[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 83 (Monday, June 14, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1239]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              VETERANS' CEMETERIES ASSESSMENT ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CORRINE BROWN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 14, 1999

  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be an original 
cosponsor of H.R. 2040, the Veterans' Cemeteries Assessment Act of 
1999, introduced by Chairman Bob Stump of the Veterans' Affairs 
Committee.
  America made a solemn commitment to those who put their lives on the 
line for her when 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 stated goal of the Department of Veterans Affairs National 
Cemetery Administration is to assure that the burial needs of veterans 
are met with a final resting place that commemorates their service to 
our Nation. Unfortunately, today nearly a third of America's veterans 
do not have the option of being buried in a national or state veterans 
cemetery within a reasonable distance from their residence--determined 
by the VA to be 75 miles.
  I was distressed that the VA's Fiscal Year 2000 proposed budget 
failed to request funding for even the planning of any new national 
cemeteries although the Department's own statistics show that demand 
for cemetery space will increase sharply in the near future, with 
burials increasing 42 percent from 1995 to 2010, and annual veteran 
deaths reaching 620,000 in the year 2008.
  Additionally, I have been deeply concerned that VA continues to 
ignore the long-identified national veterans cemetery needs of the 
southern part of my home state of Florida. In both 1987 and 1994, the 
Miami area was designated by congressionally mandated reports as one of 
the top geographic areas in the United States in which need for burial 
space for veterans is greatest. Yet, as late as August 1998, VA's 
strategic planning through the year 2010 indicated nothing more than a 
willingness to continue evaluating the needs of nearly 800,000 veterans 
in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale primary and secondary service area. Mr. 
Speaker, that is over 54 percent of the estimated state veteran 
population and 3.3 percent of the total U.S. veteran population.
  Florida has the oldest veterans' population of any state. By VA's 
estimate, there will be nearly 25,000 veteran deaths in the greater 
Miami area in FY 2000, and by the year 2010, the annual death rate in 
South Florida will be nearly 26,000. Unfortunately, the nearest 
veterans cemetery is 250 miles away. That is why I introduced H.R. 1628 
to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a national 
cemetery in the Miami, Florida, metropolitan area to serve the needs of 
veterans and their families.
  The independent study required by H.R. 2040 to assess, among other 
things, the number of additional national cemeteries that will be 
required for the interment and memorialization of veterans who die 
after 2010, will better identify the critical needs of all of Florida, 
as well as the Nation. Throughout America, Mr. Speaker, 90 percent of 
eligible veterans are not buried in a state or national veterans 
cemetery.
  Another important matter required to be studied by H.R. 2040 would be 
improvements to VA burial benefits to better serve veterans and their 
families. The legislation specifically mandates consideration of a 
proposal to increase the amount of the plot allowance benefit.
  The plot allowance, when paid to a state veterans cemetery, helps 
defray the state's operating costs of those burial grounds. At a recent 
hearing of the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and 
Investigations, of which I am the Ranking Democrat, veterans 
organizations and State Directors of Veterans Affairs testified that 
the concern for high operating cost obligations keeps many states from 
seeking a VA grant to build and equip a state veterans cemetery.
  Mr. Speaker, I would note that the plot allowance benefit--$150--has 
not been increased in over 20 years, and is limited to only veterans 
with wartime service. I believe that an assessment of the plot 
allowance benefit will find (1) that the current benefit does not cover 
the cost of interment, (2) that the current eligibility criteria 
discriminates against 20 percent of the veteran population who are 
buried in a state cemetery but who are otherwise eligible to be buried 
in a national cemetery, and (3) that an increase in the benefit amount 
and an expansion of the eligibility criteria would provide the needed 
incentive for more states to establish state veterans cemeteries as 
complements the national cemetery system.
  H.R. 2040 will provide Congress with the road map needed to fulfill 
the Nation's solemn obligation to its heroes--that they and their 
families be provided an appropriate resting place of honor. I urge 
Members to support this legislation.

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