ST. PAUL — A bill expanding the eligibility for burial in Minnesota State Veterans Cemeteries passed the House unanimously Monday, May 4.
In Minnesota now, in order to obtain veteran status, a member of the armed forces must have 181 days of unbroken active service, and only those veterans can be buried in state veterans cemeteries.
Rep. Bjorn Olson, R-Fairmont, wants to change that by extending eligibility to service members who completed their military contracts and are honorably discharged and to those who die while serving if they haven’t met the active duty requirement.
Olson said his bill specifically is intended to include members of the Minnesota National Guard and Army Reserve. The bill also extends eligibility to dependents, such as spouses and children, and would cover the cost of burial for those who can’t afford to pay.
The House Ways and Means committee approved the bill on April 27.
“This is just one more way in which the state of Minnesota can in a small way honor the service of those who have answered the call to protect us,” said Olson, who has served in the U.S. Army Reserve since 2013, to the House Veterans and Military Affairs Division committee on March 25.
There are four state veterans cemeteries in Minnesota, in Duluth, Preston, Redwood Falls and Little Falls.
The state veterans cemetery in Little Falls was the first established in the system. Built in 1994, the 39-acre cemetery contained over 10,000 plots as of 2024, said David Swantek, the director of memorial affairs for the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, in a WJON article.
According to Swantek at the March 25 meeting, the Little Falls cemetery is the smallest of the four Minnesota State Veterans Cemeteries but accounts for almost 80% of burials in the state.
The veterans affairs department expects about half of additional burials resulting from Olson’s legislation to occur at the Little Falls cemetery, located less than a mile from Camp Ripley, a National Guard training facility.
As of now, Swantek said the cemetery is expected to reach full capacity in about 48 years. Olson’s bill would reduce that to 30 years.
Swantek said the bill is only the start of discussions regarding support for state veterans cemeteries in Minnesota.
“It is likely that we will return to this committee in the future to discuss the need for additional funding and long-term capacity planning,” Swantek said.
Olson said the prevalence of prolonged active service is declining, reducing the likelihood of guard and reserve members to receive military benefits, veteran status and burial eligibility.
“When I first got in in 2013, nearly everyone had a deployment patch on the right shoulder, and nowadays, those are fewer and far between,” Olson said at the April 27 committee meeting. “I think that would be right for us as a state to say thank you for your service.”
Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, called Olson’s bill “an example of representative democracy.”
Rep. Paul Novotny, R-Elk River, advocated for guard and reserve members, acknowledging the uncertainty that comes with being a citizen soldier.
“They don't decide when they get called up or not. They were just as likely to be as anyone,” Novotny said. “I think they made that commitment and where they were assigned should not affect their benefits and their right to be buried in a military cemetery.”
Report for Minnesota is a project of the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication to support local news across the state.
