Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA) introduced the Loved Ones Interment Act, a bill that ensures that veterans can be laid with their loved ones in national or veterans cemeteries. Under current law, veterans who receive a burial benefit such as an urn or commemorative plaque from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are barred from being interred with a spouse or dependent, a restriction that has prevented many families from being buried together.
“Those who have served our country in uniform deserve to be buried with the utmost respect and dignity, regardless of whether their families choose for them to be cremated or not,” said Congresswoman Julia Brownley. “It is heartbreaking and completely unacceptable that VA’s current interpretation of the law prevents cremated veterans from being buried with their family members because of limitations placed on burial benefits. My bill seeks to rectify this inadvertent consequence of the law by allowing the cremated remains of veterans to be interred with their spouse or child, even if they received an urn or plaque from VA. Our nation’s veterans and their families have sacrificed so much in service to our country, and ensuring that veterans are laid to rest with their loved ones is essential for upholding our promise to serve our veterans – in life and death – as well as they have served our country.”
Background on the Loved Ones Interment Act
As part of the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020, Congress authorized VA to provide eligible veterans with an urn or commemorative plaque. According to the law, if the “Secretary [of the Department of Veterans Affairs] furnishes an urn [or commemorative plaque]…for an individual, the Secretary may not provide for such individual any burial benefit under section 2402 of this title.” VA interprets this to mean that if a veteran received a burial benefit of an urn or commemorative plaque, the veteran cannot receive a secondary burial benefit of being interred with a spouse or dependent.
The Loved Ones Interment Act would clarify the law to allow cremated veterans to be laid to rest in the same burial space as a spouse or dependent, and provide a family headstone that contains details about the cremated veteran.
This bill is endorsed by AMVETS (American Veterans), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Minority Veterans of America (MVA), and Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).
Read the full text of the bill here.
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Issues: 119th Congress, Veterans' Affairs