Veterans VOW Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1826 To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide payment of Medal of Honor special pension under such title to the surviving spouse of a deceased Medal of Honor recipient, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 18, 2019 Mr. LAMB (for himself and Mr. MAST) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs A BILL To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide payment of Medal of Honor special pension under such title to the surviving spouse of a deceased Medal of Honor re- cipient, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans Valuing Our 4 Widows and Widowers Act’’ or the ‘‘Veterans VOW Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 1826 IH SEC. 2. MEDAL OF HONOR SPECIAL PENSION FOR SUR- 1 VIVING SPOUSES. 2 (a) CODIFICATION OF CURRENT RATE OF SPECIAL 3 PENSION.—Subsection (a) of section 1562 of title 38, 4 United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘$1,000’’ and 5 inserting ‘‘$1,329.58’’. 6 (b) SPECIAL PENSION FOR SURVIVING SPOUSES.— 7 (1) SURVIVING SPOUSE BENEFIT.—Such sub- 8 section is further amended— 9 (A) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(a)’’; and 10 (B) by adding at the end the following new 11 paragraph: 12 ‘‘(2)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the 13 Secretary shall pay special pension under this section to 14 the surviving spouse of a person who was awarded a Medal 15 of Honor as described in section 1134a(b) of title 10. 16 ‘‘(B) No special pension shall be paid to a surviving 17 spouse of a person under this section unless such surviving 18 spouse was married to such person— 19 ‘‘(i) for one year or more prior to the veteran’s 20 death; or 21 ‘‘(ii) for any period of time if a child was born 22 of the marriage, or was born to them before the 23 marriage.’’. 24 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 1826 IH (A) IN GENERAL.—Such section is amend- 1 ed— 2 (i) in subsection (d), by inserting ‘‘or 3 married to more than one person who has 4 been awarded the Medal of Honor,’’ after 5 ‘‘Honor,’’; and 6 (ii) in subsection (f)(1), by striking 7 ‘‘this section’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraph 8 (1) of subsection (a), or under paragraph 9 (2) of such subsection in the case of a 10 posthumous entry on the Army, Navy, Air 11 Force, and Coast Guard medal of Honor 12 Roll,’’. 13 (B) SPECIAL PROVISIONS RELATING TO 14 MARRIAGES.—Section 103(d)(5) of such title is 15 amended by adding at the end the following 16 new subparagraph: 17 ‘‘(E) Section 1562(a)(2), relating to Medal of 18 Honor special pension.’’. 19 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 20 by this subsection shall apply with respect to pay- 21 ment of pension under section 1562 of title 38, 22 United States Code, for months beginning after the 23 date of the enactment of this Act. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS