Combat-Disabled Veterans May Finally Get Full Retirement + Disability Pay — 50,000 People Have Been Waiting
What Actually Happened
On April 29, 2026, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly committed to supporting the Major Richard Star Act — a bipartisan bill that would allow combat-injured veterans to receive their full military retirement pay and full VA disability compensation without the dollar-for-dollar offset that currently reduces their benefits. Under questioning from Senate Armed Services Committee members, Hegseth responded: "As I have said in the past to other organizations, we support the Richard Star Act."
The Major Richard Star Act is named for Major Richard Star, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who was forced to medically retire before completing 20 years of service after developing lung cancer from burn pit exposure. He died in 2021. Under current law, because he had less than 20 years of service, every dollar of VA disability compensation he received reduced his retirement pay by a dollar. His widow has said his greatest goal was to get the legislation passed.
The bill has overwhelming bipartisan support: 79 cosponsors in the Senate and 323 cosponsors in the House. It has been blocked twice in the last year by Senate Republican leadership, who have cited cost concerns — an estimated $13 billion over 10 years.
The System at Work
The current system penalizes combat-disabled veterans for being medically retired. Here is exactly how it works.
When a service member is medically retired under Chapter 61 of the U.S. Code — meaning they were forced out due to a disability incurred in the line of duty — their retirement pay is calculated differently from a service member who completed 20 years. Under the "VA offset" rule (technically called the VA Waiver), every dollar of VA disability compensation a veteran receives is deducted from their Department of Defense retirement pay. The veteran does not receive both. They receive whichever is higher, plus the difference — but never the full amount of both.
The rationale offered at the time this policy was created was that both payments came from federal funds and covered the same period of service. But for a combat-injured veteran with less than 20 years of service, that rationale punishes them for being injured in combat.
The existing partial fix — Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) — only applies to veterans with 20 or more years of service and a combined VA disability rating of 50% or higher. That leaves out approximately 50,000 retirees who were medically retired before reaching 20 years. They are not eligible for CRDP at all.
The other program, Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC), does apply to medically retired veterans regardless of years of service — but only for the portion of their disability determined to be "combat-related" by a service-specific review board. CRSC payments come out of a different calculation that often leaves veterans with less than they would receive under CRDP if they qualified. Currently, more than 890,000 retirees receive CRDP or CRSC payments totaling approximately $21 billion annually. Those with less than 20 years are largely excluded from that total.
The Major Richard Star Act would remove the restriction entirely. Amendment language filed on December 16, 2025, would strike existing provisions of Title 10 that limit concurrent receipt for Chapter 61 retirees, allowing any "eligible combat-related disabled uniformed services retiree" to receive both retired pay and VA disability compensation without offset.
The Real-World Harm
A 2022 Congressional Budget Office estimate put the average monthly offset for affected veterans at approximately $1,900. That is $22,800 per year that a combat-injured veteran is not receiving because the government decided they cannot have both the retirement pay they earned and the disability compensation they need.
For a veteran with a traumatic brain injury from an IED, with PTSD from combat, or with burn pit-induced lung cancer, that $1,900 per month is the difference between accessing care and going without, between housing stability and homelessness. VA disability compensation is not taxed. Retirement pay is. Because the offset applies before taxes, the loss is compounded.
The harm is built into the federal ledger. Senate leadership blocked the Major Richard Star Act twice — in October 2025 and March 2026 — citing cost, while simultaneously advancing a budget resolution that allocates $140 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Thirteen billion over ten years for combat-injured veterans is deemed unaffordable; $140 billion for immigration enforcement is a priority.
For women veterans, the harm is intensified by the same structural invisibility that marks other areas of VA care. Women are the fastest-growing demographic of VA users, projected to reach 17.2% of all veterans by 2043. The combat-injured population includes women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan in roles that were de facto combat even when formally excluded — convoys, route clearance, forward support. Their injuries are combat-related. Their access to the same legislative fix is blocked by a rule written when women were not officially in combat roles.
What a Commitment Is and Isn't
The word "may" in the headline reflects the political reality. Hegseth's commitment is not a law; it is a statement of support from a Secretary who serves at the pleasure of a President. The bill has not been scheduled for a vote. The same leadership that blocked it in October and March still controls the floor. A commitment from the Pentagon is necessary but not sufficient. The legislative mechanism must still move.
The major legislative vehicle that could carry the bill is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2027. That is not final. That is not passed. That is a possibility.
The Structural Statement
The United States government sends people to war, injures them, medically retires them before 20 years, and then docks their retirement pay by the exact amount of their disability compensation — calling the resulting single check "benefits" while keeping the other half. Fifty thousand combat-injured veterans have been waiting for a fix since the CRDP phase-in was completed in 2014. The money exists. The votes exist. The will, in some quarters, does not.
She doesn't chase trends. She channels truth.
