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“This is the absolute right thing to do. The brave members of the Reserve and National Guard are heroes who always step up to the plate when duty calls. This new law will ensure state veterans’ cemeteries will not be punished by Washington bureaucrats if they choose to bury these men and women,” said Senator Cramer.
Earlier this week, Senator Cramer penned an op-ed in the Southern Illinoisan calling on Congress to pass his bill to allow state veterans’ cemeteries to bury Guard and Reservists without penalty from the federal government. As a member of SVAC, Senator Cramer shepherded the Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act through committee in December, and it passed unanimously out of the Senate on March 7, 2022.
Background:
Currently, only certain service members who meet national eligibility standards are allowed to be buried in veterans’ cemeteries if the cemeteries receive federal grant funding. The Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act corrects this by prohibiting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from conditioning such grants on a cemetery’s compliance with existing eligibility criteria for burial. Last year, the lawmakers sent a letter to the VA calling on the Department to implement these reforms to the Veterans Cemetery Grants Program.
The bill received a legislative hearing in SVAC last month and brought Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs (USMA) Matthew Quinn to Fargo to hear directly from North Dakotans on this issue.
At a SVAC hearing in December, VA Secretary Denis McDonough issued his support for the bill.
In January, Senators Cramer, Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), John Hoeven (R-ND), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) sent a letter urging Senate and House leadership to include the bill in a bipartisan, bicameral package to address the utmost concerns of our nation’s veterans and their families.
The Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act would:
Click here to read the bill.