Congress waives passport fees for Purple Heart and Medal of Honor recipients
H.R. 7398 — Passports for Purple Hearts and Medals of Honor Act · Filed by Mike Levin (D-CA) · 18 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 5, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill exempts military personnel awarded the Purple Heart or Medal of Honor from paying passport fees. It amends the 1920 Passport Act to add these two military honors to the list of individuals who do not owe passport application or renewal fees, and requires the State Department and Defense Department to coordinate on verifying eligibility through military service records.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a fee waiver for a specific class of military veterans. It is a straightforward benefit provision with no hidden riders or complex cross-subsidies—a direct recognition of military sacrifice through a modest financial exemption.
What the text implies
- Requires State Department and Defense Department coordination on verification, creating a new administrative process and potential data-sharing protocol between agencies.
- Eligible population is small (Purple Heart and Medal of Honor recipients number in the tens of thousands), so fiscal impact is negligible but administrative overhead may be disproportionate.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Military personnel who have been awarded the Purple Heart or Medal of Honor receive a direct financial benefit—elimination of passport fees—recognizing their service and sacrifice. The cost to the federal government is minimal (passport fees are modest and the eligible population is small), and the benefit is narrowly targeted to a group whose service to the nation justifies the recognition.
Who stands to gain
- Military veterans awarded the Purple Heart or Medal of Honor (fee waiver benefit)
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Passport Act of 1920 (22 U.S.C. § 211)
Where it stands
18 cosponsors: 10 Republicans, 8 Democrats.
- Feb 5, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 5, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Foreign Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $112,137 in lobbying spend. A filing names 109 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Mike Levin, the sponsor, reported $429,156 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Paralyzed Veterans of America — $112,137 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,227 characters) on Oct 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,388 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-21.
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