Official Summary

5/6/2008--Introduced.Veterans' Benefits Enhancement Act of 2008 - Revises or adds federal veterans' benefits provisions to, among other things: (1) reduce the waiting period for a veteran's affirmation of enrollment in a correspondence course; (2) eliminate the requirement t

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Official Summary

5/6/2008--Introduced.
Veterans' Benefits Enhancement Act of 2008 - Revises or adds federal veterans' benefits provisions to, among other things:
(1) reduce the waiting period for a veteran's affirmation of enrollment in a correspondence course;
(2) eliminate the requirement that a veteran or beneficiary make a separate application for a program change at an educational institution;
(3) eliminate a minimum wage-earning requirement in the case of self-employment on-job training;
(4) authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to stay adjudication of a veteran's claim when necessary to preserve the integrity of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-administered program;
(5) authorize memorial headstones or markers for deceased remarried surviving spouses of veterans;
(6) make permanent the VA authority to fund contracted medical disability examinations;
(7) expand Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance coverage to certain members of the Individual Ready Reserve;
(8) allow VA to provide temporary residence assistance grants to active-duty military personnel suffering from a disability incurred in or aggravated by such service;
(9) make permanent the consideration of noninstitutional extended care services as covered medical services;
(10) make permanent the authority to provide hospital care, medical services, and nursing home care to certain veterans who participated in Department of Defense (DOD) chemical and biological testing;
(11) provide third-party payment authority with respect to care furnished to spina bifida-affected children of Vietnam veterans;
(12) authorize disclosure of VA medical information to a representative of a patient who lacks decision-making capacity;
(13) require VA patients to disclose health-plan information and their Social Security number;
(14) expand the authority of VA police officers; and
(15) increase from $600,000 to $1 million the threshold before a VA major medical facility lease must receive congressional approval.


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