A bill that passed the House 235 to 179 on May 21 would add a supplemental allowance of $833.33 a month for veterans who already receive aid and attendance because of service-connected disabilities. If it became law, the payment would start with months beginning on or after December 1, 2026. It has not moved since June 2, when the Senate received it and referred it to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. The Congressional Budget Office counts about 8,000 veterans in the group the allowance would reach, so the bill is large for them and invisible to nearly everyone else. Until the Senate acts, no one is paid anything under it.
The allowance is aimed at a narrow group: veterans eligible for the aid and attendance allowance under subsection (r) or (t) of 38 U.S.C. 1114, the disability-compensation tiers for veterans who need another person’s daily help because of service-connected conditions or traumatic brain injury. That is a different benefit from the Aid & Attendance rate inside VA pension, which goes to wartime veterans and survivors with limited income. The bill’s allowance would be paid on top of the compensation those veterans already receive, and it does not change pension.
The $833.33 would go only to veterans already paid disability aid and attendance, not to the many households asking about the Aid & Attendance rate in VA pension. The Veterans Benefits Action Kit lays out the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance, the version of the benefit that can be applied for under current rules.
Get the Aid & Attendance pension levels in the Veterans Benefits Action Kit →
What H.R. 6047 would pay, and when
The House-passed text of H.R. 6047 adds a new subsection to 38 U.S.C. 1114 that pays the veteran a “supplemental monthly allowance at the rate of $833.33” in addition to total compensation. It sets a fixed dollar amount, not a percentage, and the text carries no cost-of-living indexing for the allowance. The same section requires the VA to raise dependency and indemnity compensation for survivors by the Social Security cost-of-living percentage plus one percentage point, then plus half a point at the next adjustment.
Rep. Tom Barrett, a Michigan Republican, introduced the measure on November 17, 2025, and the federal bill-status record lists it as the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act of 2026. The namesakes are a Gold Star widow and the father of an Iraq War veteran with a severe brain injury. Sharri Briley and Ed Edmundson wrote in an opinion piece, posted by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, that “gratitude does not pay a mortgage.”
The bill is wider than the allowance. It also extends certain VA home-loan fee rates through September 30, 2036, and it makes annual training duty count as qualifying service for some National Guard and Reserve members seeking a VA loan. The bill-status summary lists those items beside the two payment changes, which matters because the loan fees are where the money to pay for the rest comes from.
The Congressional Budget Office’s cost estimate
The Congressional Budget Office published its cost estimate on March 12, 2026, for the bill as the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee ordered it reported on February 12. CBO says about 8,000 veterans now receive aid and attendance allowances and expects about 10,000 by 2036. It puts the new allowance at about $833 a month, rising to about $1,026 a month by 2036 after cost-of-living increases.
The cost is offset by higher VA loan fees. CBO’s table shows the survivor increase adding $3.066 billion in spending from 2026 through 2036 and additional disability compensation adding $1.012 billion, against $4.013 billion in savings from home-loan fee changes. Net direct spending falls by $42 million over the decade. Over 2026 through 2031 alone, the bill would add about $508 million to the deficit.
CBO also counts the survivors. Nearly 600,000 recipients of dependency and indemnity compensation would see an increase in 2027, rising to nearly 800,000 by 2036, with the average monthly payment about $23 higher in 2027 and about $42 higher by 2036. After 2036 the estimate turns the other way: CBO projects net direct spending more than $2.5 billion higher in each of the four 10-year periods beginning in 2037.
How far the bill got in Congress
The bill moved quickly through the House. The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee held a hearing on December 3, 2025, ordered the bill reported 13 to 10 on February 12, and reported it with an amendment on April 2. The Rules Committee sent it to the floor under a closed rule, and the House passed it by 235 to 179 on May 21. The Senate received it on June 2, and the record shows no committee action since.
That record was last updated September 19, and the June 2 referral is still the latest entry. The bill has 14 cosponsors in total. A House-passed bill that sits in a Senate committee for four months has not been rejected, but it has not been scheduled either, and the December 1, 2026 start date in the text gets closer each week without a Senate vote.
Aid and Attendance under today’s VA pension rules
For veterans who need daily help but are not rated for it as a service-connected disability, the version in current law is the one inside VA pension. VA’s pension rate table, in effect since December 1, 2025, lists maximum annual rates for a veteran with no dependents of $17,441 at the basic level, $21,313 with Housebound and $29,093 with Aid and Attendance. Those are ceilings that depend on countable income, not flat payments.
The two benefits answer different situations. A veteran already in the (r) or (t) compensation tiers is the one the bill would pay an extra $833.33. A wartime veteran or surviving spouse with limited income who needs help with bathing, dressing or eating is looking at pension, and nothing in H.R. 6047 changes that application or those rates.
None of the bill’s money is payable until both chambers pass the same text and the president signs it. CBO’s estimate assumes a late-2026 start, about 8,000 veterans in the group and an allowance of about $833 a month. The only part that exists today is the House vote of May 21, and the latest date in the federal record is the Senate referral of June 2.
Two different Aid and Attendance benefits
The bill’s $833.33 reaches only veterans already paid disability aid and attendance, and nothing is payable until the Senate acts. For wartime veterans and survivors with limited income, the version available now is the one in VA pension, and the Veterans Benefits Action Kit explains the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance and how to file for free with VA Form 21P-527EZ.
Get the 21P-527EZ filing steps for pension Aid & Attendance in the Veterans Benefits Action Kit →
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Money Overview’s editorial team.
