Sponsors (5)
The bill raises and modernizes Medal of Honor pensions and temporarily preserves related authorities—improving recognition and administrative clarity for a small group of veterans and giving VA time to adapt—at the cost of modestly higher federal spending and some additional implementation and budgeting complexity for VA and taxpayers.
Medal of Honor recipients would receive higher monthly special pensions by tying the pension to current §1114(m) compensation rates, increasing their monthly income.
Medal of Honor recipients would have their pension rounded up to the next intermediate rate, ensuring they receive at least the next higher pay step instead of a lower fractional amount.
Medal of Honor recipients and VA staff would benefit from a clarified, modernized pension formula (cross‑reference to §1114(m)), making benefit calculations clearer and easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to administer.
Taxpayers would face increased federal spending to fund higher special pensions and the extended statutory authority, raising budgetary costs and requiring offsets or additions to VA outlays.
VA staff and other federal employees would face added administrative and implementation burden to update payment systems and apply the new pension formula.
Tying the special pension to §1114(m) could complicate VA budgeting and make recipient payments less predictable because the pension would track broader compensation schedules.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Ties the Medal of Honor special pension to the §1114(m) veteran-without-dependents rate (rounded up to the next intermediate rate), bars duplicate increases in a year, and extends a date in §5503(d)(7) to Jan 31, 2033.
Changes how the Department of Veterans Affairs calculates the monthly special pension paid to living Medal of Honor recipients by tying the pension to the veteran-without-dependents rate under 38 U.S.C. §1114(m), rounded up to the next intermediate rate, and prevents an additional annual increase if the special pension was already increased earlier that year. Also extends an existing statutory date in 38 U.S.C. §5503(d)(7) from November 30, 2031 to January 31, 2033, and designates a short title for the Act. The bill requires the VA to use the §1114(m) compensation level (rounded up to the next intermediate rate under §1114(p)) as the monthly Medal of Honor special pension, changes the earlier numeric reference, and adds a guard against applying two increases to that pension in the same calendar year. It also delays the deadline/expiration referenced in §5503(d)(7) by 14 months.
Introduced January 23, 2025 by Troy E. Nehls · Last progress December 1, 2025