Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - May 08, 2007)

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By Mr. SANDERS:

S. 1326. A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve and enhance compensation and pension, health care, housing, burial, and other benefits for veterans, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Comprehensive Veterans Benefits Improvements Act of 2007.

The purpose of this bill is to address many of the long-standing benefit and other policy issues that are a priority to the national veteran service organizations and millions of their members all across our country. The legislation tracks many of the recommendations made in the Independent Budget, IB, for fiscal year 2008. The IB, as it is known, is ``the collaborative effort of a united veteran and health advocacy community that presents policy and budget recommendations on programs administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Labor.'' It is a guide for how this country should treat its veterans. It is written jointly by AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Veterans of Foreign Wars and supported by over 50 other prominent organizations. I am very happy to have consulted extensively with the Independent Budget authors to craft this legislation.

For too many years veterans' needs have been sent to the back of the line in Congress behind tax cuts for the rich and corporate welfare for multinational corporations. This legislation is one step forward in correcting the shortcomings of the way our current system treats veterans. Instead of turning a blind eye to our veterans' needs as has happened often in recent years, this bill begins to say ``thank you'' with real action.

The Comprehensive Veterans Benefits Improvements Act makes more than 25 separate changes to veterans' programs ranging from disability payments, to insurance premiums, to grants for disabled veterans to adapt their cars to make them easier to use.

We also try to make progress on long standing injustices in the VA and DoD benefit and retirement systems that veterans and their families have fought to correct for years. Among them are:

Category 8 Veterans: In January of 2003 the VA announced that it would no longer allow Category 8 veterans to enroll into the VA health care system. The Administration justified this move on the grounds that these are ``higher income'' veterans. The truth, however, is that these veterans can make as little as $27,000 a year. VA estimates that more than 1.5 million category 8 veterans will have been denied enrollment in the VA health care system by fiscal year 2008. This legislation repeals that ban.

Concurrent Receipt: As the Military Officers Association of America explains, the Concurrent Receipt or Disabled Veterans' Tax issue exists because of a ``19th century law that required a dollar-for-dollar offset of military retired pay for disability compensation received from the VA ..... Retired pay is earned for a career of uniformed service and VA disability compensation is recompense for pain, suffering and lost future earning power due to service-connected disabilities.'' For that reason veterans should receive both payments and not have one offset the other. This legislation would allow veterans to receive both compensation/pension benefits and retired or retirement pay.

Dependency and Indemnity Compensation-Survivor Benefit Plan Offset: Under current law, the survivors of veterans who die as a result of service-connected causes are entitled to compensation known as dependency and indemnity compensation, DIC. In addition, military retirees can have money deducted from their pay to purchase a survivors annuity. This is called the Survivor Benefit Plan, SBP. However, if the military retirees dies from service-connected causes his or her survivors will receive a SBP payment offset dollar for dollar by the amount of the DIC payment they receive. Like the offset between military retiree pay and VA disability payments, this SBP/DIC offset unfairly denies beneficiaries the full amount of 2 programs that are meant to compensate for different loses. This legislation repeals the offset between dependency and indemnity compensation and the Survivor Benefit Plan.

Veterans' Claims: We also take a new approach to improving the system for rating claims by creating an agency dedicated to electronically sharing clinical information between the VA and the DoD.

For too long these issues have been ignored by the Congress. It is time for that attitude to change.

This legislation also amends other benefit programs important to veterans.

Over time, Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs have added many benefits and assistance programs for our Nation's veterans and their families. As with many programs, the benefits did not meet all the needs of our veterans and others also have not been updated in many years rendering many of their benefits much less useful. For example, the IB notes the low level of grants the VA gives severely disabled veterans for adapting their cars:

In 1946 the $1,600 allowance represented 85 percent of average retail cost and a sufficient amount to pay the full cost of automobiles in the `low-price field.' By contrast, in 1997 the allowance was $5,500, and the average retail cost of new automobiles, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association, was $21,750. Currently, the $11,000 automobile allowance represents only about 39 percent of the average cost of a new automobile, which is $28,105.

This legislation increases this car grant amount to $22,484 and adjusts this amount automatically each year using an average retail car cost index established by the Secretary.

This is not the only example of a veterans' benefit being chipped away by inflation. When we look at assistance family members get for burying a loved one we find that the current benefits have not kept up with inflation. As a result, the current benefit of $300 only pays for a small fraction of the costs of a burial. The legislation I am introducing today increases the plot allowance from $300 to $745 and expands the eligibility for the plot allowance for all veterans who would be eligible for burial in a national cemetery, not just those who served during wartime. This section also contains a provision to adjust these payments annually.

This legislation contains many other similar corrections and updates, bringing benefits into the 21st Century so that these programs are meaningful again.

These are not controversial proposals. These changes are the least we can do to show our appreciation for those who sacrifice for their country.

This legislation is attempting to strengthen the current VA system so that it can fully provide for those veterans already in the system and those thousands more returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and all over the world that will soon come to the VA for care.

This is just the beginning; one part of a larger effort to honor our veterans and their service. We here in Congress have so much more to do to care for our veterans such as improving mental health care for veterans, Traumatic Brain Injury treatment, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment, transition assistance, polytrauma care, caring for homeless veterans, and eliminating the waiting lines and claims backlogs at the VA. As a parent of a fallen soldier told our Committee, these veterans have survived the war, now ``[w]e've got to help them survive the peace.''

We have much work to do in the Veterans Affairs Committee and I look forward to working under the leadership of Chairman Akaka and the other colleagues on our Committee and in the Senate to make sure that meaningful and substantial veterans' legislation is passed this year.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.

There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

S. 1326

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