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H.R. 2157: To provide that members of the Armed Forces performing services in Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad shall be entitled to tax benefits in the same manner as if such services were performed in a combat zone.

119th Congress · introduced 2025-03-14 · Taxation · Latest: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

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Official title

To provide that members of the Armed Forces performing services in Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad shall be entitled to tax benefits in the same manner as if such services were performed in a combat zone.

Plain summary

This bill treats Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad as combat zones for purposes of determining eligibility for certain federal tax benefits available to members of the U.S. Armed Forces. (Conditions apply.) Specifically, under the bill, a qualified hazardous duty area is treated as a combat zone for purposes of determining the filing status of an individual whose spouse is missing in action; excluding compensation received by a member of the Armed Forces serving in a combat zone from gross income and wages subject to withholding; forgiving the income tax liability of a member of the Armed Forces who dies in a combat zone; certain estate tax rules applicable to a member of the Armed Forces who dies in a combat zone or as a result of an injury, wound, or disease suffered while in a combat zone; the exemption from the federal excise tax imposed on certain telephone services for telephone calls originating from a combat zone by a member of the Armed Forces; and postponing certain federal tax deadlines (e.g., filing a tax return, paying taxes, and claiming a tax refund) for a member of the Armed Forces serving in a combat zone. The bill defines a qualified hazardous duty area as Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad if any member of the U.S. Armed Forces is entitled to special pay (e.g., hostile fire pay and imminent danger pay) for services performed in such locations.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

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Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

Officials and money

Sponsor: Rep. Panetta, Jimmy [D-CA-19] · 17 cosponsors

Money: No cost estimate published yet. No linked contracts or vendors yet.

Sources

• Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-119hr2157.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/119/hr>

Record fed-us-cong119-hr2157 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong119 · updated 2026-11-03 by psicol fed-bills