Remember Burr Oak this past summer? That was the Chicago cemetery that dug up bodies and resold the graves to new customers. Well, yesterday a U.S. Representative from Illinois introduced the Bereaved Consumers Protection Act, a bill that would standardize record-keeping, make cemeteries accountable to federal officials as well as state, and protect consumers from shady business practices.

We already enjoy something called the Funeral Rule, an FTC regulation that requires funeral homes to follow certain rules, and that means you can report any fraudulent behavior to them for possible follow-up. But it looks like Bereaved Consumers Protection Act would cover far more than just truth-in-advertising, by creating a set of minimum record-keeping standards that all states would have to follow (although they could add their own laws on top).

“Rep. Bobby Rush introduces cemetery oversight act” [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo: chuckp)

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