Take Care of America's Veterans Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1423, I call up the bill (H.R. 9237) to amend titles 10 and 38, United States Code, and other Federal laws, to improve benefits for veterans and the administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. BOST. 9237.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my bill, H.R. 9237, the Take Care of America's Veterans Act.
As a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, for me, this bill is personal. When a young man or woman raises their right hand and agrees to serve this country, America makes a promise. That promise does not end when a servicemember is wounded. It is my goal--and the goal of my friend, Senator Jerry Moran--to deliver on that promise.
This bill would be one of the most comprehensive veteran packages considered by Congress in a decade. This bill includes more than 60 bipartisan provisions that would improve healthcare, benefits, operations, and accountability across the VA.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell you more about some of those important provisions. One is the Major Richard Star Act. For decades, medically retired, combat-injured veterans have had their military retirement offset dollar-for-dollar by their VA disability. While some disabled veterans who served 20 years receive both, there are tens of thousands of combat-injured veterans who currently do not. Many combat- injured veterans would have served longer if their injuries had not taken that opportunity from them.
H.R. 9237 would help end that injustice. It would end that offset for combat-injured veterans, allowing them to receive both benefits up to what a 20-year retiree with the same disabilities would receive.
Members on both sides of the aisle and veterans service organizations support this and have for years. A press release, a handshake, or a discharge petition does not end the wounded warrior tax. This bill will.
The Love Lives On Act is another important provision included in this bill. Currently, surviving spouses lose their benefits if they remarry before age 55, but those benefits were earned by their spouse's sacrifice for this country. The Love Lives On Act would allow surviving spouses to remarry at any age.
Another important provision in this bill is the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act. This bill would provide long-awaited increases to catastrophically disabled veterans and surviving spouses.
Eric was 25 years old when an IED left him with a fractured spine and a traumatic brain injury. H.R. 9237 would increase benefits for catastrophically disabled veterans like Eric by $10,000 a year.
It would also increase benefits for surviving spouses. These American families have not seen a meaningful increase in decades.
Mr. Speaker, this bill also includes the Veterans' ACCESS Act. Veterans should be able to access healthcare in their own communities. Too many veterans still face delays, confusion, and barriers when trying to use VA community care.
This bill would also improve mental health care and community-based suicide prevention. A veteran's healthcare should be driven by the veteran's needs, not by government control.
H.R. 9237 would improve education benefits and vocational training to help veterans transition into civilian life. It would modernize the VA's claims and appeals process so veterans have a system that works for them. It would streamline the way VA handles construction, leasing, contracting, IT, and finances.
The Take Care of America's Veterans Act would expand benefits and push VA to do better.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to address how this bill is funded, as I have heard a lot of misinformation about this point. H.R. 9237 would codify VA's own pending regulation on how to evaluate sleep apnea and tinnitus' effect on a veteran's workplace earnings. This regulation was proposed by the Biden-era VA in 2022, created by VA's team of doctors and researchers. It was part of VA's efforts to modernize its disability rating schedule created in the 1940s.
President Biden's Under Secretary for Benefits, Josh Jacobs, testified in favor of these changes at his confirmation hearing.
Earlier this year, VA's executive director of compensation confirmed plans to finalize these changes this year. These are not new ideas, and there is nothing unprecedented about this. This bill would not eliminate disability ratings for sleep apnea or tinnitus. It would not automatically reduce any veteran's current disability rating. Future veterans with sleep apnea will still get treatment through VA healthcare, but if a CPAP eliminates your symptoms, VA would compensate you less.
Currently, the amount of compensation for sleep apnea is often more than the amount that a veteran receives if they lose a limb.
This change is just common sense. It is why VA has worked hard to propose changes like these, which reflect modern medicine. For tinnitus, VA has found it is best understood as a symptom of another condition such as hearing loss or TBI.
Under the proposed change, tinnitus would still be rated as part of another underlying condition. This is not about denying these conditions exist. Let's be clear. This is not cutting benefits. No one will lose their benefits who are receiving them.
It is about making sure the VA rating schedule follows modern science and using those savings to fund the expansion of benefits and other VA programs.
Mr. Speaker, if we don't pass H.R. 9237 today, VA can make these rating changes as planned but the savings would go back to one place: Big Government. I want those savings to go instead into the pockets and the benefits for millions of veterans and their families.
Mr. Speaker, as a United States Marine Corps veteran, you can bet your bottom dollar that I believe that this bill would not harm a single veteran, and I would not bring it forward to this floor if I thought it would. Veterans do not need a bill that makes Members feel good for a day and then dies in the Senate. They need legislation that can pass.
Mr. Speaker, veterans groups agree. I include in the Record a letter from 20 different veterans organizations in support of this legislation.
Richard Star Act would be funded through the defense authorizing committees and fu11y end the unjust wounded veteran tax on combat-injured warriors. Pay-as-you-go rules would be waived for these earned benefits. There would be complete clarity from the Administration and VA about whether long-anticipated VASRD changes will proceed independently of this bill. Unfortunately, the current environment is far from ideal, and veterans, families, survivors, and caregivers have already waited years across multiple Congresses and administrations for action on provisions that maintain strong bipartisan support.
The Administration must also provide immediate clarity on whether these rating-schedule changes are intended to proceed independently of the Take Care of America's Veterans Act through VA regulation, White House direction, or other administrative action. That clarity is essential because the bill's financing rests on assumptions that remain unresolved. If similar VASRD changes are implemented outside this legislation, the resulting savings could revert to the Treasury rather than be reinvested in veterans, families, survivors, and caregivers.
Given that reality, we believe the practical question before Congress is whether this process should continue so these resources can be reinvested in veterans, caregivers, families, and survivors, or whether the opportunity to enact this package is lost while unresolved funding questions remain. We support advancing the Take Care of America's Veterans Act because the bill represents a net expansion of benefits and support for the veteran community and contains protections intended to prevent reductions for current beneficiaries. The goodness and positive impact of this package should not be lost in the debate over its financing.
As Congress continues its consideration of this legislation, we urge Members to preserve and strengthen key protections: no retroactive harm to veterans currently receiving compensation; prospective application only to future claims or future requests for increased ratings; full transparency from VA, the White House, and the Administration regarding any independent regulatory or policy action; and a final package that ensures expanded benefits are delivered responsibly and effectively. We are committed to working with Congress, VA, the Administration, coalition partners, and the broader veteran community to improve the pay-for, identify any credible alternative path forward, and secure the strongest possible outcome.
This moment presents a clear test of whether Congress can translate long-standing bipartisan agreement into meaningful action. We support the Take Care of America's Veterans Act so the process can continue and so Congress can deliver lasting results for veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. We urge swift action to advance this legislation and stand ready to work with lawmakers in both chambers to honor our commitments to all who have served. Sincerely,
The American Legion, Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), Wounded Warrior Project, Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), American Veterans (AMVETS), Air Force Sergeants Association, American Optometric Association, Avalon Action Alliance, Commissioned Officers Association of the USPHS (COA).
Gold Star Spouses of America, K9s For Warriors, Korean War Veterans Association, Military Chaplains Association, Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH), Mission Roll Call, National Defense Committee, National Military Family Association (NMFA), USCG Chief Petty Officers Association (CPOA), Vietnam Veterans of America.
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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, veterans groups from The American Legion to the Wounded Warrior Project support this bill. Survivor groups like the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors support this bill. Caregiver organizations, like the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, support this bill. They all want this bill to pass.
Chairman Moran and I have worked for months to try to enact a law that will help the greatest number of veterans. I believe we have offered that kind of package today.
I want to take a moment to share what we have heard directly from veterans. Mission Roll Call, a national nonpartisan organization dedicated to serving veterans and their families, recently conducted a survey on my bill. They found 71 percent of veterans support the bill. I think that is a clear choice.
Mr. Speaker, as our Nation observes its 250th birthday, H.R. 9237 asks a simple question: Do we have veterans' backs? Do we have the backs of fellow Americans who raise their right hand to serve in defense of this great country, the Gold Star families who carry the cost of their loved one's sacrifice, or caregivers who every single day care for a disabled veteran family member? For me, the answer will always be ``yes,'' both during service and after.
Mr. Speaker, the ranking member knows VA has an obligation to update disability conditions based on the latest science and medicine. In his opening, he said that I am not a doctor. He is right. I am a marine. I am a truck driver, and somehow I have been blessed to serve our veterans as the chairman of the committee. He is not a doctor either. Likewise, he has been blessed by his community to be here, but what I do want to say is, for the record, the proposed changes for sleep apnea and tinnitus aren't developed by Congress.
They were developed by VA physicians. They are doctors--medical experts, doctors--and researchers under the Biden administration as part of the ongoing disability rating modernization efforts.
In testimony before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee in January 2026, VA officials stated that the Department intended to continue moving forward with respiratory ear-body system, rulemaking, and anticipated completing those efforts by the end of year 2026. That testimony was not given by career staff acting alone.
In fact, just this morning, VA officials confirmed that they are planning to move forward with the proposed rule on sleep apnea and tinnitus.
The testimony represents the official position of the Department at the time it was delivered to Congress. The question before us is not whether Congress created these proposed changes. We did not. VA's announcement makes their intention clear. This is moving forward regardless, but Ranking Member Takano would rather play politics.
The question is whether the savings associated with the proposed deployment and changes by the VA should remain in their control and the bureaucrats' control, or do we make it through our Article I power to reinvest into our veterans and their families. H.R. 9237 chooses veterans.
Mr. Speaker, I ask you to look at the testimony of Josh Jacobs, Biden Under Secretary for Benefits, and Nina Tann, President Trump's Executive Director of the Compensation Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Mr. Speaker, I don't think that the ranking member is caught up on current events. Just recently, just to confirm what we already knew, the VA officials confirmed that they are moving ahead with the changes on tinnitus, sleep apnea, and disability benefits.
VA has made no move to withdraw the sleep apnea and/or those from the changes that will then save the money that then the bureaucrats will control.
So as we are moving forward--I mean, the ranking member can keep saying things that aren't true, or he can admit this is an issue, and that is where we are coming up with the revenue.
That being said, let me tell you the next person I want to yield time to has worked on the Major Richard Star Act for years, as did his father before him.
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Mr. BOST. We have heard from the opening statement that came out of the VA, from the leadership at VA--
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Mr. BOST.--and that was sent out this morning under the approval of the Secretary.
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Mr. BOST. That is exactly the position of the VA and their administration. That was said this morning. It was sent out this morning. It is now being reported in the news.
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Mr. BOST. You can reclaim your time, but you asked the question.
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Mr. BOST.
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Mr. BOST. King-Hinds), my good friend.
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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am ready to close.
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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
I will respond to a few claims that the veterans do not want this package. It is just not true. The ranking member can disagree on the bill. He can disagree on the offset. He can argue that they would have written the package differently, but I do not think it is accurate to suggest the veterans' community, as a whole, is somehow united against this legislative package.
The package has support from a wide range of organizations, including The American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America, Mission Roll Call, Wounded Warrior Project, Military Officers Association of America, AMVETS, Concerned Veterans for America, Tragedy Assistance Programs for Survivors, Gold Star Spouses of America, the Veterans Survivor Coalition, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Veterans Justice Alliance, the National Association of State Approving Agencies, the ALS Association, Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Air Force Sergeants Association, American Optometric Association, Avalon Action Alliance, Career Education Colleges and Universities, Commissioned Officers Association of the USPHS, K9s for Warriors, Korean War Veterans Association, Military Chaplains Association, National Defense Committee, National Military Family Association, USCG Chief Petty Officers Association, Americans for Prosperity, National Federal Development Association, National Taxpayers Union, and the Association of Mature American Citizens.
Those organizations represent veterans, survivors, Gold Star families, wounded veterans, military families, advocates, and professionals who work directly with the people this bill would help.
When the ranking member claims that veterans do not want this package, that ignores millions of voices in the veterans' community who are asking Congress to act.
This bill includes longstanding priorities for veterans and, importantly, it does so in a way that is paid for and capable of actually moving from here to the Senate and to the President's desk.
At some point, we have to decide whether we are going to keep talking about these promises or actually move a package that can become law. I believe that this package is a serious, responsible step forward, and I reject the idea that veterans do not want this Congress to act on this bill.
Also, whether they want to admit it or not, the problem with most of these organizations that were in opposition is because they didn't want the offset. That offset, as I have told you this morning, as the VA has said exactly what we said, they are going to implement it.
The question for my colleagues is very simple: Do they want to use their Article I power to make decisions, as we should in Congress, to direct that money to our veterans and where they need it? We have sat and looked at these over and over again. We have also passed some of these bills and sent them over to the Senate to die because they don't have an offset.
This isn't an easy game, and it is not a game. If you don't believe this marine is serious about helping veterans--and I am telling you I took a lot of crap this week--I can tell you this: I will stand and always stand for my veterans.
I am the son of a veteran. I am the grandson of a veteran. I am the nephew of a veteran. I am the father of a veteran, and I am the grandfather of two of them.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard a lot this week. I am going to tell you, we have worked hard and did the best we can to put the best bill forward. It is the best bill that has been around in decades.
Do we want the bureaucrats to make the decision and not support those areas where we are trying to help our veterans? You can love it. You can hate it, but I am telling you, this is the best thing we can do for veterans right now. I would encourage all of my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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