424-0 Shocker: House Unanimously Passes Bill — Trump Signs It Into Law
A unanimous House vote to increase the special pension paid to Medal of Honor recipients is drawing renewed attention, but the legislation is no longer awaiting action in Washington: it became federal law months ago and the higher benefit is already in effect.
The House passed H.R. 695, the Medal of Honor Act, on Feb. 26, 2025, by a 424-0 vote, with nine members not voting.
The Senate later approved the same measure without amendment by unanimous consent on Nov. 7, 2025. President Donald Trump signed it into law on Dec. 1, making it Public Law 119-43.
That timeline is important because versions of the story circulating in 2026 can make the congressional vote sound new or leave the impression that Medal of Honor recipients are still waiting for the increase.
They are not.
The Department of Veterans Affairs currently lists the Medal of Honor special pension at $5,780 per month, effective Dec. 1, 2025. That equals $69,360 a year.
The current amount is higher than the approximately $67,500 annual figure cited while the measure was moving through Congress because the benefit is subject to cost-of-living adjustments.
VA says the pension is adjusted in step with the percentage increase applied to Social Security benefits, allowing the payment to rise with inflation rather than remain fixed indefinitely.
Before the 2025 law, the statutory base rate was $1,406.73 per month, or $16,880.76 annually.
The Medal of Honor Act replaced that fixed figure with a formula tied to a substantially higher level of veterans' special monthly compensation under Title 38.
The result was a major increase in the special pension available to living recipients of the nation's highest military decoration.
Congress created the Medal of Honor special pension more than a century ago.
In 1916, lawmakers established the Army and Navy Medal of Honor Roll and authorized a lifetime payment of $10 per month for qualifying living recipients.
Congress later increased the pension to $100 per month in 1961, $200 in 1978, $400 in 1993 and $600 in 1998.
The Veterans Benefits Act of 2002 raised the payment from $600 to $1,000 per month and established annual cost-of-living adjustments. Those adjustments eventually brought the rate to $1,406.73 before Congress enacted the latest overhaul.
Supporters of H.R. 695 argued that the prior benefit no longer reflected the unique status of Medal of Honor recipients or the public role many continue to fill long after leaving active service.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, introduced the House bill with Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Monica De La Cruz of Texas as original cosponsors.
The measure moved through the House under a procedure generally used for broadly supported legislation and encountered no opposition in the recorded vote.
When the bill reached the Senate months later, senators discharged it from the Veterans' Affairs Committee and passed it by unanimous consent, sending the measure to the president without changes.
The bipartisan path stands out in a Congress frequently divided along party lines, but the underlying benefit is also unusual because eligibility does not depend on income or financial need.
The special pension is tied to receipt of the Medal of Honor and is paid in addition to other benefits for which a recipient may qualify.
The population affected is exceptionally small.
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society currently lists 65 living recipients and 3,536 recipients across U.S. history. The Society lists 3,555 Medals of Honor awarded in total because a small number of recipients received more than one medal.
The limited number of living recipients means the law can substantially increase the payment for each eligible person while still applying to only a few dozen Americans.
The legislation also contained a second provision that received far less public attention than the pension increase.
H.R. 695 extended an existing limit under 38 U.S.C. 5503 that reduces certain VA pension payments to $90 per month for some veterans and survivors receiving qualifying government-supported nursing-home care.
The Medal of Honor Act changed the scheduled expiration date of that limitation from Nov. 30, 2031, to Jan. 31, 2033. That provision was separate from the Medal of Honor pension increase and served as another amendment to veterans law included in the same bill.
The increased Medal of Honor benefit has taken on added visibility in 2026 as the United States has recognized additional acts of extraordinary military valor.
On March 2, Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to three Army soldiers: Master Sgt. Roderick W. Edmonds and Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis posthumously, and retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson.
Edmonds was honored for extraordinary courage as a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II, including resistance that helped protect Jewish American prisoners and other U.S. servicemen.
Ollis was honored for actions in Afghanistan on Aug. 28, 2013, when he placed himself between a wounded coalition officer and a suicide bomber during an attack on Forward Operating Base Ghazni. The explosion mortally wounded him.
Richardson received the Medal for his actions near Loc Ninh, Vietnam, on Sept. 14, 1968. Army records credit him with rescuing wounded soldiers and continuing to direct air strikes after being shot, actions the Army says ultimately spared 85 lives.
Trump presented three more Medals of Honor on June 18 to retired Marine Maj. James Capers Jr., retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery and, posthumously, Marine Col. John W. Ripley.
Capers was recognized for leadership during a four-day reconnaissance mission in Vietnam in 1967, where he continued directing his team despite severe wounds.
Ripley was honored for his actions at the Dong Ha Bridge in Vietnam in 1972, where he repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire while placing explosives that destroyed the bridge and helped halt a major North Vietnamese advance.
Dockery received the Medal for actions in Afghanistan in 2012, when he repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire while protecting and evacuating wounded soldiers and directing aircraft during a prolonged battle.
The renewed focus on the Medal also coincides with the operation of the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas.
The museum opened to the public on March 25, 2025, rather than remaining a future project. The more than 100,000-square-foot facility includes roughly 31,000 square feet of exhibition galleries devoted to the history of the Medal and the people who received it.
Taken together, those developments make the current story substantially different from a simple report about a bill moving through Congress.
The 424-0 House vote occurred in February 2025. The Senate completed congressional action in November. Trump signed the legislation in December. And VA now lists the increased monthly pension as an active benefit.
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For living Medal of Honor recipients, the question is no longer whether Congress will authorize a substantial increase.
Congress already did, and the higher pension is now part of federal law.
