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Valor Earned Not Stolen Act of 2025
To amend title 18, United States Code, to increase the penalty for fraudulent misrepresentation about the receipt of a military decoration or medal, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill increases criminal penalties for fraudulently claiming to have received military medals or decorations from one year to three years in prison. It applies to false claims about standard military decorations, the Congressional Medal of Honor, and combat badges. The bill also requires the Attorney General to study and report to Congress within 180 days on any monetary or government benefits obtained through such fraudulent claims and recommend policy solutions.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
12 cosponsors
- Rep. Baird, James R. [R-IN-4] (R-IN)
- Rep. Crenshaw, Dan [R-TX-2] (R-TX)
- Rep. Davis, Donald G. [D-NC-1] (D-NC)
- Rep. Dunn, Neal P. [R-FL-2] (R-FL)
- Rep. Harshbarger, Diana [R-TN-1] (R-TN)
- Rep. Hudson, Richard [R-NC-9] (R-NC)
- Rep. Langworthy, Nicholas A. [R-NY-23] (R-NY)
- Rep. Luna, Anna Paulina [R-FL-13] (R-FL)
- Rep. McCormick, Richard [R-GA-7] (R-GA)
- Rep. Newhouse, Dan [R-WA-4] (R-WA)
- Rep. Valadao, David G. [R-CA-22] (R-CA)
- Rep. Van Orden, Derrick [R-WI-3] (R-WI)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Beth Van Duyne’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- NULL $51,100
- INSPERITY $14,800
- AMERICAN AIRLINES $14,473
- BANK OF THE WEST $14,200
- CHARTER BROKERAGE LLC $13,862
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Beth Van Duyne → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jan 9, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
- Jan 9, 2025 Introduced in House
More bills on these subjects (8)
Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 9, 2025
Ms. Van Duyne (for herself, Mr. Dunn of Florida, Mr. McCormick, Mr. Valadao, and Mrs. Luna) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to increase the penalty for fraudulent misrepresentation about the receipt of a military decoration or medal, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Valor Earned Not Stolen Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION ABOUT RECEIPT OF A MILITARY MEDAL OR DECORATION.
(a) Increased Penalty.—
(1) Military decorations or medals.—Section 704(b) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking “one year” and inserting “three years”.
(2) Congressional medal of honor.—Section 704(c)(1) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking “1 year” and inserting “three years”.
(3) Combat badge.—Section 704(d)(1) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking “1 year” and inserting “three years”.
(b) Study.—Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General, in coordination with the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs and such other agency head as may be relevant, shall conduct a study to identify any monetary or government benefits obtained through a fraudulent misrepresentation about the receipt of a military decoration or medal as described by section 704(c)(2) or 704(d) of title 18, United States Code.
(c) Report.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall report to Congress on the findings of the study conducted under subsection (b) and policy recommendations to resolve issues identified in the study. <all>
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