{"id":20946,"date":"2023-11-13T14:02:16","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&#038;p=20946"},"modified":"2023-11-13T14:02:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:02:17","slug":"sen-ossoff-working-across-the-aisle-to-protect-gold-star-families-benefits","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-working-across-the-aisle-to-protect-gold-star-families-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Working Across the Aisle to Protect Gold Star\u00a0Families\u2019\u00a0Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Washington, D.C. \u2014&nbsp;<\/strong>U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is working across the aisle to protect and strengthen Gold Star families\u2019 benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ossoff is launching a push to pass the bipartisan&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/118\/bills\/s1266\/BILLS-118s1266is.htm\"><em>Love Lives on Act of 2023<\/em><\/a><em>,&nbsp;<\/em>legislation he co-sponsored to&nbsp;protect Gold Star spouses from losing benefits.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, Gold Star spouses who remarry before the age of 55 lose access to certain survivor benefits, including&nbsp;Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) and Survivor Benefits Plan (SBP) payments, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur Bipartisan legislation will help ensure Gold Star spouses \u2013 those whose husbands or wives were killed in action or died while on active duty&nbsp;\u2013 are treated fairly, with the freedom to grieve and live their lives free of unnecessary financial hardship,\u201d&nbsp;<strong>Sen. Ossoff said.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This legislation is&nbsp;supported&nbsp;broadly by Veterans Service Organizations and others, including the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Gold Star Wives of America, Inc., Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), The American Legion and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>The bipartisan&nbsp;<em>Love Lives on Act&nbsp;<\/em>will:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Allow surviving spouses to retain the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) regardless of marital status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Allow surviving spouses to remain eligible for education benefits under the Fry Scholarship regardless of marital status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Allow surviving spouses to use commissary stores and Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) retail facilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Allow remarried spouses to regain TRICARE benefits if that marriage subsequently ends in death, divorce, or annulment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Remove the \u201chold themselves out to be married\u201d clause that can cause surviving spouses to lose their survivor benefits without being remarried.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the latest step in Sen. Ossoff\u2019s push to deliver benefits for Georgia veterans and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, Sen. Ossoff\u2019s bipartisan bill to help Georgia veterans afford mental health and substance abuse treatment&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.albanyherald.com\/news\/ossoff-sponsored-veterans-health-bill-set-to-become-law\/article_2dabd30a-87b4-11ed-944f-930b365b2365.html\">became law<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This summer, the Senate&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoffs-bipartisan-bill-to-help-young-military-families-afford-housing-passes-u-s-senate\/\">passed<\/a>&nbsp;Sens. Ossoff and Thom Tillis\u2019 (R-NC) bipartisan&nbsp;<em>Junior Enlisted Housing Affordability Act<\/em>to improve how the Department of Defense (DoD) calculates housing allowances for junior enlisted servicemembers with dependents to more accurately assess their housing costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This summer, the Senate also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/senate-passes-sen-ossoffs-bipartisan-bill-to-give-military-spouses-more-job-flexibility-during-relocations\/\">passed<\/a>&nbsp;Sens. Ossoff and Eric Schmitt\u2019s (R-MO) bipartisan<em>&nbsp;Military Spouse Career Support Act of 2023<\/em>&nbsp;to grant reimbursements for military families\u2019 business expenses when moving between active and reserve assignments \u2014 with the goal of improving retention rates across the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Earlier this year, Sens. Ossoff and Kevin Cramer (R-ND)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stripes.com\/theaters\/us\/2023-04-27\/military-mental-health-care-legislation-9937949.html\">introduced<\/a>\u00a0the bipartisan\u00a0<em>Military Families Mental Health Services Act<\/em>\u00a0to allow the Secretary of Defense to waive out-of-pocket expenses for military families on TRICARE for their first three outpatient mental health visits per year, lowering costs and helping families access the treatment they need \u2014 which passed\u00a0as part of this year\u2019s\u00a0National Defense Authorization Act.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"># # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C. \u2014&nbsp;U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is working across the aisle to protect and strengthen Gold Star families\u2019 benefits. Sen. Ossoff is launching a push to pass the bipartisan&nbsp;Love Lives on Act of 2023,&nbsp;legislation he co-sponsored to&nbsp;protect Gold Star spouses from losing benefits.&nbsp; Currently, Gold Star spouses who remarry before the age of 55 lose [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20946","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/20946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/20946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20948,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/20946\/revisions\/20948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}