House Approves VA Disability COLA
August, 2001

The Veterans Benefits Act of 2001, passed this week by the House, includes a provision that gives veterans or their surviving dependents receiving VA disability payments a 2.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment effective December 1. The increase will match the Social Security COLA.

More Benefits from Vet Bill

The legislation (previous item) also would correct what Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman Chris Smith, R-N.J., calls a "Catch-22" in which a Gulf War veteran would lose compensation for a poorly defined illness once the illness was diagnosed. The veterans or survivors who would gain from this measure, Smith said, include "more than 170,000 veterans rated 100 percent disabled who would get an additional $767 each year added to their existing benefit." The bill also would establish a two-year nationwide pilot program to expand the available hours for the VA's toll-free information service. Finally, the legislation would allow payment of National Service Life Insurance or United States Government Life Insurance benefits to alternate beneficiaries if the first beneficiary can't be found within three years of the insured's death.

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