Bud Shuster: “I thank the chairman for working with me on this piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to shed light on the…”

“I thank the chairman for working with me on this piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to shed light on the issue plaguing our Nation's veterans. Specifically, there are an estimated 47,000 cremated veterans' remains that are waiting to be interred because it was not possible to identify the next of kin. Existing legislation directs the Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Service Organizations, and funeral directors to work together in the claiming and interring of deceased veterans. Unfortunately, numerous barriers prevent the effective collaboration among these stakeholders. As it stands today, these barriers are not fully understood, which is preventing an effective solution to the problem from being found. For instance, the Missing in America Project, a nonprofit service organization that was established to locate and bury unclaimed veterans' remains, identified 100 veterans who were awaiting burial within the State of Pennsylvania over the last couple of years. Some of those veterans waited more than 20 years for a dignified, military burial. We can speculate regarding the reason for this disgrace, but we cannot know for sure without giving this issue the attention it deserves. That is why I have introduced H.R. 1338, the Dignified Interment of Our Veterans Act of 2015. My bill requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to conduct a study on matters relating to the claiming and interring of unclaimed veterans' remains.…”