New National Cemeteries
The Veterans Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act of 1999 requires VA to establish six additional national cemeteries in areas of the United States in which the need for burial space is greatest. Those areas are: Atlanta, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan; Miami, Florida; Sacramento, California; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Fort Sill National Cemetery near Oklahoma City opened for interments in 2001, the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies near Pittsburgh, Pa. and the Great Lakes National Cemetery near Detroit opened in 2005, the Georgia National Cemetery, and the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery opened in 2006, the South Florida National Cemetery near Miami, opened in 2007.
The National Cemetery Act of 2003 authorizes VA to establish new national cemeteries to serve veterans in the areas of Bakersfield, Calif.; Birmingham, Ala.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Sarasota County, Fla.; southeastern Pennsylvania; and Columbia-Greenville, S.C. All six areas have veteran populations exceeding 170,000, which is the threshold VA has established for new national cemeteries. Ft. Jackson, Jacksonville, Sarasota, Alabama and Bakersfield National Cemeteries opened for interments in 2009.
Reports to Congress on the Establishment of Additional National Cemeteries:
May 2009 Report