[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 39 (Thursday, March 22, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E422]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              VETERANS NATIONAL CEMETERY IN NORTH FLORIDA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CLIFF STEARNS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 22, 2001

  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, Florida's veterans population is the 
largest in the nation second only to California.
  When I introduced legislation in the 104th to designate 1,500 acres 
of Cecil Field for a veterans cemetery, the veteran populations of the 
Florida and Georgia counties was 314,180. Today, that number is 
451,127. The Florida Department of Veterans Affairs and the Georgia 
Department of Veterans Affairs provided this information. That 
represents a sizeable increase in the number of veterans living in this 
area. So, in just five or six years we have about 137,000 more veterans 
living in this region.
  These statistics bear out the fact that there is a definite need for 
an additional cemetery to serve the northeast section of Florida and 
southern Georgia.
  The nearest ``open'' VA cemetery serving the northeast Florida and 
southern Georgia veteran community catchment area is located in 
Bushnell, Florida, which is a three-hour drive from Jacksonville. An 
existing national cemetery in St. Augustine is full. The next closest 
in proximity is to be found in Marietta, Georgia just north of Atlanta.
  I hope my colleagues, especially my fellow Floridians, will join me 
and Representative Ander Crenshaw in our efforts to get a national 
cemetery in the Jacksonville metropolitan area.

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