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S. 894 (112th): Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2011
- Introduced:
- May 05, 2011 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
- Sponsor:
- Sen. Patty Murray [D-WA]
- Status:
- Signed by the President
- Slip Law:
- This bill became Pub.L. 112-53.
The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. S. stands for Senate bill.
- Full Title
A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for an increase, effective December 1, 2011, in the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans, and for other purposes.
- Summary
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No summaries available.
- Text
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Last updated Jan 01, 2012.
2 pages
- Primary Source
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View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)
GovTrack gets most information from THOMAS, which is updated generally one day after events occur. Activity since the last update may not be reflected here.
- Citation
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Library of Congress Summary
The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.
11/9/2011--Public Law. (This measure has not been amended since it was introduced.
The summary of that version is repeated here.) Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2011 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to increase, as of December 1, 2011, the rates of veterans' disability compensation, additional compensation for dependents, the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans, and dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses and children.
Requires each such increase to be the same percentage as the increase in benefits provided under title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act, on the same effective date.
House Republican Conference Summary
The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.
This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/1/s894.
Background
Under current law, Social Security recipients and federal retirees automatically receive cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) pegged to the Consumer Price Index, but disabled veterans do not. This bill would, beginning on December 1, 2011, increase the amounts paid to disabled veterans and to their survivors for dependency and indemnity compensation. The increase would be calculated using the same cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) payable to Social Security recipients, and the resulting adjustment would be rounded to the next lower dollar.
Summary
S. 894 would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to increase, as of December 1, 2011, the rates of veterans' disability compensation, additional compensation for dependents, the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans, and dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses and children. The bill would require each such increase to be the same percentage as the increase in benefits provided under Title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act, on the same effective date.
Cost
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the COLA authorized by this bill is assumed in CBO’s baseline. Therefore, the COLA provision would have no budgetary effect relative to the baseline. From the CBO cost estimate: “Relative to current law, CBO estimates that enacting this bill would increase spending for those programs by $475 million in fiscal year 2012. (The annualized cost would be about $630 million in subsequent years.) This estimate assumes that the COLA effective on December 1, 2011, would be 1.1 percent.”
Because enacting S. 894 would not affect direct spending or revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
House Democratic Caucus Summary
The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.
So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.
We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.
The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:
Slip Laws
Slip laws refer to enacted bills and joint resolutions in their original form as enacted by Congress, that is, before other laws amend them. Slip laws are cited as “Public Law XXX-YYY”, where XXX is the number of the Congress in which the bill or resolution was introduced.
- Public Law 85-857:
H.R. 9700 (85th): An Act to consolidate into one act all of the laws administered by the Veterans Administration, and for other purposes
United States Code
The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)
- Title 38: VETERANS’ BENEFITS
- Part II: GENERAL BENEFITS
- Chapter 11: COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY OR DEATH
- Subchapter II: WARTIME DISABILITY COMPENSATION
- Section 1114: Rates of wartime disability compensation
- Title 42: THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
- Chapter 7: SOCIAL SECURITY
- Subchapter II: FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS, AND DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS
- Section 401: Trust Funds
- Section 415: Computation of primary insurance amount
Statutes at Large
The United States Statutes at Large is the compilation of all laws enacted by Congress.
- 72 Stat. 1263
Other Citations
- 38 U.S.C. Chapter 11