JONES VOTES FOR BILLS TO BETTER SERVE OUR MILITARY, VETERANS

Third District Congressman and Senior House Armed Services Committee Member Walter B. Jones yesterday applauded his colleagues for standing in unanimous agreement as they passed two bills: H.R. 2998, to exempt combat wounded members of the Armed Forces from the requirement to pay subsistence charges while hospitalized and H.R. 2297, the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003. H.R. 2998, of which Congressman Jones was a cosponsor, will permanently eliminate the requirement for certain military patients to pay for their meals while hospitalized. The persons exempted from the payment requirement would be either retired enlisted personnel, and/or officers and enlisted personnel hospitalized as a result of combat or combat related injuries. "There is never a sufficient way to thank those who courageously serve our country in battle. Nonetheless, I believe casting a vote in their favor is a strong start. I commend my colleagues for unanimously passing both of these important pieces of legislation. I cosponsored this bill because we are currently seeing a great deal of our men and women in uniform having to spend time in our military hospitals after they have been wounded in combat. I find it appalling that we would ask them to pay for their meals. After sustaining injuries in battle, the last thing they should be faced with is an additional bill at mealtime," Congressman Jones said yesterday. H.R. 2297, the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003 initiates a number of benefits for our nation's war heroes. Included in the legislation are provisions to: Expand the Montgomery GI Bill program by authorizing educational assistance for on-job training in certain self-employment training programs. Extend the delimiting date for survivors' and dependents' education benefits when the eligible individual is involuntarily ordered to full-time National Guard duty. Provide that remarriage of the surviving spouse of a veteran after attaining age 55 will not result in termination of dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC). Allow a remarried surviving spouse to retain eligibility for burial in a national cemetery based on his or her marriage to a veteran. Increase the specially adapted automobile grant from $9,000 to $11,000, and increase the specially adapted housing grants from $48,000 to $50,000 for the most severely disabled veterans and from $9,350 to $10,000 for less severely disabled veterans. Add cirrhosis of the liver to the list of presumed service-connected disabilities for former prisoners of war, and eliminate the requirement that a POW be held for 30 days or more to qualify for presumptions of service-connection for certain disabilities: psychosis, any of the anxiety states, dysthymic disorder, organic residuals of frostbite, and post-traumatic osteoarthritis. Make permanent the VA home loan program for members of the Selected Reserve. Adjust the funding fee charged to Selected Reserve home loan applications to the same amount as the amount paid by active duty servicemembers, and make certain increases in home loan fees. Provide the full amount of compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) to eligible members of the New Philippine Scouts, as well as the full amount of DIC paid by reason of service in the organized military forces of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, including organized guerilla units, if the individual to whom the benefit is payable resides in the United States and is either a citizen of the U.S. or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence. Expand the list of serious Federal criminal offenses a conviction of which will result in a bar to all VA benefits. "I supported the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003 because I saw in it many much needed provisions for the more than 26 million Veterans in our country, and the 67,000 Veterans living in North Carolina's Third District. Congress needs to continue to make these men and women a priority, particularly since they were willing to make America their priority when they served us in uniform," Congressman Jones said. For additional information or to schedule an interview with Congressman Jones contact Lanier Swann at (202) 225-3415 or via email at lanier.swann@mail.house.gov.