ICCFA TESTIMONY -International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association-
PDF OF ICCFA TESTIMOMY-Testimony of Paul V. Elvig-
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.”
via www.chicagobreakingnews.com
Full Text of ICCFA statements
Chairman Rush and Members of the Subcommittee:
We appreciate this opportunity to testify at this morning’s hearing concerning H.R. 3655, the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act. Our testimony supplements comments we submitted this past August in conjunction with the Subcommittee’s field hearing on cemetery oversight conducted in Chicago on July 27, 2009. We respectfully request that our testimony be made part of the permanent hearing record. The International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) was founded in 1887 and represents approximately 7,300 industry members including nonprofit, for-profit, religious and municipal cemeteries, funeral homes, crematories, monument retailers, and related professions including architects, attorneys and accountants. The ICCFA is the only trade association representing all segments of the death care industry.
The members of the ICCFA have been shocked and dismayed over the reports of illegal disinterments, mishandling of human remains, and the fraudulent reselling of burial spaces at the historic Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL, and we applaud your leadership for investigating the issues involved and sponsoring H.R. 3655. To place the Burr Oak atrocity into perspective, the bill makes reference to two other incidents of the desecration of graves and the mishandling of remains elsewhere in the United States. However, we note than in each case, Florida, Georgia, and of course Illinois, the state and local authorities responded quickly and decisively, and new laws were enacted to address these heretofore unprecedented situations. We think it fair to ask what role, if any, the federal government could have or should have played when state and local authorities had the situation well in hand.
The ICCFA supports the concepts and disclosures contained in Section 3 of H.R. 3655 as good businesses practices. In fact, these rules to prohibit unfair or deceptive acts and practices reflect the very same standards contained in the ICCFA Model Guidelines that were published over a decade ago and can be accessed on our website at www.iccfa.com. The twenty-eight Model Guidelines for State Law and Regulations include topics on disinterments, recordkeeping, trust funds, prepaid contracts, written price disclosures, and many other aspects of cemetery, mortuary, and crematory operation.
There is no question that the most abhorrent aspect of the Burr Oak investigation was the allegedly unauthorized and illegal defiling of graves. We strongly recommend that illegal disinterments be made a federal crime punishable as felony and respectfully suggest that H.R. 3655 be amended to include this offense. Federal law at 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1369 currently makes the willful injury or destruction or attempts to injure or destroy any veterans’ memorial on public property, i.e., a national cemetery, a federal crime punishable by fine or imprisonment of not more than ten years, or both. The ICCFA recommends that this statute be amended to include veterans’ memorials on private property, and all cemetery memorials and monuments whether commemorating veterans or non-veterans.
Section 5 of H.R. 3655 states that its provisions shall not preempt state law “that provides protections to consumers of funeral services or funeral goods, except to the extent that the provision of law is inconsistent with any provision of this Act or a rule prescribed under this Act….” However, we note that a number of states