Legislation that would quadruple the pensions of Medal of Honor recipients passed the House with unanimous bipartisan support on Wednesday.
The bill sailed through the House 424-0. If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, it would boost pay for those who receive the nation’s highest military award from $16,880 per year to $67,500 per year.
Proponents of the bill, led by Reps. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, and Chris Pappas, D-N.H., say the pay would ease the financial burden for medal recipients who often traverse the country for speaking engagements on their own dime.
The increased pensions are paid for through disability compensation out of Veterans’ Affairs funding. Costs associated with the pay boost would be offset by extending a limitation on pensions for veterans with no spouses or dependents from 2031 to 2033.
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The legislation would affect the 60 living Medal of Honor recipients. Some 3,500 have been awarded the medal since its inception in 1863.
Pension rolls for Medal of Honor recipients were first created in 1916, with pensioners receiving $10 per month from the federal government. The monthly stipend was raised to $100 in 1961 and $1,000 in 2002.
The legislation comes as a national Medal of Honor museum is set to open in Arlington, Texas, next month to share the stories of Americans who took heroic actions in battle.
President Donald Trump has not yet awarded the medal in his second term, but veterans and members of Congress are lobbying for him to extend it to Maj. James Capers, a Black Vietnam War veteran who saved seven fellow Marines when his recon group was ambushed and outnumbered by North Vietnamese troops in Phú Lộc in 1967.
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According to the sworn testimony of the surviving Marines, then-Lt. Capers’ unit was ambushed in the jungle, with blasts from claymore mines inflicting devastating injuries on him and his men. Despite the blasts ripping open his stomach and breaking his leg, a heavily bleeding Capers kept command of his Marines and, together with two others, held off the enemy long enough for the medevac flight to arrive.
When the overloaded aircraft struggled to take off, Capers attempted to sacrifice himself by jumping from the helicopter and insisting he be left behind until he was pulled back on board by the medevac crew chief.
Capers received multiple gunfire wounds and 19 pieces of shrapnel in the firefight, and suffers from the wounds to this day. But due to his heroic actions, Capers and all of his Marines survived.
Fox News’ Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
