Title: Veterans VOW Act
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Veterans Valuing Our Widows and Widowers Act or the Veterans VOW Act
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay the Medal of Honor special pension to certain surviving spouses of Medal of Honor recipients.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1826 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 recipient, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans Valuing Our Widows and 
Widowers Act'' or the ``Veterans VOW Act''.

SEC. 2. MEDAL OF HONOR SPECIAL PENSION FOR SURVIVING SPOUSES.

    (a) Codification of Current Rate of Special Pension.--Subsection 
(a) of section 1562 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by 
striking ``$1,000'' and inserting ``$1,329.58''.
    (b) Special Pension for Surviving Spouses.--
            (1) Surviving spouse benefit.--Such subsection is further 
        amended--
                    (A) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(a)''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following new 
                paragraph:
    ``(2)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the Secretary 
shall pay special pension under this section to the surviving spouse of 
a person who was awarded a Medal of Honor as described in section 
1134a(b) of title 10.
    ``(B) No special pension shall be paid to a surviving spouse of a 
person under this section unless such surviving spouse was married to 
such person--
            ``(i) for one year or more prior to the veteran's death; or
            ``(ii) for any period of time if a child was born of the 
        marriage, or was born to them before the marriage.''.
            (2) Conforming amendments.--
                    (A) In general.--Such section is amended--
                            (i) in subsection (d), by inserting ``or 
                        married to more than one person who has been 
                        awarded the Medal of Honor,'' after ``Honor,''; 
                        and
                            (ii) in subsection (f)(1), by striking 
                        ``this section'' and inserting ``paragraph (1) 
                        of subsection (a), or under paragraph (2) of 
                        such subsection in the case of a posthumous 
                        entry on the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast 
                        Guard medal of Honor Roll,''.
                    (B) Special provisions relating to marriages.--
                Section 103(d)(5) of such title is amended by adding at 
                the end the following new subparagraph:
            ``(E) Section 1562(a)(2), relating to Medal of Honor 
        special pension.''.
            (3) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection 
        shall apply with respect to payment of pension under section 
        1562 of title 38, United States Code, for months beginning 
        after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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