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Gold Star and Surviving Spouse Career Services Act
To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain spouses eligible for services under the disabled veterans' outreach program, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends federal law to make surviving spouses of deceased military members and spouses described in existing veterans' law eligible for services under the disabled veterans' outreach program. The bill expands the program to serve not only eligible veterans but also these specified spouses, allowing them to access career services and employment assistance. The bill defines "eligible person" to include spouses of service members who died while in the Armed Forces and spouses meeting certain other eligibility criteria under veterans' law.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
8 cosponsors
- Sen. Cassidy, Bill [R-LA] (R-LA)
- Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX] (R-TX)
- Sen. Hickenlooper, John W. [D-CO] (D-CO)
- Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA] (D-VA)
- Sen. Kelly, Mark [D-AZ] (D-AZ)
- Sen. Lankford, James [R-OK] (R-OK)
- Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO] (R-MO)
- Sen. Smith, Tina [D-MN] (D-MN)
Actions (8)
- Dec 19, 2025 Held at the desk. · house
- Dec 19, 2025 Received in the House. · house
- Dec 19, 2025 Message on Senate action sent to the House. · senate
- Dec 18, 2025 Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8895; text: CR S8895) · senate
- Dec 18, 2025 Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- Dec 18, 2025 Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs discharged by Unanimous Consent. · senate
- Mar 31, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. · senate
- Mar 31, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 31, 2025
Ms. Hassan (for herself, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Schmitt, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Cornyn, Ms. Smith, Mr. Lankford, and Mr. Hickenlooper) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain spouses eligible for services under the disabled veterans’ outreach program, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Gold Star and Surviving Spouse Career Services Act”.
SEC. 2. ELIGIBILITY OF SPOUSES FOR SERVICES UNDER THE DISABLED VETERANS’ OUTREACH PROGRAM.
Section 4103A of title 38, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)—
(A) in paragraph (1)—
(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph
(A), by inserting “and eligible persons” after “eligible veterans”; and
(ii) in subparagraph (C), by inserting “, and eligible persons,” after “Other eligible veterans”;
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting “and eligible persons” after “veterans” each place it appears; and
(C) in paragraph (3)—
(i) by inserting “or eligible person” after “veteran” each place it appears; and
(ii) by inserting “or eligible person’s” after “veteran’s”;
(2) in subsection (d)(1)—
(A) by inserting “and eligible persons” after “eligible veterans” each place it appears; and
(B) by striking “non-veteran-related”; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(e) Eligible Person Defined.—In this section, the term ‘eligible person’ means—
“(1) any spouse described in section 4101(5) of this title; or
“(2) the spouse of any person who died while a member of the Armed Forces.”. <all>
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