Background
Rene Ortiz served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1990 to 1994. In 2014, the Department of Veterans Affairs assigned him a 100% disability rating and found him eligible for Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance benefits under Chapter 35. The VA later granted DEA benefits to each of Ortiz’s three children and removed each child from Ortiz’s award of additional dependent compensation when that child’s DEA benefits began.
The Board of Veterans’ Appeals denied Ortiz additional compensation for the children, reasoning that 38 U.S.C. § 3562 bars benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1115 for a child who elects Chapter 35 benefits. The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims affirmed, and Ortiz appealed to the Federal Circuit. He argued that his children’s receipt of DEA benefits did not justify ending his additional compensation and, alternatively, that any statutory bar was not permanent.
The Court’s Holding
The Federal Circuit affirmed in a nonprecedential per curiam opinion. Applying its 2025 decision in Wright v. Collins, the court held that § 3562’s nonduplication provision bars a disabled veteran from receiving additional compensation under § 1115 on account of a child once that child begins receiving Chapter 35 DEA benefits.
The court also rejected Ortiz’s argument that no duplication existed because the veteran receives § 1115 compensation while the child receives DEA benefits. Both benefits provide support on account of the same dependent child, the court explained, bringing them within Congress’s prohibition on concurrent payment. Under Wright, the bar is permanent: § 1115 compensation cannot resume after the child’s DEA benefits end.
Key Takeaways
- A child’s commencement of Chapter 35 DEA benefits bars the veteran from receiving additional § 1115 compensation based on that child.
- The benefits are duplicative for purposes of § 3562 even though the veteran receives one payment and the child receives the other.
- The statutory bar is permanent and does not permit dependent compensation to resume after DEA benefits cease.
Why It Matters
The decision reinforces the Federal Circuit’s interpretation of § 3562 in Wright: veterans cannot receive additional dependent compensation for children who elect DEA benefits, and the loss of that compensation is not merely limited to the period of DEA payments.
Although designated nonprecedential, the opinion shows that Wright squarely controls materially identical claims and forecloses arguments based on the different recipients or timing of the two benefit programs.