Ashley Murray

The new policy revokes a 2021 Biden administration order allowing transgender people to serve.

The Pentagon will immediately deploy 1,500 troops to monitor the southwest border and crew additional helicopters that are also being sent.

The legislation, titled the Purple Heart Veterans Education Act, would permit retroactive award recipients who served on or after Sept. 11, 2001, to transfer their education benefits to one or more dependents.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., was among the members voting for the ban.

Among concerns of Republican U.S. House lawmakers was the Pentagon’s roughly $114 million request for the programs in the military’s $884 billion authorized, but not yet funded, budget.

If signed into law, which is expected, the roughly $884 billion legislation would authorize a 5.2% pay raise for troops.

Passage of the PACT Act opened benefits eligibility for up to 3.5 million post-9/11 veterans, and for those who served during the Vietnam and Cold War eras.

Kentucky has 34,600 service members who would be affected.

The deadline to qualify for retroactive benefits dating to law’s enactment has been extended to Aug. 14.

There is no deadline for qualifying veterans to file under the PACT Act, but former service members or their surviving family members have until Aug. 9 to claim benefits that date back to the law’s enactment in August 2022.

Kentucky's share of the broadband allocation is $1.1B.