AUGUSTA, Maine — Politicians from both parties rushed Monday and Tuesday to ensure the survival of a program that sends an honors detail to about 1,300 military funerals per year in Maine.
Republican Gov. Paul LePage on Monday vowed to find funding within the state budget to ensure the program continues, and Democratic Sen. John Tuttle of Sanford followed suit Tuesday by proposing to protect the program.
LePage blamed federal budget cuts for endangering the practice. Tuttle will submit his bill to the next Legislature if he wins re-election next month.
But late Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree, both Maine Democrats, said that Army officials had assured them that federal funding to send honor guards to funerals for Army veterans would continue.
The quick action from LePage, Tuttle and Pingree — all of whom are seeking re-election — and Michaud, who is challenging LePage in this year’s governor’s race, shows how much importance Maine’s veterans and their supporters are expected to have in the Nov. 4 elections.
The Maine Funeral Honors Program was created in 2003 to send honor guards to the funerals of Army veterans from Maine, and since then, honor guards have appeared at more than 10,000 funerals of Maine veterans, including 1,300 appearances in 2013 alone. In addition to providing a military honors presence, the group typically plays taps and presents an American flag to the family or loved ones of the deceased veteran.
Capt. Norman Stickney, spokesman for the Maine National Guard, said the program’s funding is safe at current levels until December, when a continuing resolution on the federal budget expires. However, the program is currently targeted for a 58 percent cut in a budget bill proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Stickney said that while the Maine National Guard and its parent organizations are still evaluating how the cut would affect the program, it’s possible that it could lead to layoffs for some of the five full-time personnel who run the program and reassignment for some of the personnel who actually perform the ceremonies.
“At this point, the funeral honors program is going to continue to train at previous levels and continue to support every funeral that they possibly can,” said Stickney. “They’re going to continue through the first quarter of the [federal] fiscal year [which began on Oct. 1] as normal so no veteran is without their entitled funeral honors service.”
If the cuts go through, according to Stickney, personnel from the National Guard’s Casualty Assistance Center in Fort Drum, New York, which serves all of New England and the state of New York, will be assigned to cover Army veteran funerals in Maine.
Stickney was unable to say what the overall budget for the program is or what a 58 percent cut represents in actual dollars because it is supported by multiple appropriations from several sources. He said, on average, it costs the Maine National Guard about $100 to send a detail to a funeral.
In a joint release issued Tuesday evening, Michaud and Pingree blamed House Republicans for proposing budget cuts that would have affected the honor guard program. Michaud and Pingree said Army officials told them Tuesday that they would look for efficiencies in the program. Maine’s two U.S. House members will “remain in close touch with Army officials to continue advocating for the importance of fully funding the program, and to monitor any future proposed changes to the program,” the release states.
“We’ve reached out to the Army Budget Office to get more specific information about the proposal and to register our serious concerns about any such cuts,” Dan Rafter, a spokesman for Michaud, said in response to questions from the BDN.
In an Oct. 1 letter to Michaud and the three other members of Maine’s congressional delegation, LePage said he would find money within the executive branch to protect the program.
“I urge you to work to restore federal funding so that the federal government may maintain our commitments to our veterans,” said LePage. “In the interim, I have instructed relevant state officials to ensure that no honor ceremony request is denied and to find the necessary funding and resources to make up this shameful shortfall.”
LePage said in the letter that he would issue an executive order to that effect. Adrienne Bennett, a spokeswoman for LePage, said in an email to the BDN that the executive branch does not have “exact figures” for how much covering the shortfall would have cost.
Tuttle on Tuesday announced that he had filed a concept bill to provide state funding for the federal program. His measure would be considered when the Legislature reconvenes in January 2015. His announcement came before Michaud and Pingree reported that Army officials had told them that they would find a way to keep the program intact, so it was not immediately known if Tuttle would proceed with his plan to submit a bill.
LePage issued a news release about his Oct. 1 letter to the delegation on Monday, the same day Michaud, who is opposing LePage in the three-way race for governor,unveiled a plan targeted at improving care for Maine veterans.
Michaud campaign spokesman Lizzy Reinholt on Tuesday criticized the timing of LePage’s news release and said it was an attempt to score political points with voters on an issue about which virtually everyone agrees, regardless of party.
Reinholt criticized LePage for not addressing criticisms fired at him by Democrats — including his handling of the economy and Riverview Psychiatric Center. “Then he rolls out a press release about a niche issue that everyone’s going to agree about just to get coverage,” she said.
LePage campaign spokesman Alex Willette said Tuesday that this is another way that Michaud has let veterans down as chairman and then ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.