📅 June 16, 2026Legislation
The “Take Care of America’s Veterans Act” bundles 62 veteran bills into one package
Stars and Stripes published the full list of all 62 bills folded into this sweeping package, which was assembled by the chairmen of the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees. It pulls together a stack of long-stalled priorities — the Major Richard Star Act (full retirement pay plus VA disability for combat-injured retirees), the Love Lives On Act (protects surviving spouses who remarry), and the Veterans ACCESS Act (private-care options when VA care isn’t timely) — alongside dozens of smaller reforms covering rural-veteran travel help, GI Bill apprenticeship fixes, regional call centers, and caregiver support. The catch is in the fine print: the package is partly paid for by reducing future disability compensation for sleep apnea and tinnitus, which is the part drawing heavy criticism.
Bottom Line: A single vote could finally deliver several wins veterans have wanted for years — but the same bill’s funding mechanism could reshape how sleep apnea and tinnitus are compensated going forward. If either condition is part of your claim picture, follow this one closely.
📅 June 10, 2026Legislation
Senate & House VA chairmen introduce comprehensive veterans legislation
Senate VA Committee Chairman Jerry Moran and House VA Committee Chairman Mike Bost formally introduced the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. Three of its headline provisions stand out: the Major Richard Star Act, which would let an estimated 50,000-plus combat-injured retirees draw their full military retirement pay AND their VA disability compensation without today’s offset; the Love Lives On Act, which would let eligible surviving spouses keep VA and Defense Department survivor benefits if they remarry; and the Veterans ACCESS Act, which expands community (private) care options when the VA can’t see you in a timely way. Important: this is introduced legislation, not law yet — it still has to pass both chambers and be signed before anything takes effect.
Bottom Line: If you’re a combat-injured “Chapter 61” retiree or a surviving spouse who has worried about remarriage rules, this is the bill to track. Nothing changes for you until it actually passes, so don’t change any financial or marriage plans based on it yet.
📅 June 2026Ratings Alert
Veterans groups push back on a proposed offset that would cut future sleep apnea & tinnitus benefits
To help pay for the package, lawmakers proposed reducing future VA compensation for sleep apnea and tinnitus — a reduction VA estimates at up to $57 billion over 10 years, affecting roughly 1.5 million veterans. In practice, tinnitus would essentially stop being compensated on its own, and sleep apnea compensation would drop sharply for veterans whose symptoms are controlled by a CPAP machine. DAV — the nation’s largest disabled-veterans organization — called it a budget-driven “poison pill” rather than a medically justified change, and a bipartisan group of senators publicly objected. One nuance worth understanding: DAV warns the language is written to apply not only to brand-new claims but also to future re-evaluations or reassessments of existing claims, so it is not a clean “everyone already rated is safe forever” guarantee.
Bottom Line: This mainly threatens future sleep apnea and tinnitus compensation, but DAV reads it as potentially reaching re-evaluations of current claims too. If these conditions matter to you, it’s smart to get properly evaluated and documented now — and to watch whether this offset survives the final bill.
📅 June 2026Claims Processing
VA processes 2 million disability claims in record time — backlog at a multi-year low
VA announced that, as of June 1, 2026, it had processed more than two million disability claims this fiscal year — faster than ever before. The average time to reach a decision fell to about 78.6 days, down from roughly 141 days in early 2025. The backlog (claims pending more than 125 days) dropped under 100,000 in February 2026 for the first time since 2020 and has since held below 75,000, while VA reports decision accuracy above 94%. In plain terms, the system is currently moving claims through more quickly — and more accurately — than it has in years.
Bottom Line: If you’ve been putting off filing because you expected an endless wait, the timeline right now is far shorter than it was. A complete, well-documented claim is your best lever to keep things moving fast — file the strongest claim you can rather than a rushed one.
📅 2026 · Proposed RuleRatings Alert
VA proposes updates to the rating schedule for respiratory, auditory & mental disorders
Separate from the legislation above, VA has a long-pending proposed rule to overhaul how several conditions are rated. Under it, the “automatic” 50% sleep apnea rating tied to CPAP use would go away — a case fully treated by a CPAP could be rated as low as 0% — and tinnitus would lose its standalone 10%, scored only as a symptom of the underlying ear condition. At the same time, many mental health conditions would become easier to rate at 70–100% under a new, more holistic domain-based system, with a guaranteed 10% minimum for any service-connected mental health diagnosis. As of 2026 no final rule has been published, and VA has said veterans with existing ratings would be grandfathered (protected); the new criteria would apply to claims filed after any final rule takes effect.
Bottom Line: Nothing here is final and your current ratings are protected. But the direction is clear — if sleep apnea or tinnitus may be in your future filing plans, getting evaluated before a final rule could matter, while the mental-health changes may actually help new claimants.
📅 FY 2026PACT Act
PACT Act keeps expanding — but reporting and back-pay timing have shifted
The PACT Act continues to expand toxic-exposure care and presumptive conditions, pulling more post-9/11 and Vietnam-era veterans and survivors into eligibility. Two practical updates for 2026: VA moved its PACT Act performance reporting from monthly to quarterly, and the special backdating window — which let claims filed by the August 2023 deadline be paid all the way back to Aug. 10, 2022 (the day the law was signed) — has closed. Most new PACT Act claims are now effective the date VA receives them, not 2022. (Note: a separate one-year filing rule can still set an earlier effective date in certain situations, so individual cases vary.)
Bottom Line: The big retroactive back-pay window is gone, so every month you wait to file is potentially money left on the table. If you have a presumptive condition, file now — your effective date generally starts when VA receives the claim.
📅 Effective Dec 1, 2025Your Check
2026 COLA: VA disability, DIC and pension payments rose 2.8%
A 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) raised VA disability compensation, TDIU, Special Monthly Compensation (SMC), DIC survivor benefits, and VA pension. The increase took effect December 1, 2025, so the first larger payment landed at the end of December 2025 (the December benefit is paid on the first business day of January). It’s automatic — there’s no form to file — and it applies to every affected benefit you already receive.
Bottom Line: No action is needed, but it’s worth confirming your deposit actually reflects the 2.8% bump. If your payment didn’t change, double-check your award details or ask a VA-accredited VSO to review it.