ELIGIBILITY OF CERTAIN REMARRIED SURVIVING SPOUSES FOR REINSTATEMENT OF DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY COMPENSATION UPON TERMINATION OF THAT REMARRIAGE.

SEC. 8207. ELIGIBILITY OF CERTAIN REMARRIED SURVIVING SPOUSES FOR REINSTATEMENT OF DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY COMPENSATION UPON TERMINATION OF THAT REMARRIAGE. (a) Restoration of Prior Eligibility.— Section 1311 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: “(e) (1) The remarriage of the surviving spouse of a veteran shall not bar the furnishing of dependency and indemnity compensation to such person as the surviving spouse of the veteran if the remarriage is terminated by death, divorce, or annulment unless the Secretary determines that the divorce or annulment was secured through fraud or collusion. “(2) If the surviving spouse of a veteran ceases living with another person and holding himself or herself out openly to the public as that person’s spouse, the bar to granting that person dependency and indemnity compensation as the surviving spouse of the veteran shall not apply. “(3) The first month of eligibility for payment of dependency and indemnity compensation to a surviving spouse by reason of this subsection shall be the later of the month after— “(A) the month of the termination of such remarriage, in the case of a surviving spouse described in paragraph (1);or “(B) the month of the cessation described in paragraph(2), in the case of a surviving spouse described in that paragraph.”. (b) Effective Date.— No payment may be made by reason of section 1311(e) of title 38, United States Code, as added by subsection (a), for any month before October 1998.