Members of Congress are trying again to pass legislation that would give medically retired service members full access to both their military retirement pay and disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A bipartisan group of senators on Monday introduced their chamber’s version of the Major Richard Star Act — legislation that, if passed, would provide roughly 50,000 veterans full retirement pay and disability benefits.
Currently, medically retired service members with fewer than 20 years in uniform and a disability rating of less than 50% have their retirement pay reduced by a dollar for every dollar they receive from the VA.
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The bill would eliminate that offset, allowing what is known as “concurrent receipt” for these former service members.
“This measure corrects one of the deepest injustices in our present veterans’ disability system,” bill cosponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a news release. “It is unacceptable that tens of thousands of combat-injured veterans are denied the full military benefits they earned.”
Co-sponsor Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said the proposal ensures that veterans who have made sacrifices have access to their complete benefits.
“This legislation makes a critical change to treat our veterans fairly and support our nation’s heroes. I urge my colleagues to support its quick passage,” Scott said in a statement.
The last time the bill was introduced in 2023, it garnered 326 supporters in the House and more than 70 in the Senate but failed to be considered for a vote, largely because it did not include recommendations for covering the cost.
The House version, also introduced this week, has 185 bipartisan cosponsors, including Reps. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., who are leading the initiative. The Senate’s version already has 43 sponsors.
Nearly four dozen veterans service organizations have voiced support for the bill, and several have made it one of their top legislative priorities this year.
During a joint hearing March 3 before the House and Senate veterans affairs committees, Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander Al Lipphardt said that combat-injured veterans should not be treated differently than Social Security recipients who no longer are required to offset some types of pensions as a result of the Social Security Fairness Act.
“Retirement pay and disability compensation are separate benefits earned for different reasons. Congress continues to wrongly treat their concurrent receipt as double dipping,” Lipphardt said. “It’s time to correct this injustice for our military retirees.”
AMVETS National Commander Horace Johnson said the bill must be passed out of fairness.
“Far too long, veterans and their families have been told to wait while billions are wasted,” Johnson said in a joint House and Senate hearing Feb. 25.
In 2022, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the average offset, or loss, experienced by these veterans was $1,900 per month. The CBO also estimated the legislation would cost roughly $9.75 billion over the next decade.
Army Reserve Maj. Richard Star developed lung cancer as a result of exposure to environmental pollution in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was medically retired after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and quickly learned that his military retirement pay would be offset by his VA disability pay. He began advocating for a change but died in 2021 before seeing serious consideration of legislation to address the issue.
In introducing the House version this week, Bilirakis said he was committed to passing the bill.
“Military retirement pay and service-connected disability compensation are two completely different benefits. One does not diminish the merits of the other,” Bilirakis said.
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