Congressman Bobby Rush the man who introduced the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act will speak to the Funeral Lobby in Early March of 2009.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who introduced the “Bereaved Consumer’s Bill of Rights Act of 2009″ (H.R. 3655) in the U.S. House of Representatives, will address attendees during the 2010 NFDA Advocacy Summit, March 8-10 in Washington, D.C. This NFDA-supported bill would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to initiate a separate rule that would cover cemeteries and all other sellers of funeral or burial goods or services.
Members of the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) and the National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association (NFD&MA) will join NFDA members on Capitol Hill during the Advocacy Summit to fight for issues, such as the “Rush Bill,” that directly affect your bottom line and the service you provide to families.via www.facebook.com
The Washington Times has reported on the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act. Opponents of this legislation say that regulation should be left to the States. However State Regulations have not prevented the Burr Oak Cemetery Horror in Illinois or the Eden Memorial Park(SCI) Cemetery Scandal in California.
ashington Times has reported on the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights
Snippet from the Washington Times:
“On the federal legislative front, Rep. Bobby L. Rush, Illinois Democrat, proposed the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act last September. The bill would prohibit deceptive acts by funeral services and protect consumers from misrepresentations.
“What we have tried to accomplish through this bill is to establish a baseline of federal minimums and standards,” Mr. Rush said. “We would hope that all states would have these minimums on their books, and in their own statutes, as a means to protect bereaved consumers.”
The bill, currently in the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection, was reviewed at a hearing last week. It would require providers of funeral services and funeral goods to disclose accurate pricing information regarding all aspects of funeral costs, and all contracts must be clearly written, stating all merchandise and services. via Washington Times
The bill also requires cemeteries to retain all records and make them available to federal, state and local governments.
Industry leaders, however, wonder if that regulation is something better handled on the state rather than federal level.
Timothy Robinson, legislative counsel for Mr. Rush’s subcommittee, said some states have robust laws and regulations to protect consumers from deceptive practices of funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoriums, while others’ are weak.
“We are very sensitive to the impact that this could have on small cemeteries,” Mr. Robinson said. “We are not establishing ceilings; we are establishing floors in key areas.”
Also testifying last week before the subcommittee was Patricia Brown Holmes, whose father and brother are buried in Burr Oak Cemetery. Miss Holmes is on the Cemetery Oversight Task Force in Illinois, which was formed in the wake of the Burr Oak incident. She touted the group’s success in enacting legislation on the state level to address the problems in Illinois.
The Cemetery Oversight Act of Illinois was signed into law on Jan. 17.
“It was the primary finding of the task force that without legislative reform and increased oversight of cemetery operations, the events that occurred at Burr Oak Cemetery and other cemeteries in the state of Illinois would continue to occur, and the same types of tragic stories the public has already heard too many times would continue to be told,” Miss Holmes said.”-via the Washington Times
Funeral Industry Reform Posted by Bereaved Consumers Protection Act
The Funeral Industry site ConnectingDirectors.Com Delayed a report on the Bereaved Consumers Bill Of Rights Act. The report came on Feb 1, 2010.
The report had no editorial content and did not mention the Controversial comments of the National Funeral Directors Association Randal L Earl about Walmart and Amazon.Com selling Caskets. The report came five days after the hearing.
The webmaster at the site simply repeated Congressman Bobby Rush’s comments at the Hearing. The legislation is named the Bereaved Consumers Bill of rights act of 2010, the legislation’s correct name is the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act of 2009, H.R.3655
For a website that promotes itself as “Funeral Industry Online Publication Providing Funeral Industry News, Information, and Trends” waiting 5 days to report on this historic legislation is unacceptable.
In His opening statement on the Hearing on the Bereaved Consumer Bill of Rights Act, Bobby Rush outlined the legislation
The legislation is significant in that it APPLIES TO NOT FOR PROFIT FUNERAL HOMES. This significant action by the US Congress came as a result of the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal Outside Chicago.
Here is his outline of the legislation.
“Among H.R. 3655’s provisions, the bill would require the FTC to require ALL funeral goods and services providers, and not just “for profit” funeral homes, to do the following:
provide consumers with accurate, itemized price information for each specific funeral good or service offered for sale;
prohibit these providers from misrepresenting what federal, state, and local laws require in protecting consumers;
include disclosures in pre-paid contracts regarding fees or penalties to be assessed for cancellation or transfer, by the purchaser, of burial, cremation, or entombment rights to different facilities, and
retain records of the date and location of each burial, cremation, and entombment as well as the corresponding rights of disposition (i.e., perpetual or term), and make those records available to federal, state, and local governments.
“In drafting this Bill of Rights, I have been earnest in respecting existing states’ laws. The bill would authorize both the FTC and the States Attorneys General, and other designated state entities, to enforce its requirements.
Revealed here are all the details of the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act of 2009. The Hearing took place on January 27th 2010. The bill is known in Congress as the Rush Bill. The bill provides National Funeral and Cemetery Reform.
The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a hearing on “H.R. 3655, the Bereaved Consumer’s Bill of Rights Act of 2009,” on Wednesday, January 27, 2010, in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. This legislation would require the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules prohibiting “unfair or deceptive acts and practices in the provision of funeral goods and services.”
Witnesses:
Chuck Harwood, Deputy Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission
The Honorable Patricia Brown Holmes, Chair, Illinois Cemetery Oversight Task Force, and Partner, Schiff Hardin LLP
Paul V. Elvig, Former President, International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Associations
Randall L. Earl, CSFP, Treasurer, National Funeral Directors Association, Brintlinger and Earl Funeral Homes
A hearing was held today on the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act in the Capitol Building in Washington DC. Congressman Bobby Rush led the hearing. The Hearing was held as direct result of the Grave robbing|desecration scandal at Burr Oak Cemetery outside Chicago.
Essentially the New legislation will let the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) regulate everything funeral and cemetery. The bill is H.R. 3655.
Congress held a hearing today on the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act
“Rush today led a congressional hearing to examine whether the FTC, which regulates funeral homes, should have its purview expanded to include cemeteries, crematories and sellers of caskets, urns, monuments and markers.
Most cemeteries operate as non-profits, a realm the FTC generally does not investigate, said Charles Harwood, deputy director of its Bureau of Consumer Protection. Under Rush’s proposal, the FTC would take oversight of such cemeteries.
The Burr Oak Cemetery made national news in July when it was learned that hundreds of corpses had been unearthed over several years and dumped into a weeded area of the cemetery or double-stacked in other graves.
The cemetery is the resting place of Emmett Till, whose murder helped fuel the civil rights movement, and blues singer Dinah Washington, among other notables.
Rush said the horrific activities at Burr Oak were not an aberration, citing new allegations of desecrating graves and reselling plots later surfaced in Mission Hills, Calif., and DeKalb County, Ga.
“Just because death all too often comes like a thief in the night,” he said, “bereaved consumers should not be left wondering who, in fact, was the real thief: death or the cemetery salesperson.”
Patricia Brown Holmes, a retired judge who led an Illinois task force that led to tougher, just-enacted laws governing cemeteries in the state, spoke in favor of Rush’s measure.
Holmes said the average consumer thinks of a funeral home and cemetery as one in the same, even though under federal laws, funeral homes are heavily regulated and cemeteries are not.
The National Funeral Directors Association also supports the measure, said Randall Earl, who has a funeral home and crematory in Decatur, Ill. He told the panel that existing FTC rules pertaining to funeral homes do not cover casket sellers such as Wal-Mart and amazon.com, so the association wants the rules updated to cover them.
Under Rush’s proposal, new FTC regulations would require cemeteries and the other newly covered sectors of the death-care industry to provide pre-sale price disclosures.
Misrepresentations would be prohibited and clear contracts itemizing goods, services and prices would be required.
A representative of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association said cemeteries and funeral homes were best regulated at the state level. Paul M. Elvig said most cemeteries operated as nonprofits, including those run by religious, municipal and fraternal organizations, and the new regulations would disproportionately affect them “in ways that would never pass a cost/benefit analysis.”
Rush’s bill, called the Bereaved Consumer’s Bill of Rights Act, has five co-sponsors.
Testimony was heard today on The Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act in Congress.
The “NFDA Ponzi Man” Randall L. Earl testified before the House Subcommittee on the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act today. Earl Has refused to resign as the National Funeral Directors Association Executive Treasurer in spite of his involvement in the great Illinois Funeral Directors Association(IFDA) Preneed Ponzi Scheme..
Why The House Subcommittee on Commerce and Energy would accept such a tainted individual’s testimony is beyond comprehension. Congressman Bobby Rush deserves praise for his cemetery reform in the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal. But shame on him for letting a con man testify before the committee.
It is being reported that one of the Leaders involved in the Great Illinois Funeral Association Ponzi Scheme will testify before Congress on behalf of the National Funeral Directors Association, NFDA. on Cemetery Reform.
According to AHN(ALL HEAD LINE NEWS), Randall L Earl, a key player in the IFDA TRUST PONZI SCHEME will testify before The House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce, Wednesday.$100 million dollars is gone from the IFDA trust.
The Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act will have to make it through many Congressional doors (like this one before it is passed)
The NFDA sent a letter to Congressman Bobby Rush supporting Cemetery reform as outlined in the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act. As we learn from YourFuneralGuy.com,there is a problem with this.
There desire is sure enough, the National Funeral Directors wants cemeteries and some Third parties to come be brought by Congress into supporting H.R. 3655 but there is catch-their (NFDA)public statements in support of the funeral rule, do not match their public policy of Funeral Rule Elimination.
Congress Has proposed H.R.3655 Cemetery Reform
In other words they are all for the Funeral Rule applying to some one else but NOT to funeral Directors, who are their members.
(NFDA) is the major trade association to which
funeral directors belong.
Here are two quotes regarding The Funeral Rule
and NFDA’s public policy positions from the editor of
The Director, the official publication of NFDA, as
published in The Director in May, 2007.
“…this organization [NFDA] continues to
fight the FTC Funeral Rule through its public
policy positions.”
And,
“… it [NFDA] has also long had a Funeral
Rule elimination policy on the books.”
The comments on there facebook support this fact, funeral director a calling for Elimination of the Funeral Rule, a detriment to all funeral consumers in the consumers in the Land
Here is a partial quote from the letter:
“The letter states: “In our view, H.R. 3655 outlines for the FTC a rule which we have long argued was necessary, given a dramatically changed marketplace, with new and non-traditional sellers, many more choices for consumers to purchase funeral or burial goods or services, and the risks they take in dealing with them in a lightly, or even unregulated environment… We recognize that the most egregious scandals involving Burr Oak, Menorah Gardens and Tri-State Crematory would not necessarily have been prevented by such a rule. However, with uniform federal practice and disclosure standards, the regulatory and compliance bar will be raised for both state regulators and for cemetery and crematory owners and operators, as well as other sellers of funeral or burial goods or services… NFDA stands ready to support any and all efforts to have H.R. 3655 signed into law.”via www.facebook.com
Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.
This bill will help the Consumer come in under the average cost of the Funeral.
In Congress the Bill is known as the Rush Bill and as the Bereaved Consuners protection Act
The NFDA has declared support of the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act(AKA the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act or the Rush Bill). This is good for the Funeral Consumer.
The National Funeral Directors Association, NFDA, has given some support to the Bereaved Consumer Bill of Rights Act(also known as the Rush Bill, and the Bereaved Consumers Protection act) The bill which ends some funeral deceptions, and brings cemeteries under the funeral rule, contains much needed funeral and cemetery reform including some unbundling of funeral packages
NFDA will decide on the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights at their Convention
According to the Memorial Business Journal The National Funeral Directors Association will be making a decision on “Its Position” the “Bereaved Consumers Bill of Act”(HR3655) October 25-28 at the upcoming NFDA Convention in Boston. At this time it is not clear whether an announcement will be made at the Convention.
The National Funeral Directors Association will come up with it’s position on Cemetery and Funeral Legislation at the upcoming NFDA Convention in Boston(OCT 25th-28). The Bereaved Consumer Bill of Rights Act(AKA Bereaved Consumers Protection Act) was introduced in Congress in late September in reaction to the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal near Chicago this Summer.
