A major federal spending bill includes $150 million for construction of state veterans cemeteries. The funds may be the answer Augusta has been searching for.
Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said the funding, which was $90 million more than initially requested, is enough to make Augusta’s long-awaited cemetery project a reality.
Since the bill became law earlier this month, Ossoff has pushed for its quick turnaround for Augusta, based on available funding and the city’s ranking in a federal cemetery grants program.
Ossoff, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, wrote Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins urging “quick execution” of the bipartisan bill for Grants for Construction of Veterans Cemeteries.
Augusta is home to some 66,000 veterans and their families.
“The establishment of a veterans cemetery in Augusta would support the National Cemetery Administration’s goal of providing veterans reasonable access to burial benefits within 75 miles of the veterans’ home,” he wrote Friday to Collins.
Dating back to former Mayor Bob Young’s tenure, locals have pushed to build a state veterans cemetery in Augusta. While veteran burial expenses with military honors are paid for by the government, the nearest veteran cemeteries are in Milledgeville and Columbia, S.C., both about 80 miles away.
Young and fellow veteran Augusta Commissioner Don Clark have done much of the legwork for Augusta’s cemetery, which has had an application in since 2021.
The State Properties Commission has set aside 219 acres by the former Gracewood State School and Hospital for the cemetery, and the state has committed a $1 million match for the federal grant.
The city’s application for a federal cemetery grant has languished, however. It had moved up to No. 22, then fell to No. 35 in 2023. In the latest rankings, Augusta stood at No. 30.
Last year, Young and Clark asked the commission to include funds for the cemetery in SPLOST 9, but they were eliminated.
Once the city secures funding to build the cemetery, it will be maintained in perpetuity by the state.
