The Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, legislation that aims to bolster federal support for veterans and their families, has passed the U.S. Senate.
As drafted, the bill is intended to improve access to VA health care/benefits and expand long-term care programs for student veterans and military family members. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) played a key role in pushing for key provisions in the bill through his bipartisan Love Lives On Act, which were included in the legislation.
“Our service members and military families are the best among us. They already give so much, and some pay the ultimate price with their lives in service to our nation and freedoms. When tragedy strikes the spouses of fallen service members, it is paramount that our federal government honors their service and provides them the full support they need to rebuild their lives, regardless of who they choose to do so with,” Warnock said.
He added: “If one of our heroes loses their life in service to our country, we should honor their sacrifice by ensuring their spouse can retain the benefits they earned even if they choose to remarry. I’m proud we got these provisions passed, and I’m going to keep fighting for our Gold Star spouses and military families.”
Gold Star Spouses are the spouses of servicemembers who died in the line of duty. Currently, a surviving spouse could lose survivor benefits if they remarry under the age of 55.
But provisions included in the bill could allow surviving spouses to maintain eligibility for education benefits upon remarriage. Warnock and others also included a provision in the legislation that removes the “holds oneself out” provision, which penalized former spouses who did not remarry but appeared to be dating someone else, as well as a provision changing the definition of surviving spouse to include same sex couples.
