STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 454--A Cal. No. 393 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 4, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sens. GIANARIS, ADDABBO, FELDER, HELMING, LANZA, WEIK -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs -- reported favorably from said committee, ordered to first and second report, ordered to a third reading, passed by Senate and delivered to the Assembly, recalled, vote reconsidered, restored to third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading 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 EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02695-04-3
S. 454--A 2 1 county or the city of New York [may] shall request a congressionally 2 chartered veterans' organization within the county or the city of New 3 York where the decedent resided at the time of death, to engage the 4 services of a funeral firm to conduct the funeral and burial services. 5 § 2. Section 4 of the veterans' services law is amended by adding a 6 new subdivision 38 to read as follows: 7 38. To develop an application process for congressionally chartered 8 veterans' organizations to receive reimbursement of costs associated 9 with funeral and burial services for indigent veterans pursuant to 10 subdivision one-a of section one hundred forty-eight of the general 11 municipal law. The application shall contain information about the 12 funeral firm whose services were engaged pursuant to section one hundred 13 forty-eight of the general municipal law and any other information that 14 the department may require. The application must be signed and dated by 15 the supervising funeral director. 16 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed- 17 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.