Purple Heart Legislation Update (September 19, 2022)
Top Level Summary
A major breakthrough occurred September 1, 2022 when Senate Republicans and Democrats reached preliminary agreement about a “compromise” legislative proposal to help Purple Heart veterans. The compromise would improve the ability of veteran service organizations (VSOs), the public, and Gold Star families to identify, verify, and serve Purple Heart veterans. A series of procedural hurdles must still be overcome to pass the bill into law. Should the “compromise” proposal become law, the goal is to do so before the November elections, but broader political tensions could chill the speed of passage. The legislative vehicle (the larger package into which the Purple Heart provision can be folded) is National Defense Authorization Act of 2023, nicknamed “NDAA”; NDAA is the annual “must-pass” bill that funds the military. The fates of the Purple Heart provision and NDAA are tied.
What is in the “Compromise Proposal”?
The “compromise proposal” includes three pillars:
- Department of Defense (DOD) and its branches, e.g. Marine Corps, will be required to publish online accessible information about the history and eligibility criteria for the Purple Heart Medal in order to improve general public knowledge and observation of this unique award. The information will be able to be readily shared by VSOs, which can utilize the information as a tool for improving public awareness.
- The DOD, and each branch thereof, will be required to include online clearly accessible point-of-contact information for a liaison officer that VSOs, veterans, or next-of-kin can contact to certify the veracity of individual Purple Heart Awards. Inquiries or verification requests will be honored and processed for any combat wounded veteran that received the Purple Heart after December 31, 2002.
- DOD will be subject to Congressional reporting requirements. Within one year of enactment, DOD will submit to Congress a report that includes details on implementation of the law, data on the average response time for each individual verification inquiry, and recommendations for how to improve the process and timeliness thereof.
Background
The Purple Heart legislative provision (PHP) originated two years ago in response to VSOs calling for improved Purple Heart Award identification and verification processes. The original idea was to establish an online, publicly available database; remarkably, such a database does not exist today. That idea was ultimately scrapped due to a combination of concerns with privacy and practicality of implementation.
What was agreed upon was that improved information about Purple Heart awardees will help VSOs direct critically needed resources and support to those who need it most. With awardee verification processes in place, the integrity and efficacy of resource investment (and the confidence of those entities that fund efforts) will improve dramatically: a commonly shared goal.
Amid negotiations, PHP legislation passed in the House of Representatives in 2021, a critical step, but it ultimately failed to secure passage in the Senate. The legislation was bipartisan and led by Congressman Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA-37). The reason for subsequent failure in the Senate was due to objections from DOD and the Biden administration about practicality of implementation, among others.
Fast forward to 2022, Congressman Reschenthaler once again succeeded in leading a bipartisan charge to pass the PHP provision in the House. In 2022, Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) bolstered Senate side efforts and introduced a new proposal. Their effort was aided by the support of a robust group of bipartisan senators (Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jon Tester (D-MT, Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee), Jackie Rosen (D-NV), Steve Daines (R-MT), Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Rick Scott (R-FL).
Before Purple Heart legislation (Purple Heart Heroes Act) can pass into law, it is subject to a “conference process.” A conference process is a term for when the Senate and House each pass similar—but not identical—pieces of legislation, which must be merged together into a final compromise proposal that is sent to the President for signature into law. If a conference process compromise is reached, which it appears it has, then such compromise text must be “attached to a legislative vehicle” to secure final passage. In this case, the vehicle is NDAA.
In the absence of any further unforeseen political headwinds, Congress is aiming to pass NDAA before the November elections. If such occurs, the Purple Heart Heroes Act could become law as soon as Thanksgiving, with implementation required to occur within one year of enactment.
