Coast Guard combat veterans finally get same tax relief as other branches
H.R. 2973 — Coast Guard Combat-Injured Tax Fairness Act · Filed by Donald Davis (D-NC) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 21, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill extends a 2016 law that restored improperly withheld taxes from combat-injured veterans' severance payments to include Coast Guard members. The 2016 law applied only when the Coast Guard was under the Department of Defense; this bill adds Coast Guard members under the Department of Homeland Security (and historically under the Department of Transportation) so they receive the same tax relief and refund identification process as other combat-injured veterans.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole function is to extend an existing 2016 tax-relief mechanism to Coast Guard members previously excluded due to departmental jurisdiction shifts. It is a technical correction to ensure equal treatment of combat-injured veterans across all service branches.
What the text implies
- The bill implicitly acknowledges that Coast Guard members under DHS/DOT were denied tax relief available to other combat-injured veterans for years—a gap that may have affected hundreds of individuals and their families.
- Requires DHS and DOT to identify and report improperly withheld amounts within one year, creating a one-time administrative burden but also a clear deadline for resolving the backlog.
- The phrase 'and for other purposes' in the title is boilerplate and does not indicate hidden riders; the operative text is narrowly scoped to Coast Guard tax fairness.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Combat-injured Coast Guard veterans are corrected to receive the same tax fairness treatment as other service members—identifying and restoring improperly withheld taxes from their severance. This closes a gap in existing law and harms no one; the only cost is administrative compliance by federal agencies.
Named in the bill
Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Transportation (DOT), Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016, Public Law 114–292
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Apr 21, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 21, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,942 characters) on Jul 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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