In a year in which Congress has strained for legislative achievements, a big one is in sight. When senators return from a Memorial Day recess spent honoring those who gave their lives for the United States, they will take up a bipartisan bill that will dramatically broaden America’s commitment to take care of sick veterans.
The bill would offer new health care and tax-free disability benefits as high as $3,332 a month to as many as 3.5 million veterans at a cost the Congressional Budget Office has pegged at more than $300 billion over 10 years.
Under the legislation — crafted by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., and ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kan. — the Veterans Affairs Department would consider a veteran with any of 23 conditions, as varied as brain cancer and hypertension, who was deployed to a combat zone during the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan automatically eligible for care at government cost.
