Provisions of the bill
This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Research Service, a public domain source. [4]
The Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2013 directed the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to increase, as of December 1, 2013, the rates of veterans' disability compensation, additional compensation for dependents, the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans, and dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses and children. [4]
The bill required each such increase to be the same percentage as the increase in benefits provided under title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act, on the same effective date. [4]
Congressional Budget Office report
This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Budget Office, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on July 24, 2013. This is a public domain source. [5]
S. 893 increased the amounts paid to veterans for disability compensation and to their survivors for dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) by the same cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) payable to Social Security recipients. [5] The increase took effect on December 1, 2013.
The COLA that was authorized by this bill is assumed in the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) baseline, consistent with section 257 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act. Because the COLA is assumed in the CBO’s baseline, the COLA provision had no budgetary effect relative to the baseline. Relative to current law, the CBO estimated that enacting this bill would increase spending for those programs by $0.9 million in fiscal year 2014. [5] This estimate assumed that the COLA effective on December 1, 2013, would be 1.5 percent. (The annualized cost would be about $1.2 billion in subsequent years. The CBO previously estimated that the COLA change relative to current law would be about $2.6 billion on an annualized basis in contrast to that corrected figure of about $1.2 billion.) [5]
The Formerly Owned Resources for Veterans to Express Thanks for Service Act of 2013 or FOR VETS Act of 2013 is an act of the 113th United States Congress. The bill changed federal law so that additional Veterans Service Organizations became eligible for free goods and equipment through the Federal Surplus Personal Property Donation Program run by the General Services Administration (GSA). The program takes overstock or excess items, working equipment that is being replaced, and so forth that belongs to the federal government and makes it cheaply available to various nonprofit groups. The FOR VETS Act of 2010 was intended to make this equipment available to Veterans Service Organizations for free, but a wording error limited free equipment only to VSOs working on education of public health. This bill is meant to correct the previous mistake.
The Financial Competitive Act of 2013 is a bill that was introduced into the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress. The bill would require the Financial Stability Oversight Council to conduct a study of "the likely effects that differences between the way the United States and foreign regulators implement the CVA [Credit Valuation Adjustment] would have on financial institutions, users of derivatives, and derivatives markets." The report would be due to Congress within 90 days after the enactment of the act. This study is in response to changes made by the Third Basel Accord, an international agreement among banks and financial regulators. The bill passed the House on July 8, 2013.
The Three Kids Mine Remediation and Reclamation Act is a U.S. public law that authorizes the sale of approximately 950 acres of federal land to the city of Henderson, Nevada. The land used to be a mine and now needs significant environmental remediation and reclamation. The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress; a previous version passed the House during the 112th United States Congress, but never received a vote in the Senate. Cleanup efforts of the land are expected to cost between $300 million and $1.2 billion, depending on various estimates and cleanup targets.
The bill S. 256, long title "To amend Public Law 93–435 with respect to the Northern Mariana Islands, providing parity with Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa," is a bill that was introduced into the 113th United States Congress. S. 256 would convey to the government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) submerged lands surrounding such Islands and extending three geographical miles outward from their coastlines. It would also include the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands among the islands where the President may establish naval defensive sea areas and airspace reservations when necessary for national defense. Finally, it would amend the Fair Minimum Wage Act to provide for no Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands minimum wage increases in 2013 and 2015.
The Department of State Operations and Embassy Security Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2014 is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress. The bill would authorize $17,573,992,000 to be appropriated to improve the security of U.S. Embassies throughout the world.
H.R. 2189 is a bill creating a task force in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs that would be responsible for evaluating the backlog of veterans' disability claims. The task force would look at the current method of processing them, the appeals process, and related laws and regulations, then make their own recommendations on how to improve the process. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs would be required to either implement all or some of their recommendations and justify any not implemented to Congress. The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress.
The Veterans Economic Opportunity Act of 2013, which was introduced as Veterans G.I. Bill Enrollment Clarification Act of 2013, is a bill that would make changes to several economic programs involving veterans. One provision would change how veterans' education benefits are processed. Another provision would increase funding on a program that helps homeless veterans. The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress.
The Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education Improvement Act of 2013 is a bill that would extend through the end of 2015 the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education. It would also change the composition of people sitting on that board by including members from more recent wars. Committee members include veterans from various wars and experts in fields such as education and management. The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress.
The Helping Homeless Veterans Act of 2013, long title "To amend title 38, United States Code, to expand the definition of homeless veteran for purposes of benefits under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes," is a bill that would change the definition of "homeless veteran" to expand persons that are covered. The new definition would "allow a veteran or veterans’ family member fleeing domestic violence or sexual assault to be categorized as homeless in order to receive certain benefits offered by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs." The law would increase the per diem payments that homeless veterans receive for assistance in finding a new home and authorize the payment of per diems to the dependents of homeless veterans. It passed in the United States Senate during the 113th United States Congress.
The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2013 is a bill that would amend Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to require courts to impose appropriate sanctions on attorneys, law firms, or parties who file frivolous lawsuits and to require them to compensate parties injured by such conduct. The compensation would cover the attorney fees and other lawsuit-related costs that the defendant in the frivolous lawsuit had to pay. The bill would also remove the provision of Rule 11 allowing attorneys or parties who file frivolous papers to avoid party-requested sanctions by withdrawing their lawsuits before 21 days have passed. The bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress. On November 14, 2013 the bill passed the House, but was never passed by the Senate.
The bill H.R. 3343, long title "To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to clarify the rules regarding the determination of the compensation of the Chief Financial Officer of the District of Columbia," is a bill that would change the amount of legal compensation the chief financial officer of Washington, D.C. could receive each year. Under this bill, the CFO compensation could equal the same compensation received by a senior executive service federal official. The bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress. It passed the House on November 18, 2013.
The G.I. Bill Tuition Fairness Act of 2013 is a bill that would require colleges to charge veterans the in-state tuition rates regardless of whether they meet the residency requirement. The bill also makes several other changes related to veterans benefits, such as extending the time period during which veterans are eligible for job training. The bill passed the House of Representatives on February 4, 2014 during the 113th United States Congress.
The bill To repeal section 403 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 is a bill that would repeal the provision of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 that makes changes to the cost of living allowance to military veterans.
The Temporary Debt Limit Extension Act is a bill that would suspend the United States debt ceiling until March 15, 2015. There would be no statutory limit on the amount of money the government is allowed to borrow between now and then. The current cap on borrowing is $17.2 trillion.
The Baseline Reform Act of 2013 is a bill that would change the way in which discretionary appropriations for individual accounts are projected in CBO’s baseline. Under H.R. 1871, projections of such spending would still be based on the current year’s appropriations, but would not be adjusted for inflation going forward. Other adjustments to projections of future discretionary spending would also be eliminated.
The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015 is a bill that authorizes different intelligence agencies and their activities in fiscal years 2014 and 2015. The total spending authorized by the bill is classified, but estimates based on intelligence leaks made by Edward Snowden indicate that the budget could be approximately $50 billion.
The Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act is an act of Congress that reaffirmed the status of lands taken into trust by the Department of the Interior (DOI) for the benefit of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians in the state of Michigan.
Pub.L. 113–127 (text)(pdf) is a United States public law that would take specified federal land in El Dorado County, California, into trust for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. The United States Secretary of the Interior would be responsible for carrying this out.
The Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act of 2014 is a bill that would amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program through FY2019. The bill would authorize appropriations of about $20 million in 2015 and $101 million over the 2015-2019 period.
The Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2014 is a bill that would, beginning on December 1, 2014, increase the rates of veterans' disability compensation, additional compensation for dependents, the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans, and dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses and children. This is a cost of living increase.
