Should Small-Business Loans For Disabled Veterans Extend to Their Spouses? (H.R. 1313)

What is H.R. 1313?

(Updated July 19, 2017)

This bill seeks to protect businesses owned by disabled veterans by extending the grants offered to disabled veterans to their spouses, in the event of their death.

Veterans that were disabled in combat are eligible for some grants to start small businesses. Under current law, if the veteran is 100% disabled, their spouse will continue to get their benefits until they remarry, until they give up their share of the business, or for ten years after the veteran’s death. 

This bill would amend that law so that the spouses of veterans who are less than 100% disabled could keep getting those benefits for three years after their death. The surviving spouses of people who were 100% disabled would still be able to receive benefits for ten years.

Argument in favor

This bill would ensure that the surviving spouses of individuals who were disabled in combat receive their benefits. Just because a veteran isn’t 100% disabled doesn’t mean they don’t face huge obstacles because of the sacrifice they made for the country.

Argument opposed

Disabled veterans and their families are certainly entitled to benefits thanks to their sacrifice to the country. But the distinctions that this bill makes are so arbitrary. Are veterans who are only 10% disabled entitled to the same rights as those who are 90% disabled? No.

Impact

The spouses of disabled veterans, disabled veterans, their business partners and customers, the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Cost of H.R. 1313

A CBO estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

Of Note:

What does it mean to be 100% disabled? Well, it can mean a whole lot of different things. The VA rates individuals’ disabilities within a wide array of categories — respiratory system, skin, mental health and even dental condition — basically, every part of the body. Within those categories, individuals are given a rating of disability. 

For example: if a veteran has a hard time keeping a job and maintaining relationships from a combat-related mental health disorder, and maybe also has panic attacks more than once a week and trouble speaking, they’ll probably be rated as 50% disabled. If they’re having constant hallucinations or unable to remember the names of the people close to them, they’ll be rated as 100% disabled. On the other hand, if they experience something like an increased tendency to get stressed, something that can often be managed with medication, they’ll be rated as 10% disabled.

Veterans’ ratings across different categories add up, but not arithmetically. The VA uses a combined rating table to determine disability. So, for instance, if a veteran had a chronic ringing in their ears from loud noises in combat — that’s tinnitus, the most common disability among veterans — and failure of their heart’s left ventricle, they’d be counted as 64% disabled. That’s where 10% (tinnitus) and 60% (left ventricle failure) meet on the chart.

It’s also worth remembering that this bill only applies to disabilities that veterans acquire during combat. If the veteran got tinnitus from, say, working on a loud construction site or at an airport, they wouldn’t be able to apply that to their VA compensation.

Media:

• Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA) Press Release
  
• Veterans of Foreign Wars (In Support)
  
• VA Benefits (Context)