Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC –  Last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that following H.R. 4366, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, which included Chairman Bost’s language to prohibit VA from submitting a veteran or beneficiary’s name to the FBI’s NICS list without a judge’s consent, being signed into law the agency would only report to NICS in instances when VA is aware that a mentally incompetent beneficiary has been found by a judicial authority to be a danger to themselves or others. Effectively restoring due process rights for our nation’s veterans.

 

This move was in line with Chairman Bost’s March 11^th letter when he requested that VA Secretary Denis McDonough provide Congress with a date and detailed plan by which they would stop sending veterans with fiduciaries names to the FBI’s NICS list.

 

As Chairman Bost previously stated, “For far too long, the men and women who have fought for all American’s constitutional rights were wrongfully treated differently when it came to their own rights. No veteran should lose their constitutional right to bear arms simply because they need help managing their finances, and if they are a danger to themselves or others, a judge should make that decision – not a VA bureaucrat. As Chairman, a sportsman, and a veteran, getting the veteran community the due process rights they have earned has long been one of my top priorities.”

 

To read the letter Chairman Bost sent to Secretary McDonough on this issue, click here.

 

Background:
At the start of the 118th Congress, Chairman Bost announced that one of his top legislative priorities in the new Republican majority was ending the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA’s) discriminatory practice towards veterans with fiduciaries. Prior to current law, if a veteran uses a fiduciary to manage their VA benefits, they are automatically – without a judge or court ruling – reported to the FBI’s NICS list and stripped of their Second Amendment rights. Chairman Bost’s bill, H.R. 705, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, sought to end this practice and prohibit VA from sending information on veterans (or beneficiaries) who are assisted by a fiduciary to NICS without a judicial ruling that they are a danger to themselves or others. The amendment Chairman Bost fought to include in the House passed version of the FY24 MilCon/VA Appropriations bill was introduced and passed in the Senate to do the same. Following the conference between the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, the language was included in the fiscal year 2024 MilCon/VA appropriations bill which was later signed into law by President Biden.

Fixing this policy has long been supported by the following veteran service organizations (VSOs) and advocacy groups: The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Mission Roll Call, The National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, National Defense Committee, Vets 4 Vet Leadership, Veteran Warriors, Catholic War Veterans, and National Association for Gun Rights.