I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3655 
To direct the Federal Trade Commission to establish rules to prohibit unfair 
or deceptive acts or practices related to the provision of funeral services. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 25, 2009 
Mr. RUSH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To direct the Federal Trade Commission to establish rules 
to prohibit unfair or deceptive acts or practices related 
to the provision of funeral services. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bereaved Consumer’s 
Bill of Rights Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) there have been shocking consumer abuses 
in the funeral industry, including scandals at Burr 
Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, Menorah Gardens 
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Cemetery in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Tri State 
Crematory in Noble, Georgia; 
(2) funeral arrangements are a major expense 
for most American households and families; 
(3) some consumers seek to ease the burdens on 
their families by arranging and paying for pre-need 
funeral and cemetery arrangements; 
(4) most funerals are planned by grieving fam-
ily members at a time when they are especially vul-
nerable and unlikely to focus on cost comparison; 
(5) the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral 
Industry Practices Trade Regulation Rule (known as 
the Funeral Rule) dictates consumer protections in 
the funeral home, but does not cover the practices 
of cemeteries, crematoria, or sellers of monuments, 
urns, or caskets; 
(6) State laws are inconsistent and frequently 
too weak to provide adequate consumer protections, 
creating a need for minimum federal standards in 
this area; 
(7) consumers have the right to receive clear 
and accurate information about all funeral goods 
and services offered for sale; 
(8) consumers need effective protection from 
fraud and abusive practices by all providers of fu-
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neral goods and services and at all stages of the fu-
neral planning process; and 
(9) a new Federal law that provides adequate 
protections to grieving families is warranted. 
SEC. 3. FTC RULEMAKING RELATING TO UNFAIR OR DE-
CEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES IN THE PROVI-
SION OF FUNERAL GOODS OR SERVICES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Trade Commission 
shall prescribe rules prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts 
or practices in the provision of funeral goods or services. 
Such rules shall include the following: 
(1) A requirement that providers of funeral 
goods or funeral services furnish accurate price in-
formation disclosing the cost to the purchaser for 
each of the specific funeral goods or funeral services 
provided or offered for sale. 
(2) A prohibition on misrepresentations by such 
providers, including misrepresentations of the re-
quirements of Federal, State, or local law. 
(3) A prohibition on conditioning the provision 
of any funeral good or funeral service upon the pur-
chase of any other funeral good or funeral service 
from that provider, except as required by law. 
(4) A requirement that contracts for funeral 
services or funeral goods be written clearly, stating 
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the merchandise and services that purchasers are 
buying and their prices. 
(5) In the case of contracts for funeral services 
or funeral goods that are pre-paid in whole or in 
part, required disclosures in the contract regarding 
any penalties incurred if the consumer decides to 
cancel or transfer the contract to another provider 
of funeral services or funeral goods. 
(6) A requirement that contracts for funeral 
services or funeral goods disclose all fees and costs 
to be incurred in the future or at the time that the 
funeral services or funeral goods are provided. 
(7) A requirement that cemeteries provide to 
consumers, in a timely manner, all written rules and 
regulations of the cemetery, and a clear explanation 
in writing of the interment, inurnment, or entomb-
ment right that has been purchased, and any mate-
rial terms and conditions of that purchase, including 
any repurchase option by the cemetery or resale 
rights available to the consumer. 
(8) A requirement that cemeteries— 
(A) retain all records in existence on the 
date of enactment of this Act, including maps 
or other systems indicating the location and 
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date of each interment, inurnment, or entomb-
ment; 
(B) accurately record and retain records of 
all interment, inurnment, or entombment rights 
sold after the effective date of the regulations 
issued under this subsection, in such manner 
and form as the Commission may prescribe in 
such regulations; and 
(C) make such records available to Fed-
eral, State, and local governments, as appro-
priate. 
(b) RULEMAKING.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall pre-
scribe the rules under subsection (a) within 1 year 
after the date of enactment of this Act. Such rules, 
and any future rules or revision of rules prescribed 
by the Commission prohibiting unfair or deceptive 
acts or practices in the provision of funeral goods or 
services, shall be prescribed in accordance with sec-
tion 553 of title 5, United States Code. 
(2) RELATIONSHIP
TO
FUNERAL
RULE.—No 
rule prescribed pursuant to this Act shall be less 
protective of consumers than the Trade Regulation 
Rule on Funeral Industry Practices (16 C.F.R. part 
453). 
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(c) APPLICATION OF RULES TO TAX EXEMPT ORGA-
NIZATIONS AND STATES.—Notwithstanding the definition 
of corporation in section 4 of the Federal Trade Commis-
sion Act (15 U.S.C. 44), the rules prescribed under sub-
section (a), and any future rules or revision of rules pre-
scribed by the Commission prohibiting unfair or deceptive 
acts or practices in the provision of funeral goods or fu-
neral services, shall also apply to cemeteries organized or 
operated by— 
(1) organizations described in section 501(c) of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that are exempt 
from taxation under section 501(a) of such Code; 
(2) religious organizations (notwithstanding any 
contrary provisions of law set forth in the Religious 
Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. 2000bb— 
2000bb–4); and 
(3) States or any political subdivision of a 
State. 
(d) ENFORCEMENT.—Any violation of any rule pre-
scribed under this section shall be treated as a violation 
of a regulation prescribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the 
Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) 
regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices. The Fed-
eral Trade Commission shall enforce this Act in the same 
manner, by the same means, and with the same jurisdic-
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tion as though all applicable terms and provisions of the 
Federal Trade Commission Act were incorporated into and 
made a part of this Act. Any person who violates the regu-
lations prescribed under this Act shall be subject to the 
penalties and entitled to the privileges and immunities 
provided in that Act. 
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT BY STATES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Whenever an attorney general of 
any State has reason to believe that the interests of the 
residents of that State have been or are being threatened 
or adversely affected because any person has engaged or 
is engaging in an act or practice which violates any rule 
of the Commission issued under section 3 of this Act, the 
State, as parens patriae, may bring a civil action on behalf 
of its residents in an appropriate district court of the 
United States to enjoin such violative act or practice, to 
enforce compliance with such rule of the Commission, to 
obtain damages, restitution, or other compensation on be-
half of residents of such State, or to obtain such further 
and other relief as the court may determine appropriate. 
(b) NOTICE.—The State shall provide prior written 
notice of any civil action under subsection (a) or (f)(2) 
to the Commission and provide the Commission with a 
copy of its complaint, except that if it is not feasible for 
the State to provide such prior notice, the State shall pro-
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vide such notice immediately upon instituting such action. 
Upon receiving a notice respecting a civil action, the Com-
mission shall have the right— 
(1) to intervene in such action; 
(2) upon so intervening, to be heard on all mat-
ters arising therein; 
(3) to remove the action to the appropriate 
United States district court; and 
(4) to file petitions for appeal. 
(c) CONSTRUCTION.—For purposes of bringing any 
civil action under subsection (a), nothing in this Act shall 
prevent an attorney general from exercising the powers 
conferred on the attorney general by the laws of such 
State to conduct investigations or to administer oaths or 
affirmations or to compel the attendance of witnesses or 
the production of documentary and other evidence. 
(d) ACTIONS BY COMMISSION.—Whenever a civil ac-
tion has been instituted by or on behalf of the Commission 
for violation of any rule prescribed under section 3 of this 
Act, no State may, during the pendency of such action 
instituted by or on behalf of the Commission, institute a 
civil action under subsection (a) or (f)(2) of this section 
against any defendant named in the complaint in such ac-
tion for violation of any rule as alleged in such complaint. 
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(e) VENUE; SERVICE OF PROCESS.—Any civil action 
brought under subsection (a) of this section in a district 
court of the United States may be brought in the district 
in which the defendant is found, is an inhabitant, or trans-
acts business or wherever venue is proper under section 
1391 of title 28, United States Code. Process in such an 
action may be served in any district in which the defend-
ant is an inhabitant or in which the defendant may be 
found. 
(f) ACTIONS BY OTHER STATE OFFICIALS.— 
(1) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing contained in this 
section shall prohibit an authorized State official 
from proceeding in State court on the basis of an al-
leged violation of any civil or criminal statute of 
such State. 
(2) OTHER STATE ACTIONS.—In addition to ac-
tions brought by an attorney general of a State 
under subsection (a) of this section, such an action 
may be brought by officers of such State who are 
authorized by the State to bring actions in such 
State on behalf of its residents. 
SEC. 5. EFFECT ON OTHER LAW. 
(a) NO PREEMPTION.—Nothing in this Act or the 
rules prescribed under this Act shall be construed to pre-
empt any provision of any law of a State or political sub-
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division of that State that provides protections to con-
sumers of funeral services or funeral goods, except to the 
extent that the provision of law is inconsistent with any 
provision of this Act or a rule prescribed under this Act, 
and then only to the extent of the inconsistency. 
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act— 
(1) the term ‘‘cemetery’’ means any organiza-
tion, association or other business that offers for 
sale the interment, inurnment, or entombment of 
human remains, but does not include any cemetery 
that— 
(A) performs fewer than 25 interments, 
inurnments, and entombments during any cal-
endar year; or 
(B) 
sells 
fewer 
than 
interment, 
inurnment, or entombment rights during any 
calendar year; 
(2) the term ‘‘funeral goods’’ are the goods 
which are sold or offered for sale directly to the pub-
lic for use in connection with funeral services; and 
(3) the term ‘‘funeral services’’ means— 
(A) any services which are sold or offered 
for sale to the public in order to— 
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(i) care for and prepare deceased 
human bodies for burial, cremation, or 
other final disposition; or 
(ii) arrange, supervise, or conduct the 
funeral ceremony or the final disposition of 
deceased human bodies; or 
(B) services provided by funeral directors, 
morticians, cemeterians, cremationists, and re-
tailers of caskets, urns, monuments, and mark-
ers. 
Æ 
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