House Passes NDAA: Military Death Gratuity Raised to $165,000 from $100,000

Washington, D.C. — Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-TN-7) announced Wednesday that four of his amendments were incorporated into the House-passed version of the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The House approved the bill by a narrow 216–212 vote on July 21, 2026, sending it to conference with the Senate, which passed its own version out of committee in June but has not yet brought it to the floor.

The NDAA is the sweeping annual legislation that sets policy and authorizes funding for the Department of War, the current name for the Department of Defense.

Death Gratuity Increase

The most personal of Van Epps’ provisions updates the military death gratuity — a lump-sum payment made to the families of service members killed in the line of duty. The payment has remained at $100,000 since 2006, a figure Van Epps has noted has lost roughly one-third of its purchasing power to inflation over the past two decades.

The amendment included in the NDAA raises the gratuity to $165,000 and adds an automatic cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to ensure future payments keep pace with inflation.

This represents a scaled-down version of Van Epps’ original proposal. His standalone HONOR Gold Star Families Act, introduced in March 2026 alongside Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) and Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-HI), had called for doubling the gratuity to $200,000 and applying the increase retroactively to cover families who lost loved ones in Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military’s operation against Iran earlier this year.

Van Epps, a West Point graduate and Army veteran who deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, introduced that original bill as his first piece of legislation after winning a special election. He has said the change is overdue, noting that $100 in 2006 carried the buying power of roughly $160 today.

“I am proud that core provisions of my HONOR Gold Star Families Act made it into the FY27 NDAA. For the first time in nearly two decades, this legislation updates the military death gratuity by increasing the benefit for survivors from $100,000 to $165,000 and indexing future payments to inflation through a cost-of-living adjustment. This legislation will provide greater financial support to the families of fallen servicemembers who have sacrificed so much.”

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— Rep. Matt Van Epps

Fort Campbell Infrastructure Assessment

A second amendment targets aging infrastructure at Fort Campbell, the sprawling Army post straddling the Tennessee-Kentucky border and home to the 101st Airborne Division. Van Epps’ district includes the base, where his own military career began.

Van Epps said much of the base’s water and wastewater infrastructure is more than 60 years old and in need of significant maintenance — a concern he tied to a broader nationwide problem.

“The fact of the matter is that aging water and wastewater infrastructure has become a growing concern for readiness and quality of life. Much of Fort Campbell’s utility system is more than 60 years old and requires significant maintenance and modernization to reduce the risk of service disruptions. Should a major disruption occur, it could affect everything from mission execution to the health of military families.”

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— Rep. Matt Van Epps

Van Epps cited a 2024 Congressional Budget Office report finding that the four military services carry a combined $50 billion in deferred maintenance across their installations, with the Army and Navy alone accounting for 70% of that backlog.

His amendment directs the Department of War to formally evaluate the condition, cost, and operational impact of aging utility systems across all military installations and rank the highest-risk projects for future investment — effectively forcing the Pentagon to produce a prioritized repair list rather than continuing to address failures on a reactive, case-by-case basis.

“My amendment directs the DOW to evaluate the condition, costs, and operational impacts of these systems across all military installations. Once that is done, the Department of War will rank the highest-risk projects and provide recommendations for prioritizing future investments.”

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“This data-driven roadmap for modernization will ensure installations like Fort Campbell receive appropriate attention before infrastructure failures degrade military readiness.”

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— Rep. Matt Van Epps

(The original text was cut off before the remaining two amendments could be detailed.)