{"id":132546,"date":"2026-03-03T20:22:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/03\/03\/lawmakers-revive-push-for-veterans-disability-reform-bill\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:51:30","slug":"lawmakers-revive-push-for-veterans-disability-reform-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2026\/03\/03\/lawmakers-revive-push-for-veterans-disability-reform-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers revive push for veterans disability reform bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">House and Senate members, along with prominent veterans\u2019 organizations, hope 2026 will be the year Congress passes legislation to give 54,000 wounded veterans their military retirement pay and Veterans Affairs disability compensation \u2014 without one offsetting the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the past two weeks, veterans groups, including Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars, lobbied lawmakers for passage of the Major Richard Star Act, a bill that would allow medically retired U.S. military personnel to receive both their full retirement pay and VA disability compensation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the legislation has been a major focus for advocates since 2020, concerns about the estimated 10-year, $9.75 billion cost have stymied its passage. <\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/05\/22\/lingering-cost-worries-cloud-plans-for-veterans-disability-reform-bill\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_2426.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Lingering cost worries cloud plans for veterans disability reform bill<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Advocates hope to restart momentum in Congress this year on the Major Richard Star Act.  <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the committee\u2019s ranking Democrat, took to the Senate floor Tuesday to support the bill, with Blumenthal calling for the chamber to accelerate its passage by bypassing the committee process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken for a nation that can afford to spend tens of billions of dollars, as we are doing right now in a conflict far away, putting Americans\u2019 lives in harm\u2019s way, when we are failing to match [service members\u2019] bravery with our own,\u201d Blumenthal said. \u201cLet\u2019s agree to a vote.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moran, a cosponsor of the bill, pledged to find a path forward for the legislation, which must be considered by the Senate Armed Services Committee before receiving a vote in the chamber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want to make certain that combat-injured veterans receive their full benefits. They have upheld their oath; they have fulfilled their duties. The question before us is whether we will fulfill ours,\u201d Moran said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Currently, the legislation has bipartisan support of 77 senators and 316 representatives. The House version is cosponsored by Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the significant support, however, the bill has failed in both Democrat- and Republican- controlled Congresses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Advocates hoped last year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/05\/22\/lingering-cost-worries-cloud-plans-for-veterans-disability-reform-bill\/\" rel=\"\"><u>they had found a way to pay for the bill<\/u><\/a> by using savings from terminated government contracts or by eliminating wasteful spending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, VFW Commander-in-Chief Carol Whitmore argued the money should come from the federal Military Retirement Fund, which finances military retired pay and has more than $1.7 trillion in assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe explanation most often given is cost \u2014 specifically, the requirement to identify a budgetary offset as though correcting an injustice for disabled retirees must come at the expense of another defense or veterans priority. That framing is misplaced,\u201d Whitmore said in a statement during a joint hearing Tuesday of the House and Senate veterans affairs committees. \u201cEnding the concurrent receipt offset does not require DOD to trade readiness, delay procurement, or sacrifice national security investments.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During Senate floor remarks Tuesday, however, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said the legislation would affect military readiness, adding that the original estimate of $9.75 billion was now $70 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe all revere and respect those men and women who have served and sacrificed to defend our liberty,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut we can\u2019t just come down here and talk about how much we love vets and how we want to support them. We have to look at the reality of the situation in dollars and cents. We are $39 trillion dollars in debt.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The $70 billion Johnson cited is the total estimated cost of eliminating the offset for all 250,000 military medical retirees. According to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, the Richard Star Act, which only applies to medical retirees eligible for Combat Related Special Compensation, would cost roughly $11 billion over 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The legislation was named for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2021\/02\/13\/disabled-veterans-advocate-richard-star-died-but-his-fight-for-concurrent-receipt-presses-on\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2021\/02\/13\/disabled-veterans-advocate-richard-star-died-but-his-fight-for-concurrent-receipt-presses-on\/\">Army Reserve Maj. Richard Star<\/a>, who died in 2021 from lung cancer after being exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since 2004, veterans who receive military retirement for serving 20 years or more, as well as VA disability benefits, receive both benefits in full if they have a disability rating of at least 50%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But those veterans who retired early from the service because of military injuries are subject to dollar-for-dollar offsets in their military disability and VA disability benefits, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars in lost income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the bill were to become law, veterans eligible for coverage would have to be medically retired, able to qualify for combat-related special compensation and have a combat-related disability of at least 10%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Richard Fetro, national president of the Fleet Reserve Association, said Tuesday during the hearing that passage of the Richard Star Act would restore faith among veterans who suffered debilitating injuries as a result of their service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRegarding double dipping, that claim ignores reality. Military retirement pay compensates for years of service already rendered. VA disability compensation exists because veterans were wounded during service. Providing both benefits honors service and sacrifice,\u201d Fetro said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Editor\u2019s note: This story has been updated to clarify the estimated cost of the proposed legislation.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The measure would allow medically retired military personnel to receive both their full retirement pay and VA disability compensation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":109035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":25,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["veterans","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"5":{"categories":["veterans","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"6":{"categories":["veterans","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"7":{"categories":["veterans","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"veterans"}}},"categories":[15,86,25],"tags":[8556,8542],"coauthors":[3267],"class_list":["post-132546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans","tag-va","tag-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"Z2FIKMO7ZNDNLNATB32BV2NGH4","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2026\/03\/03\/lawmakers-revive-push-for-veterans-disability-reform-bill\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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