United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-01-28 monographic deposited born digital 25 p. GA 1.13:T-HEHS-98-81 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-98-81 P0b002ee18038e18a f:he98081t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-98-81 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-98-81 T-HEHS-98-81 Waivers Eligibility criteria National historic sites Veterans Executive powers Jurisdictional authority Public officials Arlington National Cemetery (VA) Testimony HEHS

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the waiver process for burials in Arlington National Cemetery, focusing on: (1) the trends in waiver decisions; (2) whether legal authority exists to grant waivers; (3) the process used in making waiver decisions; and (4) the criteria applied in the decisionmaking.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) since 1967, 196 waivers have been granted for burial at Arlington cemetery, and at least 144 documented requests have been denied; (2) of the granted waivers, about 63 percent involved burial of individuals in the same grave site as someone already interred, or expected to be interred; (3) although the Secretary of the Army has no explicit statutory or regulatory authority to grant waivers, it is legal for the Secretary to do so, in part, because of the general legal authority of the Secretary for administering Arlington; (4) GAO found that most waiver requests have been handled through an internal Army review process involving officials responsible for the administration of Arlington; (5) however, this process is not followed in all cases; (6) for example, in the case of presidential waiver decisions, the Army process is generally bypassed; (7) in addition, this process is not widely known or understood, which in some cases has appeared to provide advantages to those who were persistent enough to pursue a waiver request or who were able to obtain the assistance of high-level government officials; and (8) while those responsible for making waiver decisions appear to apply some generally understood criteria, these criteria, which are not formally established, are not always consistently applied or clearly documented. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-98-81/html/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-98-81.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-98-81/pdf/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-98-81.pdf GAO/T-HEHS-98-81 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-98-81 Testimony GAO/T-HEHS-98-81; Arlington National Cemetery: Authority, Process, and Criteria for Burial Waivers; Waivers Eligibility criteria National historic sites Veterans Executive powers Jurisdictional authority Public officials Arlington National Cemetery (VA) Title 5 Section 5312 Title 5 Section 5313 5 U.S.C. 5312 5 U.S.C. 5313 Title 10 Section 1202 10 U.S.C. 1202 Title 22 Section 1964 Title 22 Section 866 22 U.S.C. 1964 22 U.S.C. 866 Volume 60 Page 1002 60 Stat. 1002 Public Law 93-43