Surviving spouses of servicemembers who died on active duty or due to a service-connected disability would gain access to free job counseling services under a bipartisan Senate proposal.

[TAKE ACTION: Ask Your Senators to Support Enhanced Career Counseling for Military Survivors]

Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) recently introduced the Gold Star and Surviving Spouse Career Services Act (S. 3746), which would allow surviving spouses to receive career counseling from specialists within the Department of Labor’s Disabled Veterans Outreach Program (DVOP).

“After the terrible loss of a service member, we must do everything that we can to support their families,”  Hassan said in a Feb. 7 press release announcing the bill’s introduction. “This bipartisan bill is a commonsense way to help address the challenges that surviving spouses can face in their careers, and we must continue working to support our service members and their families.”