Bipartisan Bill to Make Annual Veteran Cost-Of-Living Adjustment Passes Senate

The US Senate unanimously passed the Veterans’ Disability Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, bipartisan legislation that would increase the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans.

“There’s no reason that we shouldn’t guarantee an annual cost-of-living adjustment for our nation’s veterans who have sacrificed so much for our country,” said US Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who authored the bill. “Our bill is now one step closer to becoming law, which means our veterans will soon get the COLA benefit increase they deserve.”

The increase would be in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, the same index that determines the annual rate adjustments for Social Security benefits. Once signed into law, the cost-of-living adjustment for veterans would go into effect on Dec. 1, 2021.

The veterans’ COLA is usually, but not automatically, enacted each year and is already anticipated in the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline, which means this bill is budget-neutral and will provide disabled veterans additional certainty from year to year.