SEN. BLUMENTHAL, REP. TAKANO: Congress can fund veterans’ care without taking benefits from disabled heroes

This week, the House will vote on the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. This legislation includes nearly 60 bills, including several bipartisan priorities that we have authored and fought to advance as the top Democrats on the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees — most notably the Major Richard Star Act. Unfortunately, Republicans have chosen a partisan path to advance this legislation, and we have a serious problem with how they are proposing to pay for it.

To cover the costs of the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, Republicans want to slash benefits for disabled veterans. This reduction would come in the form of devastating cuts for millions of veterans currently eligible to receive disability benefits for tinnitus and sleep apnea.

The Republican insistence on offsetting new investments in veterans is both absurd and cruel. The cost of war includes the human cost of caring for our veterans. We make a promise to care for these men and women after their service, and a great nation keeps its promises.

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Frustratingly, the Republicans’ insistence on using this funding mechanism, known as an offset, is applied inconsistently and selectively. For instance, they spent $3.4 trillion to deliver tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy in the One Big Beautiful Bill last summer, with no regard to offsetting those costs. Despite this reality, Republicans claim the only viable path forward for the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act is enacting unprecedented cuts to disabled veterans’ benefits.

We are here to say that is simply not true. Those cuts are not acceptable to congressional Democrats or to the growing list of veterans service organizations and stakeholders who have publicly and forcefully opposed them. In fact, 46 Senate Democrats recently communicated their opposition to this offset in a letter to VA Secretary Collins — a clear and public affirmation that the Republican proposal does not have the support it needs to clear the Senate.

While we do not believe an offset is appropriate or necessary, we are willing to compromise with our Republican colleagues to advance critical bipartisan legislation that should not be delayed any longer. There is nearly $100 billion for the Department of Defense that remains unobligated and unspent from H.R. 1, a law enacted more than a year ago. A small portion of those funds could easily be redirected to cover the human costs of war reflected in the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act.

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H.R. 1 also lowered the tax rate for the richest Americans from 39.6% to 37%. Restoring that rate to 39.6% only for the top 0.1% of all income earners — those making over $25 million — would generate enough revenue to cover the costs of the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. Both proposals would be widely supported by the American people and would allow us to avoid a partisan and contentious debate that divides the veterans community by pitting veterans against veterans.

We, and our Democratic colleagues, are ready to find a solution. We want to see many of the priorities in the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act signed into law. We want to get the Major Richard Star Act across the finish line. But we cannot accept a Republican "take it or leave it" approach — or the false narrative that cutting veterans’ benefits is the only way to get the job done.

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There are other viable ways to pay for this legislation, and Republican leaders must come to the table and engage in a meaningful bipartisan process. The longer they pursue their current partisan path, the less time we have to identify a workable solution to enact the Major Richard Star Act and the other bipartisan priorities in this package.

The Veterans’ Affairs Committees have long been among the most bipartisan committees in Congress. We worked together to enact the PACT Act — the largest expansion of health care and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances in generations — without cutting benefits for other veterans. We can achieve something similarly historic again if we follow that same bipartisan approach today.

Veterans deserve meaningful results from a grateful nation — not empty promises. And they should never be handed an invoice when the costs of war come due.

Democrat Mark Takano represents California's 39th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.

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