Thousands of Veterans Could See Extra $833 Per Month; Bill Stalled in Senate

Several thousand veterans await the outcome of a bill currently stalled in the U.S. Senate that would add roughly $833 a month to their benefits.

H.R. 6047, known as the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act of 2026, would benefit those already eligible for a monthly aid and attendance allowance due to service-connected disabilities or traumatic brain injuries.

It would be the first increase of its kind in roughly two decades. The legislation has already passed the House of Representatives but, as of now, is heading nowhere in the other chamber where it’s been held up in committee over an argument about who should pay for it.

The money extends to a specific group, rather than disabled veterans across the board. Under the bill, veterans who already qualify for a VA aid and attendance allowance under the most severe disability categories in the law, known as subsections (r) and (t) of the compensation statute, would receive a supplemental monthly allowance of $833.33.

In plainer terms, these are veterans so severely disabled by their service that they require regular, often constant, help with basic tasks of daily life. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that roughly 8,000 veterans currently meet that bar, a number it expects to grow to about 10,000 by 2036.

For those who qualify, the benefit works out to about $10,000 more per year. It would take effect Dec. 1, 2026, if the bill becomes law.

Every other veteran, and the far larger population receiving standard disability compensation, would not be affected by this provision.

What It Does for Survivors

The second major piece of the bill is aimed at the families of those who have passed.

This provision would raise Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, the monthly payment made to eligible survivors of service members who died in the line of duty or veterans who died from service-connected conditions.

H.R. 6047 ties a series of small increases to future cost-of-living adjustments. By the CBO’s calculations, it would lift the average monthly payment for nearly 600,000 survivors, growing over the next decade. Supporters note it would be the first real increase to that benefit since 1993.

Lawmakers named this legislation for two people.

Sharri Briley is the widow of Chief Warrant Officer 3 Donovan “Bull” Briley, an Army special operations helicopter pilot killed in the 1993 battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, that became known as “Black Hawk Down.”

Eric Edmundson is an Army veteran whose vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005, leaving him unable to walk or speak. One name stands for the survivors the bill would help, the other for the catastrophically disabled veterans.

The Home Loan Changes

Here is where the bill gets both broader and more contentious.

On one hand, it expands VA home loan eligibility to more members of the National Guard and Reserve.

In order to make this work, annual training would now count as qualifying service, creating a new path to a loan guarantee after 14 days of active duty. For younger part-time service members trying to buy a first home, that is a genuine expansion of access.

On the other hand, the bill pays for its new benefits partially by raising VA home loan fees. It increases the fee on certain refinance loans and loan assumptions, and it extends existing fee rates for years to come.

Those changes are how the numbers were made to work, but they are also the reason the bill has stalled in the Senate.

The Dispute Over Whom Pays

Some senators’ dispute is not about whether catastrophically disabled veterans and Gold Star families deserve more. On this, there is broad agreement. More than 20 veterans service organizations backed the bill.

This fight is about the way it’s funded.

To offset the cost, Republicans structured the bill to raise VA home loan refinance fees and extend pension caps on certain institutionalized veterans with disability ratings of 70% or lower.

Critics and opponents, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and House Democrats, fiercely opposed the funding mechanisms. They argued that forcing veterans to pay higher refinancing fees essentially asks one group of veterans to pay for the benefits of another, breaking a foundational promise of support that service members have counted on since the VA loan program was created in 1944.

Credit: Travis Jones, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rep. Mark Takano of California, the top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said his side could not support the bill because Republicans “chose to fund the bill by taxing American veterans.”

Bill supporters countered that the increases are historically overdue, noting that disabled veterans remain protected from the new fees on their core access to the program.

This split showed in the vote where House members passed H.R. 6047 on May 21 by a mostly party-line margin of 235 to 179.

How to Voice Your Opinion

Veterans and family members who want to make their views known, for or against, have a few direct options while the bill is in the Senate’s hands.

Constituents can find and contact both of their home-state senators through the directory at senate.gov.

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, where the bill currently sits, also accepts public input through its website at veterans.senate.gov. However, the committee notes it does not handle individual VA case work and directs veterans with personal benefit problems to their own senators.

Many of the veterans service organizations already lobbying on the bill, on both sides of the funding question, offer their members ways to weigh in as well. There is also a practical, nonpolitical step for anyone who thinks they might qualify.

Veterans who believe they could meet the aid and attendance threshold, and survivors who may be eligible for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, can confirm their current status with the VA now so that they would be positioned to receive any increase if the bill becomes law.