November 8, 2007
VA Subcommittee Considers Measures to Improve Veterans’ Benefits and Services
For more information, contact: Brian Lawrence, 202-225-3527
- H.R. 1137 would increase, from $1000 to $2000, the amount of special pension paid to Medal of Honor recipients. The bill would also make a surviving spouse of a recipient eligible to receive the pension if he or she had been married to the recipient for a year or more, or if the couple had a child.
- H.R. 3047, the Veterans Claims Processing Innovation Act of 2007, would attempt to improve the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits claims process by increasing accountability and the use of information technology. The bill would also simplify the process a surviving dependent of a veteran must undergo to acquire accrued benefits resulting from a favorable claim that was pending at the time of the veteran’s death.
- H.R. 3249, the Veterans’ Burial Benefits Improvement Act of 2007, would increase the amount VA pays for funeral and burial expenses for veterans who died due to a service-connected disability from $2,000 to $4,100. The bill would increase the amount of plot allowance for burial in a private cemetery from $300 to $745.
- H.R. 3286 would reduce, from ten years to one year, the amount of time a veteran must be rated totally disabled before his or her surviving dependents can receive certain death benefits.
- H.R. 3415 would authorize domestic memorial markers for individuals buried in American Battle Monument Commission cemeteries.
- H.R. 3954, the Providing Military Honors for our Nation’s Heroes Act, would authorize VA to reimburse organizations whose members serve as honor guards at a veteran’s funeral.
- Draft legislation, the Veterans’ Quality of Life Study Act of 2007, would authorize a study on how quality of life benefits could be quantified as suggested by the Dole-Shalala report.
For more news from House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Republicans, please go to:
http://republicans.veterans.house.gov/
###