House Republican leadership gaveled the week closed June 25 without bringing H.R. 9237, the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, to a floor vote, shelving a bill billed as the most comprehensive veterans legislation in a decade after veterans service organizations and House Democrats united against its funding mechanism.
The 554-page bill, introduced June 10 by House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., bundled more than 60 bipartisan measures into a single package. Its centerpiece was the Major Richard Star Act, which would allow roughly 54,000 combat-injured veterans medically retired with fewer than 20 years of service to collect both full military retirement pay and VA disability compensation — a benefit denied under current law’s dollar-for-dollar offset.
To pay for the Star Act, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated at $78 billion over ten years, the bill revised the VA disability rating schedule for tinnitus and sleep apnea. Under the bill’s language, tinnitus would lose its standalone compensable rating. Sleep apnea ratings would be restructured — veterans whose condition responds to a CPAP device would receive 0 to 10 percent disability ratings, down from the current 50 percent. The VA’s own analysis put the savings at up to $57 billion over a decade, affecting up to 1.5 million future claimants.
The Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America all opposed the bill. DAV National Commander Coleman Nee called the tinnitus and sleep apnea provisions a “poison pill” inserted into a package that otherwise included long-sought DAV priorities. The VFW stated that veterans’ benefits are an earned obligation of the nation and should not be financed by reducing compensation for other veterans. The American Legion, by contrast, supported the package, arguing that legislative gridlock on the Star Act had persisted too long and that the bill offered a workable path forward.
The Major Richard Star Act discharge petition stood five signatures short of forcing a standalone floor vote when House leadership introduced the larger package, a timing Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called a deliberate distraction. At the Rules Committee hearing June 23, Takano’s amendment to strip the bill down to the Star Act alone — funded with Defense Department dollars from the reconciliation bill — was defeated 4-8. The Rules Committee reported the full bill 8-4 under a closed rule, barring floor amendments.
Democratic members who are veterans held a press conference June 25, arguing the bill’s version of the Star Act was itself weakened. Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., stated the bill imposed a cap preventing impacted veterans from receiving both full retirement pay and full disability compensation simultaneously, undercutting the bill’s central promise.
The bill goes back to the drawing board. No reschedule date has been set. The Senate has not placed a companion bill on its calendar.
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