[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2159]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO INCREASE VETERANS' BURIAL BENEFITS

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                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 9, 1999

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, today I will introduce legislation to 
increase the burial benefits for certain veterans from the current 
allowance of $300 to $600. This will represent the first increase in 
the burial benefit in 20 years.
  Current law allows a funeral benefit of $300 for veterans who were 
receiving disability pay or pensions, or those who were eligible for 
pensions but who weren't receiving them. This was intended to help 
defray the costs of funerals for the surviving families. However, 
Congress has not seen fit to increase this allowance since 1978, and it 
is past time to do so.
  Just before the end of World War I, Congress created a funeral 
allowance of up to $100 for some war veterans. After World War II, the 
maximum allowance was increased to $150, and, in 1978, it was increased 
to $300--where it is today.
  When the House was deliberating an increase in 1958, several members 
rose to point out that it had been 12 years since the last increase in 
this modest benefit, and that the benefit level was no longer 
realistic. They said increasing the benefit for the families of those 
veterans who were eligible for it was ``long overdue,'' and showed that 
Congress was aware of the economic realities faced by those families. I 
think, if those Members where here today, they would be saying the same 
things.
  Everyone understands that because of inflation a proper memorial, 
either a funeral or a cremation, if far expensive in 1998 that it was 
in 1958, or 1978. A funeral, today, can run thousands of dollars, 
creating a burden on a bereaved family at a difficult time. I don't 
think it is asking too much to increase this small benefit for these 
veterans, which is why I will introduce legislation to double it, to 
$600.
  When members of Congress created this allowance after World War I, 
they did so because they believed that every veteran receiving 
disability pay or a pension had a right to be buried with dignity, and 
without undue financial hardships for the family. That principle was 
true then, and it remains true today.

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