U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush unveiled legislation Monday that would expand the powers of the federal government by creating a new level of oversight for cemeteries to prevent the kind of abuses seen at Burr Oak Cemetery and to others.
The Bereaved Consumers Protection Act would force cemetery directors to bolster their record keeping and make those records available to federal, state and local officials. It also creates a kind of consumer Bill of Rights for cemeteries, prohibiting directors from misleading customers about the prices of funeral goods and services, and clarifying contracts for burial plots, entombments and inurnments.
You can read more in an article in the Chicago Tribune at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-cemetery-legislation-22sep22,0,2359558.story.
