To All MOAA Members,

The legislative environment in Washington has been difficult for many years across multiple administrations, regardless of who was in control of Congress. It made our work at MOAA more dynamic and difficult on many levels. This has never been more evident than with ongoing debates over the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (TCAVA) where information, statements, positions, and proposals have been changing by the hour.

The TCAVA is a sweeping landmark legislative package sponsored through both the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs committees, primarily driven by the majority. TCAVA bundles more than 60 individual bicameral and bipartisan provisions addressing veterans’ benefits, health care, education, transition assistance, caregiver support, and survivor benefits. Among the included provisions are 23 pieces of MOAA-supported legislation, including three of MOAA’s longest-standing legislative priorities:

• It includes our top MOAA enduring priority, the Major Richard Star Act, which provides meaningful relief to combat-injured Chapter 61 retirees who currently lose military retired pay because of the offset with VA disability compensation.
• It includes our tier one veterans’ priority for this Congress, the Veteran Caregiver Reeducation, Reemployment, and Retirement (3R) Act, which would support family caregivers who sacrifice careers and retirement security to care for severely wounded veterans.
• And it contains the Love Lives On Act, critical legislation for our surviving spouse members that would eliminate the penalty that terminates survivor benefits for spouses who remarry before age 55.

The package also carries 20 other additional bills MOAA has supported individually.

The package also contains a directed funding mechanism that generates significant debate, as funding has been and continues to be the biggest roadblock to passing veteran legislation. The TCAVA directs funding of the full package by codifying VA’s proposed rating schedule changes for sleep apnea and tinnitus. We share the concerns other organizations have raised about this offset and traditionally believe legislating changes to disability ratings, the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD), is not standard and is not a path we would typically support.

Ideally, we would see no changes to the two disability ratings, we would see a waiving of pay-go rules with no funding offsets required, we would see funding for the Major Richard Star Act through the Department of War and Armed Services committees where the issue resides, and we would have a perfectly clear picture on whether or not the rating changes would occur through VA action or White House direction.

Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world, and the current legislative environment is far from certain or ideal. As such, MOAA must take a pragmatic approach to assessing the situation and supporting the path we believe is most beneficial to veterans. This leads us to pragmatically support the TCAVA despite the less-than-ideal approach to funding the full legislation.

Changes to the VASRD associated with sleep apnea and tinnitus began in 2022. They were picked up by the current administration and VA officials testified before Congress that they intended to finalize the rating schedule changes administratively by the end of fiscal year 2026, independent of this legislation. Subsequently, the VA issued comments to a reporter stating, “No changes are planned or imminent," and that "VA is still reviewing the proposed rule, which was introduced by the Biden Administration in 2022.” Complicating matters further, MOAA heard from a variety of sources that the White House, which has interest in TCAVA, intends to release a Statement of Administrative Policy directing the VA to make the identified changes to the VASRD.

MOAA has worked very hard and continually communicated with congressional staffers, fellow veterans’ service organizations (VSOs), and administration officials, but it has been difficult and nearly impossible to find ground truth on whether the changes to the VASRD will occur independent of the TCAVA legislation. If the changes occur independent of the legislation, the associated savings from the VASRD adjustments revert to the Treasury, making this a worst-case scenario. We would have a reduction in ratings for the two conditions, the Treasury would absorb potentially available funding for veterans, with none of the associated bills in TCAVA enacted — taking us back to square one yet again. While we have no way of being 100% certain, MOAA believes the potential inevitability of the VASRD changes occurring requires a pragmatic rather than an idealistic approach.

As such, we have taken several measures to help maximize positive outcomes. First, we consistently insisted on two protections throughout our review:

1. Veterans currently receiving compensation for these conditions would see no reduction in their existing ratings, and
2. Any changes would apply prospectively to only future claims and future requests for revised ratings.

Both provisions are contained in the TCAVA legislation, meaning if enacted, veterans currently receiving compensation would be unaffected. For future veterans, the VASRD changes do not prohibit these conditions from being treated by the VA; it changes the way they are rated or viewed by the VA.

Another key point: If the legislation is enacted, it takes responsibility for the changes out of the VA’s hands as it becomes law. Again, this is not ideal and not a preferred path but is one that could be inevitable regardless of whether the TCAVA is passed.

While these nonstandard approaches are in play, the fact is the environment we find ourselves in has been nonstandard for some time across multiple administrations. MOAA and many of our partner organizations have been frustrated at the lack of action on bipartisan-supported legislation for several years. Further, we believe prospects for finding a path for similar legislation of this impact and magnitude will become even more difficult given the pending mid-term elections and other vexing economic issues facing the nation. The TCAVA seems to represent a unique opportunity at a unique point in time.

Given these realities, the practical choice before Congress is not whether these VASRD changes occur but rather whether the resulting savings are reinvested in veterans, caregivers, survivors, and families or simply revert to the Treasury. We believe veterans should be the ones who benefit, and we believe the opportunity to enact so many key legislative priorities might not appear again for a very long time.

Some also argue that supporting the TCAVA would be precedent setting and could set a path for future benefit trades to occur regularly. While that is of course a possibility, the potential for tradeoffs has and will continue to exist during every legislative cycle. MOAA has and will always defend earned benefits and will as a matter of principal oppose actions that take that path. We believe the VSO community in general would do the same. But stopping this unique opportunity based on what could occur in and be part of a future fight would be a bit short sighted and likely not lead to a greater good for our veterans.

Various VSO partners that have indicated some level of support, with similar concerns about the funding mechanism, include the American Legion, Wounded Warrior Project, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, and the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. It is likely other VSOs also support. Other organizations we respect, including VFW, PVA, and DAV, have reached a different conclusion on this package. Looking at the same information, they came to a position of opposing it primarily due to the funding mechanism. We do not take their objections lightly, and we of course wish there was more consensus among the VSO community. Our own review took longer than some others, in part because of the package’s size and complexity, the continued uncertainty around the inevitability of the VASRD changes, and a desire to engage directly with coalition partners and others before finalizing our position.

Having weighed the package in full, our judgment is that it represents a net expansion of benefits and support for veterans, survivors, caregivers, and military families, and that the opportunity to secure long-sought-after bipartisan priorities such as the Richard Star Act and the Veteran Caregiver 3R Act outweighs the legitimate concerns raised about the rating schedule offset. This is also a unique opportunity that might not present itself again and might become even more difficult to achieve in the coming months and years.

The outcomes here are uncertain, and an expected Friday vote in the House has been delayed. We might not even see a vote and ultimately no direction from the White House or VA actions might be taken to adjust the VASRD. But MOAA believes action for our veterans — and particularly for those wounded in combat — is long overdue, and we therefore support the uncertain but unique opportunity that TCAVA presents. We will, of course, continue working with lawmakers, administration officials, and our coalition partners to find the best ways to support our veterans.