The House has voted 66-2 in favor of HB 551, legislation from Rep. Carlos Bilbao, R-Emmett, to allow county coroners to order unclaimed bodies cremated, not just buried. "Unfortunately, it is a common occurrence that upon a death, a body does not get claimed," Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, told the House. "They may find relatives in another state, but commonly relatives in another state simply don't care, and the body then becomes an issue for the county commissioners to solve." Currently, he said, unclaimed bodies may remain in funeral home morgues at county expense, with the costs falling on the county indigent fund.

If the unclaimed body is that of a veteran, Henderson said the ashes after cremation will be sent to the nearest veterans' cemetery. The bill now moves to the Senate side.