Funeral Consumers Alliance has been instrumental in encouraging and supporting changes to the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule.

HB 3655 has been filed in the U.S. Congress to strengthen and expand the Funeral Rule.  It extends to cemeteries and casket sales, among others.  It also extends jurisdiction of the Funeral Rule to states' attorney generals, and states' regulating agencies.

The National Funeral Consumers Alliance indicates that the bill requires the FTC to enact rules that will:

• Compel cemeteries to give consumers accurate prices before the sale
• Give cemetery consumers the right to buy only the goods and services they want; families will be able to buy markers,
• monuments, or grave vaults from less expensive retail vendors rather than being captive to the cemetery’s prices
• Bar cemeteries from forcing families to buy entire packages of goods or services, if the family wants to choose item by item
• Require cemeteries to disclose rules and regulations, and consumer rights, before the purchase
• Require cemeteries to keep accurate records of all burials sold, and where remains are interred, and to make those records
• available to regulators
• Bar cemeteries from lying about the law - claiming state laws “require” vaults to surround an in-ground casket, for example

Read the complete press release:

Read the bill: