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Senate OKs 2.8 percent hike in vets COLA

Veterans’ disability and survivor benefits would increase by 2.8 percent on Dec. 1 under a cost-of-living bill approved by the Senate that represents a tiny chink in a legislative dam holding back passage of more sweeping veterans’ legislation

About 2.8 million veterans and about 300,000 survivors would receive the increase.

The bill, S. 2617, the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, is an essential piece of legislation because disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation for survivors and pensions for low-income veterans do not automatically increase like Social Security and retired pay for the military and federal civilian workers. Instead, Congress has to pass and the president has to sign legislation each year for the veterans’ COLA.

The 2.8 percent increase included in the bill matches the expected increase in Social Security and retired pay for federal workers, which are tied directly to the Consumer Price Index, a measure of the cost of goods and services. The Social Security COLA will not be known until late October.

The House of Representatives passed a veterans’ COLA bill in May. That bill, HR 5826, does not include a fixed percentage rate for the increase, saying only that veterans and their survivors should get the same increase provided to Social Security recipients. Before a final bill passes, the House and Senate will have to agree on the same language in the bill.

The 2.8 percent increase would be slightly larger than the 2.3 percent increase received last Dec. 1.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, said passing the COLA is important. “In these hard times, we must not allow rising costs to eat away at their spending power,” he said.

Akaka said he holds out hope that more legislation will be approved. The House of Representatives has been churning out a series of veterans’ bills this year, including seven just this week, which Akaka said will be considered by the Senate as part of a package or several packages of legislation that he hopes will pass Congress before lawmakers go home for the year.