Major Richard Star Act: Questions and Answers
Military retirees medically retired due to combat injuries before completing a 20-year career face a dollar-for-dollar reduction in military retirement benefits because a federal rule requires these retirees to choose between receiving VA disability pay and military retirement pay.
The Major Richard Star Act would, if passed, eliminate this and permit “concurrent receipt” of both retirement pay and disability compensation to roughly 59,000 affected medical retirees. But the Act, which passed the House before winding up in the Senate, has been added to another veteran benefits bill that is causing concern among veterans and advocates alike.
On June 10, 2026, lawmakers introduced S. 4744, the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, pairing the Major Richard Star Act with a $57 billion funding offset proposal for the program that would come at the expense of other disabled veterans, as we will examine below.
Related: What Are Veteran Service Organizations?
Questions and Answers
What is the objective of the Major Richard Star Act?
The legislation amends Title 10 and Title 38 of the United States Code to end the required pay offset for military personnel medically retired under Chapter 61 due to combat wounds, trauma, or toxic exposures before reaching 20 years of service. It grants them the same concurrent receipt rights held by those with 20-year retirement eligibility.
Why is the bill contested if it has wide bipartisan support?
Because the policy expands mandatory federal spending, Senate rules require a budget waiver or a designated revenue source to offset the cost. Lawmakers concerned with the deficit have blocked attempts to pass the bill without offsets, leading to a pattern of procedural blocks in the Senate, most recently by Senator Rand Paul on June 9, 2026.
Who benefits if this legislation passes?
Roughly 59,000 combat-injured veterans forced into early medical retirement. These individuals would receive their full, un-offset military retirement pay alongside their earned VA disability compensation.
Who suffers if this legislation passes?
Future veteran claimants face reduced access to benefits. According to a VA analysis, the proposed offsets would cut or deny earned disability compensation for up to 1.5 million veterans seeking future ratings for tinnitus from gunfire or sleep apnea from deployment conditions.
What is S. 4744, and how does it alter the bill’s path?
Introduced on June 10, 2026, by Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jerry Moran, S. 4744 is a 600-page package combining over 60 veteran bills. It includes the complete text of the Major Richard Star Act but adds a funding offset to satisfy budget requirements ahead of the July 20 congressional recess.
What are the proposed funding offsets in S. 4744?
The text proposes tightening diagnostic and evaluation criteria within the Department of Veterans Affairs. The package seeks to save up to $57 billion over 10 years by codifying the elimination or restriction of future disability compensation paths for sleep apnea and tinnitus.
How have major Veterans Service Organizations responded?
The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and Common Defense issued statements opposing the offsets. They argue that tinnitus and sleep apnea are documented costs of service, and balancing the budget by stripping compensation from hundreds of thousands of veterans is a betrayal of those who served.
What arguments do opponents raise against the funding structure?
Critics, led by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal, argue that funding an adjustment for combat-injured personnel should not cut access for other disabled veterans. They contend that because these programs stem from wounds of war, offsets should come from the Department of Defense budget instead of VA eligibility tables.
Who was the legislation named after?
The bill honors U.S. Army Major Richard Star, a post-9/11 combat engineer medically retired due to stage 4 lung cancer from toxic burn pit exposure. Major Star died before the correction passed Congress.
Related: What Are Veteran Service Organizations?
About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
