Kaptur reintroduces legislation to expand Gold Star survivors benefits, Neguse wants to offer vets firefighter training 

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, is taking another shot at a bill designed to extend the health benefits for the surviving spouse of a fallen service member.

The Gold Star Spouse Healthcare Enhancement Act (H.R. 3594) would ensure that surviving spouses retain their active-duty family member status in TRICARE Prime, the Defense Department’s managed health care option insurance plan, to help provide them with fewer out-of-pocket expenses. 

Currently, the spouses of fallen service members can retain their TRICARE Prime active duty health coverage for three years before shifting to retired family member status, which carries enrollment fees of up to $372 or $450 per individual and $744 or $900.96 per family in 2025, depending on whether the service member’s enrollment was before or after Jan.1, 2018, alongside additional out-of-pockets costs for various covered services. 

Beneficiaries can also enroll in other TRICARE plans, such as TRICARE Select, but that plan carries deductibles and potentially higher enrollment costs. 

Kaptur and Bacon’s bill would amend the current statute to extend the TRICARE Prime active duty coverage by removing the three-year cap for the surviving spouses. 

Kaptur reintroduced the bill on May 23, along with Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., after the pair first unveiled the proposal in October 2024, though that version didn’t make it out of committee in a short election year legislative window. 

“Military service requires our men and women to risk their lives fighting and defeating America’s enemies,” said Kaptur in a statement. “They selflessly put self above country and accept this risk to secure Liberty across the globe. We owe so much to those who answered the call to serve, and perished in defense of our nation. Caring for their surviving spouses is a part of that commitment. I encourage our colleagues to support the Gold Star Spouses Healthcare Enhancement Act as one small way we can honor the debt that surviving spouses are owed by our grateful nation.”

The bill has been referred to the House Armed Services Committee.

Neguse looks to restaff federal wildland firefighters with veterans in new bill 

Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., is looking for new ways to help staff federal wildland firefighters with two new bills. 

The ranking member House Subcommittee on Federal Lands unveiled the Veteran Wildland Firefighter Employment Act (H.R.3560) on May 21, which would direct the Veterans Affairs Department to establish a pilot program to employ veterans into wildland firefighting  and coordinate the program with the Agriculture Department. 

That legislation comes alongside Neguse’s Veterans Jobs Training Act (H.R. 3558), which would add $15 million in federal funding to the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program to better assist unhoused veterans. 

Both bills have been referred to the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.