[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 105 (Thursday, July 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 2586, THE VETERANS BURIAL PLOT ALLOWANCE 
                        IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CORRINE BROWN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 22, 1999

  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing H.R. 2586, 
the Veterans Burial Plot Allowance Improvement Act of 1999. My bill 
would increase the amount of the veterans' plot allowance burial 
benefit from $150 to $300-the first increase of the plot allowance 
since that benefit was initially authorized over 25 years ago. The 
proposed increase to $300 more accurately reflects the current cost of 
interment and better provides for the original intention of the 
benefit.
  Additionally, my bill would correct an inequity now imposed on 
peacetime veterans while providing a further incentive to states and 
their political subdivisions to expand needed burial space for 
veterans. Under my bill, all veterans who are eligible for burial in a 
national cemetery would be eligible for a plot allowance payable to a 
state or a political subdivision of a state when the veteran is buried 
(without charge for the cost of a plot or interment) in a cemetery or a 
section of a cemetery owned by the state or political subdivision and 
that area is used solely for the interment of persons eligible for 
burial in a national cemetery.
  I am proud of America's long-held, solemn commitment to provide a 
final resting-place of honor for those who have defended her in 
uniform. I am disappointed, however, that today nearly one-third of 
United States veterans do not have the option of being buried in a 
national or state veterans cemetery located within 75 miles of their 
home--a distance the Department of Veterans Affairs says makes a 
veterans cemetery ``reasonably available''. And, I am chagrinned that 
ninety percent of the veterans who are eligible to be buried in a 
national or state veterans cemetery decline to be buried there. A great 
many simply feel that those cemeteries are too far away to be a 
reasonable option for their families.
  Unless Congress takes corrective action soon, the problem of scarce 
burial space for veterans will become more severe over the next decade. 
VA projects a 42 percent increase in veteran burials from 1995 to 2010, 
with the annual veteran death rate reaching 620,000 by the year 2008. I 
was extremely disappointed that--although VA needs five-to-seven years 
to plan and build a national cemetery--its proposed fiscal year 2000 
budget failed to request any funding for even the planning of a single 
new national cemetery.
  On June 29th, the House passed H.R. 2280 that would require the 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish four new national cemeteries 
and contract for an independent assessment of the number of additional 
national cemeteries that will be required for the interment of 
qualified individuals who die after 2005.
  Mr. Speaker, as helpful as H.R. 2280 promises to be in fulfilling 
America's commitment to her veterans, national cemeteries were never 
intended to be the complete solution. The number of veterans under-
served by reasonably available veterans cemeteries is--and will 
continue to be--far too great and widely distributed to be satisfied 
entirely by national cemeteries administered by the Department of 
Veterans Affairs. The answer, Mr. Speaker, is to expand the national 
cemetery supplemental system comprised of veterans cemeteries operated 
by states and their political subdivisions.
  In 1978, Congress established the State Cemetery Grants Program for 
VA to assist states in providing gravesites for veterans in areas where 
the national cemetery system could not satisfy their burial needs. 
Grants are used by states to establish, expand, or improve veterans 
cemeteries they own and operate. Legislation enacted last November 
authorized VA to provide up to 100 percent of the development cost for 
an approved project. For new cemeteries, VA now also can provide the 
operating equipment. States must furnish the land and agree to 
administer, operate, and maintain the cemetery.
  To date, half of the states--to include my home state of Florida, as 
well as the large veterans population states of Texas and New York--
still do not have a state veterans cemetery.
  On May 20th, the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and 
Investigations, of which I am the Ranking Democrat, conducted a hearing 
on veterans cemeteries. Veterans organization representatives and State 
Directors of Veterans Affairs testified that many states do not seek VA 
grants to establish a veterans cemetery because of their concern for 
the high perpetual costs of operating them. Witnesses noted that the 
amount of the plot allowance received by state cemeteries--$150--has 
remained unchanged since the benefit was authorized in 1973 and does 
not come close to covering the state's cost of an interment. 
Furthermore, states are not able to receive plot allowance payments for 
veterans unless those veterans had wartime service. Witnesses estimated 
that 20 percent of the veterans buried in state veterans cemeteries 
were peacetime veterans who would have been eligible to be buried in a 
national cemetery.
  To encourage states to apply for a VA state cemetery grant, my 
legislation would increase the plot allowance to $300. This amount 
represents a conservative estimate of the current actual cost to states 
for the interment of veterans--the original intent of the plot 
allowance benefit.
  My bill also would expand the eligibility criteria for states and 
their political subdivisions to receive plot allowance payments. A 
provision that would allow plot allowance payments for all veterans who 
are eligible for burial in a national cemetery would correct a long-
standing inequity for peacetime veterans as well as support the state 
cemetery grants program. Veterans with peacetime service are not 
distinguished from veterans with wartime service regarding their burial 
benefits in a national cemetery. Veterans who elect to be buried in a 
state cemetery, likewise, should not be subject to differing categories 
of eligibility for the plot allowance benefit.
  A third burial option for veterans--the one that offers a location 
closest to their residence--is a veterans cemetery owned by an agency 
or political subdivision of a state. Local cemeteries owned by a county 
or city are authorized to receive the veteran's plot allowance if the 
veterans is buried without charge for the cost of a plot or interment 
in a section that is used solely for the interment of persons eligible 
for burial in a national cemetery. Like state veterans cemeteries, 
these local, government-owned cemeteries are limited to plot allowances 
for veterans with wartime service.
  Witnesses at my Subcommittee's recent hearing testified that they 
believed that if the amount of the plot allowance benefit were 
increased to a sum more closely approximating the actual cost of 
interment, and if the eligibility criteria for receipt of the plot 
allowance by cemeteries owned by a political subdivision of a state 
were expanded to include peacetime veterans who were eligible for 
burial in a national cemetery, that those community cemeteries would be 
encouraged to establish or expand special sections for veterans.
  Mr. Speaker, it is important that Congress reaffirm this Nation's 
commitment to provide an appropriate resting-place of honor for its 
veterans. My legislation would provide states and their political 
subdivisions with the incentive to expand the necessary supplement to 
our national cemetery system so that America might properly memorialize 
the sacrifices her veterans have made to keep this Nation free. I urge 
my colleagues to support their veterans through the support of my 
solution to this bipartisan issue.

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