Chris Smith: “the bill which is before the House represents a compromise measure that has been worked out with the Senate on a number…”

“the bill which is before the House represents a compromise measure that has been worked out with the Senate on a number of benefit-related measures considered this year. In May of this year, the House considered and passed H.R. 4085, the Veterans and Survivors Benefits Expansion Act. There were three major provisions in that bill: (1) the annual cost-of-living adjustment for disabled veterans and the survivors eligible for dependency and indemnity compensation; (2) a revision to the eligibility for survivor benefits so that surviving spouses of veterans who died of service-related causes could retain their eligibility for veterans' benefit even if they remarried after age 65; and (3) a reduction in the loan fees payable by reservists who use the VA home loan program. The Senate stripped all but the COLA from H.R. 4085 at the end of September and returned it to the House. We agreed to the clean COLA bill, which was signed by President Bush and is Public Law 107-247. The Senate also sent us a benefits bill, S. 2237, which has become the vehicle for the compromises worked out by the two committees for the provisions previously contained in H.R. 4085 and a number of provisions contained in the Senate bill passed last month. Because of an evolving budget situation, the committees found themselves forced to offset virtually all of the PAYGO costs associated with the bill. The Senate bill had basically none of the provisions originally contained in H.R. 4085.”