Bill will let soldiers remains be properly laid to rest
The cremated remains of thousands of veterans sit unclaimed on shelves and in storage rooms across America, but a federal bill to begin addressing the heartbreaking situation and eventually have remains properly laid to rest has passed the U.S. House.
“These guys, men and women, took a part of their life and devoted it to this country,” said Ron Metros, a Uniontown resident, who got the ball rolling on the issue in 2014 when he raised it with U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Everett.
“I feel this country at least owes them a respected, honored burial,” Metros said. “The least we can do as a country is give them the honor and gratitude they deserve.”
When he introduced the Dignified Internment of our Veterans Act in March 2015, Shuster cited Metros and Lemont Furnace resident Lanny Golden, who died in March, for their work on the issue through the Missing in America Project, which tries to find unclaimed remains of veterans and have them buried with military honors.
Shuster and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., had introduced similar legislation. The two bills were reconciled last week and unanimously passed the House as part of the Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, and it now awaits Senate action.
“We should never forget our heroes that protect this nation, and it is tragic that the remains of thousands of our veterans are sitting on shelves collecting dust,” Shuster said in a joint statement with Toomey.
Veterans, some of them homeless, who have died with no next of kin or been estranged from their families have had their cremated remains sit unclaimed for years sometimes in funeral homes and coroner offices.
Shuster said the bill would start addressing the issue by determining “the full scope of the problem” and “laying the groundwork to develop a plan to ensure our veterans get the burials they all deserve.”
The legislation directs the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct a study to identify why the remains of veterans go unclaimed and to make recommendations to solve the problem. The report should be submitted to Congress within two years of the bill’s passage.
Toomey said Congress needs to understand the VA’s troubled process of recovering veterans’ unclaimed remains and formulate a solution. “When our veterans pass away, they should be honored in a way that reflects the bravery and sacrifice they showed in defending our country,” he said.
The Missing in America Project has estimated that there could be as many 47,000 veterans’ remains sitting unclaimed across the country. On its website, the group claims that it has found 6,080 cremated remains, identified nearly 1,600 veterans and interred just under 1,500.
Metros estimated that about 25 Fayette County veterans’ remains have been found and buried in the last five years. In 2012, the state Legislature passed a bill providing for the disposition of cremated remains of veterans, but supporters have been fighting to get something similar passed at the federal level.