Resolution Page

PROPOSED RESOLUTION

Restoration of Exemption from Court-Ordered Awards to Former Spouses

WHEREAS: Through interpretation of the law to suit their own ends, the courts have nullified plain provisions protecting veterans’ benefits against claims of former spouses in divorce actions.

WHEREAS: Congress has enacted laws to ensure veterans; benefits serve their intended purposes by prohibiting their diversion to third parties. To shield these benefits from the clutch of others who might try to obtain them by a wide variety of devices or legal processes, Congress fashioned broad and sweeping statutory language. Pursuant to 38 U.S.C. §5302(a), “[Payment of benefits due or to become due under any law administered by the Secretary shall not be assignable except to the extent specifically authorized by law, and such payments made to, or on account of, a beneficiary shall be exempt from taxation, shall be exempt from the claim of creditors, and shall not be liable to attachment, levy, or seizure by or under any legal or equitable process whatever, either before or after receipt by the beneficiary.]”

WHEREAS: While as a general rule an individual’s income and assets should rightfully be subject to legal claims of others, the special purposes and special status of veterans’ benefits trump the rights of all other except liabilities to the United States Government. Veterans cannot voluntarily alienate their rights to veterans’ benefits. The justification for this principle in public policy is one that can never obsolesce with the passage of time or changes in societal circumstances.

WHEREAS: Unappreciative of the special character and superior status of veterans’ rights and benefits, the courts have supplanted the will and plain language of Congress with their own expedient views of what the public policy should be and their own convenient interpretations of the law. The courts have chiseled away at the protections in 5301 until this plain and forceful language has, in essence, become meaningless.

WHEREAS: Various courts have shown no hesitation to force disabled veterans to surrender their disability compensation and sole source of sustenance to able-bodied former spouses as alimony awards, although divorced spouses are entitled to no veterans’ benefits under veterans’ law. The welfare of ex-spouses has never been a purpose for dispensing veterans’ benefits.

WHEREAS: We should never lose sight of the fact that it is the veteran who, in addition to a loss in earning power, suffers the pain, limitations in the routine activities of daily life, and the other social and lifestyle constraints that result from disability. The needs and well-being of the veteran should always be primary, foremost, and overriding concern when considering claims against a veteran’s disability compensation. Disability compensation is a personal entitlement of the veteran, without whom there could never be any secondary entitlement to compensation by dependent family members. Therefore Federal law should place strict limits on access to veterans’ benefits by third parties to ensure compensation goes mainly to support veterans disabled in the service of their country. Congress should enact legislation to override judicial interpretation and leave no doubt about the exempt status of veterans’ benefits.

Therefore

BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Congress should amend 38 U.S.C §5301(a) to make its exemption of veterans’ benefits from the claims of others applicable “notwithstanding any other provision of law” and to clarify that veterans’ benefits shall not be liable to attachment, levy, or seizure by or under any legal or equitable process whatever “for any purpose.”

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: A certified copy of this duly adopted “call to action” will be forwarded to our:

· National Legislative Committee Chairman

· U.S. Congress and State Legislature elected representatives

Signature:___________________________________Title:_____________

Organization:________________________________Date:_____________