Ohio congressmen back veterans’ burial bill

National party coordinates effort as case reaches high court.

By Jack Torry and Jessica Wehrman
Staff Writers 7:40 PM Sunday, April 1, 2012

    WASHINGTON – A bill first introduced in the House by Republican Reps. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Twp. and Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington to help give unidentified or abandoned remains of veterans proper military burials now has champions in the Senate.
    U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, last week introduced the Veterans Missing in America Act in the Senate. The measure would enable the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with veterans groups to help determine whether unidentified or abandoned remains are those of veterans who are eligible for burial at a national cemetery.
    The bill would have the VA cover the burial cost if the remains are determined to be that of an eligible veteran who doesn’t have a next of kin and there are no available resources to cover burial and funeral expenses. It also calls on the VA to establish a public database of the veterans identified in this project.
    In the House, the bill received a hearing Thursday. Ohio Veterans Affairs Director Thomas Moe was among those testifying on behalf of the bill.
    Moe testified that at funeral homes across the country veterans’ ashes and remains have been abandoned or unclaimed for, in some cases, decades. The “Missing in America” project aims to identify those veterans and lay them to rest. The bill, he said, “serves to remove those obstacles so that these military veterans might receive the respect of a proper burial.”