Sponsors (2)
The bill increases and inflation-proofs veterans' burial benefits to better support surviving families, but does so at a modest cost to federal spending and with added variability that complicates VA budgeting.
Surviving family members of veterans receive a larger one-time burial and funeral payment (raised to $3,000).
Those burial and funeral payments will be automatically adjusted each year for inflation (indexed to the CPI), preserving recipients' purchasing power over time.
Raising the flat benefit and indexing it to inflation will modestly increase federal spending, which could raise costs for taxpayers.
Tying increases to the all‑items CPI could produce year-to-year variability in benefit growth, complicating VA budgeting and forecasting for federal administrators.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Raises VA burial/funeral payment for service‑connected deaths to $3,000 and requires automatic annual CPI-based cost-of-living adjustments.
Official title: Amend title 38, United States Code, to increase burial and funeral expenses paid by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the case of death from a service-connected disability, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 17, 2026 by James Risch · Last progress March 17, 2026
Raises the Department of Veterans Affairs flat burial and funeral payment for deaths from service-connected disabilities to $3,000 and requires the amount to be adjusted each year for inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The adjustment is automatic: each fiscal year the Secretary must increase the payment by the percentage change in the CPI (all items, U.S. city average) for the 12-month period ending June 30 immediately before the fiscal year, rounding to the nearest dollar.