The Passports for Purple Hearts and Medals of Honor Act amends the Passport Act of 1920 (22 U.S.C. 214) to exempt individuals who were awarded the Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor from the collection of certain passport fees specified in subsection (a)(2). It also requires the Secretary of State, through the Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Secretary of Defense to support implementation.
The bill matters because it creates a categorical, statutory fee exemption for two narrowly defined classes of decorated veterans and sets an interagency process—via an MOU—for documenting and verifying eligibility by cross-referencing Department of Defense service records. That shifts operational responsibilities to State and Defense and raises practical questions about privacy, verification procedures, and the fiscal impact on passport fee receipts.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill amends 22 U.S.C. 214 to add an explicit exemption from the collection of certain passport fees for individuals awarded the Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor and requires an MOU between State and Defense to implement the exemption. The MOU must cover documentation requirements and a mechanism for Defense to assist verification through service records.
Who It Affects
Recipients of the Purple Heart or Medal of Honor who apply for passports, the Department of State’s Consular Affairs office and passport-processing staff, and Department of Defense offices that maintain personnel and awards records. Veteran service organizations and passport acceptance facilities will see downstream operational effects.
Why It Matters
This creates a statutorily guaranteed fee waiver for two specific groups of veterans and formalizes cross-agency verification. Compliance officers and agency leaders should expect new interagency data-sharing, verification processes, and modest impacts to passport fee revenue and administrative workloads.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill changes the Passport Act of 1920 by inserting a new categorical waiver for individuals who have been awarded the Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor. In practice, that means anyone in those two award categories who applies for a passport will be eligible to avoid whatever passport fees the statute lists under subsection (a)(2), subject to the documentation and verification process the agencies put in place.
To operationalize the waiver, the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs must sign an MOU with the Secretary of Defense. The MOU is the bill’s implementation vehicle: it must set what documentation applicants must present and provide a mechanism for a relevant DoD office to help verify that documentation by cross-referencing the applicant’s service records.
The bill does not spell out which documents qualify, what exact records Defense will search, or how quickly verifications must occur—those details are left to the MOU.Because the statute itself delegates verification design to the agencies, implementation will be administrative: consular staff and passport acceptance facilities will follow the documentation checklist in the MOU, and DoD personnel or systems will respond to verification requests according to whatever access and process the MOU establishes. That has practical implications for data sharing (including privacy safeguards), turnaround time for passport issuance, and the workload balance between State and Defense.Finally, the bill is narrowly framed: it applies only to individuals awarded the Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor and does not expand other eligibility criteria or change other passport authorities.
It also includes a minor technical change to renumber an adjacent subparagraph, but the substantive effect is the fee exemption and the required interagency MOU.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill amends 22 U.S.C. 214 (the Passport Act of 1920) to add a fee exemption specifically for individuals awarded the Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor.
It inserts a new subparagraph into subsection (a)(2) of the statute to establish the categorical exemption and renames an existing subparagraph (designates old (E) as (F)).
The Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs must enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Secretary of Defense to implement the exemption.
The required MOU must include (1) documentation requirements for passport applications and renewals and (2) a mechanism for the relevant DoD office to verify documentation by cross-referencing service records.
The bill leaves specifics—what documents qualify, how verification requests are handled, and timing—to the agencies via the MOU rather than defining them in statute.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title — 'Passports for Purple Hearts and Medals of Honor Act'
This is the formal short-title provision. It has no operational effect but frames the bill as targeted legislation to assist recipients of two military awards.
Adds fee-exemption clause for Purple Heart and Medal of Honor recipients
The bill inserts a new subparagraph (D) into subsection (a)(2) of the Passport Act to exempt from collection the certain passport fees for individuals who were awarded the Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor. That ties the waiver directly to the statutory list of fees in (a)(2) rather than creating a separate regulatory authority. The change is narrowly targeted to those two awards and does not broaden fee exemptions to other veterans or categories.
Requires State–Defense MOU to set documentation and verification procedures
The bill directs the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs to enter into an MOU with the Secretary of Defense to assist with implementation. The MOU must cover appropriate documentation for passport applications and renewals and a mechanism for a DoD office to assist in verification by cross-referencing service records. Practically, this provision creates the interagency framework for proving eligibility and obliges DoD to cooperate; it does not, however, specify timelines, data-sharing protocols, or which DoD component will carry responsibility.
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Explore Veterans in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Purple Heart recipients — they receive a statutory exemption from the passport fees listed in 22 U.S.C. 214(a)(2), lowering or eliminating an up-front cost for passport applications and renewals.
- Medal of Honor recipients — the law guarantees the same fee exemption to this small, highly decorated group, providing a durable statutory benefit compared with administrative waivers.
- Veteran service organizations — groups that assist veterans with benefits claims will have a clear, legislated advocacy point to help members obtain fee-free passports and can expect to help members navigate the new documentation process.
Who Bears the Cost
- Department of State (Consular Affairs) — responsible for implementing the fee exemption, negotiating and operating under the MOU, updating application processes, training staff, and potentially absorbing processing costs previously offset by fees.
- Department of Defense — must provide verification assistance and access to service records as defined in the MOU, increasing administrative workload and requiring secure record-access arrangements.
- Passport acceptance facilities and local consular offices — they will have to implement the documentation checklist and verification steps, which may slow application processing and require staff training or systems updates.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between honoring decorated veterans by removing a financial barrier and the administrative and privacy burdens of verifying eligibility: a generous, low-friction waiver risks fraud or inconsistent application without robust verification, while strict verification protects integrity but shifts costs, complexity, and delay onto State and Defense and onto the veterans the law intends to help.
The bill delegates virtually all implementation detail to an MOU, which creates both flexibility and uncertainty. Leaving document lists, verification thresholds, and operational protocols to an interagency agreement permits agencies to tailor procedures, but it also means applicants in different regions or using different issuance channels could face inconsistent processes while the MOU is negotiated and operationalized.
The statute does not define which exact passport fees in subsection (a)(2) are waived in practice, so agencies will need to clarify whether the exemption covers application fees, execution fees, expedited processing fees, or other charges tied to passport issuance.
Cross-referencing service records as a verification mechanism raises privacy and systems-integration issues. DoD records are protected and stored in different systems; the MOU will need to reconcile Privacy Act, DoD access rules, and secure data transfer protocols.
That work creates a nontrivial implementation cost and could require additional resources or process redesigns at DoD or State. The bill also does not prescribe a dispute or appeals process if an applicant’s documentation is ambiguous or if DoD records are incomplete, leaving practical gaps that the MOU must fill.
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