[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 22, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5495-S5496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SIMPSON (for himself and Mr. Rockefeller):
  S. 1791. A bill to increase, effective as of December 1, 1996, the 
rates of disability compensation for veterans with service-connected 
disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for 
survivors of such veterans, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Veterans Affairs.


    the veterans' compensation cost-of-living adjustment act of 1996

 Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, it is a pleasure for me, as 
chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, to introduce, 
and comment briefly on, legislation to grant to recipients of 
compensation, and dependency and indemnity compensation [DIC] benefits, 
from the Department of Veterans Affairs [VA] a cost of living 
adjustment [COLA] increase to take effect at the beginning of next 
year. This legislation is appropriate and warranted--even as we proceed 
this very week to debate budget reconciliation.
  Mr. President, let me assure this body that the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs will meet the reconciliation targets that the 
Congress ultimately adopts. Indeed, I expect that I will offer 
amendments to this bill--with the bipartisan support of the Committee 
on Veterans' Affairs--once we receive reconciliation instructions from 
the Congress as an whole. No one need fear that I have lost my zeal for 
gaining control over entitlement spending; I surely have not. 
Nonetheless, I believe that the recipients of veteran's benefits ought 
to receive a COLA--and they can receive such a COLA even as we progress 
on a path to a balanced budget. We can balance the budget, and 
simultaneously treat our veterans, and their survivors, with fairness 
and compassion.
  This bill is simple and straightforward. It would grant to recipients 
of certain VA benefits--most notably, veterans with service-connected 
disabilities who receive VA compensation, and the surviving spouses and 
children of veterans who have died as a result of service-connected 
injuries or illnesses, who receive dependency and indemnity 
compensation--the same COLA that Social Security recipients will 
receive. So, for example, if Social Security recipients receive a 2.6-
percent adjustment at the beginning of next year, then so too would the 
beneficiaries of VA compensation and DIC.
  Last year, the committee's COLA bill put into effect certain 
modifications, as approved by the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, on 
how COLA's are computed. For example, our 1996 COLA contained a ``round 
down'' feature. To summarize, Mr. President, VA benefits are paid in 
round dollar amounts. As a result, when a round dollar benefit amount--
say, as an example, the current benefit of $266 per month going to a 30 
percent disabled veteran--is multiplied by a consumer price index 
percentage of, say, 2.6-percent, it almost invariably yields a 
mathematical product that is not a round dollar amount. In the case of 
a $266 benefit check, for example, a 2.6-percent increase would yield a 
nonrounded number of $272.92.
  VA practice, in the past, has been to ``round up'' fractional dollar 
amounts of $0.50 or more, and ``round down'' fractional dollar amounts 
of $0.49 or less. So, in the above case, a 30-percent disabled veteran 
would get a monthly check next year of $273 under past practice. Last 
year's COLA bill directed VA to ``round down'' in all cases, so, in the 
above example, a 30-percent disabled veteran would get a monthly check 
of $272.
  It may happen, Mr. President, that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs 
will again elect to direct that VA ``round down'' as part of a package 
of measures approved to reach whatever reconciliation targets Congress 
ultimately adopts. Indeed, it is, perhaps, likely that we will approve 
such a measure since rounding down is a relatively painless way to 
achieve some fairly significant savings over the long term. Such a 
measure--which would

[[Page S5496]]

cost no VA beneficiary more than $1 per month--would save, according to 
the Congressional Budget Office, almost $500 million over a 6-year 
period.
  Be that as it may, Mr. President, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs 
will ``cross the bridge'' of identifying how it will meet its 
reconciliation targets once it has received those targets. In the 
meantime, I want to assure all by the introduction of this COLA bill 
that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs fully anticipated approving a 
COLA bill this year--just as it did last year when I was honored to 
assume the chairmanship of the committee.
  The rounding down provision that the committee approved last year 
serves as an excellent example of the sort of measures that are 
available to assist in balancing the budget. I do not suggest that it 
will be easy to reach that goal. But the availability of real savings 
from measures like a simple rounding down of a COLA ought to strengthen 
the resolve of each of us to get that vital job done. In the Veterans' 
Committee, we expect that we will be directed to find ways to reduce 
the growth in VA's mandatory budget accounts by over $5 billion in 6 
years. We will find ways to meet that goal. And no veteran, or 
veterans' survivor, will suffer inordinate harm as a result. Despite 
the inaccurate, unfair, unfounded, and, yes, partisan pronouncements of 
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and despite what veterans, and 
Senators, have heard from service organizations, ``crying wolf,'' we 
will not cut veterans benefits. We never have.
  We do not need to cut veterans benefits in order to balance the 
budget. Nor do we need to endure the cuts--real cuts, not just 
reductions in the growth rate--in veterans health care spending 
proposed by the President in order to achieve a balanced budget. We can 
keep faith with our veterans and balance the budget. As Chairman of the 
Veterans' Affairs Committee, that is what I intend to do.
  Mr. President, I appreciate the time that has been afforded me to 
address this subject.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1791

       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 ``Veterans' Compensation Cost-
     of-Living Adjustment Act of 1996''.

     SEC. 2. INCREASE IN COMPENSATION RATES AND LIMITATIONS.

       (a) In General.--(1) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
     shall, as provided in paragraph (2), increase, effective 
     December 1, 1996, the rates of and limitations on Department 
     of Veterans Affairs disability compensation and dependency 
     and indemnity compensation.
       (2) The Secretary shall increase each of the rates and 
     limitations in sections 1114, 1115(1), 1162, 1311, 1313, and 
     1314 of title 38, United States Code, that were increased by 
     the amendments made by the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-
     Living Adjustment Act of 1995 (Public Law No. 104-57, 109 
     Stat. 555). This increase shall be made in such rates and 
     limitations as in effect on November 30, 1996, and shall be 
     by the same percentage that benefit amounts payable under 
     title II of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.) 
     are increased effective December 1, 1996, as a result of a 
     determination under section 215(i) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 
     415(i)).
       (b) Special Rule.--The Secretary may adjust 
     administratively, consistent with the increases made under 
     subsection (a)(2), the rates of disability compensation 
     payable to persons within the purview of section 10 of Public 
     Law 85-857 (72 Stat. 1263) who are not in receipt of 
     compensation payable pursuant to chapter 11 of title 38, 
     United States Code.
       (c) Publication Requirement.--At the same time as the 
     matters specified in section 215(i)(2)(D) of the Social 
     Security Act (42 U.S.C. 415(i)(2)(O)) are required to be 
     published by reason of a determination made under section 
     215(i) of such Act during fiscal year 1996, the Secretary 
     shall publish in the Federal Register the rates and 
     limitations referred to in subsection (a)(2) as increased 
     under this section.
                                 ______