As if the VA doesn’t have enough problems with providing medical care.

Via The Hill

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) is pressing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to grant benefits to same-sex couples in the wake of a historic Supreme Court decision.

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision handed down Friday ruled that there is a right to same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

The New Hampshire Democrat sent a letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald in the wake of the decision, asking him to “act as quickly as possible to implement the spirit of the Court’s decision, and ensure that all veterans’ benefits are awarded to eligible same-sex families.”

Currently, the VA says state laws can prevent the department from granting benefits to same-sex couples. Shaheen said that means “veterans with identical service records, disability ratings, and family size have received different benefits based on where they live and whom they love.”

“This clear inequity has not only been an affront to thousands of men and women who have served our nation faithfully in uniform, it has also offended the basic principles of equality and fairness that are the foundation of our legal system,” she added.

But with the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, Shaheen said McDonald should “immediately grant” benefits regardless of which state a couple lives in.

Senators previously backed giving Social Security and VA benefits to same-sex couples as part of the budget vote-a-rama earlier this year. But the votes on budget amendments were nonbinding.