H.R. 6814 — Veterans’ Burial Improvement Act of 2025

This section makes permanent VA authority under 38 U.S.C. 2306(b)(2)(B)–(C) to provide headstones or markers, and under 38 U.S.C. 2402(a)(5) to allow interment in national cemeteries, for spouses and children who predecease members of the Armed Forces serving on active duty (previously limited to deaths before September 30, 2032).

This section revises VA transportation benefits for burial of certain deceased veterans (38 U.S.C. §2308) by (1) establishing a transportation allowance of $745 (CPI-adjusted annually) payable for covered deceased veterans (i.e., those dying from a service-connected disability, while receiving disability compensation, or determined indigent with no next of kin claiming the body) to a covered veterans' cemetery (previously, actual costs up to the amount to the nearest national cemetery from last residence); (2) authorizing additional payments, for covered deceased veterans dying outside the United States, equal to actual costs exceeding the allowance (capped at the excess cost to the nearest national cemetery from last residence); (3) requiring payment of actual transportation costs, for veterans dying in covered VA facilities in a State, to the burial place in the same or another State (limited, if also eligible under the allowance, to the excess over the allowance); and (4) expanding covered veterans' cemeteries, for deaths on or after January 5, 2024, to include national cemeteries (previously, only certain state-owned or tribal cemeteries). It also makes conforming amendments, including revising the standard burial allowance under §2303(a)(1) to $700 (CPI-adjusted annually).

This section excludes from eligibility for government-furnished headstones or markers individuals described in 38 U.S.C. 2402(a)(9) (i.e., parents of certain deceased veterans) who are eligible for burial in a national cemetery but not buried there, adding them to the prior exceptions of persons or classes described in 2402(a)(4), (5), and (6). This section further authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, under regulations to be prescribed, to furnish a group headstone or marker in lieu of an individual one for a burial location containing remains of multiple individuals described in 2306(a)(1) (buried in a national or post cemetery), (2) (eligible for national cemetery burial but not buried there), or (3) (Civil War soldiers). If a group marker is furnished, the Secretary may not provide a new or replacement individual headstone or marker for any such individual determined to be interred there (though prior individual markers may remain); group markers may be placed at marked locations if they aid visitor understanding of the site's significance; placement requires property owner coordination and approval; the Secretary determines inscription content, size, and material (subject to historical preservation consultation), excluding names of persons described in 2411(b) (i.e., those ineligible for burial due to fugitive status, certain crimes, or terrorist acts).

This section expands eligibility for burial or interment in cemeteries that accept the Department of Veterans Affairs plot or interment allowance to veterans discharged or released from active duty under conditions other than dishonorable who would be eligible for national cemetery burial but for minimum active duty service requirements, and to the spouses and dependent children of such veterans. (As background, national cemetery burial generally requires at least 24 months of active duty or the full period called to active duty, which excludes certain short-service veterans despite honorable conditions of discharge.)