02/19/2026
The VA’s final decision on new rule with medication. “38 CFR Part 4 RIN 2900-AS49” is how you can seach the decision online. This will affect Veterans in our community.
American Legion National Commander Dan K. Wiley issued the following statement:
“On Feb. 17, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) published an Interim final rule that effectively nullifies existing case law by creating a new default rule whereby veterans will be rated in their medicated state during a C&P exam. Veterans who use medications to manage symptoms where significant improvement is noted may receive lower ratings compared to what they would have received prior to this rule change.
Under the Administrative Procedures Act, substantive changes to regulations require an agency to go through a notice and comment period for rulemaking. A change can be made interim final (having immediate effect while notice and comment occurs) if there is “good cause."
VA justified “good cause” by arguing that “providing advance notice and prior opportunity for public comment is impracticable and contrary to the public interest.” This justification is questionable, given that VA has had over a decade to propose a regulation in response to previous rulings by the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Moreover, such a momentous change that will have significant effect on the well-being of veterans VA serves, without input from veterans themselves, is itself “contrary to public interest.”
VA has the authority to make this change. But the veteran community has a right to be heard.
Veterans should not be penalized for complying with treatment. Even if such treatment shows improvement in symptoms, the underlying disability does not disappear. Functional management is not total cure. Medication can reduce symptoms. It can help a veteran sleep, reduce vigilance, or stop anxiety attacks. But it does not remove the underlying traumatic experience, or moral injury, and it certainly does not mean a veteran can fully function without that treatment. Moreover, this change goes against the long-standing “pro-veteran” canon to publish a final rule without allowing prior input from veterans, veterans service organizations and the American public as whole.
The American Legion respectfully disagrees with VA’s justification of good cause, which didn’t provide the veteran community an opportunity to be heard before the rule took effect.”
