I have consistently supported provisions in the annual appropriations bill preventing the VA from taking such draconian action and will continue working to make this permanent law.
I will continue working to make the VA provision preventing veterans from being treated as mentally incompetent for using a fiduciary to manage benefits permanent law.
Occurrences
legislation that protects veterans’ constitutional rights by preventing the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting veterans to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) solely because they require assistance managing their VA benefits, unless a judge determines they are a danger to themselves or others.
Evidence
None of the funds made available by this Act may be used by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to report a person deemed mentally incompetent
the Secretary shall pay to the beneficiary or the beneficiary's successor fiduciary an amount equal to the amount of such benefit so misused
Assessments
Tenney’s promised outcome was a permanent statutory fix so veterans would not be deemed mentally incompetent merely for using a fiduciary. The evidence shows Congress preserved the protection in FY2026 as an appropriations rider and passed a separate permanent fiduciary-reimbursement reform, but neither made the specific 'mentally incompetent' protection permanent law. That indicates meaningful same-term effort and some related progress, but not delivery of the promised permanent-law result.