Iowa Local Cemetery Access and Unclaimed Veteran Remains

Two provisions that a family finds out about at the worst possible moment. Both are worth knowing in advance. A public cemetery must sell to a local veteran. Section 523I.304, subsection 7: "A cemetery owned and controlled by a governmental subdivision shall adopt and enforce a rule allowing any veteran who is a landowner or who lives within the governmental subdivision to purchase an interment space and to be interred within the cemetery. The rule shall also allow any veteran who purchases an interment space within the cemetery to purchase an interment space for interment of the spouse of the veteran if such a space is available and shall allow the surviving spouse of a veteran interred within the cemetery to purchase an interment space and be interred within the cemetery if such a space is available. For the purposes of this section, 'veteran' means the same as defined in section 35.1." Three separate rights and they are not identical. The veteran's own right is unqualified in the statute: a veteran who is a landowner in, or lives within, the governmental subdivision shall be allowed to purchase a space and be interred. There is no "if available" attached to that one. The spouse's space, bought by the veteran, is conditioned on availability: "if such a space is available." The surviving spouse's own purchase, after the veteran is interred, is likewise conditioned: "if such a space is available." This matters in a small Iowa town whose municipal or township cemetery is nearly full, and in a city cemetery that has historically restricted sales to current residents. A veteran who owns farmland in a township but lives in town, or who lives in the subdivision without owning anything, is inside the first sentence. The cemetery must have a rule and must enforce it; if it says it only sells to residents, "landowner" is the word to point at. Two general constraints in the same section back this up. Subsection 6: a cemetery "shall not approve any rule which unreasonably restricts competition, or which unreasonably increases the cost to the owner of interment rights in exercising these rights." And the section's definition of "veterans cemetery" in section 523I.102, subsection 49, "a cemetery that is owned or operated by the state of Iowa or by the United States for the burial of veterans", distinguishes a state or national cemetery from the local public cemeteries this subsection reaches. What this does not do. It does not make the space free. It gives you the right to buy at the cemetery's price. Free interment for a veteran in Iowa is at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery near Van Meter or at Keokuk National Cemetery; county assistance for an indigent veteran's burial is section 35B.14. Unclaimed cremated remains, and the 180-day clock that runs twice. Section 144.27, subsection 2 was added by 2016 Iowa Acts chapter 1033 and works in stages. Paragraph "a": a funeral director responsible for filing a death certificate "may after a period of one hundred eighty days release to the department of veterans affairs the name of a deceased person whose cremated remains are not claimed by a person authorized to control the decedent's remains under section 144C.5, for the purposes of determining whether the deceased person is a veteran or dependent of a veteran and is eligible for inurnment at a national or state veterans cemetery." The funeral director may also release identification documents, "including but not limited to the social security number, military service number, and military separation or discharge documents". Paragraph "b": if the department determines the remains are eligible, it notifies the funeral director. Then, if the remains are still unclaimed "one hundred eighty days after the funeral director receives notice under this paragraph 'b', all rights to the cremated remains shall cease, and the funeral director shall transfer the cremated remains to an eligible veterans organization if the eligible veterans organization has secured arrangements for the inurnment of the cremated remains at a national or state veterans cemetery." So it is 180 days before the name may go to the department, and another 180 days after the eligibility determination before rights cease. Roughly a year, at a minimum, and the first step is permissive rather than mandatory: a funeral director "may" release the name. An "eligible veterans organization" is defined as "a veterans service organization organized for the benefit of veterans and chartered by the United States Congress or a veterans remains organization exempt from federal income taxes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that is recognized by the department of veterans affairs to inurn unclaimed cremated remains." Everyone involved is immunised. Paragraph "c": a funeral director providing information or transferring remains "shall be immune from criminal, civil, or other regulatory liability arising from any actions in accordance with this subsection", and so are the department, the cemetery and the eligible veterans organization. "Such immunity shall not apply to acts or omissions constituting intentional misconduct." The Iowa Veterans Cemetery names its partner for this work: it "partners with non-profits to host other high-profile recognitions such as Wreaths Across America, and The Final Salute's mission to find final resting places for unclaimed remains of veterans." If you are the next of kin. The practical consequence is that you have time, but not unlimited time, and the clock is silent. Contact the funeral home and the county veterans service office. If you are the one authorised to control the remains under section 144C.5 and you claim them at any point before rights cease, the process stops. Two related recordkeeping duties that make this work. Section 35B.19 requires the county executive director or administrator to obtain from the funeral director the information the department requests about every person with a military service record buried in the county, recorded alphabetically and by cemetery location, and maintained permanently. Section 35A.5, subsection 8 requires the department to maintain "alphabetically a permanent registry of the graves of all persons who served in the military or naval forces of the United States in time of war and whose mortal remains rest in Iowa." Section 35A.5, subsection 7 requires the department to assist funeral directors, VA, the Iowa Veterans Home and chartered veterans service organizations with service records and veterans affairs data.