[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 270 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 270

  To amend title 38, United States Code, to revise the definition of 
 spouse for purposes of veterans benefits in recognition of new State 
             definitions of spouse, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 27, 2015

Mrs. Shaheen (for herself, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Brown, 
 Mr. Leahy, Mr. Markey, Mr. Coons, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Durbin, 
 Mr. Schatz, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Franken, and 
  Mr. Peters) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
             referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 38, United States Code, to revise the definition of 
 spouse for purposes of veterans benefits in recognition of new State 
             definitions of spouse, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Charlie Morgan Military Spouses 
Equal Treatment Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITION OF SPOUSE FOR PURPOSES OF VETERANS BENEFITS TO 
              REFLECT NEW STATE DEFINITIONS OF SPOUSE.

    (a) Spouse Defined.--Section 101 of title 38, United States Code, 
is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (3), by striking ``of the opposite sex''; 
        and
            (2) by striking paragraph (31) and inserting the following 
        new paragraph:
    ``(31)(A) An individual shall be considered a `spouse' if the 
marriage of the individual is considered valid under the laws of any 
State.
    ``(B) In this paragraph, the term `State' has the meaning given 
that term in paragraph (20), except that the term also includes the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.''.
    (b) Marriage Determination.--Section 103(c) of such title is 
amended by striking ``according to'' and all that follows through the 
period at the end and inserting ``in accordance with section 101(31) of 
this title.''.
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