Love Lives On Act of 2025
Latest action · Mar 18, 2026 Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedFeb 5, 2025
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Love Lives On Act of 2025
This bill extends entitlement for various benefit programs and services for surviving spouses of deceased members of the Armed Forces or veterans.
The bill provides that the remarriage of a surviving spouse must not bar the furnishing of dependency and indemnity compensation or special pension benefits to such spouse.
Additionally, the Department of Defense may not terminate the payment of an annuity for a surviving spouse under the Survivor Benefit Plan solely because the surviving spouse remarries.
The bill also expands the definition of a dependent under TRICARE to include a remarried widow or widower whose subsequent marriage has ended due to death, divorce, or annulment.
Cosponsors 61
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Feb 5, 2025 to Sep 23, 2026; 23 are original cosponsors, there from the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-CA | Alex Padilla | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-MN | Amy Klobuchar | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| I-ME | Angus S. King Jr. | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| I-VT | Bernard Sanders | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-HI | Brian Schatz | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-NV | Catherine Cortez Masto | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-MD | Chris Van Hollen | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-DE | Christopher A. Coons | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-MA | Elizabeth Warren | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-NV | Jacky Rosen | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-NH | Jeanne Shaheen | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| R-TX | John Cornyn | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-PA | John Fetterman | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-CO | John W. Hickenlooper | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| R-AK | Lisa Murkowski | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-NH | Margaret Wood Hassan | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-NM | Martin Heinrich | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-HI | Mazie K. Hirono | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| R-SD | Mike Rounds | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-GA | Raphael G. Warnock | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-RI | Sheldon Whitehouse | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| R-TX | Ted Cruz | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| R-AR | Tom Cotton | Original | Feb 5, 2025 |
| D-GA | Jon Ossoff | Feb 11, 2025 | |
| D-NJ | Cory A. Booker | Feb 24, 2025 | |
| D-MI | Gary C. Peters | Feb 26, 2025 | |
| D-MD | Angela D. Alsobrooks | Mar 4, 2025 | |
| R-KS | Roger Marshall | Mar 5, 2025 | |
| R-IN | Jim Banks | Mar 12, 2025 | |
| D-VA | Mark R. Warner | Mar 12, 2025 | |
| D-OR | Jeff Merkley | Mar 14, 2025 | |
| R-AR | John Boozman | Mar 24, 2025 | |
| D-CO | Michael F. Bennet | Mar 25, 2025 | |
| D-AZ | Ruben Gallego | Apr 28, 2025 | |
| R-ME | Susan M. Collins | Apr 29, 2025 | |
| R-MT | Tim Sheehy | May 12, 2025 | |
| D-CT | Christopher Murphy | May 19, 2025 | |
| D-WI | Tammy Baldwin | May 20, 2025 | |
| R-WV | Shelley Moore Capito | Jun 3, 2025 | |
| D-MN | Tina Smith | Jun 5, 2025 | |
| D-VT | Peter Welch | Jun 10, 2025 | |
| D-OR | Ron Wyden | Jun 26, 2025 | |
| D-AZ | Mark Kelly | Jul 28, 2025 | |
| D-IL | Tammy Duckworth | Sep 3, 2025 | |
| D-MA | Edward J. Markey | Sep 29, 2025 | |
| R-LA | John Kennedy | Sep 29, 2025 | |
| D-NY | Kirsten E. Gillibrand | Sep 29, 2025 | |
| D-NJ | Andy Kim | Oct 6, 2025 | |
| D-NM | Ben Ray Luján | Oct 7, 2025 | |
| D-WA | Maria Cantwell | Nov 18, 2025 | |
| D-CA | Adam B. Schiff | Nov 20, 2025 | |
| D-WA | Patty Murray | Jan 28, 2026 | |
| R-NC | Thom Tillis | Jan 28, 2026 | |
| R-MS | Cindy Hyde-Smith | Feb 4, 2026 | |
| R-NE | Pete Ricketts | Mar 17, 2026 | |
| R-UT | Mike Lee | Apr 13, 2026 | |
| D-DE | Lisa Blunt Rochester | Apr 15, 2026 | |
| D-CT | Richard Blumenthal | May 20, 2026 | |
| R-LA | Bill Cassidy | Jun 8, 2026 | |
| D-MI | Elissa Slotkin | Jun 9, 2026 | |
| R-AK | Dan Sullivan | Sep 23, 2026 |
Committees 1
Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.
| Chamber | Committee | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| Senate | Veterans' Affairs Committee | Referred Feb 5, 2025Hearings Mar 11, 2025Markup Mar 18, 2026 |
Actions 4
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Mar 18, 2026Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.
- Mar 11, 2025Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 119-35.
- Feb 5, 2025Introduced in Senate
- Feb 5, 2025Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Research
What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.
Congressional Budget Office cost estimate
- Jul 17, 2026S. 410, Love Lives On Act of 2025As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on March 18, 2026
Printed hearings 2
Hearings whose printed record names this bill, newest first: hearings on it, and wider hearings where it came up.
| Number | Hearing | Committee | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serial No. 119-56 | EXAMINING VA BENEFITS: PENSION AND FIDUCIARY, AND VA LIFE INSURANCE OPTIONS58 pages | Veterans' Affairs Committee | Apr 21, 2026 |
| S. Hrg. 119-317 | LEGISLATIVE PRESENTATION OF DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS AND MULTI VSOs: MILITARY OFFICERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, BLUE STAR FAMILIES, VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA, NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS, SERVICE WOMEN'S ACTION NETWORK, GOLD STAR WIVES OF AMERICA, INC., BLACK VETERANS PROJECT216 pages | Veterans' Affairs Committee | Feb 24, 2026 |
Related bills 3
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 1004 | Love Lives On Act of 2025 | Identical bill | Mar 26, 2026 |
| S 4744 | Take Care of America’s Veterans Act | Related bill | Jun 11, 2026 |
| HR 9237 | Take Care of America’s Veterans Act | Related bill | Jul 16, 2026 |
Titles 2
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- A bill to amend titles 10 and 38, United States Code, to improve benefits and services for surviving spouses, and for other purposes.
- Short Title(s) as Introduced
- Love Lives On Act of 2025
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Feb 5, 2025Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.
