Sponsors (10)
The bill removes a date-of-death cutoff to extend VA grave-marker and burial-item benefits to more deceased veterans—reducing families' burial costs and expanding memorialization—while increasing program costs and creating short-term VA administrative and delivery burdens.
Veterans who died before the prior date-of-death cutoff gain eligibility for VA-provided headstones, markers, and burial receptacles, expanding burial benefits to more deceased veterans and their families.
Surviving families of newly eligible veterans will likely pay less in out-of-pocket funeral and burial costs because the VA will provide headstones or markers that they might otherwise have had to purchase.
Taxpayers and the VA program may face higher costs because expanding eligibility requires supplying more markers and receptacles, potentially increasing appropriations or per-benefit expense.
Veterans, their families, and the Department of Veterans Affairs could experience short-term logistical burdens (ordering, inventory, and processing) to serve newly eligible cases, which may delay delivery of markers and related items.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Removes the date-of-death cutoff so the VA can provide headstones, markers, and burial receptacles to eligible individuals who died before November 11, 1998.
Removes a date-of-death cutoff that had limited eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) headstones, markers, and burial receptacles. The change lets the VA provide those memorial items to otherwise-eligible individuals who died before November 11, 1998. Also includes a provision establishing a short title for the act.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by Guy Reschenthaler · Last progress February 13, 2025