All Roll Calls
Yes: 380 • No: 35
117-hr-7939117th CongressWALLET
Veterans Auto and Education Improvement Act of 2022
Sponsored By: Representative Levin, Mike [D-CA-49]
Became Law
Summary
Emergency protections for veterans' education and benefits are standardized and expanded so the VA can keep payments, extend deadlines, and adjust rules when schooling or training is disrupted. This law harmonizes emergency rules across Post-9/11, Montgomery GI Bill, VR&E, and Selected Reserve programs and repeals overlapping COVID-era provisions.
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- Students and enrolled veterans: The VA can continue educational assistance and housing stipends when institutions close or shift to distance learning. Payments tied to closures can continue for up to four weeks and are not charged to a beneficiary’s entitlement.
- VR&E, apprenticeships, and work-study: Veterans Readiness and Employment participants can receive two additional months of subsistence if prevented from participating by an emergency. Apprenticeship rules set a monthly training threshold and include emergency carve-outs and protections for missed hours.
- Vehicles, adaptive equipment, and servicemember protections: The VA expands adaptive equipment and may provide an additional automobile or conveyance after longer intervals, including new 10-year and 30-year timing rules. The law also broadens Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protections for terminating consumer contracts during stop-movement orders and creates portability for many professional licenses for servicemembers and spouses.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
9 provisions identified: 8 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
More VA help for adapted vehicles
VA can now provide nonarticulating trailers to transport powered wheelchairs or scooters. VA can give an additional automobile or other conveyance if more than 30 years have passed since your last one. Starting 10 years after enactment, VA can give another conveyance if more than 10 years had passed as of that date. VA also covers medically needed van lifts, raised doors or roofs, air conditioning, and wheelchair tiedowns for passenger use.
Keep GI Bill payments during emergencies
During an emergency, the VA keeps some education checks going. Housing stipends and chapter payments can continue for up to four weeks, and work‑study pay can continue up to a 25‑hours‑per‑week amount. Students at closed or suspended schools can get up to four weeks of payments, and VR&E employment services can pay two extra months of subsistence at the full‑time rate. Your benefit clocks pause if an emergency blocks your schooling, training, Selected Reserve, or VR&E. The MGIB 10‑year and Post‑9/11 15‑year windows stop, apprenticeship hour rules adjust for emergency unemployment, and older COVID rules are repealed so these standard emergency rules apply now.
Professional licenses move with military families
When you move on military orders, your covered professional license counts in the new state at a similar practice level. You must show your orders, stay in good standing, and follow the new state’s rules. Your license must have been used in the last two years; law licenses are excluded, and compacts still apply.
Choose your state for spouse taxes
A servicemember’s spouse does not gain or lose a tax domicile just by moving to follow orders. Each tax year, you and your spouse can elect the servicemember’s residence, the spouse’s residence, or the servicemember’s permanent duty station for taxes.
More VA help to start a business
The VA can pay needed license fees and buy essential equipment, supplies, and starter stock to help you begin self‑employment under VR&E. The VA will set rules and cost limits. Veterans with the most severe service‑connected disabilities who need homebound training or self‑employment get priority.
Simpler VA school approvals and study abroad
The VA now uses one standard form to approve new courses starting October 1, 2023. Schools must have a top official attest to legal compliance, disclose major actions in the past five years, and non‑Title IV schools must show they are licensed and financially stable; state approving agencies check Title IV status. For oversight, the VA or state agency aims to give only one business day’s notice for risk‑based surveys and 10 business days for compliance surveys. If you were full‑time before the no‑penalty drop date, your school charges the same full‑time tuition for overloads, and you stay enrolled, the school does not need to send enrollment verification. The VA can approve certain study‑abroad courses for up to five years when the foreign school takes responsibility and seeks approval; qualifying existing contracts can be approved retroactively.
End phone, internet, gym contracts after orders
If you get a stop‑movement order for an emergency, you, your spouse, or a dependent who moves with you can cancel certain consumer contracts. Covered contracts include phone, internet, cable, gym, and home security services signed before the orders. The order must be from Defense or Homeland Security and last at least 30 days or be indefinite, and this applies to orders on or after March 1, 2020.
VA pension rule extended to 2031
The law moves a VA pension payment rule date from October 30, 2028 to November 30, 2031. This keeps that protection in place through November 30, 2031.
GI Bill added for sole survivors
You can qualify for Post‑9/11 GI Bill benefits if you began service on or after September 11, 2001, served at least 30 continuous days, and were discharged for sole survivorship. This eligibility starts on enactment and helps a small group of veterans.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Levin, Mike [D-CA-49]
CA • D
Cosponsors
Rep. Mace, Nancy [R-SC-1]
SC • R
Sponsored 6/3/2022
Del. Radewagen, Aumua Amata Coleman [R-AS-At Large]
AS • R
Sponsored 9/6/2022
Rep. Peters, Scott H. [D-CA-50]
CA • D
Sponsored 9/6/2022
Roll Call Votes
house vote • 12/22/2022
On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Concur in the Senate Amendment
Yes: 380 • No: 35