[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13849]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              STATE VETERANS CEMETERY FAIRNESS ACT OF 2003

  (Mr. CASE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, as our troops come home from Iraq and we look 
forward to D-Day's 60th anniversary, we all feel a deep and renewed 
sense of gratitude for our Nation's veterans. And as increasing 
numbers, like members of my own Hawaii's famed 100th Battalion and 
442nd Regimental Combat Team, pass on, we must also remember that one 
of our basic promises to them is to be buried with their comrades in 
our great national cemeteries, from Arlington to my own National 
Cemetery of the Pacific.
  But increasing numbers of States, 17 at last count, have no Federal 
VA cemetery, or else those cemeteries are now full. These States must 
pick up an increasing burden, which is and should be the Federal 
Government's, and the reality is that, for these veterans, their final 
resting places are suffering.
  Today I introduced a simple bill to raise the Federal reimbursement 
for veteran burials in State cemeteries where there is no Federal VA 
option from $300 to $750. This is only fair, and I ask for my 
colleagues' support.

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