FILIPINO VET INEQUITIES UPDATE - May 1, 2008
Posted by Service Officer on April 30th, 2008
On 24 APR, the Senate passed S .1315 the Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act (companion bill of H.R.760), which would authorize additional wounded warrior benefits including a new term life insurance program for disabled veterans. contains various measures to help veterans. One of the provisions would provide benefits to Filipino veterans who fought along side U.S. forces in World War II including non-citizens living outside the US in part by barring recent court-directed expansion of VA compensation to certain additional categories of disabled US veteran. Ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) offered an amendment, which was defeated, which would strip out benefits for those Filipino veterans that had not been injured in the line of duty. The House has not yet completed action on its bill, HR 760, which contains even more generous benefits for Filipino veterans of WWII. The Senate bill which contains the below provisions now goes back to the House where further attempts to change or eliminate this part of the bill are expected. For a complete listing of S. 1315 provisions, refer to the Thomas website at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.01315:
• Provide retroactive traumatic injury coverage under SGLI for qualifying injuries incurred between October 7, 2001 and December 1, 2005
• Authorize SGLI coverage for members of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR)
• Raise the VA home mortgage life insurance rates to $200,000 by 2012
• Accelerate award of special adaptive housing benefits to certain currently serving servicemembers (including burn victims) likely to be released from active duty due to the extent of their disabilities.
• Increase supplemental burial benefits to $2100 in the case of a service-connected death and $900 for a non-service connected death.
• Allow troops called to active duty for not less than 90 days to cancel or suspend their cell phone contracts without incurring early termination or reactivation fees.
• Increase the maximum amount of supplemental Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance from $20,000 to $30,000.
• Expand eligibility for home improvement and structural alteration assistance to include permanently disabled servicemembers.
• Provide a specially-adapted housing grant to veterans and qualified servicemembers with severe burn injuries.
• Extend authority of the VA to assist individuals living temporarily in residences owned by family members.
• Provide automobile and adaptive equipment assistance to disabled veterans and servicemembers with severe burn injuries.
• Increase to $445 from the current $300 allowance for veteran burial plots.
• Provide a presumption of service-connection for osteoporosis for former POWs with post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Increase cost-of-living for additional dependency and indemnity compensation paid to certain surviving spouses with minor dependent children.
• Expand retroactive traumatic injury protection under SGLI (TSGLI) to include all servicemembers, not just those injured in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom.
[Source: NAUS Weekly Update & MOAA Leg Up 25 Apr 08 ++]
