On August 5, 2026, a federal judge in North Carolina ruled that a company called Veterans Guardian VA Claim Consulting had been running an illegal, predatory business against disabled veterans.

Chief District Judge Catherine Eagles found the company violated North Carolina's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act by charging veterans big fees to prepare and file VA disability claims without the federal accreditation the law requires. As Public Radio East reported, the judge found the company deliberately collected its payments in a way designed to hide its involvement from the VA — and kept going after it got cease-and-desist letters. Because it's an unfair trade practice, any damages get automatically tripled.

Here is why northern Michigan should care.

The bill sitting in Congress right now that would make that exact business legal in all 50 states was written by Jack Bergman.

What the law says today, and what his bill would change

Federal law says you cannot charge a veteran to help them file an initial VA disability claim unless you're accredited by the VA. That's the law Judge Eagles just found Veterans Guardian broke.

The reason the rule exists is simple: filing that claim is already free. The Disabled American Veterans, the VFW, the American Legion, and county veterans service officers are accredited, and they do it for nothing. That is the entire point of the accreditation system.

Bergman's bill, the CHOICE for Veterans Act (H.R. 3132), would let employees of for-profit claims companies get accredited and legally charge veterans fees nationwide. He introduced it on May 1, 2025. Five days later his committee voted it out, 12–11, on party lines.

The War Horse reported on the bill in June 2025. It was the first time a bill legalizing for-profit claims consultants had ever made it out of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. It comes with guardrails — a $12,500 fee cap and a ban on overseas call centers.

The veterans groups whose job this actually is are against it.

"I think it is egregious, and no veteran should have to pay ever. It's the wrong answer for veterans."

— Scott Hope, deputy national service director for training, Disabled American Veterans

That $12,500 cap is worth holding onto for a second. Task & Purpose reported the case of a former Army intelligence analyst who used Veterans Guardian to file his first claim. He won a 100% rating worth $4,272.80 a month. The company billed him $21,360 — five times the monthly increase he'd won. He paid more than $19,000 of it. Another accredited organization would have filed the identical claim for free.

The money, and the dates

Bergman's office has an answer ready for this. His communications director told The War Horse:

"Let's be clear: General Bergman's priorities are driven by one thing—delivering results for America's Veterans. As a retired Three-Star General and the highest-ranking combat Veteran ever elected to Congress, his legislative agenda is shaped by the men and women who've served this country, not by campaign donations."

So look at the donations.

Federal Election Commission records for Bergman's campaign committee show:

Read the last two rows again. The chief executive and the chief operating officer of the company each gave Bergman every dollar the law allows, on consecutive days in early February 2025.

Twelve weeks later, on May 1, he introduced the bill that would legalize their business model nationwide.

And that wasn't his first bill for this industry. On February 27, 2025 — three weeks after those checks — Bergman also introduced the PLUS for Veterans Act, a second measure aimed at the same accreditation rules.

The bill that would stop them can't get a hearing

There is a competing bill. Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire wrote the GUARD VA Benefits Act, which would put actual penalties on charging veterans unauthorized fees. It has 135 cosponsors. It has never been marked up. Its only action in nearly a year and a half was a hearing in March 2026.

Pappas called Bergman's bill "deeply concerning legislation" that lets claims consulting companies "continue to be able to expand the profit center that they've developed on the backs of our veterans." He told The War Horse he thinks there's "a connection between the way that these for-profit companies have been organizing and communicating with policymakers." Those companies have spent more than $4 million lobbying federal and state lawmakers over two years.

At the same May 2025 markup where Bergman's bill advanced, committee Democrats offered 36 amendments — including one to protect veterans from claim sharks and make sure "these illegal businesses face legal consequences." Republicans voted down all 36.

The committee's own press release that week, announcing the 18 bills it advanced, listed "holding claim sharks accountable" among its accomplishments. Bergman's bill is on that same list.

Why it's Bergman

Plenty of Republicans voted for this. Only one wrote it, and his résumé is exactly why it matters.

By his own office's description, Bergman is a retired three-star general and the highest-ranking combat veteran ever elected to Congress. He sits on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs — specifically on the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, the panel whose entire job is the disability claims system. He is not a freshman who got lobbied into something. He is the member with the most standing to say no to this, and he sponsored it instead.

We've written about another Republican who cosponsored the same bill while the company's executives were his biggest donors. Bergman is the reason there was a bill for him to cosponsor.

There's one more piece. On July 1, 2026 — five weeks before the judge's ruling — Bergman co-signed a letter with committee chairman Mike Bost asking the VA to review whether the VFW should keep its accreditation, after the VFW publicly opposed a different veterans bill. The VFW is one of the organizations that files these claims for free.

So the record reads like this: the accredited nonprofit that helps veterans for nothing gets its accreditation questioned. The unaccredited company a federal judge just called predatory gets a bill written for it.

What happens next

The class action against Veterans Guardian is still going — the August ruling settled that the company broke the law, not what it owes. The CHOICE for Veterans Act is still pending, eligible for a vote on the House floor.

If it passes, conduct a federal judge just described as illegal and predatory becomes legal in every state.

The veterans most likely to pay $21,000 for a form somebody would have filled out for free are the ones with the fewest options — the ones far from a VA office, far from a county service officer, worn down by a claims process The War Horse's own reporting describes as a bureaucratic maze.

Bergman knows that system better than almost anyone in Congress. He wrote the bill anyway.

Sources

Annette Weston, "Federal judge rules North Carolina consulting firm ran predatory business model targeting veterans" — Public Radio East, August 5, 2026.

Leah Rosenbaum, "Congress advances bill for firms to charge veterans for VA help" — The War Horse, June 12, 2025. Image courtesy of The War Horse.