House hearing spotlights push to raise survivor and catastrophic‑injury benefits — debate centers on proposed VA home‑loan fee offset

Chairman Boss opened the House Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing by introducing HR 6047, the Sherry Briley and Eric Edmondson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, saying the measure would raise dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) by an additional 1 percentage point each year for five years on top of annual cost‑of‑living adjustments and increase certain special monthly compensation (SMC) rates for the most severely disabled.

The bill’s supporters said the increases are long overdue. Sherry Briley, the surviving spouse for Chief Warrant Officer 3 Donovan Lee Briley, testified that current DIC — which she said pays $1,653 a month — has not kept pace with housing and other costs and that roughly half a million survivors rely on the benefit. Ed Edmondson, father and caregiver to Sergeant Eric Edmondson, described two decades of round‑the‑clock care and urged members to provide a ‘‘lifeline’’ for families providing sustained caregiving.

Paralyzed Veterans of America and other veterans service organizations also endorsed higher baseline SMC and DIC, saying catastrophic disabilities generate unique, ongoing costs for home modifications, equipment and paid caregiving. Tom Wheaton of Paralyzed Veterans of America testified that SMC for R1, R2 and T tiers should be increased to better reflect real costs of daily living.

The central point of contention was how to pay for the bill. The majority’s draft would eliminate a waiver of the VA home‑loan funding fee for veterans with a service‑connected disability rating up to 70% on second and subsequent uses of the program through 9/30/2035. Chairman Boss said this offset follows PAYGO rules and estimated the proposal would cover roughly $7 billion over the relevant period. He emphasized that the change would not affect a veteran’s first VA home‑loan use.

Ranking Member Takano and several Democrats called the offset unacceptable, saying it would effectively ‘‘tax’’ disabled veterans and reduce affordability at a time when median home prices are high. Takano cited estimates (presented in the hearing) that 3.2 million veterans have service‑connected ratings of 70% or below and warned the added fees could be thousands of dollars — for some examples, witnesses and members cited possible closing‑cost increases on the order of $13,000–$26,000 depending on local housing prices.

Multiple members proposed alternatives. Takano and others urged seeking offsets from other committees, waiving pay‑go rules for this item, or expanding ‘‘transferability’’ of unused loan benefits to descendants to broaden program uptake. Ranking members and veterans service organizations urged the committee to find pay‑fors that do not reduce or impose new fees on currently disabled veterans.

On technical details, VA witnesses said the department ‘‘supports the intent’’ of sections that would raise SMC and DIC and recommended specific drafting adjustments — for example, VA identified a proposed $833.33 SMC increase (effective 12/01/2026) that would bring certain aid‑and‑attendance levels to approximately $3,702 and recommended rounding the amounts to whole dollars for claims processing. VA also said it was still analyzing Section 3 (the home‑loan waiver change) and would provide written comments on programmatic impacts.

Committee members pressed for concrete numbers. VA reported 552,505 active DIC recipients and about 12,000 pending claims; other cited figures in the hearing included an active‑beneficiary universe of roughly 500,000 surviving spouses and the 3.2 million veterans with ratings ≤70% who could be affected by a home‑loan fee change. Members requested further VA analysis on the home‑loan impact and program solvency.

The hearing closed without markup or a committee vote. Ranking Member Takano reiterated Democrats’ demand to remove the provision that would expand home‑loan funding fees, while Chairman Boss said he would continue work to move the bill and invited further staff collaboration. The committee granted members five legislative days to revise and extend remarks; witnesses’ written statements were entered into the record.

Ending: The committee’s next procedural steps include continued negotiation over offsets and a scheduled markup referenced by members; the hearing record will be supplemented by VA’s written analyses and members’ submitted remarks.