<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><BillSummaries>
    <item congress="118" measure-type="s" measure-number="5545" measure-id="id118s5545" originChamber="SENATE" orig-publish-date="2024-12-17" update-date="2025-08-06">
        <title>A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements to laws relating to the payment of certain benefits administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs that are affected by death, and for other purposes.</title>
        <summary summary-id="id118s5545v00" currentChamber="SENATE" update-date="2025-08-06">
            <action-date>2024-12-17</action-date>
            <action-desc>Introduced in Senate</action-desc>
            <summary-text><![CDATA[<p>This bill modifies the effective date of a reduction or discontinuance of a Department of Veterans Affairs pension under an existing rating or decision in cases where the payee has died. Specifically, the bill provides that the effective date of a reduction or discontinuance of a pension that is under an existing rating or decision must be the last day of the month in which the death of the payee occurs.</p>]]></summary-text>
        </summary>
    </item>
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        <dc:language>EN</dc:language>
        <dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
        <dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
        <dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
    </dublinCore>
</BillSummaries>
