Directs counties and the city of New York to contact a veterans' organization to provide for the disposition of the unclaimed remains of a deceased veteran when such veteran has no next of kin or other person designated to provide for the disposition of his or her remains; provides process.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3116--A
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 2, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HUNTER -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Veterans' Affairs -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the general municipal law and the veterans' services
law, in relation to directing counties and the city of New York to
request a congressionally chartered veterans' organization to arrange
for the funeral and burial of a deceased veteran who has no next of
kin or other person to make such arrangements
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 1-a of section 148 of the
2 general municipal law, as amended by chapter 29 of the laws of 2016, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, in the case
5 of a veteran, as defined in section [forty-two hundred three of the
6 public health law] one of the veterans' services law, or who has a qual-
7 ifying condition as defined in section one of the veterans' services law
8 and has received a discharge other than bad conduct or dishonorable, or
9 is a discharged LGBT veteran as defined in section one of the veterans'
10 services law and has received a discharge other than bad conduct or
11 dishonorable, who died in a county or the city of New York leaving no
12 funds or insurance sufficient to pay funeral and burial expenses of such
13 veteran and such veteran has no next of kin or person of record previ-
14 ously designated to control his or her final disposition pursuant to
15 section four thousand two hundred one of the public health law, such
16 county or the city of New York [may] shall request a congressionally
17 chartered veterans' organization within the county or the city of New
18 York where the decedent resided at the time of death, to engage the
19 services of a funeral firm to conduct the funeral and burial services.
20 § 2. Section 4 of the veterans' services law is amended by adding a
21 new subdivision 38 to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02695-03-3
A. 3116--A 2
1 38. To develop an application process for congressionally chartered
2 veterans' organizations to receive reimbursement of costs associated
3 with funeral and burial services for indigent veterans pursuant to
4 subdivision one-a of section one hundred forty-eight of the general
5 municipal law. The application shall contain information about the
6 funeral firm whose services were engaged pursuant to section one hundred
7 forty-eight of the general municipal law and any other information that
8 the department may require. The application must be signed and dated by
9 the supervising funeral director.
10 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
11 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
