Congress passes veterans’ benefits package

[Hoss68]

November 18, 2004


By Jim Abrams
Associated Press




Congress on Tuesday sent President Bush three wartime bills to help veterans cope with injuries, jobs, homeownership and death benefits for spouses.

In what is expected to be the final week of this Congress, the House gave voice approval to the benefits bills that had already moved through the Senate. Lawmakers lined up to express their support for men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first, H.R. 3936, includes such provisions as increasing assistance for homeless veterans and establishing new Veterans Affairs Department research centers to develop treatments for complex multi-trauma injuries suffered in combat.

It also eliminates copayments for veterans receiving hospice care furnished by the VA and authorizes the VA’s sexual trauma counseling program.

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., sponsor of the bill and chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said it would also create a pilot program to use online technology and outside personnel recruitment agencies to reduce the shortage of VA nurses.

The second bill, S. 2486, would increase GI Bill benefit rates for apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs and expand home loan programs. Currently the VA will guarantee 25 percent of a qualified home loan up to $240,000; under the legislation the guarantee would apply to a maximum loan of $333,700.

The measure also closes loopholes that threaten the rights of service members and their families to end residential or motor vehicle leases early when they are called to active duty. It adds $250 a month to what spouses with children can receive after a service member is killed in action.

The third bill, S. 2484, gives the VA more flexibility to recruit and retain highly qualified medical personnel by paying rates that reflect market competition. The top Democrat on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, said the three bills were critical, but said the delay in getting them through Congress was “another example of how this administration simply does not understand that the costs of war include the continued care of our veterans and military families.”