Caring for Survivors Act of 2025

The Caring for Survivors Act of 2025 proposes to increase the monthly dependency and indemnity compensation payments made by the Department of Veterans Affairs to surviving spouses of eligible veterans. Dependency and indemnity compensation is a monthly benefit provided to survivors of veterans who died from service-connected conditions, service members killed on active duty, or veterans who were totally disabled by service-connected disabilities.

The bill would make two key changes to eligibility and payment amounts. First, it would reduce from 10 years to 5 years the period that a veteran must have been rated as totally disabled due to a service-connected condition for their survivors to qualify for benefits. Second, it would establish specific payment amounts for survivors of veterans who were rated totally disabled for less than 10 years before death. If enacted, these changes would expand access to survivor benefits and increase financial support for families of deceased veterans.

The bill is currently under committee consideration following subcommittee hearings held in June 2025 and has not yet been voted on by the full House.