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WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee held a hearing to discuss the National Cemetery Administration’s (NCA) mission to honor America’s veterans and their families at U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) cemeteries. While it is the smallest of the VA’s three administrations, the NCA’s important work includes managing 158 national cemeteries across the country and supporting state and tribal veterans’ cemeteries through the Veterans Cemetery Grants Program (VCGP).
In North Dakota, the NCA manages the Fargo National Cemetery and partners with the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery in Mandan, which has supported the expansions of burial capacity and services for our state’s veterans.
Members of the committee first heard testimony from Matthew Quinn, the Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs for the VA. He is tasked with overseeing memorial programs to honor veterans, maintaining the cemeteries as national shrines, and administering federal grants to help establish veterans cemeteries.
Earlier this year, the Fargo VA Cemetery announced the sale of nearly 30 acres had been finalized between the VA and local landowners to expand the cemetery’s footprint from five to 35 acres. Shortly after, there was an announcement citing new plans for the NCA to work with stakeholders in the region to build a Veterans Cemetery Center on the newly purchased land.
To date, local stakeholders and community members have worked diligently and explored various avenues to expand the facility offerings at the Fargo National Cemetery. Given the effort put forth by the community over the past several years, the announcement raised many questions around what the planning, design, and potential ownership of any future facilities would look like.
During the hearing, U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) first questioned Quinn about the situation in Fargo with the National Cemetery, inquiring about the best way to achieve a positive outcome for all stakeholders involved.
“First of all, I need to say thank you. […] you came through big with the help in Mandan with the state cemetery and the columbarium. It's made a world of difference, and it's a spectacular place as you know,” said Cramer. “You're familiar with the situation in Fargo with the National Cemetery, another spectacular facility, but as you know, there's a lot of people that love to partner up. Sometimes they have the money, sometimes they have the will. Sometimes the bureaucracy gets in the way. Maybe if you could just share a little bit […] about the Fargo situation how you see that partnership playing out […] so that we get the outcome that we want, I think that you want, your administration wants and keep everybody happy with the outcome.”
“We're working through our cemetery operations department to see how the community can donate either the funds or a building, and what it would take to build out that additional 30 acres. We will need to go through some planning on that, but certainly the community interest in Fargo is incredible. The support of that cemetery is incredible, and that's really what makes the cemetery shine is when you have community support like we have in the Fargo community,” Quinn responded.
Senator Cramer emphasized facilities matter and stressed the importance of innovation as it is often dimmed by bureaucracy. Quinn said Fargo has pushed the NCA in terms of what a rural cemetery should look like.
“When the rural cemetery program was initially started, it was going to be a very small plot,” said Quinn. “Not very many burials or not very many interments, we’ll have a committal shelter, a flagpole, really that's it. We knew we needed a maintenance or a storage facility, Fargo pushed us to put in a toilet. […] But we're going to continue to look at what is a remote or a rural cemetery? As we're building one in Elko, Nevada, we're going to be building one and in Cedar City, Utah, we have to continue to do that. I would credit Fargo and the community there to say, ‘hey Quinn, we think of rural cemetery should be a little bit more than what you have there,’ and we'll continue to work through that.”
Last year, Senator Cramer helped secure a total of $1,860,775 through the NCA VCGP to expand the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery (NDVC) in Mandan, North Dakota. Additionally, he delivered remarks at the NDVC’s 31st Commemoration ceremony and attended the Veterans Cemetery Columbarium groundbreaking ceremony.
As a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Senator Cramer has led and supported several bills to support our nation’s veterans, including: