Description:
H.R. 677 would modify several mandatory programs administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including disability compensation and burial benefits. H.R. 677 also would provide a permanent annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to the amounts paid to veterans for disability compensation and to their survivors for dependency and indemnity compensation. That provision would increase direct spending for veterans’ benefits by $72.7 billion over the 2016-2025 period. However, because the COLA is assumed in CBO’s baseline pursuant to section 257 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, enacting that provision would have no budgetary effect relative to that baseline.
CBO estimates that the other provisions of H.R. 677, including a requirement that the increases resulting from the COLA be rounded down to the next whole dollar, would increase net direct spending by $5.8 billion over the 2016-2025 period relative to CBO’s baseline. Because the bill would affect direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures would apply. Enacting H.R. 677 would not affect revenues.
In addition, the bill would change the administration of VA’s fiduciary program and several other programs in ways that would require an increase in the number of VA employees. CBO estimates that implementing those changes would cost $176 million over the 2016-2020 period, assuming appropriation of the estimated amounts.
CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would increase net direct spending and on-budget deficits by more than $5 billion in each of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2026.
H.R. 677 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
