Legislative Commission and Council prep for congressional visits in the hearing room of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
In what is believed to be a historic first, The American Legion Legislative Commission and Council conducted their national Washington Conference meeting Monday in the hearing room of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs at the Cannon Office Building on Capitol Hill.
To that point, American Legion Legislative Commission Chairman Matthew Shuman asked the assembled advocates to soak it in. “I encourage you to take a moment, look around, and feel the weight of this space,” he said. “This where the fate of veteran health care is debated. This is where the doors to better benefits can be opened or slammed shut. This has been the birthplace of policy that has changed lives for the better and the battlefield where flawed legislation has been stopped before it could become law. Every brick in this room, every chair, every microphone – everything in this room – has witnessed the shaping of veterans policy in America.”
In that setting, members of The American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary and Sons of The American Legion heard in person from one sitting lawmaker – U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. – along with a staffer of Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and professional staff leaders of the Senate and House Committees on Veterans’ Affairs, as well as national American Legion staff, on legislative priorities for the first session of the 119th Congress.
In preparation for personal visits this week with elected officials during the 65th American Legion Washington Conference, the commission and council discussed the shifting federal landscape, changes in Congress and the White House, the looming deadline for passage of a federal budget now functioning on a continuing resolution, and many issues that have been top of mind for The American Legion in recent years, including:
- The balance between VA and community-provided healthcare
- Concurrent receipt of DoD retirement pensions and VA disability compensation
- VA home-loan transferability
- GI Bill parity for members of the National Guard and reserves
- Relief for veterans exposed to toxic contamination while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces
Rep. Khanna, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, asked those assembled to support the Veterans Home Loan Transferability Act, which would allow veterans to transfer VA Home Loan Program benefits to immediate family members.
“You may have been fortunate to buy a house in the 1970s or 1980s or you may be fine, but your kids may need it,” he said. “Let me tell you, it’s hard if you’re in your 20s or in your 30s to get a house, even a starter house. And so … you should be able to transfer the benefit that you have to (a child or spouse) … because you have sacrificed for the country. You have earned those benefits. If you don’t need them, you should be able to transfer them.”
National American Legion Legislative Division staff discussed legislation – some freshly introduced, teed up for introduction or on the radar – that affects veterans and national security, including:
- S. 275/H.R. 740 – Veterans Assuring Critical Care Expansions to Support Servicemembers (ACCESS) Act of 2025, which would address access standards for veterans seeking health care at non-VA facilities and expand the list of criteria VA is required to determine if it’s in a veteran’s best interest to refer a patient to a community provider.
- H.R. 1004/S. 140 – Love Lives On Act that would allow surviving spouses to retain Survivor Benefit Plan and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) if they remarry; it would also allow surviving military spouses to regain TRICARE benefits if their marriage ends in death, divorce or annulment.
- H.R. 680 – Caring for Survivors Act, which would increase DIC benefits and bring them in line with other federal survivor programs.
- The National Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act that would allow National Guard and reserve members to receive GI Bill credit for service under specific duty statuses.
- H.R. 1288/S. 599 – Driver Reimbursement Increase for Veterans (DRIVE) Act that would require VA to ensure the beneficiary travel reimbursement rate for veterans is at least equal to General Services Administration (GSA) rates for federal employees. (It is currently 21 cents per mile lower.)
- Governing Unaccredited Representatives Defrauding VA Benefits Act that would reinstate criminal penalties for illegal VA claims processors.
- H.R. 488 – Combatting Cartels on Social Media Act to fight social media recruitment by transnational criminal organizations.
- U.N. Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that gives strategic and economic advantages to China and other nations in navigational rights and deep-seabed mining and is not yet ratified by the United States.
Specific priorities and point papers have been posted in a Hill Visit Toolkit on legion.org. The American Legion’s Grassroots Action Center tracks the status of key bills and offers convenient access to send messages to Congress throughout the session.
Nathan Stamps of Rep. Bilirakis’ legislative staff told the group that a concurrent-receipt bill that would allow certain military retirees who are also disabled veterans to receive DoD pensions without forfeiting VA disability benefits had strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate in the 118th Congress, but “we weren’t able to get there last year. There were some concerns with cost. I have some good news this year… we made some slight changes that ideally would be in a way that would allow” the measure to enter “into the area of doable” and asked Legionnaires visiting their congressional delegations this week to “please bring up the (Major Richard) Star Act.”
Four professional staff leaders from the Senate and House Committees on Veterans’ Affairs shared with the Legionnaires priorities of their chairmen and ranking members in a “four-corners” panel discussion.
Panelists addressed the ACCESS Act; VA Accountability Act; GI Bill Parity Act; the Major Richard Star Act; improvements to the landmark PACT Act of 2022 that opened VA health care and benefits to more than 3.5 million previously ineligible veterans exposed to toxic contamination in the service; and other measures.
Speaking to the group were Jon Clark, staff director to House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill.; Hunter Thompson, staff member of Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; Matt Reel, staff director for Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., ranking member of the House committee; and Tony McClain, staff director for Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ranking member of the Senate committee.
Panelists and speakers on both sides of the aisle emphasized the importance of working together with The American Legion and governing with civility to put the best interests of veterans first.
Khanna put it this way: “We’re going through a very difficult time … where the very idea of American leadership is being questioned. And I don’t think it’s going to change from the people in this building. I think it’s going to change from people like you, in the communities, leading, who have sacrificed, who have worn the uniform, saying we deserve better in our leadership, we deserve more inspirational voices, more civil voices, more dialogue … patriotism that brings us together, regardless of party. The fact that you’re here shows that you deeply care about our democracy still. My appeal to you is to help lead us as a country.”
Shuman reminded American Legion Family members that the organization is recognized as “the most powerful, most respected, most unyielding veterans service organization in the United States. The power is not an accident. It’s not a gift. It was earned by the incredible people who have come before us, by the dedication of the people in this room and by the unshakeable belief that this nation must do right by the people who defended it.”
- Washington Conference