[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 89 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 89

To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to secure medical opinions 
for veterans with service-connected disabilities who die from COVID-19 
  to determine whether their service-connected disabilities were the 
   principal or contributory causes of death, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 28, 2021

  Ms. Sinema (for herself, Mr. Tillis, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Boozman, Mr. 
 Blumenthal, Ms. Warren, and Mr. Coons) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to secure medical opinions 
for veterans with service-connected disabilities who die from COVID-19 
  to determine whether their service-connected disabilities were the 
   principal or contributory causes of death, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ensuring Survivor Benefits During 
COVID-19 Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. MEDICAL OPINIONS FOR CERTAIN VETERANS WITH SERVICE-CONNECTED 
              DISABILITIES WHO DIE OF COVID-19.

    In any case in which a veteran with one or more service-connected 
disabilities dies, the death certificate identifies Coronavirus Disease 
2019 (COVID-19) as the principal or contributory cause of death, the 
death certificate does not clearly identify any of the service-
connected disabilities as the principal or contributory cause of death, 
and a claim for benefits is filed with respect to the veteran under 
chapter 13 of title 38, Unites States Code, the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs shall secure a medical opinion to determine if a service-
connected disability was the principal or contributory cause of death.
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