Cost Estimates of Vets’ Benefits Change

Two provisions of the 2007 Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Act cost more than original estimates, and Congress will probably have to come up with more money this year for the programs to continue. The price tag for providing disabled veterans with more money to purchase automobiles or other modes of transportation that are adapted to their special needs would double from its original $11,000 amount, the Congressional Budget Office told Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, in a June 26 letter. The CBO also stated that an accounting oversight underestimated the costs necessary to pay pensions to surviving spouses of Filipino veterans. According to initial CBO estimates, it would cost $59 million to pay pensions to 4,000 spouses between 2008 and 2017; the new figures are $160 million for 11,200 surviving spouses during the same 10-year span.