Tester: Veterans' benefits bill full of 'common-sense improvements'

Legislation overwhelmingly passes Senate

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Senator Jon Tester outlined what he calls 'common-sense improvements' to the benefits U.S. veterans will receive under legislation that overwhelmingly cleared the Senate today.

The bipartisan Veterans' Benefits Enhancement Act passed with a vote of 96-to-1.  Tester previously voted for the measure in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

Tester praised several key provisions during a speech today on the Senate Floor.  The measure specifically:

• Provides up to $50,000 in life insurance for any veteran younger than 65 who has a service-connected disability.
• Helps injured veterans get their homes remodeled if they become disabled (adding wheelchair ramps, etc.).
• Increases the burial benefit to help families deal with the growing cost funeral services. The bill authorizes double the current allowance for burial of a veteran who dies from a service-connected disability — to $4,000.

Tester noted that the bill, which does not raise taxes, has the support of every major veterans' service organization.

"When our children sign up for military service, whether they do it at a local recruiting office or by going to a service academy or anything in between, we make a deal with them," Tester said in his floor speech today.  "We ask them to put their lives on the line.  We ask them to serve and to sacrifice at an increasingly difficult pace.  We ask them to fight wars.  We ask them to keep peace, and to keep our nation free.  And they go.  And they go and they do a better job than any other military in the world. And in return, we promise that when their service is over, we will care for them and compensate them if they have been injured in service to our country."

Last year Tester championed a funding measure to increase the VA's mileage reimbursement rate for veterans who travel for health care.  Tester's measure increased the reimbursement rate from 11-cents to 28.5-cents per mile — the first increase since 1977.

The Veterans' Benefits Enhancement Act is S. 1315.

Tester's floor speech appears below.

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U.S. Senator Jon Tester
Floor Speech
April 24, 2008

As Prepared for Delivery:

Mr./Madame President, I want to commend Chairman Akaka on legislation that passed the Senate earlier today, S. 1315.

This bill makes a number of common-sense improvements to the package of benefits that we offer to America's veterans.

I am pleased to have voted for this bill in the Veterans Affairs Committee, and pleased to have supported it on the floor today.

It is long past time for us to give disabled veterans the ability to purchase affordable life insurance.  That is what this bill does — providing up to $50,000 in life insurance for any veteran younger than 65 who has a service-connected disability.

The bill also adds a host of new benefits to help critically injured servicemen and women to get their houses refurnished if they become disabled.  That can mean putting in wheelchair ramps, remodeling the kitchen or the bathroom and countless other changes.  Again, that is a small measure.  But for a soldier who loses an arm or leg, or a Marine who has suffered severe burns, it means the world.

And it is well past time to increase the burial benefit to help families deal with the growing cost of providing a final resting place for their veteran.  This bill does that by authorizing double the current allowance for burial of a veteran who dies from a service-connected disability—to $4,000.  It also triples the $300 benefit for non-service connected disabilities. With the average funeral cost now $6,000, this is a small gesture to the loved ones of our veterans.  But it matters a great deal.

At a time of record national debt and chronic annual budget deficits, I am particularly pleased that the bill is deficit-neutral without raising taxes.

With all of the good in this bill, it is little wonder that the Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act is supported by every major Veterans Service Organization.

This bill passed out of the VA Committee unanimously last summer.  And I am pleased by the bipartisan support it got today.  We now need to turn our attention to the veterans' health care legislation that I am told will follow this bill.  Our nation's veterans deserve nothing less.

When our children sign up for military service, whether they do it at the local recruiting office or by going to a service academy or anything in between, we make a deal with them.

We ask them to put their lives on the line.  We ask them to serve and to sacrifice at an increasingly difficult pace.  We ask them to fight wars.  We ask them to keep peace, and to keep our nation free.  And they go.  And they do a better job than any other military in the world.

And in return, we promise that when their service is over, we will care for them and compensate them if they have been injured in the service to our country.

And with our nation at war, we have a great moral obligation to do right by men and women who serve our country in harm's way.

This legislation helps to keep the promise to our veterans.

Thank you, Mr./Madame President.