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Benefits Subcommittee OKs Two Bills to Strengthen Job Programs & Increase
Pensions and Benefits for Veterans
(Washington, DC) -- The House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Benefits
approved legislation (H.R. 4015) to reform and strengthen federal job training and placement programs for veterans. The Subcommittee also backed
legislation (H.R. 4085) to increase disability compensation payments, and
expand several other benefit programs for veterans, their dependents and
survivors.
H.R. 4015, the Jobs for Veterans Act, sponsored by Benefits Subcommittee
Chairman Mike Simpson (ID-2) and Silvestre Reyes (TX-16), would reform the
Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) in the Labor Department which has responsibility for helping military veterans transition to the
civilian job market.
"H.R. 4015 takes a very direct approach: those programs that produce
favorable results for veterans will be rewarded; those that don't will not,"
said Simpson. "Furthermore, our legislation will establish a new performance accountability system that will continually measure whether
veterans are being helped. Whether the service member is stationed at the
38th parallel in Korea, on a nuclear sub in the South Pacific, or at a base
right here in the United States, this initiative will put job opportunities
or job training right at their finger tips," he said.
H.R. 4015 authorizes $260 million over five years for performance incentive
awards to states that provide the highest quality of services or that have
made significant improvements in service for veterans job placement. The
bill would provide states with $200 million in staffing grants, and establish a new comprehensive performance accountability system to measure
the performance of veterans' employment and training programs. H.R. 4015
would also establish an Internet-based one-stop job training and placement
service for military personnel and veterans, and would create a new presidential 'National Hire Veterans Committee' to encourage employers to
hire veterans and disabled veterans.
The Subcommittee also approved H.R. 4085, the Veterans and Survivors' Benefits Expansion Act of 2002, sponsored by Chairman Chris Smith (NJ-4),
that would increase compensation payments to service-connected disabled veterans and their dependents through a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)
equal to the Social Security COLA effective December 1, 2002. The Congressional Budget Office projects that this increase will be 2.3%. H.R.
4085 was amended to include provisions from another Smith bill, H.R. 3731,
to increase funding for State Approving Agencies, which certify the eligibility of schools and training programs for GI Bill recipients.
"The performance of our nation's all-volunteer armed forces remind us of the
imporant role these brave men and women play in defense of our nation and our
freedom. When they return home we have an obligation to make them whole and
assist them when they transition into civilian life," said Smith. "With
approval of H.R. 4015 today, we have taken another step forward for our veterans and for all of our fighting men and women in the future," he said.
H.R. 4085 was also amended by the Subcommittee to allow surviving spouses of
veterans who remarry after age 65 to continue receiving their dependency and
indemnity compensation, eligibility for CHAMPVA medical care, education, and
housing loan benefits. Those surviving spouses who remarried after age 65
prior to enactment of the bill would have one year from date of enactment to
reapply for benefits. This provision was modified from legislation originally introduced by Veterans' Affairs Committee Vice Chairman Michael
Bilirakis (FL-9).
"Today's action for these long suffering surviving spouses should be seen as
a down payment being made under budgetary constraints. It is a starting
point, not an ending point, and the Committee will revisit this issue early
in the next Congress in order to more fully address this inequity," said
Smith. "For these resilient women - so many of whom have made sacrifice
after sacrifice, both while their husbands served, and then after they died - deserve the right to remarry later in life without suffering severe
financial penalties," he said.
Several other provisions were added to H.R. 4085 in the substitute amendment
offered by Smith and adopted by the Subcommittee, including requirements
that the home loan fees charged to qualifying members of the Selected Reserve be the same as fees charged active duty veterans; an increase in
Veterans' Mortgage Life Insurance coverage from $90,000 to $150,000; and a
change in law to allow veterans over the age of 70 to continue coverage under Veterans' Mortgage Life Insurance.
Both H.R. 4015 and H.R. 4085 were reported favorably to the full Committee,
which is expected to take further action on them at next week's scheduled
Committee markup session on Thursday, May 9, 2002.
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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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