Posted November 11, 2026
This afternoon, on Veterans Day, the House passed the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, H.R. 9237. The bill had been stalled since July, when a motion to recommit failed 210 to 211 and further proceedings were postponed. Leadership brought it back to the floor today as unfinished business, and according to the House Clerk’s floor record the House passed it by voice vote at about 2:46 p.m. Eastern. The motion to reconsider was laid on the table, which closes the matter in the House. Because the vote was a voice vote, there is no recorded roll call showing how individual members voted. The bill now heads to the Senate.
We have said from the start that this bill carries provisions our community needs. We support Section 311, which would establish a VA Blast Overpressure Task Force, the kind of standing body that could finally put occupational blast exposure on a formal footing inside the VA. We support Section 310, the Precision Medicine for Veterans Initiative, including its language adding military occupation data to VA suicide reporting, a change that would help connect blast exposed career fields to the health outcomes we keep seeing. Those two sections are worth fighting for.
Our objection has always been Section 108. It restructures how the VA rates tinnitus and obstructive sleep apnea, and it is written as a budget offset to help pay for the rest of the bill. It has nothing to do with blast overpressure. The minority on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and major veterans service organizations, including the VFW, have opposed it, and opponents estimate it would reduce veterans’ benefits by at least 57 billion dollars over time. Veterans earned those ratings. Using them to pay for unrelated priorities is the wrong way to do right by the people this bill claims to help.
The fight now moves to the Senate. The Senate companion, S. 4744, has been sitting on the Senate Legislative Calendar since June, and an earlier attempt to pass it by unanimous consent was blocked. With the House bill now in hand, the Senate can take it up at any time. That is where Section 108 can still be stripped, and where Sections 310 and 311 can still be protected.
Where we stand
Our position has not changed. We support Section 310. We support Section 311. We want Section 108 struck.
If you have five minutes today, call or write your Senators. Tell them to keep the blast overpressure and precision medicine provisions that veterans actually need, and to remove the tinnitus and sleep apnea rating cuts in Section 108 before this bill goes any further. You can reach any Senate office through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and you can find your Senators at senate.gov.
Timothy Grossman
President, COWAC
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