[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 88 (Wednesday, June 3, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S3690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1494. Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Brown, 
Ms. Hirono, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Peters, Mrs. 
Gillibrand, Mr. Markey, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Coons, and Mr. Wyden) 
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 1463 
proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to authorize 
appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities of the 
Department of Defense and for military construction, to prescribe 
military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other 
purposes; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle G of title X, add the following:

     SEC. 1085. 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--
       ``(i) the marriage of the individual is valid in the State 
     in which the marriage was entered into; or
       ``(ii) in the case of a marriage entered into outside any 
     State--
       ``(I) the marriage of the individual is valid in the place 
     in which the marriage was entered into; and
       ``(II) the marriage could have been entered into in a 
     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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