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Fabio 76b8ec33a7 Legal corpus: the complete U.S. Code (59,740 sections, all 53 titles)
Ingested titles 12–51 and 54 from OLRC USLM XML @119-100 (the whole Code
now, uniform edition; Title 53 is reserved/empty). LegalText 11,221 ->
59,740; repo total 105,704 records. Deterministic (byte-identical rerun,
verified on Title 42's 8,356 sections); make check green. make
legal-us-code default now covers every title.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-06 10:51:44 -04:00

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---
type: "LegalText"
title: "38 U.S.C. § 1304"
description: "Special provisions relating to surviving spouses"
jurisdiction: "us"
corpus: "united_states_code"
kind: "code_section"
title_number: 38
title_name: "VETERANS BENEFITS"
chapter_number: "13"
chapter_name: "DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DEATHS"
section: "1304"
citation: "38 U.S.C. § 1304"
status: "current"
release_point: "119-100"
release_date: "2026-06-26"
source: "official"
source_url: "https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc38@119-100.zip"
source_identifier: "/us/usc/t38/s1304"
source_file: "data/legal/raw/us/code/title-38/usc38.xml"
source_hash: "a02513ccc366427f0a7e6526692de4ca38a4e104eb479bebf7cb5cef1e0a4a52"
raw_snapshot_hash: "372998691b72ade88787dfa7633dbda4954bd1b037ec7926c5e06e9b1d17fc66"
text_hash: "6cd1a488aae1e40c16e9d8654f99c513b12e08717d812f872189eb63f7d3dca7"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-04"
confidence: "official"
tags: ["legal", "us-code"]
---
# 38 U.S.C. § 1304 - Special provisions relating to surviving spouses
## Text
No dependency and indemnity compensation shall be paid to the surviving spouse of a veteran dying after December 31, 1956, unless such surviving spouse was married to such veteran—
(1) before the expiration of fifteen years after the termination of the period of service in which the injury or disease causing the death of the veteran was incurred or aggravated; or
(2) for one year or more; or
(3) for any period of time if a child was born of the marriage, or was born to them before the marriage.
(Pub. L. 85857, Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1127, § 404; Pub. L. 9077, title I, § 101(a), Aug. 31, 1967, 81 Stat. 178; Pub. L. 94433, title IV, § 405(4), (5), Sept. 30, 1976, 90 Stat. 1379; renumbered § 1304, Pub. L. 10283, § 5(a), Aug. 6, 1991, 105 Stat. 406.)
## Notes
Editorial Notes
Amendments1991—Pub. L. 10283 renumbered section 404 of this title as this section. 1976—Pub. L. 94433, § 405(4), (5), substituted “surviving spouse”, “such surviving spouse”, and “such veteran” for “widow”, “she”, and “him”, respectively, in introductory clause and “surviving spouses” for “widows” in section catchline. 1967—Pub. L. 9077 qualified widow of a veteran for receipt of compensation by reducing in par. (2) the requisite marriage period from five years to one year and by making her eligible for benefits in par. (3) in event of antenuptial birth.
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Effective Date of 1976 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 94433 effective Oct. 1, 1976, see section 406 of Pub. L. 94433, set out as a note under section 1101 of this title.
Effective Date of 1967 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 9077 effective first day of first calendar month which begins more than ten days after Aug. 31, 1967, see section 405 of Pub. L. 9077, set out as a note under section 101 of this title.