Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program – Gold Star & Surviving Spouse Eligibility (S1204)
Current understanding
S1204, the Gold Star and Surviving Spouse Career Services Act, would amend the Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program (DVOP) — a DOL-administered employment and career-services program housed within state workforce agencies — to expand eligibility to spouses of service members who died on active duty, are listed as MIA/POW, or have a total service-connected disability. For workers, this opens access to DVOP specialists’ individualized career assessments, job placement, and training referrals to a new surviving-spouse population. For employers and state workforce boards, it expands the priority-of-service pool they must accommodate under existing DVOP delivery rules; the bill is at introduction stage with no changes to program funding formulas yet specified.
Evidence log
- 2026-07-16 — A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain spouses eligible for services under the disabled veterans’ outreach program, and for other purposes.: cross-connection with disabled-veterans-outreach-program-spouse-eligibility: Both bills (S5014 and S1204) propose extending DVOP employment services eligibility to spouses, though they may differ in which spouse categories are covered. (novelty: 2)
- 2026-03-26 — Love Lives On Act of 2025: cross-connection with love-lives-on-act-2025: Both bills expand federal benefit/service eligibility for surviving military spouses; DVOP S1204 opens employment services to Gold Star and surviving spouses, while Love Lives On removes remarriage bars for DIC, SBP, and TRICARE. (novelty: 2)
- 2025-12-19 — Gold Star and Surviving Spouse Career Services Act: cross-connection with election-worker-hiring-preferences: Both extend federal employment preferences/services to military families and surviving spouses, layering DOL career services (DVOP) alongside hiring-preference pathways for election-worker roles. (novelty: 2)