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Fully Disabled Veterans to See $767 Increase; Cost-of-Living Adjustment
Predicted to Be 2.7%
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed the fourth major
veterans legislation of the year and second major benefits package, a bill
Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Chris Smith (NJ-4) and Ranking Democrat
Lane Evans (IL-17) touted as increasing compensation to 2.3 million disabled
veterans or their surviving dependents by granting them a 2.7 percent Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) beginning this December 1.
H.R. 2540, the Veterans Benefits Act of 2001, would also correct what Smith
called a "Catch -22" in which a Gulf War veteran would lose his compensation for
a poorly defined illness once the illness was diagnosed.
The veterans or survivors who would gain from this measure, Smith said, included
"more than 170,000 veterans rated 100 percent disabled who would get an additional $767 each year added to their existing benefit."
The COLA increase, Smith said, "matches the Social Security COLA and will raise
payments to disabled veterans by more than $400 million in the first year and
$543 million over the next four years. In all, compensation payments will be
increased by more than $2.5 billion over the next five years."
Current regulations on Gulf War-related illnesses allow compensation for illnesses that manifest themselves before the end of this year. An Evans
provision in Smith's bill extends the deadline another two years. Normally,
Smith noted, disability compensation can be awarded only if an illness is detected either in service or within a year of leaving active duty. But a poor
understanding of what is causing numerous symptoms justifies an extension, he
said.
"When Congress authorized compensation for veterans with poorly defined illnesses in 1994, it believed that this term would encompass those illnesses
that were difficult to diagnose, such as chronic fatigue syndrome," Smith added.
"What we have learned in the intervening years is that many veterans were denied
compensation because well-trained physicians were able to diagnose their poorly
defined illnesses."
Smith said the VA Committee specifically added language to cover chronic fatigue
syndrome, fibromyalgia, and chronic multisymptom illness. Gulf War veterans
would also be compensated for "multiple chemical sensitivity," even if symptoms
do not appear for many years after their service in the Gulf.
Another provision of H.R. 2540 would establish a two-year nationwide pilot
program to expand the available hours for the VA's toll-free information service. Finally, the bill would allow payment of National Service Life
Insurance or United States Government Life Insurance policies to alternate
beneficiaries when the first beneficiary can't be found within three years of
the insured's death. Smith said there were over 4,000 cases in which insurance
policy proceeds totaling $23 million could not be paid.
Congress has already passed H.R. 801, the Veterans' Survivor Benefits
Improvements Act of 2001, which expanded health and life insurance coverage of
dependents and survivors of veterans; H.R. 811, the Veterans' Hospitals Emergency Repair Act, which provided $550 million over two years to repair
an renovate VA medical facilities; and H.R. 1291, the 21st Century Montgomery GI
Bill Enhancement Act, providing a 70 percent increase in education benefits to
qualified veterans.
Please visit http://veterans.house.gov, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs web site, named 'One of the Best Web Sites in Congress' by the Congressional Management Foundation, May 3, 1999.
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