Veterans' Benefits: Burial Benefits and National Cemeteries (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised March 11, 2016 |
| Report Number |
R41386 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Barbara Salazar, Torreon Analyst in Defense Budget and Military Manpower |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
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Summary:
Burial benefits are nonmonetary and monetary benefits that eligible veterans receive for their military service. Servicemembers and veterans have been provided nonmonetary burial benefits since the Civil War and monetary burial benefits since World War I.
Eligible veterans and active duty members of the Armed Forces can be interred in national cemeteries and can receive government-furnished headstones or markers, and in their honor, next of kin can receive presidential memorial certificates and burial flags. Their spouses or surviving spouses, minor children, and, under certain conditions, unmarried adult children may also be buried in national cemeteries.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) burial allowances are partial reimbursements for eligible veterans' burial and funeral costs. The allowance amount provided depends on whether the veteran's death was service-connected, non-service-connected, or occurred in a VA facility. The veteran's next of kin is eligible for reimbursement if he or she paid for the veteran's burial or funeral and has not been reimbursed by another government agency or some other source, such as the deceased veteran's employer.
The development of national cemeteries began as a result of the increasing number of Civil War casualties. The National Cemetery Act of 1867 was the first major piece of legislation to provide funds for, and directives about, national cemeteries. Today, there are 131 national cemeteries, along with 33 soldiers' lots and monument sites, under the VA's jurisdiction.
This report provides a descriptive analysis of both nonmonetary and monetary burial benefits and national cemeteries. It addresses congressional and constituent issues (among other things), such as
who is eligible to receive burial benefits?
who can be buried in a national cemetery?
what plans does the VA have to build new or expand existing national cemeteries? and
what benefits does the VA provide?
These issues may be of particular interest to Congress due to the aging of the veteran population, the changes to eligibility requirements, and recent VA report findings and recommendations related to the establishment of national cemeteries.
