{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/icymi-emmer-presses-for-solutions-for-grieving-military-families", "ICYMI: Emmer presses for solutions for grieving military families", "2024-10-09", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "House", "MN", "Tom Emmer", "E000294", "emmer.house.gov", "emmer", "https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - Earlier this year, Congressman Tom Emmer successfully advocated for language to be included in the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations bill requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs to prepare a report offering solutions to ensure military families receive their deceased veteran's death certificate in a timely fashion. Without a signed death certificate, these veterans cannot be buried. The bill passed the House of Representatives on June 5, 2024.\n\nIn case you missed it...\n\nSome veteran families delayed in getting death certificate; Congress working to get data from VA\n\nKSTP 5 Eyewitness News\n\nBen Henry\n\nOctober 8, 2024\n\nThere is a local and congressional push for change and information surrounding why some families of veterans are experiencing delays in the veteran\u2019s death certificate getting signed.\n\nThe local effort is with the Anoka County Commissioners, who, for some, have been addressing this for years after learning about a delay during the pandemic. From there, after connecting with policymakers from around the country, they realized this issue may span much further than the metro.\n\n\u201cWhen you keep hearing the stories over and over again, you [realize] that [it] doesn\u2019t happen to every veteran, but there\u2019s enough of them out there that are having this issue,\u201d Anoka County Commissioner Mike Gamache said. \u201cAnd that really needs to be dealt with.\u201d\n\nIn July, the commissioners sent a letter to the secretary of the Veterans Affairs (VA) \u2014 with more than 120 people signing on, including policymakers from 26 states \u2014 calling for a policy requiring VA doctors to sign death certificates for natural causes within 72 hours.\n\n\u201cAfter four and a half years, we might just get there,\u201d Anoka County Commissioner Jeff Reinert, who was one of the first behind this push, said about their work.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019ve done the bravest and the most heroic thing that they could do for this country, and for each of us, that we haven\u2019t done, and they deserve better,\u201d Commissioner Julie Jeppson added.\n\nJeppson said they\u2019ve received confirmation that the VA received their letter, but tells us it did not have further comment.\n\nAlongside the commissioners on this effort is the director of the Midwest Medical Examiner\u2019s Office, Shane Sheets.\n\n\u201c[This] probably popped up [on my radar] a few years ago when I started as the director,\u201d Sheets said about some families experiencing a delay in the VA signing off on a loved one\u2019s death certificate.\n\n\u201cOne month, we\u2019ll get zero, but then the next month, we could have two to three refusals from the Veteran Affairs,\u201d he said.\n\nSheets told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he believes the main reason it\u2019s happening is because he says the care providers are not registered in the state to do it.\n\n\u201cAll it is going online to the state website signing up for it, you have an account, and now you can sign death certificates for your patients,\u201d Sheets added.\n\nIf the refusal continues or nobody is responding back to his office, Sheets says they accept jurisdiction of that case.\n\n\u201c[That\u2019s] to make sure that that family can get access to those records and be able to continue to provide support for their family,\u201d Sheets said. \u201cWe have some families crying, trying to get their death certificates completed for their family \u2014 a lot of it comes down to benefits. They\u2019re locked out of checking accounts, savings accounts.\u201d\n\nIn statements, the Minneapolis VA tells us approximately 25% of their full-time physicians are registered with the state to sign off on death certificates. It adds that in its \u201clarge, integrated health care system,\u201d that number is \u201cadequate for the need\u201d \u2014 and that \u201cany eligible provider\u201d can register \u201cat the time the death certificate is required.\u201d\n\nAs for why families may experience a delay, the Minneapolis VA did share one example in which if a veteran was not a registered patient with an assigned \u2018Patient Aligned Care Team,\u2019 \u201csome families may experience a delay in receiving a death certificate.\u201d\n\nOne case that Sheet\u2019s office helped with was the Julin family.\n\nRon Julin was a Marine veteran who died of cancer in late August 2023 \u2014 he was receiving care through the VA, including in Minneapolis.\n\nHe died in his wife\u2019s arms while camping, as it was how he wanted to spend his final days.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m glad that I was able to give him that,\u201d Julin said while tearing up.\n\nIt wasn\u2019t until three weeks later that Ron\u2019s death certificate was signed by a doctor outside the VA.\n\n\u201cNobody would sign off on the death certificate; nobody would take responsibility for, you know, declaring that, yes, he\u2019s gone,\u201d Julin said.\n\nTo better understand this issue and its scope, there is language in the congressional bill that funds the VA surrounding it.\n\n\u201cWe need to understand this so that we can fix it,\u201d Minnesota Republican Congressman Tom Emmer told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.\n\n\u201cNo family should have to suffer through this, you know, while they\u2019re trying to deal with the sadness of losing a loved one,\u201d Rep. Emmer added.\n\nIn the bill, lawmakers are calling on the VA to compile data dating back five years surrounding the average time it takes to sign a death certificate, the average number of delays longer than 72 hours, how many refusals there\u2019s been and why.\n\nIt passed the House in May and the bill is now with the Senate, which would need to pass it before making it to the president\u2019s desk.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/icymi-emmer-presses-for-solutions-for-grieving-military-families"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8328389376401901, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}