This interim final rule amends the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulation governing persons who may receive VA burial benefits on behalf of a deceased veteran. As amended, the regulation sets forth VA’s policy of paying an automatic burial benefit to surviving spouses who were not established in VA systems as a veteran’s spouse at the time of the veteran’s death. The intended effect of this amendment is to ensure that a veteran’s surviving spouse receives burial benefits to which he or she is entitled at the earliest possible time.