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Washington Report
January/February 2002
VA now can furnish second marker
in private cemeteries
by Robert M. Fells, Esq., general counsel
President Bush gave veterans and private cemeteries a Christmas present on December 27 when he signed into law P.L. 107-103, the Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001, which provides a series of improved veterans benefits. Among other items, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) may now furnish a government marker to private cemeteries where the grave has already been memorialized by a privately purchased marker or headstone. Similar to the current law providing government markers, the benefit is subject to the cemetery's rules and regulations.
For many years, both the families of veterans and private cemeteries have been frustrated by the VA's refusal to furnish a government marker if the veteran's grave site already had a marker. This new benefit is a five-year pilot program that will be reviewed by February 1, 2006, to determine how well the program has been received.
Copyright ICFA 2002
ICFA files brief in Florida Supreme Court
on cemetery marker restrictions |
