I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 790
To amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize an individual who
is awarded the Purple Heart for service in the Armed Forces to transfer
unused Post-9/11 Educational Assistance to a family member, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. L
EVIN(for himself and Mr. MURPHY) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize an
individual who is awarded the Purple Heart for service
in the Armed Forces to transfer unused Post-9/11 Edu-
cational Assistance to a family member, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. AUTHORITY FOR INDIVIDUALS AWARDED PUR-1
PLE HEART TO TRANSFER UNUSED POST-9/11 2
EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE TO A FAMILY 3
MEMBER. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 33 of 5
title 38, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 6
section 3319 the following new section: 7
‘‘§ 3319A. Authority for recipients of Purple Heart to 8
transfer unused Post-9/11 Educational As-9
sistance to a family member 10
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall permit an 11
individual described in subsection (b) who is entitled to 12
educational assistance under this chapter to elect to trans-13
fer to one or more of the dependents specified in sub-14
section (c) a portion of such individual’s entitlement to 15
such assistance, subject to the limitation under subsection 16
(d). 17
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBLEINDIVIDUALS.—An individual re-18
ferred to in subsection (a) is any veteran who is awarded, 19
after being discharged or release from service in the active 20
military, naval, air, or space service, the Purple Heart for 21
service in the Armed Forces occurring on or after Sep-22
tember 11, 2001. 23
‘‘(c) E
LIGIBLEDEPENDENTS.— 24
‘‘(1) T
RANSFER.—An individual approved to 25
transfer an entitlement to educational assistance 26
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under this section may transfer the individual’s enti-1
tlement to an eligible dependent or a combination of 2
eligible dependents. 3
‘‘(2) D
EFINITION OF ELIGIBLE DEPENDENT .— 4
For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘eligible 5
dependent’ has the meaning given the term ‘depend-6
ent’ under subparagraphs (A), (D), and (I) of sec-7
tion 1072(2) of title 10. 8
‘‘(d) L
IMITATION ONMONTHS OFTRANSFER.—The 9
total number of months of entitlement transferred by an 10
individual under this section may not exceed 36 months. 11
‘‘(e) D
ESIGNATION OFTRANSFEREE.—An individual 12
transferring an entitlement to educational assistance 13
under this section shall— 14
‘‘(1) designate the dependent or dependents to 15
whom such entitlement is being transferred; and 16
‘‘(2) designate the number of months of such 17
entitlement to be transferred to each such depend-18
ent. 19
‘‘(f) R
EVOCATION ANDMODIFICATION.— 20
‘‘(1) M
ODIFICATION OR REVOCATION .— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An individual trans-22
ferring entitlement under this section may mod-23
ify or revoke at any time the transfer of any 24
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unused portion of the entitlement so trans-1
ferred. 2
‘‘(B) N
OTICE.—The modification or rev-3
ocation of the transfer of entitlement under this 4
paragraph shall be made by the submittal of 5
written notice of the action to the Secretary of 6
Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Defense. 7
‘‘(2) P
ROHIBITION ON TREATMENT OF TRANS -8
FERRED ENTITLEMENT AS MARITAL PROPERTY .— 9
Entitlement transferred under this section may not 10
be treated as marital property, or the asset of a 11
marital estate, subject to division in a divorce or 12
other civil proceeding. 13
‘‘(g) C
OMMENCEMENT OF USE.—A dependent to 14
whom entitlement to educational assistance is transferred 15
under this section may not commence the use of the trans-16
ferred entitlement, in the case of entitlement transferred 17
to a child, until either— 18
‘‘(1) the completion by the child of the require-19
ments of a secondary school diploma (or equivalency 20
certificate); or 21
‘‘(2) the attainment by the child of 18 years of 22
age. 23
‘‘(h) A
DDITIONALADMINISTRATIVEMATTERS.— 24
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‘‘(1) USE.—The use of any entitlement to edu-1
cational assistance transferred under this section 2
shall be charged against the entitlement of the indi-3
vidual making the transfer at the rate of one month 4
for each month of transferred entitlement that is 5
used. 6
‘‘(2) N
ATURE OF TRANSFERRED ENTITLE -7
MENT.—Except as provided under subsection (e)(2) 8
and subject to paragraphs (5) and (6), the recipient 9
of entitlement transferred under this section is enti-10
tled to educational assistance under this chapter in 11
the same manner as the individual from whom the 12
entitlement was transferred. 13
‘‘(3) R
ATE OF PAYMENT.—The monthly rate of 14
educational assistance payable to a dependent to 15
whom entitlement referred to in paragraph (2) is 16
transferred under this section shall be payable at the 17
same rate as such entitlement would otherwise be 18
payable under this chapter to the individual making 19
the transfer. 20
‘‘(4) D
EATH OF TRANSFEROR .— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The death of an indi-22
vidual transferring an entitlement under this 23
section shall not affect the use of the entitle-24
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ment by the dependent to whom the entitlement 1
is transferred. 2
‘‘(B) D
EATH PRIOR TO TRANSFER TO DES -3
IGNATED TRANSFEREES .—(i) In the case of an 4
eligible individual whom the Secretary, in con-5
sultation with the Secretary of Defense, has ap-6
proved to transfer the individual’s entitlement 7
under this section who, at the time of death, is 8
entitled to educational assistance under this 9
chapter and has designated a transferee or 10
transferees under subsection (e) but has not 11
transferred all of such entitlement to such 12
transferee or transferees, the Secretary shall 13
transfer the entitlement of the individual under 14
this section by evenly distributing the amount 15
of such entitlement between all such transferees 16
who would not be precluded from using some or 17
all of the transferred benefits due to the expira-18
tion of time limitations found in paragraph (5) 19
of this subsection or section 3321 of this title, 20
notwithstanding the limitations under sub-21
section (f). 22
‘‘(ii) If a transferee cannot use all of the 23
transferred benefits under clause (i) because of 24
expiration of a time limitation, the unused ben-25
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efits will be distributed among the other des-1
ignated transferees who would not be precluded 2
from using some or all of the transferred bene-3
fits due to expiration of time limitations found 4
in paragraph (5) of this subsection or section 5
3321 of this title, unless or until there are no 6
transferees who would not be precluded from 7
using the transferred benefits because of expira-8
tion of a time limitation. 9
‘‘(5) L
IMITATION ON AGE OF USE BY CHILD 10
TRANSFEREES.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A child to whom enti-12
tlement is transferred under this section may 13
use the benefits transferred without regard to 14
the 15-year delimiting date specified in section 15
3321, but may not, except as provided in sub-16
paragraph (B) or (C), use any benefits so 17
transferred after attaining the age of 26 years. 18
‘‘(B) P
RIMARY CAREGIVERS OF SERIOUSLY 19
INJURED MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES 20
AND VETERANS.— 21
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to clause 22
(ii), in the case of a child who, before at-23
taining the age of 26 years, is prevented 24
from pursuing a chosen program of edu-25
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cation by reason of acting as the primary 1
provider of personal care services for a vet-2
eran or member of the Armed Forces 3
under section 1720G(a), the child may use 4
the benefits beginning on the date specified 5
in clause (iii) for a period whose length is 6
specified in clause (iv). 7
‘‘(ii) I
NAPPLICABILITY FOR REVOCA -8
TION.—Clause (i) shall not apply with re-9
spect to the period of an individual as a 10
primary provider of personal care services 11
if the period concludes with the revocation 12
of the individual’s designation as such a 13
primary provider under section 14
1720G(a)(7)(D). 15
‘‘(iii) D
ATE FOR COMMENCEMENT OF 16
USE.—The date specified in this clause for 17
the beginning of the use of benefits by a 18
child under clause (i) is the later of— 19
‘‘(I) the date on which the child 20
ceases acting as the primary provider 21
of personal care services for the vet-22
eran or member concerned as de-23
scribed in clause (i); 24
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‘‘(II) the date on which it is rea-1
sonably feasible, as determined under 2
regulations prescribed by the Sec-3
retary, for the child to initiate or re-4
sume the use of benefits; or 5
‘‘(III) the date on which the child 6
attains the age of 26 years. 7
‘‘(iv) L
ENGTH OF USE.—The length 8
of the period specified in this clause for the 9
use of benefits by a child under clause (i) 10
is the length equal to the length of the pe-11
riod that— 12
‘‘(I) begins on the date on which 13
the child begins acting as the primary 14
provider of personal care services for 15
the veteran or member concerned as 16
described in clause (i); and 17
‘‘(II) ends on the later of— 18
‘‘(aa) the date on which the 19
child ceases acting as the pri-20
mary provider of personal care 21
services for the veteran or mem-22
ber as described in clause (i); or 23
‘‘(bb) the date on which it is 24
reasonably feasible, as so deter-25
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mined, for the child to initiate or 1
resume the use of benefits. 2
‘‘(C) E
MERGENCY SITUATIONS .—In any 3
case in which the Secretary determines that an 4
individual to whom entitlement is transferred 5
under this section has been prevented from pur-6
suing the individual’s chosen program of edu-7
cation before the individual attains the age of 8
26 years because the educational institution or 9
training establishment closed (temporarily or 10
permanently) under an established policy based 11
on an Executive order of the President or due 12
to an emergency situation, the Secretary shall 13
extend the period during which the individual 14
may use such entitlement for a period equal to 15
the number of months that the individual was 16
so prevented from pursuing the program of 17
education, as determined by the Secretary. 18
‘‘(6) S
COPE OF USE BY TRANSFEREES .—The 19
purposes for which a dependent to whom entitlement 20
is transferred under this section may use such enti-21
tlement shall include the pursuit and completion of 22
the requirements of a secondary school diploma (or 23
equivalency certificate). 24
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‘‘(7) ADDITIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROVI -1
SIONS.—The administrative provisions of this chap-2
ter shall apply to the use of entitlement transferred 3
under this section, except that the dependent to 4
whom the entitlement is transferred shall be treated 5
as the eligible individual for purposes of such provi-6
sions. 7
‘‘(i) O
VERPAYMENT.—In the event of an overpayment 8
of educational assistance with respect to a dependent to 9
whom entitlement is transferred under this section, the de-10
pendent and the individual making the transfer shall be 11
jointly and severally liable to the United States for the 12
amount of the overpayment for purposes of section 3685. 13
‘‘(j) R
EGULATIONS.—(1) The Secretary shall, in con-14
sultation with the Secretary of Defense, prescribe regula-15
tions for purposes of this section. 16
‘‘(2) Such regulations shall specify— 17
‘‘(A) the manner of authorizing the transfer of 18
entitlements under this section; 19
‘‘(B) the eligibility criteria in accordance with 20
subsection (b); and 21
‘‘(C) the manner and effect of an election to 22
modify or revoke a transfer of entitlement under 23
subsection (f)(2). 24
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‘‘(k) TRANSFER BYDEPENDENT.—In the case of an 1
individual who transfers entitlement to educational assist-2
ance under this section who dies before the dependent to 3
whom entitlement to educational assistance is so trans-4
ferred has used all of such entitlement, such dependent 5
may transfer such entitlement to another eligible depend-6
ent in accordance with the provisions of this section. 7
‘‘(l) C
OORDINATION.—The Secretary of Veterans Af-8
fairs and the Secretary of Defense shall coordinate with 9
each other to facilitate the transfer of entitlement under 10
this section.’’. 11
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 12
at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting 13
after the item relating to section 3319 the following new 14
item: 15
‘‘3319A. Authority for recipients of Purple Heart to transfer unused Post-9/11
Educational Assistance to a family member.’’.
Æ
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