Legislation

Current Legislation

 Please see How to Contact Your Senators or Representative below for information about contacting members of Congress.

H.R. 775 The Military Surviving Spouses Equity Act of 2009

Representative Ortiz (TX) and Representative Brown (SC) have introduced a bi-partisan bill to repeal the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) offset to the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP).  This bill will allow all of those entitled to SBP to receive full SBP. It will also allow those who have assigned their SBP to the children to reassign the benefit back to themselves.

Please call or email your Representative and ask that he or she support this bill.

S. 535  Repeal the DIC offset to SBP

Senator Bill Nelson (FL) has introduced a companion bill in the Senate to H.R. 775 to repeal the DIC offset to SBP.   

Please call or email your Senators and ask that them to support this bill. 

H.R. 2243

The Surviving Spouses Benefit Improvement Act of 2009

 Representative Buyer and Representative Walz introduced this bill on May 5, 2009 with 25 original co-sponsors. This bill will increase the amount of DIC we receive. The bill will increase DIC to 55 percent of the amount of VA Compensation a 100 percent disabled veteran receives or about $300 per month.

This bill will also remove the DIC offset to SBP

Please contact your Representative and ask him/her to co-sponsor and support this legislation.

S. 498

Senator Richard Burr (NC) has introduced this bill, which would provide those who receive CHAMPVA health insurance to purchase dental insurance.

Please contact your Senators and ask them to support and co-sponsor this bill.

H.R. 809

Representative Gus Bilirakis (FL) has introduced a bill to reduce the age at which a surviving spouses may remarry without losing DIC and other VA benefits from age 57 to age 55.

Please contact your Representative and ask him/her co-sponsor and support this bill.

H.R. 235 The Social Security Fairness Act of 2009

Representative Berman (CA) has just introduced a bill that would allow retired Federal employees and others who contributed to a state or local retirement funds rather than/or in addition to Social Security to draw benefits against their spouse's Social Security account without those benefits being offset by the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provisions (WEP).

Please call or email your Representative and ask that he or she support this bill.

S. 1118

Senator Blance Lincoln (AR) has introduced a bill in the Senate that would increase the amount of DIC that surviving spouses receive.  The bill will increase DIC to 55 percent of the amount of VA Compensation a 100 percent disabled veteran receives or about $300 per month.

This bill will also remove the DIC offset to SBP

Please contact your Senators and ask them to co-sponsor and support this legislation.

How to Contact Your Senators and Representative

By Kay Witt

Senators:

• If you do not know who your Senators are, click on this link www.senate.gov or cut and paste it into the address line of your browser. 
• On the Senate webpage click on the tab toward the top of the screen labeled Senators.
• Toward the top of Senators webpage you will see a box labeled Choose a State. Click on the down arrow, find your state, and click on your state. 
• This will give you the names of both of your Senators and each Senator’s name mailing address, and direct phone number to their office. 
• The last line of this listing is either a link to the Senator's website and contact information or an email address for your senator to email your senator, click on the link in the last line. 

 Representatives:

• If you do not know who your Representative is click on this link http://clerk.house.gov/  or cut and paste it into the address line on your web browser  
• On the Office of the Clerk webpage click on the tab toward the top of this webpage labeled Member Information.
•  In the left column of the Member Information page, you will see a search box labeled Representative by State, which will pull up the names of all the Representatives from your state. You will see the city and/or district each Representative represents on the listing... 

Representative Contact Information

• The easiest way to find your Representative's contact information is to go to www.google.com and type your Representative’s name into the search box. 
• Google will give you a link to you Representative's website.  Click on the link to your Representative’s website. 
•  When you get to your Representative's website look for a Contact Us link or tab and click on it.
• The Contact Us link will usually give your Representative's mailing address, direct phone number, and an email form you can use to email your Representative.

You may also follow the links from http://clerk.house.gov/ website to your Representative's website and click on the Contact Us link or tab.

 Capitol Switchboard Phone Numbers

You can call U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask the operator to connect you to your Representative or Senator's office.  The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) also provides a toll free number, which you may use to call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, which is 1-877-762-8762. 

To read the following pdf files you will need a copy of Adobe Reader on your computer. 

• To download a free copy of Adobe Reader cut and paste  http://get.adobe.com/reader/thankyou/?item_reader=860&item_addon=942&usedlm=1&item_sgc=941  into the address line on your web browser.
• When you arrive at this webpage, go to the bottom of the page and click on the yellow box labeled Download.  Adobe Reader will automatically download and install on your computer.

List of All Representatives' Phone Numbers

• To find your Representative's phone numbers or a list of all the Representatives' phone numbers click on this link http://clerk.house.gov/  or cut and paste the link into the address line of your web browser. 
• On the Office of the Clerk webpage click on the tab labeled Member Information. 
•  On the right side of the webpage, you will see Member Telephone Directory.
•  Underneath Member Telephone Directory you will see  [ HTML |  PDF ] .  If you click on HTML, a screen will appear that lists the phone numbers of all the Representatives.  If you click on PDF, the website will download a listing of all the Representatives to your computer.
• When this listing appears on your screen, go to the upper left corner of the document and click on FILE then in the drop down box click on Save a copy. 
• Be sure to observe and directory where this document is saved so that you can retrieve it.

List of All Senators' Phone Numbers

• To find your Senators' phone numbers or a list of all the Senators' phone numbers click on this link http://clerk.house.gov/  or cut and paste the link into the address line of your web browser.
•  On the Office of the Clerk webpage click on the tab labeled Member Information. 
• On the Member Information page In the right column all the way at the bottom of the page you will see Senate Telephone Directory and underneath that [PDF] . 
• If you click on the [PDF], the website will download a listing of all the Senators' Phone Numbers.  When this listing appears on your screen, go to the upper left hand corner of the document and click on FILE then in the drop down box click on Save a copy. 
• Remember the directory where this document is saved so that you can retrieve it.

To Check on Legislation

 Click on this link www.congress.gov  or cut and paste the link into the address line of your web browser. Toward the top of the screen in the middle, you will find search boxes where you can find a particular piece of proposed legislation either by doing a search on particular words or by typing in the bill number. 

On the right side of this page, you can click on U.S. Code and find specific pieces of law such as Title 10 for Department of Defense and Title 38 for the Department of Veterans Affairs.