Sen. Cramer Burial Equity, VA Insurance Legislation Passes Veterans’ Affairs Committee

Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC), issued the following statement on his Burial Equity and his Supporting Families of the Fallen Act passing through the SVAC today:

“I have the opportunity to sit on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and today the committee voted to move two of my bills to the Senate floor for full Senate consideration. The first one is the Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act, which ensures Guardsmen and Reservists have equal burial rights in state veterans cemeteries, like the one we have south of Mandan. It’s a beautiful cemetery. It also includes the children of those buried in a state veterans cemetery. At the heart of this is federalism. This is about deference to the states and giving them the flexibility to set their own standards without being penalized by the federal government, which is what the VA does today. It needs to be corrected and this bill does that.

“Guardsmen and Reservists sign up to risk their lives in order to protect the liberties we enjoy every single day in this great country. In my view, and in the view of the vast majority of Americans, they deserve to be recognized for that service with a proper burial in veterans cemeteries after their death.

“The second bill is the Supporting Families of the Fallen Act, which authorizes a raise in Veterans Affairs life insurance to account for inflation. One might think inflation is regular so this is too, but it’s not. This is the first raise in over 15 years, and as inflation is still very much on the rise in our country, this legislation will allow our veterans to better provide their families with stability and peace of mind for the future. I want to give a shoutout to my friend and colleague, Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, for his leadership on this important issue.

“Both of these bills will support veterans in North Dakota and across the country. It’s the very least we can do after the sacrifices they make for us.”

The Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act of 2021 ensures reserve components and the National Guard are eligible to be buried in state veterans cemeteries so long as their service was terminated under other than dishonorable conditions. The bill is supported by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), John Hoeven (R-ND), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH). It received a legislative hearing in SVAC last month and Veterans Affairs (VA) Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs (USMA) Matthew Quinn traveled to Fargo and Bismarck to hear directly from North Dakotans on this issue. Sen. Cramer questioned VA Secretary McDonough on the bill on December 2, 2021 where the Secretary confirmed his support for the legislation: “On that bill, Senator Cramer, I thought that worked really well. You all raised this to my attention and we dug into it, and very transparently and straight-forwardly our staffs and teams working together came to a good outcome. I’m really proud of that work,” said Secretary McDonough.

The Supporting Families of the Fallen Act was introduced by Senator Tuberville and supported by Senators Cramer and Rounds. The purpose of the legislation is to adjusts the maximum coverage for VA life insurance policies to account for inflation for more than 15+ years.