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By: JOHN HINTON | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: October 14, 2011

A bill overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representative would broaden the pool of surviving spouses of veterans eligible for low-interest Department of Veterans Affairs home loans.

The U.S. House voted 418-6 on Wednesday to approve the Disabled Veterans' Surviving Spouses Home Loans Act, which is part of the Veterans Opportunity to Work legislation.

Every member of the state's House delegation voted for the bill except U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-3rd. U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, introduced the bill last year, saying it would fix what she described as a loophole in veterans' benefits.

VA loans are intended to help veterans or active-duty personnel buy and maintain houses.

Under current federal law, the loans can be granted to a surviving spouse only if the service member's death is determined to be connected to service disabilities. If the death is not attributed to service disabilities, the surviving spouse qualifies for other benefits but not for home loans. The bill, if enacted, would allow those spouses to quality for loans.

Foxx has said service-related disabilities can be factors contributing to deaths, even if doctors don't directly attribute them as the cause.

"It will be a lot easier to process the paperwork to get those loans," Foxx said in a telephone interview Thursday from her Washington office. "Veterans groups like this bill very much. They see the logic in it."

Foxx's bill will move to a Senate committee, which will decide whether the full Senate will vote on it, she said.

"I believe the Senate will see the wisdom of this bill and pass it," Foxx said. "It is a bill that everyone should support."

Catherine Fodor, a spokeswoman for Jones, said Jones supports Foxx's provision regarding giving surviving spouses of veterans access to VA home loans.

But Fodor said Jones opposes a provision in the overall Veterans Opportunity to Work legislation that he says includes fee increases for veterans who have mortgages.

The legislation would create or change programs that provide jobs and training to veterans and change programs that offer home-loan guarantees, ambulance services and pension payments to qualified veterans.

Foxx said legislation doesn't include fee increases for veterans.

"There was a plan to reduce fees, but because of the sluggish economy, we found that we couldn't reduce the fees," Foxx said. "The fees will stay the same."