 Welcome, everyone. My name is Jeremy Vinova, and I am the Assistant National Legislative Director here at DAV. I would like to talk with you today about our efforts securing and strengthening survivor benefits. DAV has made a dark commitment to ensure that veteran survivors are not forgotten, and we will advocate for any bill that will support those who have supported our nation's veterans and their families. This is a commitment we do not take lightly. In this last Congress, we have voiced our strong support for survivor's legislation, and we are looking to make even stronger impacts during this Congress. One of the most important programs for survivors is DIC, or Dependency and Indemnating Compensation, which is a tax-free benefit, like compensation, that has paid to survivors of those who have lost their lives due to their time of service. These can be survivors of disabled veterans and active duty service members. Now, as many of you have heard, that last month, the Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act was signed into law. One of the many provisions included in this historic legislation is the reduction of the remarriage age from 57 to 55. Previously, those surviving spouses who were in receipt of DIC and were married prior to the age of 57 would lose their benefits. This is a big win for the veteran community and is directly due to your efforts and the calls and emails to your elected representatives. Thank you, but the fight goes on. While we thank Congress for providing the surviving spouses of veterans equity with federal employee survivors, we will continue to fight to lower this age. DAV's resolution states that we must strongly support legislation that improves and reforms DIC benefits to include lowering the remarriage age for survivors of disabled veterans. Surviving spouses of active duty service members and veterans are more likely to be widowed at younger ages than other professions. Therefore, on average, there was a longer wait period to achieve this remarriage age for surviving spouses of service members and veterans and for survivors of federal employees. We'll continue to fight until this law reflects the increased risk and danger that our servicemen and women face every day. And even though there have been gains for those who might lose these benefits, we are still advocating to increase the value of DIC. As of right now, a veteran who is married and is totally disabled receives approximately 3,300 a month, while DIC is 1,300 a month. This equates to a loss for the survivors of approximately 24,000 a year. We're urging Congress to index these benefits to 55% of 100% disabled veterans compensation and adjusted for inflation to help those who are already suffering the loss of a living. In addition, we are asking that Congress adjust the 10 year rule for DIC eligibility. Currently, a veteran who is totally disabled has to remain so for 10 years consecutively, for I loved ones to be eligible for DIC. This timeframe does not take into consideration numerous factors, including all that those survivors have had to sacrifice to care for a seriously disabled veteran. We are asking for Congress to reduce or eliminate the 10 year rule for DIC eligibility. Now, compensation benefits are not the only programs that benefit survivors. Dependence Educational Assistance, or Chapter 35, provides education and training to spouses and certain children who are either survivors or dependents of a veteran who is permanently and totally disabled. However, there is a timeframe for this educational assistance. Currently, eligible dependents have only 10 years to complete any training or educational program. That is 10 years starting from when they are deemed eligible. This delimiting date is indifferent to caregivers, family obligations and any other extenuating circumstance. We will be advocating for Congress to permanently remove the 10 year delimiting date for Dependence Educational Assistance. And we say permanently because Congress has temporarily suspended the delimiting date due to the coronavirus pandemic. This same pandemic that has taken so many veterans lives has also created new and unforeseen obstacles for the veteran community. As of January 2021, over 7,000 veterans died from COVID-19. Some of those veterans were service connected with disabilities. We now know make this virus so much more deadly. The fears that a veteran will pass away due to COVID and not have their death certificate note their service-connected condition as being related to that veteran's death. Thus making it more difficult for the family members to claim their rightful balance. We are urging Congress to enact legislation that will require the VA to seek a medical opinion when a service-connected veteran dies due to the novel coronavirus of whether those service-connected conditions were in any way related to that veteran's death. DAV remains committed to fighting for those who have sacrificed for this country, both as veterans and caretakers. Thank you. And for more information on this and all of DAV's critical policy goals, please visit our website at DAV.org backslash 2021 midwinter. Thank you.