Newsbytes May 22, 2026
In this issue:
FRA On The Hill
Briley-Edmundson Act Passes
Veterans' COLA Act Clears Committee
Bost Launches VA Authority Reauthorization
28-Condition Recruit Prescreening Filter
NSA Naples Confirms Elevated Radon
Memorial Day Observances
FRA On The Hill Fighting For Non-Opioid Choice
FRA's Legislative Team spent two days on Capitol Hill this week advocating for swift passage of the Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction in the Nation (NOPAIN) for Veterans Act, H.R. 4509 and S. 3209. The bipartisan legislation would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to include FDA-approved non-opioid pain medications and biological products in the VA National Formulary and the VA Drug Standardization List once they become eligible under Medicare rules, and would prohibit substitution with opioid alternatives.
The original NOPAIN Act was signed into law on December 29, 2022, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 and took effect on January 1, 2025. It requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide separate Medicare reimbursement for qualifying FDA-approved non-opioid drugs and devices used in postoperative care. Three years on, Medicare patients enjoy meaningful access to safer pain options. Veterans do not. The VA is not bound by Medicare's formulary rules, and under current policy many FDA-approved non-opioid medications are not required to be carried by the VA at all.
The transition gap is equally severe on the active duty side. The Department of Defense and the Defense Health Agency have spent nearly a decade driving down opioid prescribing across the Military Health System, with opioid prescriptions filled across the system declining 69 percent between April 2017 and July 2021. Although TRICARE is not legally bound by the NOPAIN Act, the Military Health System has voluntarily moved in the same direction. A Sailor, Marine, or Coast Guardsman who receives modern non-opioid pain care while in uniform has every reason to expect that same standard to follow them into VA. Today, it does not.
FRA strongly supports H.R. 4509 and S. 3209 and made the case on four grounds. First, parity: Congress already decided in 2022 that non-opioid options are the right standard for Medicare, and there is no defensible reason veterans should receive a lower standard. Second, addiction and suicide prevention: veterans are roughly twice as likely as the general U.S. population to die from accidental overdose, and the link between chronic opioid exposure and veteran suicide is well documented. Third, cost: opioid-related adverse events drive significant downstream costs through extended hospital stays, readmissions, and long-term treatment of opioid use disorder, while up-front non-opioid care reduces those back-end expenses. Fourth, recruitment and retention: if the next generation sees high-quality non-opioid care delivered in uniform and then watches it disappear at the VA gate, the lifetime healthcare promise underpinning the all-volunteer force is weakened, and avoidable harm to veterans becomes an anti-recruiting story the services cannot afford.
FRA urges every Shipmate to take action. Visit the FRA Action Center at fra.org and send your Senators and Representative a message in support of the NOPAIN for Veterans Act. FRA will continue to press House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee leadership to move this bill and will pursue inclusion of its provisions in any moving veterans' health package this Congress.
House Passes Briley-Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act
On Thursday, May 21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6047, the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, by a recorded vote of 217 to 198. The bill, introduced by Representative Tom Barrett (R-MI), establishes a new supplemental monthly allowance of $833.33 (approximately $10,000 annually) for veterans already eligible for the aid and attendance allowance due to service-connected disabilities or traumatic brain injury. It also delivers two stacked COLA increases to Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) of 1.0 and 0.5 percentage points, the first non-inflation increase for surviving spouses in more than three decades. The Committee on Veterans' Affairs estimates the package will benefit more than 500,000 catastrophically injured veterans, dependents, and survivors.
Companion legislation, H.R. 1041, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, also passed the House this week. That bill prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting a veteran to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) solely because a fiduciary has been appointed to manage their benefits and requires a judicial finding of dangerousness before any such transmission may occur.
FRA strongly supports the benefit increases delivered by H.R. 6047. Catastrophically injured Shipmates living with limb loss, quadriplegia, or severe traumatic brain injury face economic burdens that current compensation tables do not meet, and surviving spouses have waited a generation for a real increase. FRA likewise supports H.R. 1041 and maintains that no veteran should forfeit a constitutional right simply for accepting administrative help managing VA benefits, as fiduciary status alone is not a mental adjudication.
FRA does, however, share the concerns raised regarding the H.R. 6047 offset mechanism. The bill is funded in part by ending the VA home loan funding fee exemption for veterans rated 70 percent disabled or below when those veterans use their VA home loan benefit a second or subsequent time. Disabled veterans have been exempt from the funding fee since the program was established under the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, and FRA holds that the expansion of benefits for one group of veterans should not come at the expense of another. FRA will press Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee leadership to preserve the benefit increases while identifying an alternative offset that does not place new costs on disabled veterans, and urges the Senate to act on companion legislation without further delay.
Veterans' COLA Act of 2026 Clears Committee
The House Veterans' Affairs Committee has advanced the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Act, ensuring that VA disability compensation and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) for surviving spouses and children rise in line with the annual Social Security COLA. The bipartisan measure was led by Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL) and Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-CA).
The mandate adjusts wartime disability compensation, additional compensation
for dependents, and clothing allowances for disabled veterans. By codifying the annual increase, the legislation removes any administrative discretion to delay or reduce the adjustment and protects beneficiaries from inflation-driven erosion of fixed-income benefits.
The Fleet Reserve Association (FRA) strongly supports this legislation. For sea service retirees, disabled veterans, and surviving families, annual COLA parity is a core promise that must be honored without exception. Consistent with FRA's standing opposition to any COLA reduction or chained-CPI substitution, the Association views automatic, Social Security-indexed adjustments as the non-negotiable floor. FRA further considers this a recruitment and retention issue: the next generation of Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen will not commit to service if they see the lifetime contract quietly devalued by inflation. FRA urges swift House floor action and a strong Senate companion.
Bost Launches VA Authority Reauthorization Push
The House Veterans' Affairs Committee has opened a comprehensive reauthorization initiative targeting more than a dozen expired VA statutory authorities that continue to receive annual appropriations despite operating under legal frameworks not updated in decades. Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL) framed the push as a corrective to bureaucratic drift, with the initiative covering VA research programs, GI Bill fraud prevention, and veteran homelessness authorities, among others.
A central piece of the package is H.R. 6764, the Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee Oversight Act, which would consolidate 16 separate VA advisory committees to reduce duplication. Some committee members raised concerns that over-consolidation could narrow direct veteran input, while others argued that rebuilding the statutory foundation must come first.
FRA supports the modernization effort and will engage committee staff directly throughout the process. For too long, sea service veterans have navigated a VA bureaucracy operating well outside original congressional intent, and rigorous reauthorization is the right corrective. FRA's conditions are clear: advisory committee consolidation cannot eliminate dedicated sea service or toxic exposure voices, and specialized clinical pipelines serving victims of military toxic exposure and maritime-specific injuries must be preserved in statute. FRA will continue to press for these protections as the reauthorization package moves forward.
MEPCOM Adds 28-Condition Recruit Prescreening Filter
The U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command (MEPCOM) has launched a front-end protocol that prescreens recruitment applicants for 28 medical conditions historically unlikely to receive a waiver. By flagging these issues before applicants book a formal physical exam, the command projects significant reductions in wait times and recruiter workload.
The list spans physical, cognitive, and mental health categories, including Type I and Type II diabetes, sickle cell disease, severe systemic allergies, diagnosed bipolar disorder, and a documented history of multiple suicide attempts. The protocol uses historical applicant data to assess each candidate's probability of clearing the full medical review process.
FRA is monitoring this rollout closely. Recruitment and retention remain among the most pressing national security challenges, and an overly automated front-end filter risks turning away high-value recruits with manageable medical profiles, including the technical workforce the sea services need to operate hypersonic weapons, autonomous platforms, and AI-enabled systems. FRA will engage House and Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee staff to ensure any automated prescreening tool retains a meaningful human-in-the-loop standard and a clear individualized waiver pathway for capable, qualified candidates.
NSA Naples Confirms Elevated Radon at 37 Sites
Naval Support Activity (NSA) Naples has formally verified dangerously elevated radon levels at 37 locations across 123 non-residential installation buildings. The confirmation follows months of pushback in which the Navy initially attributed positive readings to quality assurance and testing errors. Subsequent comprehensive testing has confirmed the original results, with some facilities, including base schools and high-traffic support buildings, measuring as high as 12 pCi/L, triple the EPA's 4 pCi/L action threshold.
Radon is a naturally occurring, odorless radioactive gas and the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Installation leadership has outlined a two-year remediation timeline and stated that there is no acute health emergency.
FRA rejects the two-year remediation timeline as unacceptable and is calling on Navy leadership to accelerate the effort. Allowing hazardous radiological exposure to persist in active base schools and workspaces for 24 months represents a fundamental failure in force protection. Toxic exposure must be addressed with the same urgency at a permanent overseas home station as it would be on a battlefield. FRA is specifically calling for an accelerated remediation timeline measured in months rather than years, the immediate relocation of school operations from any building exceeding the EPA action threshold, and the enrollment of all NSA Naples-stationed personnel and dependents into longitudinal health monitoring tied to the Toxic Exposure registry.
Memorial Day Observances
On Monday, May 25, FRA's National President Richard J. Fetro, accompanied by his grandson, will represent the Association at Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, where NP Fetro will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in honor of the men and women who have died in service to their nation. He will be joined by National Executive Director Donna M. Jansky and Director of Legislative Programs Theo Lawson.
National Vice President SD Martin, and Finance Officer Phillip Reid will represent FRA at the Memorial Day observance at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, DC.
Shipmates and all Americans are reminded on Memorial Day that freedom is not free. In observance of the holiday, FRA National Headquarters will be closed on Monday, May 25.