Edward: Welcome to the MIL News Weekly for 20-26 July 2025, your essential
guide to the latest news impacting the military and veteran community.
Whether you're currently serving in uniform, a military retiree, a veteran,
or a family member, this is your source for the critical updates you need to know.
Each week, we cut through the noise to bring you the most important developments
from the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Weâll cover everything from new policies and pay raises affecting
active and reserve forces, to changes in healthcare and benefits for
retirees, and the latest on VA services and legislation for our veterans.
Let's get you informed.
Hereâs whatâs happened this past week.
Issues That Affect Active and Reserve Military Personnel
In a move designed to directly address quality-of-life and retention concerns,
the Department of Defense has finalized a complex, two-part pay raise for 2025.
The first component, effective January 1, 2025, is a 4.5%
general pay increase for all service members across all ranks and branches.
The second, more targeted component is an additional raise for
junior enlisted personnel that takes effect on April 1, 2025.
This second increase, when combined with the first, brings the total pay raise for
service members in pay grades E-1 through E-4, as well as E-5s with fewer than two
years of service, to approximately 14.5%
over their 2024 pay levels.
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) has published the
updated 2025 military pay tables reflecting these changes, with the
April-December charts showing the fully implemented rates for junior personnel.
This significant pay reform was enacted through the Servicemember
Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (H.R.
5009).
The structure of this raise marks a profound shift in
military compensation philosophy.
For decades, annual pay raises were typically uniform across-the-board
percentage increases, often tied to the national Employment Cost Index, which
measures private-sector wage growth.
This traditional approach, while ensuring pay kept pace with the broader economy,
did little to address the specific and acute financial pressures faced by
the most junior service members, whose starting salaries have increasingly
lagged behind civilian equivalents.
The FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act: A Deep Dive into H.R.
5009 and S.
4638
The House and Senate have each passed their versions of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, setting the stage for conference committee
negotiations to reconcile the two bills.
The House version, H.R.
5009, is titled the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, explicitly signaling
its focus on personnel welfare.
The Senate version is S.
4638, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.
Both bills authorize appropriations for military activities, prescribe
personnel strengths, and contain hundreds of provisions affecting
service members and their families.
Key provisions for active and reserve personnel include:
Quality of Life: H.R.
5009 contains numerous provisions aimed at improving daily life, including an
expansion of the Basic Needs Allowance for low-income service members, new authority
to pay a Basic Allowance for Housing to junior enlisted members on sea duty,
measures to ensure competitive pay for DoD childcare personnel, and improvements
to the portability of professional licenses for military spouses.
Healthcare: Both bills address healthcare access and services.
S.
4638 includes provisions to expand eligibility for fertility treatments and
improve access to specialty behavioral healthcare under TRICARE Prime.
H.R.
5009 also addresses TRICARE access and establishes a new program to prevent and
treat perinatal mental health conditions.
Both bills contain extensive sections dedicated to brain health, mandating new
requirements and oversight related to blast overpressure exposure, a key concern
for service members in combat roles.
Force Management and Training: H.R.
5009 includes authorities to modernize Army recruitment processes, improve
financial literacy training for all service members, and establish a pilot
program for enlisted members to pursue graduate education opportunities.
The Senate bill focuses more on high-tech workforce development, with provisions
for planning the DoD's artificial intelligence workforce and enhancing
the quality of defense laboratories.
The full text of these bills can be found at the links below.
See the transcript for the links.
Issues That Affect Retired Military Personnel
Military retirees and recipients of the Survivor Benefit Plan will receive a 2.5%
Cost-of-Living Adjustment in their monthly payments for 2025.
This adjustment, which is based on the year-over-year increase
in the Consumer Price Index, is notably lower than the COLAs of the
past three years, which were 3.2%
in 2023, 8.7%
in 2022, and 5.9%
in 2021, reflecting a period of moderating inflation.
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service has published the official
2025 payment schedule, which confirms that payments will be made on the first
business day of the month, unless the first falls on a weekend or holiday, in
which case the payment is made on the last business day of the preceding month.
The 2025 pay adjustments highlight a growing structural divergence
in how active duty and retired personnel are compensated.
The 2.5%
COLA for retirees is a standard, legally mandated inflation adjustment
designed to protect the purchasing power of their fixed income.
In contrast, the 4.5%
general pay raise for the active force is designed to keep military wages
competitive with private-sector wage growth, which often outpaces inflation.
This has created a 2-percentage-point gap between the retiree
adjustment and the general active duty raise in a single year.
This is not an anomaly but a feature of two different systems.
Over time, this dynamic means the value of military retired
pay will likely erode relative to the pay of those still serving.
While retirees are protected from losing ground to inflation, they
do not share in the "real" wage growth awarded to the active force.
This widening gap could become a significant point of contention for
retiree advocacy groups in the future, potentially leading to calls for a
new COLA formula that more closely aligns with active duty pay increases.
Proposed Legislation: The "Tax Cuts for Veterans Act of 2025" (S.
1108)
On March 25, 2025, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that could
have a profound impact on the financial well-being of military retirees.
S.
1108, the Tax Cuts for Veterans Act of 2025, seeks to amend the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make all military retirement pay
exempt from federal income tax.
Currently, military retirement pay is fully taxable at the federal level,
although many states offer their own partial or full tax exemptions.
This legislation would amend Section 122 of the Internal Revenue Code to state
that a former member's gross income does not include any retired or retainer pay.
If passed, this would represent a significant financial benefit for
all military retirees, creating a uniform federal standard
and fulfilling a long-standing legislative goal of many veteran
and military service organizations.
The full text of the bill can be found at the link below in the script:
Issues That Affect Veterans Affairs
On January 2, 2025, President Biden signed into law S.
141, the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare
and Benefits Improvement Act.
This landmark, bipartisan omnibus package, which incorporates provisions from more
than 90 separate bills, represents one of the most significant reforms of veterans'
benefits and services in a generation.
The Dole Act is more than an incremental improvement; it codifies a fundamental
philosophical shift in how the Department of Veterans Affairs approaches long-term
care and holistic veteran support.
It decisively moves the VA's focus away from a model centered on
institutional care, such as nursing homes, and toward a more comprehensive,
community- and home-based system that prioritizes veteran choice, caregiver
well-being, and preventative services.
Key provisions of this sweeping legislation include:
The centerpiece of the act is the incorporation of the
Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act.
This provision raises the statutory cap on what the VA can spend on
non-institutional care from 65% to 100% of the cost of a VA nursing home.
This single change removes the financial incentive for the VA to place a
veteran in an institution rather than providing robust support at home.
The act also expands the Veteran Directed Care program and establishes a new pilot
program for assisted living services.
Recognizing that family caregivers are a critical component of a veteran's
healthcare team, the act provides new grants for caregiver mental health
services, streamlines convoluted application processes, and expands
support programs to caregivers who were not previously eligible
for the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers.
By incorporating provisions of the HOME Act, the legislation increases
the Grant and Per-Diem reimbursement rate for community organizations that
provide transitional housing to veterans.
It also gives the VA new authority to supply unhoused veterans with basic
necessities like food, bedding, hygiene products, and transportation to critical
appointments, strengthening preventative measures against chronic homelessness.
The act modernizes the GI Bill by allowing student veterans in their
final semester to receive their full monthly housing allowance even if they
are enrolled less than full-time to complete their degree requirements.
It also temporarily expands eligibility for the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John
David Fry Scholarship for the surviving children and spouses of service
members who die in the line of duty.
To improve the efficiency of the disability claims process, the law
mandates that medical reports from contracted disability examiners be
standardized and machine-readable.
It also requires that all new VA employees receive training on how to report
wrongdoing to the VA Office of Inspector General, enhancing accountability.
This legislation redefines the continuum of care, empowering the
VA to build a robust ecosystem of support around the veteran in their
own home and community, making it a strategic investment in a new, more
dignified future for veteran services.
A New Trajectory for the VA: Workforce Reductions and Infrastructure Investment
The Department of Veterans Affairs has embarked on a bold and potentially
risky new strategy, simultaneously announcing a major workforce reduction
and a significant new investment in its physical infrastructure.
The VA is on pace to reduce its total staff by nearly 30,000 employees
by the end of Fiscal Year 2025.
This reduction is being achieved primarily through voluntary measures, including a
federal hiring freeze, normal attrition, and the use of Voluntary Early Retirement
Authority and Deferred Resignation Program incentives, which has allowed
the department to avoid a large-scale, involuntary Reduction in Force.
At the same time, the VA announced it will spend an additional $800
million on infrastructure improvements in the current fiscal year,
bringing the total Non-Recurring Maintenance program spending to $2.8
billion.
This funding, which the VA states was generated from savings achieved
through various "reform efforts," will be targeted at repairing and updating
aging VA facilities, including critical utility systems, elevators, clinical
spaces, and medical technology.
These actions are part of a broader policy shift under VA Secretary Doug
Collins, which has also included phasing out treatment for gender dysphoria,
ending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, and requiring more
employees to return to in-person work.
This represents a clear "shrink to grow" strategy.
The VA is deliberately reducing its human capitalâits personnelâto generate
savings that can be reinvested into its physical and technological capital.
The causal link is direct: reducing the federal payroll is a primary
"reform effort" that is funding the infrastructure upgrades.
The administration is making a calculated bet that a smaller, more centralized
workforce operating in modern, technologically advanced facilities
will provide better and more efficient care than a larger workforce struggling
within aging, inefficient buildings.
The risk is substantial.
The loss of nearly 30,000 personnel, even through attrition, could create knowledge
and experience gaps that outpace any efficiency gains from new infrastructure.
If not managed perfectly, this strategy could lead to new service backlogs,
increased wait times for care, and burnout among the remaining staff.
The success or failure of this high-stakes pivot will be a defining story for
the VA over the next several years.
2025 VA Disability Compensation: COLA Increase and New Rates
Veterans who receive disability compensation from the VA, as well as
survivors receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, will see a 2.5%
Cost-of-Living Adjustment in their monthly payments for 2025.
This annual adjustment is mandated by law and mirrors the COLA provided to
Social Security recipients, ensuring that the value of these tax-free
benefits is not eroded by inflation.
The new payment rates became effective on December 1, 2024,
and were reflected in payments delivered starting in January 2025.
Based on the 2.5%
increase, the monthly payment for a veteran with a 10%
disability rating is now $175.51.
For a veteran with a 100% disability rating and no dependents, the monthly
payment has increased to $3,831.30.
The VA has also published its official payment schedule for 2025, confirming that
benefits for a given month are paid on the first business day of the following month.
Key VA Updates and Resources
On July 22, 2025, the VA's National Cemetery Administration awarded over $2.1
million in grants to seven educational and research institutions through
its Veterans Legacy Program.
These grants will fund projects to research and create educational materials
that tell the stories of veterans interred in VA national cemeteries,
ensuring their legacies are preserved and shared with future generations.
The VA has released its "2025 VA Federal Benefits Guide for Veterans,
Dependents, Survivors, and Caregivers."
This comprehensive handbook provides a detailed listing of all
VA programs, benefits, eligibility requirements, and contact information.
It is a critical resource for navigating the VA system and is available in digital
format on the VA website, with limited print copies available at VA facilities.
The VA continues to pioneer new approaches to veteran care.
Recent reports highlighted the successful use of virtual reality (VR) guided
meditation to help veterans manage PTSD and the deployment of "caption
glasses" that use real-time transcription to enable hearing-impaired veterans
to participate in conversations.
The VA continues its extensive outreach and claims processing efforts for the PACT
Act, which expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxins during their service.
As of July 2024, the VA had approved over 1.1
million PACT Act-related claims.
And that's your Weekly Briefing.
Staying on top of these changes is key to navigating your career,
your retirement, and your benefits.
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Weâll be back next week with another roundup of the news that matters most
to the military and veteran community.