as always, your full written statement has been entered into the record, and so if you feel free to expand or shorten or at it and improvise as you see fit. mr. muro, you are now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, mr. braking member and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify about the initiatives of the national cemetery administration to better serve america's veterans and their families. thank you for accepting my written -- for the record my written testimony for the record. one critical measure of the service is the va's ability to provide veterans reasonable access to burial option. currently, 87% of all veterans and the nation reside within 75-mile radius of a national or state better in cemetery.

five new national cemeteries opened in 29, serving the areas of columbia, south carolina; sarasota and jacksonville, florida; birmingham, alabama; and serving the veterans of philadelphia and southeastern pennsylvania is projected to open in early next year. seven new state veterans cemeteries established the state grant program are also under construction with the opening of these new cemetery is nca projects that 90% of the veterans will have reasonable access to terri hail, space in a national or state sadr and cemetery by fiscal year 2011. we are responding to the changes in the terri hail preferences of veterans and their families by constructing a great number of cremated remains. we are also developing a new

memorial wall in our cemetery to honor the veterans who remain on not available for burial. the va expanding the head start a war eckert program to include a new medallion, an option that will acknowledge the service of the veterans. in private cemeteries around the world. veterans and their families will be able to choose either the new medallion or the traditional hit stone marker for veterans who died on or after november frist, 1990. or in a privately marked grave and private cemeteries. we anticipate that dalia will be available for veterans and their families early next year. we are also streamlining the process of the real eligibility determination and interment scheduling to better serve the needs of veterans, their families and funeral directors. the centralized national cemetery national scheduling office opened in st. louis in

january of 20072 handle internet requests for all national cemeteries except those located in puerto rico and hawaii as they once thought scheduled center it ensures timely consisted eligibility determinations and is available for families and funeral homes for scheduling of burials seven days a week. previously when these functions were performed by employees at each national cemetery scheduling was available five days a week. the national cemetery administration holds the distinction of earning the highest score ever achieved in the american customer service index survey for federal agencies, for private corporations. nca achieved a customer satisfaction rating of 95 out of a possible 12004, and again and 2007. these results are testament to the dedication and hard work of the national cemetery employees

and as the serve veterans and their family members during a difficult and emotional time. our programs for employee development, which are centered at our national training center in st. louis, are crucial to maintaining va as national shrines and to preparing -- providing care and compassion service to veterans and families in their time of need. we continually access our burial and the memorial programs with the goal to serve veterans even better in the future. we look forward to working with the members of this subcommittee as we jointly respond to the changing needs of those who have served. thank you for this opportunity. and i would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have. >> thank you secretary muro four-door testimony and for your work and congratulate him on the high rating you just told us

about. it's very impressive. first of all i would like to ask in your testimony you commented on the strategic goals outlined by the edify is ray committee in by the edify is ray committee in the 2000 a report.@@@@@@r'@ @ @s

committee on cemeteries and memorials. has that committee conducted any additional meetings and what committees or observations have they provided as the authority of light in title xxxviii, section 2401 regarding the advisory committee on memorial sufficient to advise the secretary on such matters or is more authority needed to meet the nca goals and mission? >> the meet twice a year. they will be meeting again this november we can provide you know it's from the last meeting they had. >> that would be appreciated. i understand for safety reasons mourners are not allowed the grave sites for funerals. however the policy contradicts certain observances such as native american burial rituals or jewish grave site practices. what is the policy for graveside burials? the policy for va funded state veterans cemeteries to make

accommodations for grave site services and respect to these practices to solve will depart question, do state cemeteries have the discretion to restrict or deny requests for safety reasons and if so would it be possible to offer a more concrete policy to its state veterans cemeteries to accommodate grave site services or religious beliefs? >> first of all our policy is we normally go to a committal shelter where we conduct services. on occasion we do go to gravesite. any time the family would request during after the come little surface we would take them to the site. at some of the cemeteries they have been viewing areas and at others depending on the volume they actually go within 20 feet of the grave site, they take the immediate next of kin. we encourage them to follow that policy also.

>> thank you. has the nca adjusted the model to take into account projected population growth variances and shifts specifically what resources are there to reduce the 75-mile radius or lower the 170,000 threshold as suggested by the independent budget in various veterans' groups? >> the study that we looked at and the records we maintained the 75 miles seems to be a good radius to look at and we are reviewing the population threshold at this time. >> when do you expect the review to be complete? >> it will be entered in the budget that we submit through the omb. >> thank you. in your testimony you counted 200800 burials the fda provided either serial or had stones or

markers. given the total number of those who've died in these operations is almost double that number what has happened to the remaining full service members? where, do you know where they are buried, where their final resting place is and what contact did va have with the veteran survivors? >> between arlington state cemetery's national cemeteries and private cemeteries many of them have chosen private cemeteries near their homes and we have provided headstones and markers for those. >> i have a few more questions but at this point i am going to recognize ranking member lamborn for his questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. muro, you may know this because representative salazar and i have met with you on this issue. there is a long history for the need for a cemetery in southern colorado compounded by the fact that fort logan we heard from

someone from their earlier is scheduled to be at capacity in as little as ten years and it can take up to five years to build and establish and prepare for a new cemetery. colorado veterans have been organized for years to bring a national veterans' cemetery to this region and since i entered office three years ago twice i've introduced a bill with mr. selzer that would direct the secretary of the va to establish a national cemetery in el paso county for veterans of the southern colorado region and this bill passed the house in the last congress and we are optimistic about it passing the house this congress. also last year chairman paul and i had a field hearing in colorado springs to discuss cemetery issues including the potential inappropriateness of the 75-mile rule in a mounting state like colorado.

your predecessor almost couldn't get there from denver from the airport where he flew in because there was bad weather and the polymer divide 7,000 feet he almost couldn't get to the hearing and that is what separates colorado springs from denver. also he did promise and this did take place someone from the va would come and inspect sites elbe casseaux county for a potential national cemetery that site visit did take place november 10th so i am wanting to ask you what the outcome was. was there a report done and what information did you learn from that visit? >> first of all, we need to go out and look at other sites and we are in the process of putting a team together that does visits. we will actually be putting a notice in the paper in that area

for any sites that are 300 acres or above what are they would purchase or donate it we will be sending the team to look because we are looking at how are we going to replace fort logan and where we will replace fort logan before it closes it is more optimum for us to open a replacement cemetery for fort logan. it would help it last longer so we would be doing that in the next few months we will be going out there and looking in the area. >> that's exciting. if there is any way our office can help you in that visit we would be very happy to. >> we will contact you when we get the team ready to go and work with you. >> i appreciate that very much. as a follow-up question i know that in the last fiscal year for the first time a line item was created and $5 million was given to the va to buy land in advance

of closures and i know that there are two to four different sites where that is being anticipated including fort logan. where does that stand in terms of sites you're looking at for that particular line item and will do be spending the money than you get? i don't think you spent 5 million but you may get up to if congress agrees with your request up to another 25 on top of that for this upcoming fiscal year so if you could enlighten me where that stands. >> we did get 5 million in oelwein and are requesting another 25 to give 30, it will be 30.5 million. we will be looking for land which we already sent a team to puerto rico. they looked at about 18 sites. we are down to possibly three. once we do that we will go to

the secretary and recommend those three sites and do a study of them and make an offer on one the secretary approves. we will be doing the same thing in colorado and in oregon. it's about 20, 19 closure times so we want to purchase some land. the myself thing here is there is property adjacent to the cemetery that we are in the process of negotiating with the owner now so we what may be purchased the property. that is what we will be using the fund is in the near future to purchase property. >> thank you for your efforts and in any way my office can assist you we would love to do so. thank you. >> thank you, mr. lamborn. ms. halvorson. >> thank you. thank you, mr. muro and all the other panels before do. thank you for doing such a good job with regards to a situation that came out in my district. i'm sure you are familiar with

the private cemetery in the illinois where several of the veterans especially their headstones and entire empirical was desecrated and abraham lincoln national cemetery which is in my district we worked out where we could offer them free free burial so that is something that is very wonderful that we were able to do for the veterans. we were able to say rest in peace truly free means delete commands rest in peace. however i am concerned about something that came up with the fact of this outsourcing of jobs. can you explain what is happening with outsourcing of our jobs? are they truly being taken away from veterans and going to other companies and not our veterans? >> what me explain what we've done. as we open new national cemetery is we keep certain jobs and house, the internments, the

representative work, and we do the headstone and mowing, we contract that. we have increased our system, up to 1600 so we are doing in housework and some contract. same thing at some of the closed cemeteries where it is more difficult to get employment. it the gentleman spoke about south florida it actually took two years to staff that cemetery with veterans, those that were willing to apply. we have a high turnover because the cost of living so in many areas the cost of living has forced us to look at other ways to get the work done. but we still each year have increased fte. the new cemeteries all open with approximately 15 to manage the cemetery's so we are keeping the internet work in house, keeping their representatives works and all of the public affairs type

of work in house, the mowing and trying and setting of headstones we contract. >> we are doing everything in our power to create opportunities for veterans i don't want to be in their arrest when i hear that veterans cemeteries and groups like yourselves are going outside of our veterans groups. >> those that we have hired our disabled veterans companies. we are hiring. given the work of veterans we work with vba to hire those going through different training programs. each network we have five networks throughout the system, are required last year and this year to hire five so we are hiring veterans. we are 70% of employees are veterans. >> i just want to make sure that is happening. as you know we are doing

everything to make sure because we are having more and more veterans come back and i just want assurances that we are doing everything we can to make sure we are hiring veterans and giving incentives to higher debt burdens. i don't want to be talking about our veterans administration of all people aren't doing what -- we can talk all the time but until we practice what we preach that's not giving us any good. >> i understand we are making every effort to hire. >> one last question i know we are interested in exploring and something the secretary is interested in is homelessness amongst veterans. but also where you are concerned can you take us through some of the situation what happens with the real issues with regards to those who are homeless veterans and what happens when a veteran doesn't have any family members? how do you deal with that?

>> cemetery director's work with different coroner's offices and we try to determine eligibility and we work with a regional office to determine eligibility so if we find they are in effect, those they find on the street, the homeless, so we can ensure they can be buried in a national cemetery. >> how do you know they are a veteran? >> fingerprints as long as they don't cremate, we go to fpi with linker print and can't find files and we've been very successful throughout the country doing that, working with the coroner's office. >> thank you. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank you, ms. halvorson. i just wanted to ask you, secretary muro, and continuing and falling on a comment made by the ranking member of the full committee mr. buyer when he was here earlier, talking about artificial or digital bugle

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counties, 44 families survivors of 9/11 victims and i can only imagine how less moving the movement would have been if somebody pushed a button on the cd or had an artificial reproduction. i am curious have you contacted -- do you work with local schools or find people who play the instrument? >> a couple of things we are doing to try to get real buglers up the cemetery for not only services but for ceremonies we work closely the last three years with taps across america, queue calls across america to get more interest in buglers to come and volunteer. we work with local school districts, the rotc that may have buglers and we try to get them scheduled for this service is so that we can utilize them

to support the families. the artificial bugle is actually a real bugle with an electronic device that goes and instead of looking like a mute that sticks in their -- >> that's not a real bugle. >> but it's better than the boom box. >> is a boom box shaped like a buhle. >> we are treated to get volunteers and there are those that charge the families of fortunately. you see it in the paper, people advertise i can do a bugle for this amount. we don't encourage but we can't stop the families from hiring them so we try to work with the ds owes and schools and organizations. >> i used to get paid to play at mass when i as a teenager but it didn't mean maybe i shouldn't have volunteered that they offered and i was rolling lawns

and doing other things. [laughter] but any way back to normal topics, the entitlement rules for the national guard reservists limiting their eligibility for nca terri hail benefits should the rules be changed to accommodate more guard and reserves? >> as long as they served active duty of honorable from the time they were called to active duty they have the full benefit of burial. if they are called up for one day they are eligible for burial as long as they serve the one day. if they are called for a year and served that year they are eligible for burial. >> that's great. if a veteran with the weather dependent is buried in a national cemetery in his or her only survivor is a parent should the parent be eligible or is that parents eligible for burial with the veteran? >> if either one of the parents were a better than they could be eligible and would just be a burial of arrangement in a national cemetery.

>> thank you. also in your testimony you noticed the current budget of 40 and stimulus money nca received along with 928 repair projects. if in 2008 we complete 300 or project and stimulus money will cover 395, what are the plans for the remaining 339 projects and does the 2010 budget cover the costs sufficiently? >> the 2010 will get more projects completed. we have a goal to complete them all in five years that we have. that includes -- that doesn't just include raising, that is road repair and building work some of the old monuments we just completed a project here in d.c. at the congressional cemetery that we partnered with park service and did the seventh half's and our team has received

an award from the district of columbia for historic preservation. >> what challenges if any does the nca experience in implementing the state cemetery grants program? >> the challenge of the state coming up with the funds and having the property to develop the cemetery that's been our biggest challenge. there are some states, kentucky, that have moved ahead and developed a few of the state cemeteries. some of the state's don't want a state cemetery. new york, florida, they've never put an application and so our challenge is getting body and from the states and then having fun this to match so we can reimburse them. >> i would imagine with fiscal straits we are in that it is more challenging than other times. >> it is that we have states ready to go for 2010.

>> is colorado one of them? >> kuhl rebel isn't one that once the state's tearing up. [laughter] >> is the nca paperless system and first notice of def entry into the computer system compatible with the veterans benefit administration? how is the communication handled, paper or electronic and how efficient is the process? >> we took it over in october and right now we have all of the flag applications first notice of death and the insurance center are sent to us in st. louis in the next four to six months they will actually be sent to a system completely paperless and we can then use their system, the shared program and their electronic system that we actually login the first

notice of death for the veteran. we also get from nca and state cemeteries and all of the cemetery's that we get that information and put it in first notice of death and we are working to make that progress total electronic so once we order a headstone it will automatically give the first notice of death electronically. >> we have a vote in progress so i have a couple of more questions and then we will be done. but i just want to first of all ask given the situation in l.a. it family's request a free burial of a veterans whose remains were previously entered at the cemetery it is my understanding the prior receipt of the benefits such as fuel or burial allowances would not affect eligibility for free internment at an national cemetery for issuance of a headstone or marker. so the family would not incur

additional costs. is that correct? >> that's correct. >> it is an unfortunate situation but is there a standard policy regarding the reburial? >> does, that's the standard. if anyone wants to take their loved one for a private cemetery to a national cemetery the only cost they would have as the dissenter and from the private. they bring to the national there's no cost for the internet for the service for perpetual care and the headstone marker. >> last following up on ms. halvorson's question regarding outsourcing to private contractors, it sounded from your response that i wasn't sure if you were saying all or most were making an effort to hire contractors using veterans to do the work. can you state -- >> all of our millennium and maintenance contracts have gone to surface disabled veterans.

>> are those servers disabled veterans and owned businesses? >> correct. >> with the actual workers doing the work? >> we encourage them to hire veterans and most of them do. they are a veteran company and we encourage that. >> thank you very much, secretary muro. i remind all members the have five legislative days to revise their remarks and thank you, thank you all of the panelists for their patience and the work that you

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