Expanded burial rights in veterans cemetery gets committee approval

“Honoring the service of those who have answered the call to protect us” is how Rep. Bjorn Olson (R-Fairmont) describes a bill he sponsors that’s heading to the House Floor.

HF3532 would allow honorably discharged members of the National Guard or another reserve component of the armed forces and their eligible dependents to be interred in a state veterans cemetery. Veterans who die while serving would also be eligible.

Approved Monday by the House Ways and Means Committee without any audible objection, the bill was sent to the House Floor.

Minnesota has four state veterans cemeteries: Duluth, Little Falls, Preston and Redwood Falls.

Department officials anticipate 50% of interments created by this bill would occur at the Little Falls facility due to its proximity to Camp Ripley, the National Guard training facility.

Looking ahead, David Swantek, director of memorial affairs at the Veterans Affairs Department, told the House Veterans and Military Affairs Division March 25 that the bill would likely necessitate discussion in future sessions about additional funding and long-term capacity planning.

Opening in 1994 as the first established cemetery in the state system, Little Falls is also the smallest geographically and accounts for about 80% of all interments, he said. “As a result, it is also the site closest to reaching capacity with a current grave site depletion timeline of approximately 48 years. Based on our estimates, the increased demand associated with this bill would reduce that timeline to approximately 30 years.”