VA opposes funeral honors reimbursement bill - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

VA opposes funeral honors reimbursement bill

The Veterans Affairs Department opposes legislation that would reimburse travel and incidental expenses for military retirees and veterans who volunteer to provide military funeral honors for deceased veterans.

The objection comes, in part, because VA does not want to set a precedent of reimbursing volunteers that may end up extending to all other volunteers who regularly help at hospitals and clinics, vet centers and cemeteries.

The bill, HR 811, would require VA to reimburse travel and incidental expenses related to providing burial honors for veterans for members of veterans service organizations or other groups approved by VA to provide a burial detail.

Sponsored by Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the former chairman and now ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, the bill is intended to make up for the fact that the military is no longer able to provide military honors at every veteran’s funeral by encouraging volunteers to take on that task. Many veterans groups already provide volunteers.

Veterans organizations generally support the bill, which is pending before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s disability assistance and memorial affairs panel.

“Many of our nation’s fallen heroes are going without proper honors at their funerals,” said Christina Roof, legislative director for the veterans service organization AmVets, calling it a “poignant reality” that is “unacceptable and avoidable.”

If travel reimbursement were available for volunteers providing funeral honors, Roof said she believes more veterans would be willing to help.

Filner’s proposal would “help mitigate costs to military retirees and veterans who are taking it upon themselves to assist in providing military funerals,” said Shane Barker, senior legislative associate for Veterans of Foreign Wars. “Ordinarily, this sacred task is the responsibility of our military. However, because of our ongoing commitments overseas, they are often unable to meet the demand for such honors.”

VA doesn’t like the idea at all. Diana Rubens, VA’s associate deputy undersecretary for field operations, said May 3 that the proposal raises many potential issues.

For one thing, reimbursement already is authorized from the Defense Department for a daily stipend or to pay travel and transportation costs, making VA reimbursement “unnecessary,” she said.

Second, the administrative burden of managing volunteers and verifying their time and attendance at funerals would fall to VA’s National Cemetery Administration, with no provision in the bill to pay for the added staff. As a result, money for the operation and maintenance of cemeteries and national shrines might have to be reduced to support the additional mission, she said.

Third, reimbursement of some volunteers would “create an inequity” because other volunteers would not receive benefits. “Volunteers who provide essential services at our VA medical centers, assist families at committal services, place gravesite flags on Memorial Day and perform landscaping at VA national cemeteries may feel their service is less valued because they receive no reimbursement for their expenses,” Rubens said.