Major Richard Star Act Hits 218 Signatures. Here’s What Happens Next for Combat-Injured Veterans
If you were medically retired for combat-related disabilities with fewer than 20 years of service, part of your military retired pay is being withheld each and every month. Under federal law, your retired pay is slashed dollar for dollar by the amount of VA disability compensation you receive. This is known as the offset.
Combat-Related Special Compensation, or CRSC, was created to make up for some of that loss, but it doesn’t always cover all of it. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Chapter 61 retirees who receive CRSC still come up around $1,450 short every month, on average.
The Major Richard Star Act would put an end to that offset for these veterans, letting them get both their full military retired pay and their full VA disability compensation. On Sept. 15, a majority of the House signed a petition to force a vote on it. Here’s what you need to know.
What Happened on Sept. 15
The bill is named after Maj. Richard Star, an Army combat engineer who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. After he was medically retired, he pushed for this fix until he died of cancer in 2021.
More than 330 House members have signed on as cosponsors. But House leaders decide which bills get a vote, and for years they never scheduled one for the Star Act.
In May, Rep. Mark Takano of California, the top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, launched a discharge petition. It allows lawmakers to go around House leaders. Once a majority of the House, 218 members, sign on, they can force a vote.
On Sept. 15, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina became the 218th signer. The final count was 213 Democrats and five Republicans, according to the House Clerk’s official record.
Why There Hasn’t Been a Vote Yet
Reaching 218 signatures doesn’t automatically trigger a vote. The petition first has to sit for seven legislative days, and those only count when the House is in session. The House left for its pre-election recess days after the petition hit 218, so that clock won’t start until lawmakers come back after the Nov. 3 election.
Once those seven days pass, any lawmaker who signed the petition can bring it to the floor. The House then has two legislative days to vote on it. If it passes, lawmakers can move straight to a vote on the Star Act itself.
Does the Star Act Apply to You?
Not every disabled veteran qualifies. Here’s how to tell if you’re one of the roughly 54,000 the bill was written for, according to Veteran advocates.
You’re covered if all three are true:
- You were medically retired under Chapter 61, the law that covers disability retirement, and you receive military retired pay.
- You had fewer than 20 years of service when you retired.
- Your disabilities are combat-related. DFAS lists four categories: armed conflict, hazardous duty, simulated war, and an instrumentality of war.
You’re not covered if:
- You retired with 20 or more years of service. Many of these retirees already have a fix. With a VA disability rating of 50% or higher, they can get both payments through Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay.
- Your disabilities aren’t combat-related, even if you were medically retired.
- You receive VA disability compensation but no military retired pay. That includes Veterans who get disability severance pay instead of a medical retirement.
How Much You’re Losing Every Month
The offset comes straight out of your military retired pay, not your VA disability compensation.
“The offset reduces military retired pay, dollar for dollar, by the amount of VA disability compensation; it does not reduce the VA payment,” said Jen Goodale, director of government relations for veteran and retired affairs at the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).
CRSC gives back some of that retired pay, but it’s capped at what your years of service would have earned you. In September 2025, about 59,000 Chapter 61 retirees received CRSC.
On average, $2,300 a month was offset from their retired pay, and CRSC helped return about $850, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Why This Isn’t the $78 Billion Star Act
The bill the House would vote on isn’t the original Star Act. It’s a scaled-back version.
In March, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the original bill would cost $78.1 billion over 10 years. Most of that money, about $63 billion, wasn’t for combat-injured Veterans. It would have gone to about 255,000 other Chapter 61 retirees with fewer than 20 years of service who don’t receive CRSC.
That hefty price tag is one of the major reasons the bill stalled.
The scaled-back version drops that group completely. It covers only Chapter 61 retirees with fewer than 20 years of service and combat-related disabilities. The budget office hasn’t given a cost estimate for this version yet.
Why There’s No Back Pay, and Why CRSC Matters
If the scaled-back bill becomes law, the change would start the first month after it’s signed, according to the bill itself. There’s no retroactive pay, so money already lost to the offset in past years would not be paid back.
This is where CRSC comes in. The scaled-back bill only covers disabilities that are combat-related, the same requirement CRSC uses. Your service branch decides whether your disabilities count when you apply for CRSC, and you have to apply. It doesn’t happen on its own.
“Combat-Related Special Compensation requires a separate application to your service branch,” Goodale said.
The Senate Is the Biggest Hurdle
The deadline is Jan. 3, 2027, when this Congress ends. Any bill that hasn’t made it through both the House and Senate by then has to start over.
That’s where the bill has stalled. Supporters have tried to pass the bill by unanimous consent, which is a fast-track process that fails if a single senator objects. Those attempts have been blocked at least six times, most recently in June by Sens. Rand Paul and Thom Tillis, even though about 80 senators cosponsor the bill.
Additionally, there’s a competing bill, the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. It includes the STAR Act and pays for it by changing how VA rates tinnitus and sleep apnea on future claims. House leaders pulled that bill from the floor July 16, 2026.
What to Do Right Now
What steps should you take now? First, apply for CRSC if you haven’t already. Goodale suggests starting with DD Form 2860 and gathering your VA rating decisions, retirement documents, and evidence connecting your disabilities to combat-related circumstances.
Then, check your retiree account statement. On myPay, look for a VA waiver line. That’s the amount being offset from your retired pay. For questions, call DFAS Retired Pay at 800-321-1080.
As Goodale put it, MOAA’s stance is that “a combat injury that cuts a career short should not force them to sacrifice one benefit to receive the other.” If Congress doesn’t act by Jan. 3, the fight starts over again next year.
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BY MICHAEL MADRID
Military News & Gear Specialist at VeteranLife
Michael Madrid is a dedicated writer whose reporting brings clarity and authenticity to the stories of military members and their families. Having grown up in the shadow of Fort Bliss as the son of a Marine and grandson of Veterans, he possesses an understanding of the sacrifices made by those who...
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Michael Madrid is a dedicated writer whose reporting brings clarity and authenticity to the stories of military members and their families. Having grown up in the shadow of Fort Bliss as the son of a Marine and grandson of Veterans, he possesses an understanding of the sacrifices made by those who...
