WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg has introduced legislation directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to determine if certain areas of the country are insufficiently served by the national cemeteries in their regions.  While Rehberg has been instrumental in supporting the four state cemeteries in Montana, the state does not have any active national cemeteries.  The addition of one or more national cemeteries would alleviate the travel burden for Montana’s veterans. 

“Montana has four state cemeteries, but no national cemeteries at all,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.  “My bill is the first step toward getting veterans living in rural Montana the national support and recognition they deserve.  We know Montana is underserved, but in order to move forward on workable solutions, we need to take the necessary steps in order to highlight the problem.”

Rehberg’s bill, H.R. 1114, would instruct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a process to consider factors such as the number of vets in an area, how far they must travel to the nearest national cemetery, the availability of public transportation, the average cost of transport and other information.  Currently, the VA requires a new national cemetery if a veteran population of 170,000 or more isn’t served by a state or national cemetery.

“Today in Montana, we have to rely on local veterans service organizations to do the honor guards.  The accessibility for them, and for the families of veterans isn’t as good as it needs to be across the state, and we’d like to see an increased presence of national support,” said Mike Clouse, the Commander of the Department of Montana’s Disabled American Veterans.  “I always wished that we had more information to compare our access to out East to see if we are in fact coming up short.  I appreciate the Congressman for his effort on this important subject.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration maintains 128 national cemeteries in 39 states (and Washington, D.C.).  There are no active national cemeteries in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho or North Dakota.  American Veterans and their spouses are afforded the honor of being buried at national and state cemeteries.