Living Medal of Honor recipients will now receive around $67,500 in annual honorarium under a new law signed Monday by President Donald Trump.
The Monetary Enhancement for Distinguished Active Legends, or MEDAL Act, raised the monthly pension for recipients from $1,489.73 to $5,625 per month. The stipends help cover the costs associated with having earned the military’s top award, which can include traveling to appearances and events, along with other demands.
“While we will never be able to repay the debt we owe to the men and women whose actions earned them this medal, we can continue to honor them by ensuring they are cared for, respected, and supported,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who sponsored his chamber’s version of the bill, in a release Tuesday.
“They never ask for special recognition or demand special treatment. Many of them spend most of their time traveling our country, telling their stories, inspiring the next generation of America’s heroes,” said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, who sponsored the bill for two years in the House with Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H. “My bill … eases the financial burden of our nation’s highest decorated veterans by increasing their special pension.”
Congress first approved awarding Medal of Honor recipients pensions beyond any other government benefits in 1916. At the time, they received $10 a month. The last increase they received was in 2002, when lawmakers approved a $1,000 monthly payment.
The $1,489.73 they received monthly this year was based on the $1,000 plus an annual cost of living adjustment. Legislators originally had proposed that they receive $100,000 per year.
There are 61 living Medal of Honor recipients according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. The medal was first awarded in 1863 to recognize service members who show “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.”
The highest military honor in the country, 3,547 Medals of Honor have been awarded to 3,528 service members – 19 earned it twice.
Pappas said he proposed the bill to “keep our promise to service members and veterans.”
“We must honor our service members that have earned this award by ensuring they are financially secure after their military service is over,” Pappas said while introducing the bill earlier this year.
According to the society, the first soldier to receive the award was Jacob Parrott, an Army lieutenant who led an incursion into Georgia in 1862 during the Civil War and captured a train in Big Shanty, Georgia, as part of an effort to destroy bridges and railroad tracks between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta.
The most recent living recipient was retired Army Capt. Larry Taylor, a native of Chattanooga, who was awarded the medal in 2023 for heroism as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War.
According to the Army, Taylor flew more than 2,000 combat missions and was forced down under enemy fire five times. He earned the Medal of Honor for an operation during which he rescued a four-man patrol team under heavy fire, hovering close to the ground so the soldiers could cling onto his helicopter’s skids.
Taylor previously had been awarded the Silver Star for the operation, but one of the men he saved, Sgt. David Hill, spent more than three decades lobbying for an upgrade.
Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.
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