[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 97 (Tuesday, June 9, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2685-S2686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Major Richard Star Act
Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, earlier today, there was a discussion here
on the Senate floor of the Major Richard Star Act, legislation that I
cosponsored and strongly support. This legislation would allow
medically retired veterans with combat-related disabilities to receive
their full military retirement pay from the Department of Defense and
disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
I came to the Senate floor in March to express my support for the
Major Richard Star Act and to reiterate to my colleagues that I want to
work together to see this bill signed into law this year. That is what
I still seek to accomplish.
I have been working with my House colleague Chairman Mike Bost, the
chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the chairman of
the Armed Services Committee here in the Senate, with the legislative
leadership, the majority leader's office here in the Senate on a
comprehensive veterans package that would improve the delivery of
healthcare, benefits and services for veterans, servicemembers,
survivors, caregivers, military families, and VA staff.
Notably, this package that we are putting together that we have
developed and continue to develop would include the Major Richard Star
Act. Veterans who did not get a chance to complete their military
career due to medical retirement should not be penalized because they
received disability compensation from the VA.
This comprehensive legislative package also includes the bipartisan
Veterans ACCESS Act, the Love Lives On Act, the Sharri Briley and Eric
Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, among a number of other
bills sponsored by Republicans and by Democrats.
We are close to a final agreement to introduce this comprehensive
veterans package. This is not anything out of the norm, but putting
this package together, we are going to include the Major Richard Star
Act for which the Armed Services Committee has jurisdiction, not the
Veterans' Affairs Committee.
We are doing this because we see a way forward, finally, on the Major
Richard Star Act becoming law. We are close to reaching an agreement on
that package. We have worked extensively over months with veterans
service organizations, a wide array--dozens of them--to garner their
feedback, to seek their input, to determine whether they can be
supportive, and continue to review this legislation in the way we
intend, including the way we intend to pay for it.
In addition to working with veterans service organizations, Chairman
Bost and I have met with our Democrat and Republican colleagues in both
the House and Senate on our committees, the White House's Domestic
Policy Council, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to make certain
we are creating legislation that is sound policy, has widespread
support, and the ability to gain the necessary votes.
Let me say that again: the ability to gain the necessary votes to be
passed and signed into law and, most importantly, at the same time will
meet the needs of our Nation's veterans.
It is easy to come to the floor and ask for unanimous consent to make
a point, but we are doing something different. It takes hard work and
consensus building to pass legislation that meets the needs of veterans
and has the ability to become law.
This is not just like a symbolic thing that we are with our veterans;
it is how do we make something that matters so greatly to them actual
law and the benefits they would receive.
I, again, express my support for the Major Richard Star Act, but that
means little--my saying that means little to the veterans who are
currently being denied the benefits owed them for their military
service. I have served on both the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs
Committees and often remark how the committees are the most bipartisan
committees in Congress.
In 2020, I worked with then-ranking member Jon Tester, a Democrat, to
pass the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care
Improvement Act, and when Senator Tester became chairman, I was the
ranking member, and we worked to pass the PACT Act.
We were able to work together to pass these bills because it didn't
matter which party controlled the Chamber but because we knew we owed
veterans the healthcare and benefits they desperately needed, earned,
and deserved.
Some of my colleagues would like to see this bill and many others
pass without any offset of the costs. That is not and has not been a
viable a path forward under either Republican or Democratic majorities.
For 5 years, under both Republican and Democratic leadership, the Major
Richard Star Act has been unable to pass either the House or the
Senate, in significant part, due to the inability to offset the cost of
the legislation, something required by law.
We can either continue to encounter this same roadblock--we can do
this over and over and over again and see the same result--or we can
work together to address the concerns that have prevented this bill
from passing for the last 5 years.
Lots of sponsors on the Major Richard Star Act, one of the most
sponsored pieces of legislation in Congress, but for 5 years it has not
become law. It is my goal to change that, and we are developing a path
to do exactly that.
The legislation that I plan to introduce pays for the Major Richard
Star Act and other bipartisan and bicameral priorities in their
entirety. Ensuring that veterans have the care and benefits they have
earned is my primary concern. While some of these benefits typically
are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense and not the
Department of Veterans Affairs, we don't let that technicality, that
technical jurisdiction, stand in the way of helping veterans.
I choose to lead on this effort because I decided to be an original
cosponsor of the Major Richard Star Act, not to cosponsor it for the
purpose of saying I cosponsored it but for the purpose of seeing it
become law.
[[Page S2686]]
In the coming days, I will put forth a legislative package that
accomplishes the goals of the Major Richard Star Act, and I will do so
in a way that addresses the policy and cost concerns that have
prevented this bill from passing the House or Senate despite widespread
bipartisan support.
I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work with me on
this path forward that restores benefits to retirees with combat-
related disabilities, offsets the costs of those benefits, earns the
support of veterans and advocates, and can feasibly pass the Senate and
the House and be signed into law by the President. That would be a
great day for us as a Congress, as a legislature, to make certain we do
our work. More importantly, it would be a great accomplishment for the
veterans who deserve the full benefits of what they have earned.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
____________________