House Package Will Aid Maryland Military Families and Veterans

Press Release

As the nation prepares for Memorial Day, the House today approved a package of eleven bills aimed at investing in the health and future of America's military families and veterans. Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) applauded the package of bills, which will benefit Maryland's 484,013 current veterans and thousands more who are currently serving in combat as Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve officers.

"The 110th Congress is taking America in a New Direction, putting our troops and veterans first and making unprecedented investments in our men and women who have sacrificed so much for the honor and protection of this nation," stated Rep. Hoyer. "Today, we reaffirm our commitment to honoring the soldiers or America's past, present and future with a collection of bills that invest in their health, their well-being and indeed their future."

Included in the veterans package is a military tax relief bill, the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act (HEART Act, H.R. 6081), that provides $2 billion in essential tax relief for military families and expands homeownership opportunities for veterans. The bill makes permanent current law to include combat pay as earned income for purposes of the Earned Income Tax Credit, in addition to other relief provisions, and it ensures reservists called up for active duty do not suffer a pay cut with a tax credit for small businesses who continue to pay their National Guard and Reserve Employees when they are called to serve.

The House also passed ten separate bills to address veterans' health care, authorize major veterans' medical facility construction projects, and provide a cost-of-living adjustment for service-connected disability compensation rates for veterans, among others. In addition, Democrats in Congress continue to fight for the inclusion of a GI Education benefit as part of the President's Emergency Supplemental bill. The military tax bill will now go to the President's desk to be signed into law, while the others await Senate action. The Senate is expected to vote on the supplemental this week.

The legislation passed today builds on action last year by the 110th Congress to provide the Department of Veterans Affairs with a landmark increase for veterans' programs, including the largest health care increase in the 77-year history of the VA as an independent agency.

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