The House passed the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, H.R. 1041, on May 20 by a recorded vote of 217 to 198, moving the bill to the Senate. Sponsored by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, Republican of Illinois, the legislation would permanently bar the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting veterans to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System solely because the veteran has been assigned a VA fiduciary to manage their benefits.

The mechanics of the problem matter here. The VA's fiduciary program appoints a third party — often a family member or nonprofit — to help veterans who need assistance with the administrative and financial side of their VA benefits, commonly due to age, cognitive issues, or physical disability. For years, that fiduciary designation triggered an automatic NICS report, placing the veteran in the denied-person file under the Gun Control Act's "adjudicated as a mental defective" category. No individualized hearing. No judicial finding of dangerousness. No opportunity to contest the classification before the right was stripped. A veteran could lose Second Amendment rights simply by needing help managing a benefits check. Supporters of the bill have cited figures of more than 250,000 veterans affected by the policy over its history.

NRA-ILA backed the bill throughout its path to the floor. NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford said in a statement that veterans administered through a VA fiduciary have been held to "a different standard when it comes to their Second Amendment rights" and described the policy as "blatantly unconstitutional" for removing a constitutional right without due process. The vote broke largely along party lines.

The House passage follows a series of steps taken to chip away at the practice. A government-funding package signed in November 2025 included a one-year appropriations rider barring the VA from continuing the NICS reporting through the current fiscal year. The VA announced in February 2026 that it was administratively ending the policy. H.R. 1041 would codify that prohibition in permanent federal statute, insulating it from any future administration that might seek to reinstate the reporting through rulemaking.

Congress.gov shows the bill now heads to the Senate, where companion legislation S.478 has been introduced. Sixty votes are needed to clear a filibuster, and whether any Democratic members cross over to support the due-process framing of the bill will determine whether it advances in the current session.

Advocates and NRA-ILA note that the underlying argument — that Americans should not lose a constitutional right without individualized judicial review — has drawn limited bipartisan acknowledgment at various stages of the legislation's development. The Senate calendar and floor scheduling will be the next factors to watch.