HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1974
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

Relating to veterans.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  Section 363-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§363-5  Councils' responsibility; burial of [servicemen,] service members, veterans, and dependents.  The councils of the counties of Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui shall each provide for the establishment of the veterans cemetery or cemeteries to be located within their respective counties, which includes grading, filling, leveling, platting, paving of roadways and walks, installation of curbs, building of fences, planting of grass, trees and shrubs, erection of memorial buildings and monuments, and building of other necessary or convenient structures, and shall make provisions for the maintenance and upkeep of such cemetery or cemeteries.  The councils shall each provide for the interment of the remains, of:

     (1)  [residents or former residents of their respective counties] Service members who died while in the armed forces of the United States[, and];

     (2)  [of honorably] Honorably discharged veterans of the armed forces of the United States with either peacetime or wartime service [and who are residents of their respective counties at the time of death, or who were former residents, and];

     (3)  [of the] The widows, widowers, or minor children of [such] deceased [servicemen] service members or veterans[,]; and

     (4)  [of the] The wife, husband, or minor children who predecease a [serviceman] service member or veteran who would be [himself] entitled to interment; provided that [he must] the service member or veteran shall subscribe to a statement that [he himself] the service member or veteran will also be [so] interred in the same veterans cemetery[; and provided further that as to former residents, the].

The cost of transportation of the remains to the county of interment shall be borne by the family or estate of the deceased."

     SECTION 2.  Section 363-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is repealed.

     ["§363-7  Burial of nonresident servicemen and dependents.  Any law to the contrary notwithstanding the remains of nonresident servicemen or nonresident honorably discharged veterans of the armed forces of the United States, and the remains of the widows, widowers, or minor children of the deceased servicemen or veterans, or the remains of the wives, husbands, or minor children who predecease the servicemen or veterans, may, at the discretion of the legislative bodies of the respective counties, be interred in the cemetery or cemeteries as established herein."]

     SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Armed Services; Veterans; Burial

Description:

Removes the residency requirements for the burial of members of the armed services and their dependants in veterans cemeteries.

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