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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

​April 2026

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If you’ve been a member of the Military Officers Association of America for more than one year, you probably have an idea of the legislative advocacy undertaken by the national organization on a daily basis and the annual event that invites volunteers from all over the United States to bring a calculated message to the US Congress on one day. The former name of the event, taken from a tactical military operation, may not be appreciated by many, so the name was changed to Advocacy in Action (AiA) starting in 2021. Each year during the event, MOAA’s Government Relations team provides a few pieces of legislation to focus the message to the legislators. This year’s event took place on April 15 so personal tax returns needed to be completed before then. Many in the Council may not have had the pleasure (and I’m serious about that word) of participating in the event, so I will provide a bit of insight into not just the legislation, but also the experience. Our Council President, Col (ret) Bob Tyler has participated for 10 years. I have done 3 years in person and 2 years virtually. John DeRue, Richard Smith, and many others have also participated several times. I cannot vouch as to the good or bad of their experiences, but I hope that they were not frustrated in the setup and execution of their roles. I will let them speak to their experiences and you can ask them about it next time you see them. The same for both Bob Tyler and myself. So let’s get cracking.

 

The legislation that MOAA was focusing on this year were

 

  • The Shutdown Fairness Act (S.3168/H.R.7137)

  • The Major Richard Star Act (S.1032/H.R.2102)

  • The Governing Unaccredited Representatives Defrauding (GUARD) VA Benefits Act (H.R.1732)

  • The Military Care, Access, Reporting, and Evaluation (CARE) Act (H.R.6796)

 

The GUARD VA Benefits Act and the Military CARE Act do not currently have companion bills in the Senate, but we were given to understand that the Senate is working on bills for both Acts. The summary of these four pieces of legislation will be laid out later in this column. MOAA has assembled e-mails in the Legislative Action Center (LAC) that anyone, whether a member of MOAA or not, can send to their respective legislators. Just one, two, or a few messages may not bring any of these to the level of attention necessary for a legislator to be informed of the issue, so if there is any way possible to get more messages from a larger cohort, the impact will likely be hard-hitting. Impact cannot be attained by one person sending messages multiple times. That just becomes noise. So encouraging your Chapter members to send messages will go a long way to creating the impact necessary. If you haven’t sent messages from the LAC recently, consider maybe sending a message on the same legislation monthly. But watch for any activity that is happening in Congress with regard to the bill. Go to Congress.gov and search for the bill number in the respective chamber (S for Senate, HR for House of Representatives). You’ll be able to find out lots of information that could be helpful to you, including the status of the bill and where in the respective chamber it sits.

 

Let’s continue with AiA 2026. Almost every State was represented by a member of an Affiliated Council and/or Chapter. The number of legislators being visited on Wednesday determined the number of volunteers would be required. In the past, the Illinois delegation required visits to 19 offices—2 Senate, 17 Representative. Starting in 2025, MOAA’s strategy moved to a more focused strategy, sending volunteers to members of the House who serve on specific Committees—Armed Services, Appropriations, Ways and Means, Veterans’ Affairs, and possibly Administration. A contractor service—Soapbox—was hired to create the schedule for the volunteers to follow, which offices to visit, who would be visited, and if no visit, then dropping off materials for the staffs to consume. This strategy eliminated over half of the Illinois Representatives from visits, so the day for the Illinois teams was not onerous. Team 1 from Illinois consisted of the Council President, Bob Tyler, and a MOAA-selected individual, CDR Brian Czarnecki, USPHS. Team 2 was Southwest Chapter President Bob Norman, and a MOAA staffer, Genelle Felix, Development Directorate. Both teams met with the staffs of the Senators, and each team also met with one or two Representative staffs, and also had one or two drop-offs to make. Each office visited welcomed the teams and listened to the issues and copious notes were taken by each one. Some of the questions routinely asked about the bills were who introduced the bill, how many co-sponsors, what is the cost associated with passage. Training by MOAA on several occasions with a last update the day prior to the event, helped prepare all teams to carry the message to the legislators. Most of the bills were well understood by the staffers, especially those that were co-sponsored by the respective legislator. Now, a word of caution—just because a legislator co-sponsors a bill does not necessarily lead to their voting in favor of the bill when it comes to the floor. The hope is that the vote will be favorable, but there are several things to consider about the legislation and what it represents in costs that might cause negativity toward the legislation. The Congressional Budget Office provides estimates on some bills that may or may not be accurate, or may not be understood given realities of the affected population affected.

 

So, why did MOAA choose to focus on these pieces of legislation when there are so many out there that should be presented? Well, I cannot and will not provide an opinion on why these were selected except for the Star Act. I will say that the New Year’s Resolutions for Congress that MOAA published at the outset of 2026 actually covered three of these bills and the Star Act. The other two bills that didn’t make the cut this year for AiA were the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and the Veteran Caregiver Reeducation, Reemployment, and Retirement Act. At AiA, I learned that the WOTC had expired at the end of 2025, but is being resurrected to address the hiring of military spouses. The Star Act has also been around for a few years, has the support of nearly three-fourths of the Congress (319/78), and has yet to reach a vote as either a stand-alone bill or in a NDAA.

 

Let’s look at the bills one at a time. First, the Major Richard Star Act seeks to eradicate the combat-wounded veterans’ tax much like the widows’ tax for SBP-DIC that was overcome through legislation just a few years ago. Right now, combat-wounded veterans who are medically retired short of a full career (less than 20 years) and are entitled to VA benefits will have their military retirement pay offset by the VA disability dollar for dollar. Every service member who has served and is medically retired deserves to have the benefit of retired pay for the years that they served, and to not have that pay offset by a different benefit for their disability. I had heard that many legislators were not confident that the bill could stand alone and would be better if included in the NDAA. We’ll see. Continue to send messages periodically to the members of Congress to get this legislation moved along.

 

Next, the Shutdown Fairness Act will ensure that the military members who are required to work in spite of a government shutdown get paid. This offers financial security for the family and also helps recruiting and retention. Who wants to work, let alone put one’s life at stake, for an organization that will not pay for their services? Several other bills have been introduced that cover military and federal employees. And many only cover Fiscal Year 2026. This Act specifically covers military pay during a government shutdown in perpetuity so that whichever party controls the Chambers of Congress cannot hold hostage the military personnel for their partisan purposes. Also, MOAA is asking for amendments to cover all uniformed services—NOAA and USPHS. These are set apart from other uniformed services (police, fire, etc.) because they are commissioned officers who are eligible for veteran benefits. Non-payment during a shutdown does not just impact the member and his family, but also affects readiness of the Reserve Component. They will not be able to participate in non-active training that prepares them for their roles to back up the active duty military. This is critical for the All-Volunteer Force, recruitment and retention. Continue sending messages to your legislators.

 

Third, the GUARD VA Benefits Act restores “teeth” to the penalties for unaccredited claims agents and those who charge exorbitant fees from the veterans they are helping. MOAA’s position is that the initial filing of a claim by a veteran should be without cost. Since 2018, the VA has only been able to submit letters of reprimand to unaccredited agents, which as one would imagine, does nothing to stem the tide of these agents. These agents may promise greater benefits or faster response times with their assistance. Promises by these fraudulent agents are often overblown and never fulfilled. There is no expediency associated with an agent other than a Veteran Service Officer (VSO) filing a claim. Each claim goes through the same process at the VA. There are over 14,000 VSOs across the US who provide filing assistance free of charge, yet there are still many veterans who do not know where they can go to contact VSOs, or they are unable to travel to see a VSO. Other accredited agents who help with claims filing for a fee may be doing so with a compassionate mindset, but are still charging a fee, sometimes as much as $12,500. This Act returns penalties for the unaccredited agents who prey on unsuspecting veterans with fraudulent claims. Please submit the prepared e-mails to your elected representatives and, if you have one, add your own story to the message. These personal stories go a long way to strengthening the message.

 

Lastly, the Military CARE Act focuses on the currently serving and the care and access that these members and their families experience in the Military Healthcare System (MHS). During last year’s AiA, this issue did not even have a bill in Congress. But through the groundwork laid by MOAA and the emphasis brought by the AiA participants, there is now a bill sponsored in the House of Representatives, and soon to be in the Senate. The current feedback program—Interactive Customer Evaluation—that uses surveys after the fact do not receive the attention nor are they aggregated to determine a trend that needs addressing. The CARE Act requests that the Department of War direct the MHS  to come up with a digital system that will offer real-time feedback, coalesce the data, provide transparency on issues, and enable the Defense Healthcare Agency (DHA) to find opportunities to fix an issue or break a log jam. Adding to the frustration of the currently serving, their opportunity to seek healthcare options in the TRICARE system has been removed and they are now only eligible to change their healthcare options during Open Season or by a Qualifying Life Event. This issue also effects recruiting and retention. I’m sure that many, if not all, of us have experienced frustration interacting with the system during our military service. Use those stories to highlight the importance of capturing data that would support providing options to our currently serving members and their families. Go to the Legislative Action Center and send the message to your elected members of Congress.

 

There are several more pieces of legislation identified in the Legislative Action Center that help ensure that the military community receives their earned benefits. Don’t just stop with the first page of four AiA items. Encourage your Chapter members—and anyone else who might willingly support our efforts—to read about the other opportunities to send messages on other topics. And keep in mind that not all legislators will be familiar with or knowledgeable about each and every issue, so they need to be informed. Ideally, there will be a groundswell of messages received by the members of Congress from the many members of MOAA. Data shows that less than 25,000 of the 350,000 National members are members of Chapters. We can have a great impact with the 25,000, but we all need to be encouraging the remaining ones who are not Chapter members to add their voices to the message, join a Chapter, or somehow be engaged.

 

I was asked if I thought AiA 2026 (our Illinois team) efforts were successful, that the information provided went to the right audience, that these staff members took to heart all the requests, and that Congress would take action themselves to pass these legislations. I will say that the message was carried. Our audience was limited. Our message was clear. Copious notes were taken. Two of the three staff members I met with were familiar with the issues. But, my work beforehand, to provide to the staffs of the District offices the same information two to three weeks prior to AiA may have had a hand in the preparation of the DC staffs. Grassroots work and building a relationship with the District offices has helped me a great deal with my confidence to approach the Illinois and DC office staffs. Try it out. Start small so that you can gain a foothold and start the conversation. You may just want to stop by a District office and offer thanks for support of a particular bill by the legislator. Get your foot in the door. That’s the beauty of our ability within the State to set the stage for further engagements. Be bold. You’re doing for the next generation what the previous generation has done for us. Never stop serving.

Semper Fi – Bob Tyler

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Click Here to Enter MOAA Advocacy page to become involved with the efforts

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