Fairness for Servicemembers and their Families Act of 2025
Requires the VA to review regularly whether the automatic life insurance amount for service members is high enough.
What this law changes
From a secondary sourceRequires the VA to review regularly whether the automatic life insurance amount for service members is high enough.
This account is written from the official description of the bill. We have saved the law's official text and have not finished checking the account against it.
Transparency Score
The Transparency Score is the share of this law’s dollars that goes to what the law says it is for.
Transparency Score
Not checked yetThe score appears after a person reviews which sections are within the stated purpose.
1 amount adding up to $500,000 could not be sorted by the rules. That is more than 10 percent of the dollars read, so the total is not given as checked.
How this is counted
- Transparency Score: dollars in sections a person approved as within the stated intent, divided by total dollars in the law. Shown as a percentage. Higher means more of the money goes to what the law says it is for.
- Beside it, the same two numbers the other way round: total dollars divided by dollars within the stated intent. 1.00 means every dollar is within the stated intent. When no dollar is within the stated intent this ratio cannot be computed, and the answer says so.
- Total dollars: appropriated dollars plus authorized dollars, read from the law's text by the rules below. Dollars in a section whose reading is unclear or was not read count in the total and are shown apart as unclear.
- A law whose text provides and authorizes no dollar amount reads "No money in this law". Its score is the share of its words that are in sections within the stated intent.
- The score reads "Not checked yet" until a person approves the law's reading of which sections are within the stated intent. The dollar totals need no reading and are shown before that.
- The dollar totals read "Not checked yet" when more than 10 percent of the dollars read could not be sorted by the rules.
- Every dollar amount in our saved text of the law is read: "$1,234,567", "$5 billion", "$2.5 million". Margin notes, page marks and the table of contents are left out. Each amount is kept with the words printed around it.
- Appropriated: the sentence says "there is appropriated", "is hereby appropriated" or "out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated"; or the amount is the one an appropriations paragraph ("For ..., $X") provides under an account heading of an appropriations act.
- Authorized: the sentence says "authorized to be appropriated". An authorization lets a later law provide the money. It provides none itself.
- A list under such a sentence ("there is appropriated the following: (1) ...; (2) ..."): an amount that begins an item is counted the same way as the sentence says, unless the sentence gives a total first. Then the items are parts of that total.
- "$X for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030" is counted as X times the number of years named (here 5). The yearly figure, the years and the product are all kept. "For each fiscal year" with no years named is counted once, and the answer says so.
- Open-ended: "such sums as may be necessary" names no amount. It is counted as an item and adds no dollars.
- Rescinded: "is hereby rescinded", "permanently cancelled", or an item of a list headed "the following funds are hereby rescinded". Shown apart. Not subtracted from the total.
- Not spending, and left out of the total: an amount after "not to exceed", "not more than", "up to", "less than", "in excess of" and like words; a fine or penalty; a limit the law raises ("the limitation is increased by $X"); a figure the law strikes from another law; and a figure inside words it writes into another law ("striking $X and inserting $Y"), unless the same sentence says the figure is authorized or appropriated.
- Counted once: an amount after "of which", after "Provided, That", or after "of the amounts made available" is a part of a total already counted. Where a paragraph ends "in all, $X", that total is counted and the amounts before it are its parts.
- An amount the rules cannot sort is "not classified". It is listed with its words and left out of the total. Nothing is guessed.
- Total dollars: appropriated dollars plus authorized dollars. The two are also shown apart.
What the law says it is for
Confirmed from the official recordThese are the law’s own words, and the words of Congress’s records, about what the law is for.
Official title
“To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to periodically review the automatic maximum coverage under the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance program and the Veterans' Group Life Insurance program, and for other purposes.”
The words under "An Act", Public Law 119-54, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint bfc21d1f7574cfb8
Short title
“Fairness for Servicemembers and their Families Act of 2025”
The sentence that names the Act, Public Law 119-54, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint bfc21d1f7574cfb8
Congress's summary · Congressional Research Service
“Fairness for Servicemembers and their Families Act of 2025 This act requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to periodically review and report on the maximum coverage available under the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance and Veterans' Group Life Insurance programs. Specifically, the VA must review such coverage amount every five years, taking into account the average percentage by which the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased in the five fiscal years preceding the review.”
Summary of the version: Public Law, Congressional Research Service summary: Public Law · Saved October 6, 2026 · Fingerprint ba0507350d3db7a4
The law has no findings or purpose section.
The bill's record names no committee report.
Dollars in this law
Not checked yetThe text of this law provides and authorizes no dollar amount.
1 amount adding up to $500,000 could not be sorted by the rules. That is more than 10 percent of the dollars read, so the total is not given as checked.
Left out of the total
- 1 amount, $500,000 in all, could not be sorted by the rules. It is listed and left out of the total.
Source: Public Law 119-54, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint bfc21d1f7574cfb8
Other measures
Each measure has its own status. None is added into the score.
- Dollars in sections added along the way
- Not checked yet
- Member-requested dollars as a share of appropriated dollars
- Not checked yet
No list of member-requested spending is printed in the 24 official records saved for this law, and no committee report says there is none.
- Open-ended amounts (“such sums as may be necessary”)
- 0 passagesConfirmed from the official record
- Other bills whose text this law contains
- 1 billConfirmed from the official record
- How the House passed it
- Voice vote, April 7, 2025Confirmed from the official record
- How the Senate passed it
- Unanimous consent, November 20, 2025Confirmed from the official record
- Committee report saved
- None in the official recordConfirmed from the official record
The bill's official record names no committee report.
- Hearing saved
- None in the official recordConfirmed from the official record
The bill's official record names no hearing.
A voice vote or unanimous consent leaves no record of how each member voted.
How these are counted
- Added along the way, sections: sections of the final law marked "added later", divided by the sections compared.
- Added along the way, words: words in those sections, divided by the words in the sections compared.
- Each text is read as a list of words. A run is 5 words in a row. For each section of the final law we count the share of its runs that appear anywhere in the first published text of the bill. 90 percent or more: in the first text. From 20 to 90 percent: changed. Under 20 percent: added later. A section with fewer than 20 words is not compared.
- Sections outside the stated intent: sections a person approved as outside the stated intent, divided by the sections read. The same count is given in words.
- Member-requested spending: the number of items in the lists Congress printed for the law, and the sum of their dollar amounts.
- A part that is not checked yet is shown as "Not checked yet". It is never counted as zero. No single blended number is given.
Added along the way
Confirmed from the official record0 of the 2 sections compared are added after the first published text of the bill. None is changed. 2 are in the first text.
A section counts as added later when under 20 percent of its wording appears in the first published text.
The first published text (Introduced in House, February 4, 2025): H.R. 970, Introduced in House · Saved October 7, 2026 · Fingerprint 89c186a65f6a6da1
Published texts of this bill, in order: Introduced in House (February 4, 2025), Engrossed in House (April 7, 2025), Referred in Senate (April 8, 2025), Enrolled Bill.
Sections added later
No section compared is added later.
Amendments adopted
The record lists no adopted amendment to this bill.
Other bills whose text this law contains
The Congressional Research Service, a part of the Library of Congress, marks 1 other bill with the words “Public law contains the text”. That means this law includes text from that bill. This page does not compare its text with the law.
- S. 385 Fairness for Servicemembers and their Families Act of 2025
Member-requested spending
No list foundNo list of member-requested spending is printed in the 24 official records saved for this law, and no committee report says there is none.
Sections outside the stated intent
Not checked yetA person reviews each reading before it appears here.
On the record
On the record: Not started.
Press releases by members of Congress
From a secondary sourceThese are press releases from members' official websites that name this law. We save a copy of each one.
1 press release
-
Congressman George Whitesides Helps Advance Nine Pro-Veteran Bills
“H.R. 970 – Fairness for Servicemembers and their Families Act”
Read from 539 of 539 members' sites, releases since January 3, 2025, through October 7, 2026.
Press releases by organizations
No saved press release from these organizations names this law.
Read from 510 of 510 organizations' sites, releases since January 3, 2025, through October 7, 2026.
What it touches
Kind of law: New or changed rules. Budget effect: Changes payments to people.
Government
- Grants, benefits and subsidies
The economy
- No direct economic effect
Daily life
- Veterans and military families
Agencies it funds or directs
Dollar amounts:Not checked yetHow it passed
The House passed it by voice vote on April 7, 2025. A voice vote records no individual votes.
The Senate passed it without objection on November 20, 2025. No individual votes are recorded.
How each member votes
Both chambers passed this law without a recorded vote, so no individual votes exist. The House: passed by voice vote (no individual votes recorded). The Senate: passed without objection (no individual votes recorded).
Lobbying reports that name this bill
Confirmed from the official record1 saved lobbying report names H.R. 970. The amount is what the report gives for the whole quarter: everything the registrant did for that client, all issues together. A linked name opens that organization’s page on this site.
| Registrant | Client | Amount for the whole quarter | Quarter | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS | DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS | $149,180.00reported as expenses | April to June 2026 | Open the report |
See the lobbying page for H.R. 970
Senate Office of Public Records cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from LDA.gov.
Lobbying Disclosure Act reports, LDA.gov. This copy was read October 7, 2026 at 7:54 PM Eastern.
Where this comes from
The links below open the official files for this law. A code beside a file is its fingerprint, a short code that changes if the file's contents change.