Veterans Call on Congress to Reject Disability Benefit Cuts in the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act
The Unite for Veterans Coalition (U4V) is calling on Congress to reject the disability compensation provisions in the Take Care of America's Veterans Act (H.R. 9237), which would permanently eliminate VA disability ratings for tinnitus and cut compensation for most veterans with sleep apnea — stripping earned benefits from future claimants to generate an estimated $15–20 billion in cuts.
The bill packages these cuts alongside the Major Richard Star Act and more than 100 other veterans' provisions. U4V supports standalone passage of the Richard Star Act. What the coalition will not support is using one group of veterans’ earned compensation to fund benefits for another.
"There is a version of this bill that Congress could pass that does not cut anyone's disability benefits," retired Marine Lt. Col. Joe Plenzler, combat veteran and Unite for Veterans spokesperson. "Veterans served. They were injured. They were told those injuries would be compensated. That promise does not expire, and it is not a line item."
Nearly 3.2 million veterans currently receive compensation for tinnitus — the single most common service-connected disability in the United States. Sleep apnea affects hundreds of thousands more. These are not administrative errors or generous interpretations of eligibility. They are the documented physical consequences of military service: years of weapons fire, aircraft noise, sleep deprivation, and combat stress that follow veterans home.
The Take Care of America's Veterans Act would grandfather existing recipients but close the door permanently — by statute — to all future claimants. A VA analysis estimates cuts to disability payments of up to $57 billion over ten years, affecting up to 1.5 million veterans. Once codified into law, reversing these cuts would require the kind of sustained national organizing effort that preceded the PACT Act — years of work, with no guarantee of success.
Veterans' disability compensation exists because service causes injury. It is not a budget line item, and it should not be treated as one. Funding for it should not come from the pockets of disabled veterans.
U4V calls on all members of Congress to:
Oppose any legislation that uses VA disability compensation as a budgetary offset;
Support a standalone vote on the Major Richard Star Act;
Commit publicly to opposing any bill that cuts earned VA disability benefits.
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