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Committee approves amendment and advances bill to raise certain veterans’ pension from $150 to $200 per month
Summary
House Bill 1144, as amended to define a statement of service, was moved out of the Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee. The bill would raise a monthly pension for Pennsylvania veterans who are blind, amputees or paralyzed from $150 to $200; committee discussion included a fiscal estimate and an approximate affected population.
The House Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee took up House Bill 1144, authored by Representative Dan Williams, which would raise the monthly pension for Pennsylvania veterans who are blind, amputees or paralyzed as a result of military service from $150 to $200.
An amendment, A00319, was offered to define “statement of service.” Representative Hamm moved the amendment and Representative Webster seconded; the committee approved A00319 unanimously and the amendment was incorporated into the bill. After the amendment was adopted, committee members discussed the bill’s fiscal and programmatic scope.
Representative Rigby asked how many veterans the increase would affect and whether $50 was an adequate increase. Chairman Gillan (speaking for committee estimates) said the committee had appropriations estimates indicating an additional cost to the Commonwealth of about $1,000,386 and that approximately 2,500 veterans would be affected. Committee members discussed indexing the pension to inflation or tying increases to legislative salary adjustments or the CPI, but members said they had not secured buy-in for indexing; they also noted the pension had not been increased since 1999.
Representative Hamm moved to bring House Bill 1144, as amended, up for consideration and Representative Gillan seconded (as recorded in committee). The committee recorded no negative votes and forwarded the amended bill to the full House for consideration.
