House Delays Vote on $60 Billion Veterans Bill as VA Eyes Rating Changes
Updated
Updated · Task & Purpose · Jul 16
House Delays Vote on $60 Billion Veterans Bill as VA Eyes Rating Changes
3 articles · Updated · Task & Purpose · Jul 16
Summary
A planned House vote on the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act was postponed Thursday after a bid to send the package back to committee failed by one vote.
The delay followed news that the VA intends to keep advancing its audiology rulemaking, potentially making the bill’s proposed savings from sleep apnea and tinnitus rating changes less central.
The legislation would cut future disability compensation by an estimated $57 billion over 10 years by replacing sleep apnea’s standalone 30% rating and treating tinnitus as a symptom, not a separate condition.
Those savings would help fund expanded benefits including the Richard Star Act, but Disabled American Veterans and 46 Senate Democrats and independents oppose the measure as a cut to earned compensation.
More than 20 veterans groups back the bill, arguing that if the VA acts on its own, the savings would flow to the Treasury instead of being redirected to veterans and families.