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An Act To Create a System Using the Permit for Disposition of Human Remains To Track the Burial of Cremated Remains in a Public Cemetery
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §2843, sub-§3-A, as amended by PL 2017, c. 363, §1, is further amended to read:
 
3-A. Authorization for burial of cremated remains in public burying ground.   The State Registrar of Vital Statistics shall provide an authorization to be used for the purposes of this subsection. If cremated remains are buried in a public burying ground in thisthe State, the person in charge of the public burying ground mayshall endorse and providerecord the date the cremated remains were buried on each permit with which that person is presentedan authorization for the remains and return itthe authorization to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics or to the clerk of the municipality in which the public burying ground is located within 7 days after the cremated remains were buried. If there is no person in charge of the public burying ground, an official of the municipality in which the public burying ground is located mayshall endorse and providerecord the date the cremated remains were buried on each such permitthe authorization and present itthe authorization to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics or the clerk of the municipality. TheIf an authorization is not returned to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics within 7 days after cremated remains were buried, the funeral director or authorized person may present a copy of each permitthe authorization, if the permitauthorization has been endorsed, to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics or the clerk of the municipality where death occurred and to the clerk who issued the permit. For the purposes of this subsection, "public burying ground" has the same meaning as in Title 13, section 1101-A, subsection 4authorization.
 
For purposes of this subsection, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
 
A.  "Authorization" means the form or electronic process prescribed and furnished by the State Registrar of Vital Statistics for the purpose of recording the consent of an authorized person for the burial or removal of cremated remains in a public burying ground as specified by department rule.
 
B.  "Burial" means all manner of dispersal or deposit in or on the ground or in a structure.
 
C.  "Public burying ground" has the same meaning as in Title 13, section 1101-A, subsection 4.
 
SUMMARY
This bill changes the requirements for persons responsible for public burying grounds by changing the documentation of cremated remains buried in a burying ground from a permissive function to a mandated duty to be performed by the responsible person within 7 days of the cremated remains being buried.