Sponsors (19)
The bill removes passport fees and establishes an interagency verification process to ease travel access for Purple Heart and Medal of Honor recipients, trading modest administrative and fiscal costs and a risk of verification-related delays for some veterans.
Eligible veterans (Purple Heart and Medal of Honor recipients) will no longer pay passport application fees, lowering out‑of‑pocket travel costs for those recipients.
The Department of Defense and State Department will use a formal MOU to verify entitlement and clarify documentation, speeding passport processing and reducing uncertainty for applicants and consular staff.
Some eligible veterans may still face delays or difficulty obtaining passports if verification or documentation standards are applied narrowly or require burdensome proof.
Implementing and operating the DoD–State verification mechanism will require staff time and resources at both agencies, adding administrative workload for federal employees.
Taxpayers will absorb the lost passport fee revenue for eligible recipients, creating a small additional cost to the Treasury.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 5, 2026 by Mike Levin · Last progress February 5, 2026
Adds a passport fee exemption for people who were awarded the Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor and requires the Secretary of State to create a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Secretary of Defense to help verify eligibility and set documentation rules. The MOU must include procedures for establishing appropriate proof for applications and a mechanism for DoD to cross-check applicants’ service records. Eligible veterans would be exempt from passport service fees for new applications and renewals (as specified by the law), and consular staff will coordinate with the Department of Defense to confirm awards and service records. Implementation is likely to create a small administrative workload for verification but has limited fiscal impact because it reduces fee revenue for a small group of recipients.