A U.S. congressional dead heat due to fiscal concerns about a crucial veterans bill has forced America’s wounded warriors and veterans advocacy organizations to team up with their state lawmakers in seeking passage of the Major Richard Star Act, H.R.1282 and S.344, a bipartisan effort to correct an unjust rule that reduces the retirement pay of medically retired veterans with less than 20 years of service.
As federal efforts falter, veterans organizations in Texas, Rhode Island and other states have adopted a grassroots strategy. They’re mobilizing Star Act beneficiaries in all states, all of whom are combat-disabled medical retirees, and arming them with media strategies and personal testimonies to engage state legislators and the press. The urgency is palpable, and the need for state-level intervention critical. One disabled veteran said he lost more than $150,000 over nearly two decades because of how the federal government calculates retirement benefits, as the Star legislation to address the issue still sits stagnantly in Congress.
That’s because the current law reduces the Department of Defense retirement pay, dollar for dollar, by the amount of disability compensation a medically retired veteran receives from the Department of Veterans Affairs if they have less than 20 years of service. As written, the Star Act would remove this pay reduction for medically retired veterans with combat related disabilities. There is also legislation to remove the offset altogether for all medical retirees, but this has not garnered nearly the amount of support as the Star Act, amassing 74 sponsors in the Senate and 327 in the House.
Originally, the offset was enacted as a cost-cutting rule in the 1890s to prevent veterans from collecting two forms of compensation for the same purpose and period of service, otherwise known as “concurrent receipt.” But these are two different payments for two different purposes – Congress acknowledged this with a partial fix as part of its 2004 defense authorization bill, but the legislation did not cover combat-injured veterans who did not reach their 20 years of service.
The proposed measure was named for a U.S. Army Major Richard Star, who was a combat engineer during deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq and learned in 2018 that he had contracted lung cancer from exposure to burn pits and other toxic substances in the war zones. Star passed away in 2021 having advocated for changes in the compensation law after he was medically retired just shy of his 20 years in service.
In response to the federal stalemate, veterans advocacy organizations are adopting a more localized strategy. In effect, these groups are rallying Star Act beneficiaries in all 50 states and equipping them with media engagement and communications skills to contact their local lawmakers for help. These groups are lobbying state governments to pass resolutions or formal statements in support of the Act. The goal here is two-fold: to raise public awareness and to create a groundswell of support that governors and state lawmakers cannot ignore. They hope to compel these state leaders to pressure their federal counterparts to act decisively by adding the Star Act to this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. Efforts to attach it in the previous three years have been unsuccessful.
And, as of now, no supportive measures have been proposed in the Georgia General Assembly. The Peach State’s wounded warriors, those who stand to gain or lose the most, feel a deep-seated betrayal by their congressional delegation since only about half of their representatives in the U.S. House co-sponsored the Star Act. The time has come for Georgia’s Governor and state legislators to lead the charge instead.
In a response to a recent inquiry about the legislation, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-GA, a co-sponsor of the Star Act, agreed more should be done to move this issue to passage, and he’s “committed to working with [his] colleagues in the Senate on legislation that addresses the needs of our medically-retired combat-disabled veterans,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-GA, also a co-sponsor, echoed his support for this legislation “to cut red tape and ensure that Georgia’s combat-disabled veterans receive the full retirement pay and disability benefits they deserve.” According to 2022 Department of Defense estimates, there are nearly 2,000 disability retirees living in Georgia and at least 50,000 elsewhere.
By sharing personal stories of how much economic security veterans lose and the specific impacts of the current law, America’s wounded veterans and support organizations aim to humanize the issue and galvanize public support. It’s time for Georgia to lead the way, honoring our heroes with the full measure of gratitude and economic security they deserve. Anything less is unacceptable.
William J. Black, III, is a Georgia lawyer who is a combat-disabled retiree of the U.S. Air Force and a 2021 Department of Defense Warrior Games Athlete.
