1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

Vote yes on HB6047, the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act of 2026. This bill does something straightforward and long overdue: it raises VA disability compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation by the annual Social Security COLA plus one additional percentage point. That extra percent compounds over five years, giving veterans and their surviving dependents real purchasing power gains instead of benefits that merely tread water against inflation. The people receiving these payments earned them. Veterans living with service-connected disabilities and surviving family members collecting DIC are not asking for a windfall — they're asking for benefits that don't quietly erode every year. Standard COLA adjustments have consistently failed to keep pace with the actual costs veterans face. This bill corrects that, starting December 1, 2026, with a transparent formula tied directly to federal inflation benchmarks. Pass it.