[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2980 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2980

To amend title 38, United States Code, to reduce the period of time for 
which a veteran must be totally disabled before the veteran's survivors 
  are eligible for the benefits provided by the Secretary of Veterans 
  Affairs for survivors of certain veterans rated totally disabled at 
                             time of death.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 19, 2009

  Mr. Filner introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 38, United States Code, to reduce the period of time for 
which a veteran must be totally disabled before the veteran's survivors 
  are eligible for the benefits provided by the Secretary of Veterans 
  Affairs for survivors of certain veterans rated totally disabled at 
                             time of death.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REDUCTION OF PERIOD OF TIME FOR WHICH VETERANS MUST BE 
              TOTALLY DISABLED FOR PURPOSES OF BENEFITS PROVIDED BY 
              SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS FOR SURVIVORS OF CERTAIN 
              VETERANS RATED TOTALLY DISABLED AT TIME OF DEATH.

    (a) Expansion.--Section 1318(b) of title 38, United States Code, is 
amended by striking ``if--'' and all that follows through the period at 
the end and inserting the following: ``if the disability was 
continuously rated totally disabling for a period of not less than one 
year immediately preceding death.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to deaths occurring on or after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
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