Veterans bill quietly expands tax-sheltered savings for all—at public expense

What it does

This bill expands Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for veterans by removing the requirement that they have a service-connected disability, allowing any honorably discharged veteran to open an HSA. It also permits HSA withdrawals tax-free during caregiving leave (under the Family and Medical Leave Act), removes the requirement to be enrolled in a high-deductible health plan to use an HSA, and doubles the annual contribution limit to $9,000 ($18,000 for joint returns). Veterans can use HSA funds to supplement or cover costs not fully paid by their VA benefits.

Why we flagged it

The bill's title and opening language invoke highway safety and veterans benefits, but the operative text is a sweeping expansion of HSA tax benefits—removing the high-deductible health plan requirement, doubling contribution limits, and permitting tax-free caregiving withdrawals. The veterans provisions are real but narrow; the broader HSA liberalization is the bill's true mechanism and primary fiscal impact.

• Removal of high-deductible health plan requirement and doubling of HSA contribution limits applies to ALL HSA users, not just veterans. This is a general tax expenditure unrelated to the stated highway safety or veterans-specific purpose.

What the text implies

• The bill removes the high-deductible health plan (HDHP) requirement for HSA eligibility, allowing individuals with any health insurance (or none) to contribute to HSAs. This fundamentally changes HSAs from a cost-containment tool tied to consumer-directed health plans into a general tax-sheltered savings account, with no stated limit on who can use it.
• Doubling the HSA contribution limit to $9,000 ($18,000 joint) creates a new tax-advantaged savings vehicle for high-income earners who can afford to max out contributions. The benefit is regressive: only those with disposable income can use it, and the tax benefit scales with marginal tax rate.
• The caregiving leave provision (Section 3) ties tax-free HSA withdrawals to FMLA leave only, excluding unpaid caregiving, informal leave, or caregiving outside the FMLA framework. This is narrower than the bill's framing suggests and may exclude many caregivers.
• The bill requires Treasury and VA to report on HSA use by veterans and coordinate to prevent duplication, but provides no enforcement mechanism or penalty for misuse. Reporting without enforcement is a transparency gesture, not a control.
• The title 'HSAs For Heroes Act' and opening reference to 'highway safety' are disconnected from the bill's actual operative text. The highway safety grant program mentioned in the opening is never defined or funded—the bill is entirely about HSA tax code amendments.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Veterans gain expanded tax-advantaged savings and withdrawal flexibility for health and caregiving expenses, a concrete benefit. However, the bill removes the high-deductible health plan requirement and doubles contribution limits for all HSA users (not just veterans), creating a tax expenditure that primarily benefits higher-income individuals who can afford to contribute and save, while the caregiving provision is narrowly tied to FMLA leave (excluding many caregivers). The net public cost is

Who stands to gain

• health insurance companies (HSA administrators and custodians)
• high-income individuals and families (primary beneficiaries of expanded tax-advantaged savings)
• financial services firms offering HSA investment products
• veterans with sufficient income to contribute to HSAs

Named in the bill

Internal Revenue Code Section 223, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), Veterans Affairs (VA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Title 38 USC (veterans benefits), Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Humana (HUM) — semantic affinity via health insurance/HSA administration

Where it stands

• Nov 7, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Nov 7, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $340,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 9 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.

Andy Biggs, the sponsor, reported $9,100 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Philanthropy Roundtable — $280,000 on 2 filings
• University of Louisville — $60,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.