U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama talking to a member of his staff in his office in the Russel Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson
Staff Report –
The bipartisan Military Widow’s Tax Elimination Act has earned its 61 cosponsors, making it filibuster proof in the Senate, if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will bring it to the floor for a vote.
U.S. Senator Doug Jones sponsored the legislation and announced Tuesday that his bill had surpassed the key threshold of support in the Senate after it passed with majority, bipartisan support in the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he is a member.
“This legislation is finally getting the support and momentum that it deserves and I want to thank all of my colleagues who have stepped up to do the right thing for our Gold Star families,” Jones said in a statement.
“Ending the military widow’s tax is long overdue. These families have sacrificed more for our nation than most people can ever fully appreciate, and they deserve to get the full survivor benefits to which they are entitled and have paid for,” Senator Jones said. “This is an important milestone in the fight to end the widow’s tax and I am hopeful we can continue to build on this progress and get our bill to the President’s desk this year.”
Video: Senator Doug Jones Calls for an End to the Military Widow’s Tax on the Senate Floor
Senator Jones introduced the bill last month in an effort to help the more than 65,000 military widows and widowers nationwide who are not receiving the full survivor benefits that they are due, according to the press release.
All military spouses whose loved ones die from service-related causes would able to collect survivor benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), if the bill passed both houses of Congress and was signed by the president.
In addition, Jones said, many military families may also choose to pay extra into an additional life insurance plan offered by the Department of Defense. Spouses are not allowed to collect full benefits from both programs, Jones said, and instead, they must subtract the annuity from the basic survivor benefits package spouses are entitled to collect.
“This penalty is commonly known as the widow’s tax,” Jones said, and his bill would fix that problem and make them financially whole.
U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones rides with organized labor in the Veterans Day Parade in Mobile, Alabama, Friday Nov. 10, 2017: Photo by Glynn Wilson
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I pray veterans and their widows get the support they need from a Congress that is overwhelmingly non-veteran and a draft dodging president who has stated words to the effect that ‘avoiding STDs (during the Vietnam era) was the SAME as being in combat…’