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Justice for ALS Veterans Act of 2025
To amend title 38, United States Code, to extend increased dependency and indemnity compensation paid to surviving spouses of veterans who die from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, regardless of how long the veterans had such disease prior to death, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends veterans benefits law to extend increased dependency and indemnity compensation to surviving spouses of veterans who die from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), removing any requirement regarding how long the veteran had the disease before death. Under current law, veterans who died from ALS may qualify for increased benefits for their surviving spouses only if they had the disease for a certain minimum period; this bill eliminates that time restriction. The change applies retroactively to veterans who died from ALS on or after October 1, 2022.
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)
- Sen. Murkowski, Lisa [R-AK] (R-AK)
12 cosponsors
- Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI] (D-WI)
- Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Sen. Cassidy, Bill [R-LA] (R-LA)
- Sen. Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE] (D-DE)
- Sen. Cortez Masto, Catherine [D-NV] (D-NV)
- Sen. Cramer, Kevin [R-ND] (R-ND)
- Sen. Duckworth, Tammy [D-IL] (D-IL)
- Sen. Hickenlooper, John W. [D-CO] (D-CO)
- Sen. Rounds, Mike [R-SD] (R-SD)
- Sen. Slotkin, Elissa [D-MI] (D-MI)
- Sen. Warnock, Raphael G. [D-GA] (D-GA)
- Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI] (D-RI)
Actions (3)
- Apr 29, 2026 Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. · senate
- Feb 26, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. · senate
- Feb 26, 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.
Committee action
What happened to this bill in committee — the meetings where it was considered and every recorded vote taken on it.
Meetings where this bill was on the agenda
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 26, 2025
Ms. Murkowski (for herself, Mr. Coons, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. Slotkin, and Mr. Cassidy) 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 extend increased dependency and indemnity compensation paid to surviving spouses of veterans who die from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, regardless of how long the veterans had such disease prior to death, 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 “Justice for ALS Veterans Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF INCREASED DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY COMPENSATION TO SURVIVING SPOUSES OF VETERANS WHO DIE FROM AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS.
(a) Extension.—Section 1311(a)(2) of title 38, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by inserting “(A)” before “The rate”; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
“(B) A veteran whom the Secretary determines died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis shall be treated as a veteran described in subparagraph (A) without regard for how long the veteran had such disease prior to death.”.
(b) Applicability.—Subparagraph (B) of section 1311(a)(2) of title 38, United States Code, as added by subsection (a), shall apply to a veteran who dies from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on or after October 1, 2022. <all>
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