|
Washington Report
March 1999
U.S. GAO Investigates Industry Practices,
Consumer Complaints
by Robert M. Fells, Esq., General Counsel
The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, has launched a comprehensive investigation of the funeral services, interment and memorialization industry. This investigation was initiated at the request of at least two Congressional committees including the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Traveling to several states, including California, Texas, Florida, Maryland and New York, GAO staff have been interviewing a variety of industry members, consumer advocates and government officials in order to compile a report on the industry.
In addition, GAO staff have contacted the ICFA for assistance in identifying knowledgeable members of the industry in various states. GAO staff will also be meeting with ICFA Executive Vice President Linda E. Christenson and General Counsel Bob Fells in early March to discuss the issues under review.
The current project appears to be a continuation of an investigation into industry practices initiated three years ago by the staff of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. A public hearing, planned for July 1996, was postponed until September 1996, then canceled.
In lieu of a hearing, committee staff stated its intention of publishing a report critical of various unspecified preneed sales practices. Industry and consumer groups were invited to submit comments on the unspecified problems that would be attached to a published report. The committee report was never published, although some of the organizations, including the ICFA, issued their comments independently.
The committee staff apparently intends to schedule a public hearing at some point this summer after it has received the GAO report. The hearing is also intended to coincide with the Federal Trade Commission review of the Funeral Rule during the same time period. As of this writing, the Funeral Rule review has not been announced.
There is some concern that the anticipated Senate committee hearing, similar to the ones planned in 1996, will be adversarial in nature rather than an objective fact-finding inquiry. However, the ICFA staff is contacting committee staff members to determine the thrust of the proceedings.
ICFA members will be kept informed of important developments as they occur.
VA National Cemetery Administration
Announces Proposed FY2000 Budget
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Cemetery Administration (formerly the National Cemetery System) announced its proposed budget for fiscal year 2000. The NCA is seeking $97 million, an increase of nearly $5 million over the FY 1999 budget estimates. This amount constitutes less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the VA budget request, which is $44 billion for FY 2000.
Part of the funding will be used to activate four new national cemeteries in the vicinities of Albany, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; and Cleveland, Ohio. The NCA estimates that veteran deaths will increase 10.5 percent from 550,000 in 1998 to 608,000 in 2004, peaking at 620,000 in 2008. The VA furnishes over 200,000 headstones or markers annually in private cemeteries in addition to those placed in national and state veterans cemeteries. By 2000, the NCA will encompass 119 national cemeteries and projects the number of interments to increase from 76,718 in 1998 to 110,000 in 2008.
Copyright ICFA 1999.
|
