The following excerpt is taken from the "Statistical Summary of VA Activities" issued as of December 31, 1961: The following statistics are taken from a statement issued by the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, House of Representatives, dated October 5, 1961, entitled, "Summary of Veterans' Legislation Reported With an Analysis of Certain Existing Benefits," (p. 23): Number of participants and deaths in service during all wars: Number of living veterans, and veterans and dependents on compensation and pension rolls, June 30, 1961 The above data is given the members of the subcommittee for information and such disposition as they may care to make of same. With the increase in number of deaths of World War I veterans, especially, and with the future increase in the death load of World War II and Korean conflict veterans, it is obvious that additional burial space will soon be required. Í understand there are 98 national cemeteries now in existence but that 24 of them have already been closed. AS TO THE OPPOSITION We understand that the Bureau of the Budget is strongly opposed to the enlargement of cemeteries or the establishment of new ones. I listened to the testimony presented yesterday by my good friend, Mr. Sam Hughes of the Bureau of the Budget, and with all due respect to the gentleman, I disagree with him. I would like to pay Mr. Hughes a compliment, just to show there is no hard feeling between us because, as you gentlemen probably saw in the paper recently, he was designated as 1 of the 10 outstanding citizens in this country, and their pictures were in the Washington Star approximately 10 days ago. We are good friends and there is nothing personal at all in this. When I say I disagree with him, I know he is just carrying out orders of his superiors. All of the nearly 3 million members of the American Legion and the nearly 1 million members of the American Legion Auxiliary are taxpayers and, like everyone else, they do not relish the idea of having to pay additional taxes. I hope the man with the net and the white coat will not follow me around after what I have to say next. However, we venture to predict that if, after careful consideration by the Congress, it were found necessary to levy a new tax for this purpose, the people of this country would be glad to pay same; provided, of course, it is kept down to a minimum. And while we are on that point, gentlemen, if I may, I would like to make the suggestion personally-I do not have any resolution on the direct subject-but, if you gentlemen find it is necessary to seek other funds, you might give consideration to eliminating, say, $50 from that $250 now provided through the Veterans' Administration. We were instrumental in asking for that legislation, and we hate to see anything taken away from any veteran, or his widow or orphans. But after all, gentlemen, we appreciate the fact that in a problem of this nature, we have to be practical and, rather than see the cemeteries closed out, in toto, somebody is apparently going to have to pay the expense to keep them going and to establish new ones in those places where you gentleman, after your deliberations, find it is necessary. I also appreciate there are many veterans whose families get the $250 allowance from the Veterans' Administration and also $120 or $255 from social security, as was indicated by Mr. Hughes yesterday, who really do not need that money. On the other hand-and I say this with sincere respect and considerable regret-if a family is so poor that this $50 is going to make a big difference to them, I am afraid they are in such a situation that I do not know how they are going to be helped. And I say that with a great deal of humility. I do not want to be misconstrued on that point. What I am trying to get over, gentlemen: if we are going to have these facilities, if they are going to continue, they are going to cost money, and somebody is going to have to pay for them. We have to be practical about it. In addition, we respectfully submit that these men and women who have served in our Armed Forces, and who qualify for interment in a national cemetery, are entitled to the privilege of being buried in a national cemetery in the event they wish to do so. While the members of the American Legion have strongly supported Congress and the Presidents of the United States in dealing with other nations, we do feel that some of the expenditures made to foreign countries might well be curtailed and the amount thus saved used, if necessary, for the care and upkeep of existing or new national cemeteries. After all, those men and women who fought to defend our beloved country in its hour of need, and the thousands who made the supreme sacrifice, are certainly entitled to the right to be allotted a few feet of ground for their final resting places, the Bureau of the Budget and the Pentagon to the contrary notwithstanding. We would hate to have to appear before groups of service-connected veterans still confined, as they are in hundreds and hundreds of instances, to VA hospitals since World War I, and in thousands of cases since World War II or the Korean conflict, and tell them they are to be deprived of their legal right to burial in a national cemetery because the Bureau of the Budget and the Pentagon objects to the spending of the necessary funds. Others claim that in many instances national cemeteries are located too far from the decedents' homes for the surviving members of their families to pay frequent visits to the graves of those interred in such cemeteries. We admit this is a difficult problem, but I personally know of a family living in Helena, Mont., where the widow pays a visit nearly every year to the grave of her husband who is buried in Arlington National Cemetery; I also personally know of two families residing in a small town in New York State-Millbrook, Duchess CountyMr. Wharton, New York, which is 335 miles by automobile from Arlington National Cemetery, who regularly visit the graves of their sons who are buried there. On November 28, 1961, the President of the American Legion Auxiliary buried her husband, a World War I veteran, in Arlington National Cemetery. At that time they resided, and she still does reside, in Springfield, Pa. There must be thousands of other families throughout the country who do the same thing. We respectfully submit this is a question to be determined by the veteran before his death or by the next of kin having charge of his, or her, funeral arrangements and not to the dictation of the Bureau of the Budget or various cemetery groups whose main concern, in far too many instances, is the sale of a plot in a cemetery in the vicinity of the veteran's residence, regardless of his religious affiliation. We invite the subcommittee's attention to the fact that if there were a few more national cemeteries it would not be necessary for the surviving members of the decedents' families to travel such long distances. (The exhibits follow :) EXHIBIT B NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING OF THE AMERICAN LEGION HELD MAY 3-4, 1961 Resolution: No. 48. Commission: Internal Affairs. Whereas there were two resolutions asking for expansion of national cemeteries: No. 316 from the Department of New Jersey referred to the Internal Affairs Commission by the 1960 Miami Beach National Convention, and No. 988, submitted by the Executive Committee of the Department of Virginia; and Whereas there were eight resolutions asking for establishment of new national cemeteries: No. 72 from the Department of Florida, No. 80 from the Department of Connecticut, No. 329 from the Department of Massachusetts, No. 143 from the Department of Arizona, No. 357 from the Department of Washington, and No. 467 from the Department of Iowa, all referred to the Internal Affairs Commission by the Credentials and Internal Organization Committee of the 1960 Miami Beach National Convention, No. 905 from the Wisconsin Department Executive Committee in 1959, and No. 985 from the Department of Indiana Executive Committee; and Whereas Resolution Register No. 971 from the Department of New Jersey Executive Committee calls upon the Congress of the United States to appropriate sufficient money to acquire land and to enlarge existing facilities of national cemeteries: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, by the National Executive Committee of the American Legion in regular meeting assembled in Indianapolis, Ind., May 3-4, 1961, That the American Legion urge the Congress to appropriate the necessary money to acquire land to enlarge existing facilities and to create new cemeteries where there is a need. EXHIBIT C OUTLINE 1. Location of national cemetery or national cemeteries available to veterans in your State. (A) Average distance to cemetery locations. (B) Approximate number of grave sites available. (C) What State burial facilities for veterans are available. 2. How many additional national cemetery grave sites should be made available to eligibles in your State based on present eligibility? 3. What is average cost of burial, to include undertaker services, et cetera ? 4. What is average cost of private cemetery lot? 5. Does VA and possible State burial allowance, combined with social security death benefits, provide burial befitting veterans, exclusive of national cemetery consideration? 6. Do you consider national cemetery burial a veteran's death benefit, or do you look upon it as a befitting honor? 7. Is there valid objection to burial of eligible family members in one grave? 8. Do you believe Congress should create a top-level policy board (including VA Administrator, Quartermaster General, and others) whose function would be determination of need, recommendations for expansion or new cemeteries, et cetera, rather than continued piecemeal efforts in Congress which have been nonproductive for more than a decade? 9. Following is a list of those eligible for national cemetery burial at present: Members of the Armed Forces dying in service and former members thereof who have been honorably discharged. Members of Reserve components of the Armed Forces, if death occurs while serving on active duty for training or performing full-time service. U.S. citizens who served in Armed Forces of another government allied with the United States during a war and were honorably discharged. The spouse, widow or widower of an eligible service member may be buried in the same or adjoining grave. Minor children and adult children under certain conditions. In addition, commissioned officers of U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and Public Health officers are eligible for interment in national cemeteries, under certain conditions. (A) Is this eligibility too liberal? (B) Should national cemetery interment be limited to those distinguished by unusual service, decorations, or combat disabilities? EXHIBIT D Information for the Subcommittee on National Parks, House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, in connection with hearings on national cemeteries NOTE. In the last column "N" means a new national cemetery is recommended; "E" means an expansion of the present cemetery is recommended. Mr. KENNEDY. Gentlemen, I know that all of you were here yesterday morning and you heard Colonel Temple when he spoke on behalf of the Quartermaster Division of the Army, and there is no use of repeating his words, and I do not write shorthand. But in my opinion he let the cat out of the bag when he said in words, or substance, that they had nothing to suggest but, as the individual cemeteries become filled, to close them out. I am very happy that the colonel was honest. I have no personal feeling against the colonel or any of the other officers in that division, but there is something wrong someplace, gentlemen, in the higher |