact legislation requested by the VA to enhance the State 
Cemetery Grants program, it was only after we were assured by the 
Department that this program would continue to simply supplement the 
national cemetery system--not replace it. In view of this, I expected 
the Department to demonstrate its commitment to the expansion of the 
national cemetery system by including funding for at least one new 
cemetery in the FY 2000 budget request. It is because that funding was 
not in the VA's budget request that I am introducing this legislation 
today.
  Accordingly, my bill would require the Secretary to establish a new 
national cemetery in the three areas of the country that are determined 
by the Secretary to be most in need of burial space. Additionally, this 
legislation would require the Secretary to provide Congress with a 
report 4 months after enactment of the National Cemetery Act of 1999. 
This report will identify the three areas where new national cemeteries 
are to be established, a schedule for cemetery construction, and an 
estimate of the costs associated with establishment of these 
cemeteries.
  In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation authorizing the 
purchase of ``cemetery grounds'' to be used as national cemeteries 
``for soldiers who shall have died in the service of the country.'' The 
fourteen cemeteries that were established that year were the beginning 
of what has become the National Cemetery System. Today, more than 130 
years after the first national cemeteries were established, the 
National Cemetery Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs 
is responsible for more than 2.2 million gravesites at 115 national 
cemeteries in 39 states. Of these 115 cemeteries, 57 are open to all 
interments, 36 can accommodate cremated remains and family members of 
those already interred, and 22 are closed to new interments.
  On May 31st of this year, many of us will attend Memorial Day 
observances at our national cemeteries during which we will, with 
humility and thanks, pay sincere respect to those whose sacrifices and 
dedication have protected the ideals on which America was founded. We 
will remember the more than 42 million patriots who, through two 
centuries and too many wars, have taken up arms to defend America and 
to guarantee that the blessings of liberty are secure. Remembering, 
however, is not enough. We as a nation must also meet our historic 
commitment to provide health care, compensation, and readjustment 
assistance to the living--and provide a hallowed resting place for our 
American heroes when they die.
  I urge Members to support the National Cemeteries Act of 1999.

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