For decades, disability ratings have been based on medical evidence and the real-world impact of a service-connected condition on a veteran’s life. Section 108 of the introduced Take Care of America’s Veterans Act — House Resolution 9237/Senate Bill 4744, sponsored by senior Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran — would move Congress directly into that process by changing how certain disabilities, including tinnitus and sleep apnea, are evaluated and compensated.
There are more that 200,000 veterans in the Kansas City metropolitan area, according to Veterans Affairs data, an estimated 65,000 of them disabled. That should concern every veteran and every member of Congress.
Congress can barely perform its most basic responsibilities. It routinely fails to pass budgets on time, relies on continuing resolutions to keep the government open, struggles to conduct meaningful oversight of the agencies it creates, and has spent decades trying to fix a Veterans Affairs claims system that remains frustratingly complex for many veterans. Yet now, some in Congress apparently believe they should be in the business of deciding how disabled a veteran is.
If politicians cannot reliably handle the responsibilities already assigned to them, why should veterans trust them to make individualized medical and vocational determinations that require specialized expertise?
The issue is not whether disability ratings should ever change. They should, when the medical evidence supports it.
The issue is who should be making those changes and why.
The ratings changes that members of Congress seek to codify did not originate with those lawmakers. They stem from a 2022 VA rulemaking proposal that generated significant opposition from veterans, advocates and stakeholders who questioned both the medical rationale and the practical consequences of the changes. The VA received more than 2,600 comments during the notice-and-comment process, yet Congress is moving to legislate the proposal before the VA has completed the process Congress itself established for evaluating such changes.
The Constitution begins with “We the people.” Thousands of veterans spoke out because they were told their voices mattered. Congress should not make those voices irrelevant by legislating the outcome before the process has run its course.
Supporters of Section 108 argue that the proposed changes would modernize the disability compensation system and generate savings to fund other veterans’ priorities. But disabled veterans should not be asked to finance veterans legislation.
Disability ratings are not supposed to be budgetary tools. They are part of the nation’s commitment to compensate veterans for injuries incurred in service to their country. When Congress alters ratings to fund other priorities, it transforms what should be an evidence-based medical determination into a political calculation.
Section 108 raises a fundamental question about the future of the disability system: Should ratings be determined by medical expertise and evidence, or should they become another subject of political compromise whenever Congress needs to offset the cost of a new initiative?
If Congress succeeds in using future disability compensation as offsets, it would establish a troubling precedent. Future Congresses may increasingly view earned disability compensation as a funding mechanism rather than a solemn obligation owed to those who served.
Congress has a critical role to play in veterans policy: funding VA, conducting oversight, improving access to care and ensuring veterans receive the benefits they have earned.
If disability ratings need to change, they should change because the evidence demands it, after a transparent regulatory process has run its course, not because a bill needs a pay-for. Veterans deserve a disability system guided by medicine, science and the actual impact of a condition on their lives, not projected budget savings.
Disability compensation is part of the nation’s commitment to those who served. It should never be treated as a budget offset.
This OpEd was written by John Muckelbauer, general counsel of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and published in the Kansas City Star on Monday, June 22, 2026, here.