[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 152 (Wednesday, August 7, 2019)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 38556-38558]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-16915]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

38 CFR Part 38

RIN 2900-AQ35


Committal Services, Memorial Services and Funeral Honors

AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.

ACTION: Final rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This final rule reflects current VA practices relative to 
respecting the expressed wishes of the personal representative when 
making arrangements for the committal or memorial service. The final 
rule clarifies the process for requesting committal or memorial 
services when requesting interment at VA national cemeteries and 
addresses access to public areas at VA national cemeteries. The final 
rule also addresses when committal services may be conducted at a 
gravesite rather than in a committal shelter and standardizes measures 
to implement the statutory requirement that VA notify the personal 
representative of the funeral honors available to the deceased veteran.

DATES: This final rule is effective September 6, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melvin Gerrets, Office of the Director 
of Cemetery Operations, National Cemetery Administration (NCA), 
Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC 
20420. Telephone: (202) 461-9646 (this is not a toll-free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: VA published a proposed rule in the Federal 
Register on March 25, 2019 (84 FR 11037), to address committal or 
memorial services and funeral honors at VA national cemeteries, 
including current VA practices, under 38 U.S.C. 2404(h), relative to 
respecting the expressed wishes of the personal representative when 
making arrangements for the committal or memorial service. The 
amendments also clarified the process for requesting interment at VA 
national cemeteries, defined when a committal service may be conducted 
at a gravesite rather than in a committal shelter, and included 
measures to implement the statutory requirement that VA notify the 
personal representative of the funeral honors available to the deceased 
veteran. VA received no comments on the proposed rule during the 
comment period, which ended on May 25, 2019. Based on the rationale set 
forth in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION to the proposed rule, we are 
adopting the provisions of the proposed rule as a final rule without 
change.

Effect of Rulemaking

    Title 38 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as revised by this 
final rulemaking, represents VA's implementation of its legal authority 
on this subject. Other than future amendments to this regulation or 
governing statutes, no contrary guidance or procedures are authorized. 
All existing or subsequent VA guidance must be read to conform with 
this rulemaking if possible or, if not possible, such guidance is 
superseded by this rulemaking.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3507) requires that 
VA consider the impact of paperwork and other information collection 
burdens imposed on the public. Under 44 U.S.C. 3507(a), an agency may 
not collect or sponsor the collection of information, nor may it impose 
an information collection requirement, unless it displays a currently 
valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. See also 5 
CFR 1320.8(b)(2)(vi). This final rule contains provisions constituting 
collection of information at 38 CFR 38.619(a) and (b), and at 38 CFR 
38.619(f)(5).
    The information collection at Sec.  38.619(a) and (b) is necessary 
to establish eligibility for national cemetery burial and to schedule 
and plan interments. This information collection is currently approved 
by OMB and has been assigned OMB control number 2900-0232. The burden 
of this information collection would remain unchanged.
    This final rule also imposes new information collection 
requirements at 38 CFR 38.619(f)(5). This new information collection is 
a certification requirement for non-DoD funeral honors providers, that 
will help ensure the safety of cemetery visitors and staff and maintain 
the decorum of the national cemeteries by requiring that non-DoD 
funeral honors providers that perform funeral honors activities at VA 
national cemeteries certify to VA that they will comply with 
requirements set forth in the regulation. As required by 44 U.S.C. 
3507(d), VA submitted the new information collection to OMB for its 
review. The Office of Management and Budget has assigned the 
information collection requirement in this section under control number 
2900-0865. The information collection is pending OMB approval. VA will 
not collect information associated with the funeral honors providers 
certification until OMB approves the associated information collection.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The Secretary hereby certifies that this final rule will not have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities 
as they are defined in the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601-
612. Even to the extent some veterans service organizations that 
provide funeral honors could be viewed as ``small entities'' as defined 
in 5 U.S.C. 601(4), (6), this final rule will not have a significant 
economic impact on them because it concerns only the standards of 
conduct those groups must abide by when conducting funeral honors in 
national cemeteries. Therefore, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 605(b), this final 
rule would be exempt from the initial and final

[[Page 38557]]

regulatory flexibility analysis requirements of 5 U.S.C. 603 and 604.

Executive Orders 12866, 13563, and 13771

    Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 direct agencies to assess the 
costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, when 
regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize 
net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public 
health and safety effects, and other advantages; distributive impacts; 
and equity). Executive Order 13563 (Improving Regulation and Regulatory 
Review) emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and 
benefits, reducing costs, harmonizing rules, and promoting flexibility. 
Executive Order 12866 (Regulatory Planning and Review) defines a 
``significant regulatory action,'' which requires review by the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB), as ``any regulatory action that is 
likely to result in a rule that may: (1) Have an annual effect on the 
economy of $100 million or more or adversely affect in a material way 
the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, 
the environment, public health or safety, or State, local, or tribal 
governments or communities; (2) Create a serious inconsistency or 
otherwise interfere with an action taken or planned by another agency; 
(3) Materially alter the budgetary impact of entitlements, grants, user 
fees, or loan programs or the rights and obligations of recipients 
thereof; or (4) Raise novel legal or policy issues arising out of legal 
mandates, the President's priorities, or the principles set forth in 
this Executive Order.''
    VA has examined the economic, interagency, budgetary, legal, and 
policy implications of this final rule action and determined that the 
action is not a significant regulatory action under Executive Order 
12866. This final rule is not a E.O. 13771 regulatory action because 
this final rule is not significant under E.O. 12866.

Unfunded Mandates

    The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 requires, at 2 U.S.C. 
1532, that agencies prepare an assessment of anticipated costs and 
benefits before issuing any rule that may result in the expenditure by 
State, local, and tribal governments, in the aggregate, or by the 
private sector, of $100 million or more (adjusted annually for 
inflation) in any one year. This final rule would have no such effect 
on State, local, and tribal governments, or on the private sector.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

    The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance numbers and titles for 
the programs affected by this document are 64.201 National Cemeteries; 
64.202 Procurement of Headstones and Markers and/or Presidential 
Memorial Certificates; and, 64.203 State Cemetery Grants.

List of Subjects in 38 CFR Part 38

    Administrative practice and procedure, Cemeteries, Veterans, 
Claims, Crime, Criminal offenses.

Signing Authority

    The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, or designee, approved this 
document and authorized the undersigned to sign and submit the document 
to the Office of the Federal Register for publication electronically as 
an official document of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Robert L. 
Wilkie, Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs, approved this 
document on August 1, 2019, for publication.

    Dated: August 2, 2019.
Luvenia Potts,
Program Specialist, Office of Regulation Policy & Management, Office of 
the Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs.

    For the reasons set out in the preamble, VA amends 38 CFR part 38 
as follows:

PART 38--NATIONAL CEMETERIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

0
1. The authority citation for part 38 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 38 U.S.C. 107, 501, 512, 2306, 2402, 2403, 2404, 
2407, 2408, 2411, 7105.


0
2. Add Sec.  38.619 to read as follows:


Sec.  38.619   Requests for interment, committal services or memorial 
services, and funeral honors.

    (a) Interment requests. A personal representative, as defined in 
Sec.  38.600, may request interment of an eligible decedent in a 
national cemetery by contacting the National Cemetery Scheduling Office 
(NCSO) at 1-800-535-1117.
    (1) Required information. VA will request the following information 
from the decedent's personal representative at the time of the request 
for interment to allow VA to schedule the interment for the decedent:
    (i) Documentation of the decedent's eligibility for national 
cemetery interment. If needed, VA will make reasonable efforts to 
assist the personal representative in obtaining such documentation;
    (ii) Preferred date and time for the interment;
    (iii) Whether a committal service is requested (a committal service 
is not required);
    (iv) Whether the remains are in a casket or urn. For cremated 
remains, the personal representative will be advised to present a 
certificate of cremation or other documentation sufficient to identify 
the decedent at the time of interment.
    (v) The size of the casket or urn.
    (vi) The contact information for the personal representative.
    (vii) Whether a private vault will be provided to the national 
cemetery or a government-furnished grave liner is required.
    (viii) Whether the personal representative intends to have funeral 
honors during the committal service, if the decedent is a veteran.
    (ix) Other relevant information necessary to establish or confirm 
eligibility of the decedent and/or for cemetery logistics and planning.
    (2) [Reserved].
    (b) Memorial services requests. The personal representative may 
request a memorial service for a decedent who is eligible for interment 
in a VA national cemetery. Memorial services may be conducted if the 
decedent's cremated remains will be scattered and will not be interred, 
or if the remains of the eligible individual are otherwise not 
available for interment, or were previously interred without a 
committal service. The personal representative may request the memorial 
service by contacting the National Cemetery Scheduling Office (NCSO) at 
1-800-535-1117 and providing the following required information:
    (1) Documentation of the decedent's eligibility for national 
cemetery interment. If needed, VA will make reasonable efforts to 
assist the personal representative in obtaining such documentation;
    (2) Preferred date and time for the memorial service;
    (3) The contact information for the personal representative;
    (4) Whether the personal representative intends to have funeral 
honors services during the memorial service, if the decedent is a 
veteran;
    (5) Other relevant information necessary to establish or confirm 
eligibility of the decedent and/or for cemetery logistics and planning.
    (c) Content of committal or memorial services. VA will respect and 
defer to the expressed wishes of the personal representative for the 
content and conduct of a committal or memorial service, including the 
display of

[[Page 38558]]

religious or other symbols chosen by the family, the use of all 
appropriate public areas, and the selection of funeral honors 
providers, provided that the safety and security of the national 
cemetery and its visitors are not adversely affected.
    (d) Location of services. Committal or memorial services at VA 
national cemeteries will be held in committal shelters located away 
from the gravesite to ensure accessibility and visitor safety, unless 
the cemetery director determines that a committal shelter is not 
available for logistical reasons, or the cemetery director approves a 
request from the personal representative for a gravesite service. A 
request for a gravesite service may be approved by the cemetery 
director if:
    (1) The service is requested by the decedent's personal 
representative for religious reasons; and
    (2) The request is made sufficiently prior to the scheduled 
committal service to ensure the gravesite is accessible; and
    (3) The cemetery director has sufficient staffing resources for the 
gravesite service, and
    (4) The site can be safely accessed on the day of the service.
    (e) Witnessing interment without additional services. When 
scheduling the interment, the decedent's personal representative may 
request to witness the interment of the decedent's remains without 
additional services at the committal shelter. Approval of a request for 
witness-only interment is at the discretion of the cemetery director, 
and may be made only if:
    (1) The timing of the request provides sufficient time to ensure 
the gravesite is accessible, and;
    (2) The site can be safely accessed on the day of the interment. 
This determination may require limiting the number of individuals who 
may witness the interment and other logistics, such as distance from 
the gravesite, as the cemetery director finds necessary.
    (f) Funeral honors--(1) List of organizations providing funeral 
honors. Each cemetery director will maintain a list of organizations 
that will, upon request, provide funeral honors at the cemetery at no 
cost to the family. Each list must include DoD funeral honors contacts. 
Non-DoD funeral honors providers who want to be included on the list 
must make a request to the cemetery director and meet the requirements 
of paragraph (f)(5) of this section.
    (2) Request required. Funeral honors will be provided at a 
committal or memorial service for an eligible individual only if 
requested by the decedent's personal representative. When scheduling a 
committal or memorial service for a veteran or other eligible 
individual who served in the U.S. armed forces, the NCSO will make 
available to the personal representative the list of available funeral 
honors providers, as described in paragraph (f)(1) of this section, for 
the cemetery where interment or services are to be scheduled. The 
decedent's personal representative may choose any funeral honors 
provider(s) on the list provided by VA, and/or any other organization 
that provides funeral honors services.
    (3) Agreement. Any agreement to provide funeral honors is 
exclusively between the organization(s) providing funeral honors and 
the decedent's personal representative. The composition of a funeral 
honors detail, as well as the specific content of the ceremony provided 
during a committal or memorial service is dependent on available 
resources of the providing organization(s). The Department of Defense 
(DoD) is responsible for determining eligibility for funeral honors 
provided by a DoD funeral honors detail. If funeral honors are provided 
by a combined detail that includes one or more funeral honors 
providers, all providers must provide services as requested by the 
personal representative.
    (4) Requirements for all funeral honors providers. All 
organizations performing funeral honors at VA national cemeteries, 
including DoD organizations and any provider selected by the personal 
representative that is not on the list of providers provided by VA 
under paragraph (f)(1) of this section, must:
    (i) Provide to the cemetery director the name and contact 
information of a representative for the organization who is accountable 
for funeral honors activities; and
    (ii) Comply with VA security, safety, and law enforcement 
regulations under 38 CFR 1.218; and
    (iii) Maintain and operate any equipment in a safe manner 
consistent with VA and DoD policies and regulations; and
    (iv) Not solicit for or accept donations on VA property except as 
authorized under 38 CFR 1.218(a)(8).
    (5) Additional requirements for non-DoD funeral honors providers. 
Non-DoD funeral honors providers, including any provider selected by 
the personal representative that is not on the list of providers 
provided by VA under paragraph (f)(1) of this section, must certify 
that:
    (i) They will comply with the requirements in subparagraphs (f)(4) 
of this section;
    (ii) They are conducting activities on federal property as an 
independent entity, not as an agent or employee of VA, unless 
registered as a VA volunteer;
    (iii) Members of the organization who will conduct the funeral 
honors have completed training on funeral honors tasks and the safe use 
of funeral honors equipment; and
    (iv) The funeral honors will be provided in accordance with the 
agreement in paragraph (f)(3) of this section between the personal 
representative and the funeral honors provider.
    (g) Public areas. The cemetery director and cemetery staff will 
allow access to and use of appropriate public areas of the national 
cemetery by national cemetery visitors, as well as to families and 
funeral honors providers for service preparations, contemplation, 
prayer, mourning, or reflection, so long as the safety and security of 
the national cemetery and cemetery operations are not adversely 
affected. Appropriate public areas include, but are not limited to, 
committal shelters, rest areas, chapels, and benches. The cemetery 
director will ensure that signs adequately identify restricted or non-
public areas in the national cemetery.
    (h) Gifts. Nothing in this section prohibits or constrains any 
member of a funeral honors provider, a Veterans Service Organization, 
or the public from offering a gift or token to a family member of the 
decedent or any person at a committal or memorial service, provided 
that no compensation is requested, received, or expected in exchange 
for such gift or token. Committal or memorial service attendees may 
accept or decline any such gift or token, and may request that the 
offeror refrain from making any such offers to the service attendees.

(Authority: 38 U.S.C. 2402, 2404)


[FR Doc. 2019-16915 Filed 8-6-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8320-01-P