Justice Department to require VA to provide benefits to same-sex couples

July 25, 2013: Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the National Urban League annual conference. (AP)

The Justice Department announced Wednesday it is requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide benefits to same-sex spouses of military veterans.

The DOJ said in a letter to congressional lawmakers it will no longer enforce a section in the VA’s authorization law which classified marriage as between a man and a woman, meaning the federal benefits will be available to homosexual married couples as well.

The Justice Department had previously granted federal benefits, which include health and death benefits, to active duty spouses.

The DOJ’s announcement comes a little more than two months after the Supreme Court struck down a federal provision in the Defense of Marriage Act that denied benefits to legally married gay couples.

On Thursday, the provision in the veteran’s benefits law, known as title 38, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal district court in California where a woman sued the VA for benefits.

Holder says that decision led him to recommend title 38 no longer be enforced.

"It is the AG’s long established view that title 38 is unconstitutional,” said the DOJ official “We're not going to defend it in court. We're not going to enforce it.”

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report