Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2025 in plain language
1: Short title
This section gives the Act its short title, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2025.
2: Increase in rates of disability compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation
This section would require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, effective December 1, 2025, to increase the dollar amounts that were in effect on November 30, 2025, for disability compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation under the provisions listed below, using the increase percentage described later in this section. The amounts to be increased are: each dollar amount under section 1114 of title 38, United States Code, which sets wartime disability compensation rates; each dollar amount under section 1115(1) of title 38, which sets additional compensation for dependents; the dollar amount under section 1162 of title 38, the clothing allowance; each dollar amount under subsections (a) through (d) of section 1311 of title 38, dependency and indemnity compensation paid to a surviving spouse; and each dollar amount under sections 1313(a) and 1314 of title 38, dependency and indemnity compensation paid to children. Each of these dollar amounts would be increased by the same percentage that Social Security title II benefits are increased effective December 1, 2025, as a result of a cost-of-living determination made under section 215(i) of the Social Security Act. The section would also let the Secretary of Veterans Affairs administratively adjust, in a manner consistent with these increases, the disability compensation rates paid to persons covered by section 10 of Public Law 85-857 (72 Stat. 1263) who have not received compensation under chapter 11 of title 38, United States Code.
3: Publication of adjusted rates
This section would require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to publish in the Federal Register the amounts specified in section 2(b), as increased under section 2, no later than the date the cost-of-living matters specified in section 215(i)(2)(D) of the Social Security Act are required to be published, based on a determination made under section 215(i) of that Act during fiscal year 2026.