This means no witnesses, no amendments accepted, no changes to the bill.

Tonight at 4:00 PM Eastern, in room H-313 of the Capitol, the House Rules Committee meets on H.R. 9237, the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. The agenda entry reads “Rule Markup Only.”

The committee is finalizing the terms under which the House will vote, and those terms are a closed rule. Not one Representative of either party will be permitted to offer an amendment on the House floor.

The matter of contention is that Section 108 pays for this package, including the long-overdue Major Richard Star Act, by restricting future disability ratings for tinnitus and sleep apnea.

Per VA’s own analysis: up to 1.5 million future claimants, up to $57 billion over ten years. Tomorrow’s retired pay offset elimination is being paid for by all future veterans who will be evaluated for tinnitus and sleep apnea.

National Veterans Organizations Endorsements.

Twenty of the nation’s leading veterans organizations signed a letter supporting this bill, stating that legislating rating-schedule changes “is not a standard path.” Congress should act “without requiring offsets from future disability compensation.” The Star Act “would be funded through the defense authorizing committees.” And “pay-as-you-go rules would be waived for these earned benefits.”

Federal law already exempts veterans’ compensation from PAYGO’s enforcement mechanism (2 U.S.C. § 905). The budget rules that supposedly required this offset are waivable, and the House proved it by waiving all points of order against this very bill. Yet, Congress suspended its own budget rules to pass the package while claiming budget rules forced it to cut future veterans’ ratings. Both cannot be true.

So the organizations acknowledged that PAYGO could be waived and endorsed the bill anyway, omitting any acknowledgement of the absurdity of Congress’s claim that the rules forced it to cut veterans’ benefits, and saying nothing about the closed rule that locked opposing members of Congress out of introducing amendments to strike Section 108.

Their letter urged Congress to “preserve and strengthen key protections” six days after the door to do so had been shut in the House.

Silence on process is a position. It is the position that how veterans’ benefits get cut matters less than whether a package moves before recess. COWAC does not share that position, and neither should you.

The House is nearly finished. The Senate is not. S. 4744 sits on the Senate calendar, where amendments remain possible, and sixty votes are still required. That is where Section 108 can be struck, and where the Star Act can be funded the way even this bill’s supporters admit it should be — by the Department of Defense, whose wars created these injuries.

Take Action Now:

Support the veterans in this package and tell them the bill to correct retired pay offsets does not belong to the men and women who haven’t filed their claims yet. Strike Section 108!

Take action: Find and contact your two Senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

Contact the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee members: https://www.veterans.senate.gov/members

Chairman Moran: https://www.veterans.senate.gov/contact-chairman

Ranking Member Blumenthal: https://www.veterans.senate.gov/contact-ranking-member