TN Department Of Veterans Services

The Tennessee Department of Veterans Services is a state government entity registered with SAM.gov since June 2006 that provides critical infrastructure and burial services to veterans and their eligible family members across Tennessee. As a division of the state government dedicated to veterans' affairs, the department receives federal grant funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop, expand, and improve veterans' cemetery facilities throughout the state, thereby complementing the VA's national cemetery system and ensuring adequate memorial services for the veteran population.

The Tennessee Department of Veterans Services has demonstrated substantial capacity in cemetery infrastructure development through four major federal grant awards totaling approximately $21.2 million from the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration under the Veterans Cemetery Grants Program (CFDA 64.203) between August 2023 and September 2025. These grants have funded expansion and improvement projects across the state's veterans' cemeteries, with specific initiatives including the expansion of the East Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery in Knoxville with 800 columbarium niches, landscaping, and irrigation improvements ($7.3 million awarded September 2025), an expansion project valued at $5.9 million (August 2024), a general improvement project of $771,015 (September 2024), and an expansion project of $7.2 million (August 2023). All awards are structured as project grants covering approved project costs related to cemetery construction, renovation, landscaping, and infrastructure upgrades designed to enhance burial capacity and services for Tennessee's veteran population of over 155,000 individuals in the East Tennessee region alone. The awards demonstrate the department's primary focus on capital improvement and infrastructure development for veterans' memorial facilities, with no identified prime or subcontractor partners in the available award documentation.