Congress expands Medal of Honor survivor benefits—no trade-off.
H.R. 803 — Sergeant Gary Beikirch Medal of Honor Act · Filed by Joseph Morelle (D-NY) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 28, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill allows the surviving spouse of a Medal of Honor recipient to receive a special Medal of Honor pension at the same time as dependency and indemnity compensation (a survivor benefit). Currently, federal law forces survivors to choose one or the other. The bill removes that restriction by deleting a provision that prohibited concurrent receipt of both benefits.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to remove a restriction on concurrent receipt of two survivor benefits for Medal of Honor recipients' spouses. It is a straightforward expansion of existing veteran benefits, not a tax provision, appropriation, or regulatory change.
What the text implies
- The bill does not specify an effective date or retroactive application, so the timing of benefit commencement for current survivors is unclear from the text alone and depends on how the VA implements the change.
- Fiscal impact is not quantified in the bill; the cost depends on the number of Medal of Honor recipients' surviving spouses currently living and the difference between the two benefit amounts.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Surviving spouses of Medal of Honor recipients gain additional financial support without losing existing benefits. This expands a benefit available to a narrow but honored group without imposing costs on other citizens or reducing public services.
Who stands to gain
- surviving spouses of Medal of Honor recipients
Named in the bill
Department of Veterans Affairs, Medal of Honor recipients, 38 U.S.C. § 1562, dependency and indemnity compensation
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- Jan 28, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 28, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Veterans' Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs”
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 (267 characters) on Aug 13, 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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