The House just delivered a 392–18 vote against one of Washington’s ugliest penalties on combat-injured veterans.

H.R. 2102, the Major Richard Star Act, would stop the federal government from reducing a medically retired veteran’s military retirement pay dollar-for-dollar when that veteran receives VA disability compensation.

In plain English: men and women injured in combat have been forced to surrender one earned benefit to receive another. Veterans who completed 20 years can generally collect both, but many who were medically retired early because of combat injuries cannot.

In his vote-day message, Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis made clear that the House action was about keeping a promise to the late Major Richard Star.

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee says the offset hits roughly 59,000 medically retired, combat-injured veterans. The penalty applies because their combat wounds forced them out before the 20-year mark, even though those veterans earned both military retirement pay and VA disability compensation.

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The committee’s timeline shows how long this battle has dragged on. Bilirakis first introduced the measure in 2020, lawmakers reintroduced it in later Congresses, and the bill eventually collected more than 330 House co-sponsors and 79 Senate co-sponsors.

Even that mountain of bipartisan support did not produce a House floor vote until a discharge petition reached the required 218 signatures. The measure finally passed on November 12, while its Senate companion still awaited action.

That history makes the vote both encouraging and maddening. Congress knew about this inequity for years while wounded veterans kept paying the price.

The official House Clerk recorded 392 yeas, 18 nays, no members voting present, and 23 not voting. The yes column included 181 Republicans, 210 Democrats, and one independent.

That kind of margin is rare in Washington. It is also exactly what Americans should expect when the question is whether the country will honor benefits earned through service and sacrifice.

In another vote-day message, Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz, the bill’s bipartisan co-sponsor, emphasized that the legislation would allow combat-injured veterans to receive their full retirement and disability benefits.

The bill is named for Major Richard Star, an Army Reserve veteran who became an advocate for this reform while battling cancer. He died in 2021 at age 51, never seeing Congress finish the job he asked it to do.

Bilirakis’s office says the House sponsor made Star a solemn promise that he would keep fighting until the so-called “wounded veteran tax” was gone. The overwhelming vote moved that promise closer to reality, but it did not yet make the reform law.

The Senate is now the roadblock. The House committee says the Senate companion, Senate Bill 1032, still awaits action.

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That delay is especially hard to defend after the legislation built an enormous bipartisan list of supporters.

The committee’s vote-day post put the stakes in one sentence: tens of thousands of combat-injured veterans are still waiting for the full benefits they earned.

This should not become another Washington victory lap followed by months of silence.

The House vote was overwhelming, the injustice is obvious, and the veterans have waited long enough.

The Senate has one job: pass the Major Richard Star Act and send it to President Trump.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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