Information verified through September 27, 2026
September 2026 update: Rep. Takano's discharge petition on the Star Act (H.Res. 1247, for H.R. 2102) reached the 218 signatures it needed in mid-September. That forces the bill onto the House calendar, but the motion has to sit for seven legislative days first, and the House is in its pre-election recess, so no floor vote is expected before November. The Senate has blocked the standalone bill by unanimous-consent objection repeatedly. It is still not law, and as written it would pay only going forward. Why you still need CRSC ↓
Plain-English summary: The Major Richard Star Act would let combat-disabled medical retirees keep their full retirement pay and their full VA disability — no offset. As of late September 2026 it is still not law: a discharge petition reached 218 signatures, but no House vote is expected before November, and it would still need the Senate. For combat-disabled Chapter 61 retirees, CRSC remains the tool that works today.
If you are a medically retired veteran with a combat-related disability, here is the short version. The Major Richard Star Act would end the rule that forces many medical retirees to give up a dollar of retired pay for every dollar of VA disability they receive. It has not become law. In June 2026 it was folded into a much larger package — the Take Care of America's Veterans Act — and the House vote on that package stalled before any floor action. Nothing about your Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) has changed. CRSC is still the mechanism that lets combat-disabled retirees recover that offset right now, while the bill works its way through Congress.
That distinction — proposed versus enacted — matters this week, because the headlines have been loud and the details have been blurry.
Key takeaways
- The Major Richard Star Act (H.R. 2102 / S. 1032) would grant concurrent receipt — full retired pay and full VA disability, no offset — to roughly 54,000 combat-disabled medical retirees. It is not yet law.
- In June 2026 it was packaged into the Take Care of America's Veterans Act (H.R. 9237 / S. 4744). The House vote stalled the week of June 22 over an unrelated floor fight, not over the Star Act itself.
- The package pays for itself partly by changing tinnitus and sleep apnea ratings — but only for veterans who apply in the future. Veterans already receiving those ratings would not be affected.
- CRSC has not changed. For combat-disabled Chapter 61 retirees under 20 years, CRSC is still the only way to recover the retired-pay offset today.
- Build your combat-related record now. It pays off under CRSC regardless of what Congress does.
Why you still need CRSC, even if the Star Act passes
Here is the detail most coverage skips. As written, the Star Act covers a "combat-related disabled uniformed services retiree" medically retired under Chapter 61 with fewer than 20 years. That phrase is not new. It comes from the CRSC law itself, 10 U.S.C. 1413a. So the question the Star Act turns on, whether your disability is combat-related, is the same question your branch answers when you file for CRSC. How DoD would carry out the bill is not known yet, but a retiree whose branch has already ruled on combat-relatedness is not starting from zero.
- CRSC exists today. It is a tax-free DoD payment, it is not tied to 20 years of service, and a Chapter 61 retiree can apply this week on DD Form 2860.
- The Star Act, as written, pays nothing for the past. The reported text takes effect the month after enactment, for payments going forward. CRSC is different: after Soto v. United States, CRSC back pay is no longer cut off at six years, and depending on the record it can reach back years. Every month spent waiting on Congress is a month nobody is claiming.
- The paperwork is the same paperwork. The records that prove a condition is combat-related (DD-214, VA rating decision, line-of-duty determinations, deployment and incident records, statements from people who were there) are what a CRSC packet is built from. Building it now is not wasted if the bill passes. It is the head start.
The honest limit: CRSC pays the lesser of the VA value of your combat-related conditions or your longevity retired pay, and for short-service medical retirees that second number often caps it. That cap is exactly what the Star Act would remove, which is why it deserves your call to Congress. A capped CRSC check is still money you are not getting if you have never filed. Do both: file CRSC, and call your representative.
Watch: "Don't wait on the Star Act" (45 seconds). Where the bill stands, why it pays no back pay as written, and why filing CRSC now does not cost you anything if it passes.
What the Major Richard Star Act would actually do
CRSC exists because of a rule most civilians find baffling: under current law, many retirees cannot receive their full military retired pay and their full VA disability compensation at the same time. They have to "waive" retired pay, dollar for dollar, to receive tax-free VA compensation. Two partial workarounds exist. CRDP (Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay) restores the waived amount for retirees with 20 or more years of service and a VA rating of 50% or higher. CRSC restores it — tax-free — for the portion of disability that is combat-related, and it is open to medical (Chapter 61) retirees who don't have 20 years.
That leaves a specific group out in the cold: service members who were medically retired before reaching 20 years because of a combat injury. They are too disabled to keep serving, but they don't have the longevity for CRDP. Their only offset-recovery tool is CRSC, and CRSC only covers the combat-related share.
The Major Richard Star Act targets exactly that gap. It would extend full concurrent receipt to Chapter 61 retirees with combat-related disabilities who are eligible for CRSC, so they could draw both their full retirement and their full VA compensation. The Congressional estimate is about 54,000 veterans affected, at a cost of roughly $11 billion over ten years.
The bill is named for Maj. Richard Star, an Army Reserve combat engineer who was medically retired in 2018 and died in 2021 of cancer linked to burn-pit exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan. With fewer than 20 years of service, he learned his VA compensation would be subtracted from his retirement, and he spent his final years pressing Congress to fix it.
How it got here: the June 2026 omnibus
The standalone Star Act has long enjoyed lopsided support — Military Times reports backing from 336 House members and 79 senators — but it kept stalling because it never included a way to pay for it, and budget rules require an offset for new mandatory spending.
To break that logjam, on June 10, 2026, House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) introduced the Take Care of America's Veterans Act — H.R. 9237 in the House, S. 4744 in the Senate. It is a roughly 554-page package combining 62 separate veterans bills, and it includes the full text of the Major Richard Star Act, the Love Lives On Act (which would let surviving spouses keep benefits if they remarry before 55), increased compensation for catastrophically injured veterans' families, and more.
The package cleared the committee stage and was lined up for a House floor vote the week of June 22. The floor vote did not happen. According to Military Times, all House votes were halted amid an impasse over an unrelated measure — the SAVE Act, an elections bill that is a White House priority. As of this writing, the package is stalled, not defeated, and the Senate had not scheduled its own vote.
In short: this is pending legislation. It has not passed either chamber. It is not law. No CRSC rule, rate, or deadline has changed because of it.
The funding "catch": tinnitus and sleep apnea
Here is the part driving the alarming headlines, and the part it is most important to get right.
To cover the cost of the Star Act and the other 61 bills, the Take Care of America's Veterans Act would change how the VA rates two very common conditions for future claims:
- Sleep apnea: Veterans with asymptomatic sleep apnea, or a mild case controlled by treatment such as a CPAP machine, would receive a 0% to 10% rating, rather than the higher standalone ratings available today.
- Tinnitus: Currently rated at a standalone 10%, tinnitus would instead be treated as a symptom of an underlying condition — such as hearing loss or traumatic brain injury — and would no longer carry its own rating.
The Disabled American Veterans estimates these changes could affect up to 1.5 million veterans and reduce future compensation by about $57 billion over ten years. Roughly 1.3 million veterans currently receive compensation for sleep apnea and more than 1.5 million for tinnitus.
But read this carefully, because the headlines often skip it: the changes would apply only to veterans who file for these conditions in the future. Reporting from Military Times is explicit that the reductions would not affect veterans who already receive that compensation. If your tinnitus or sleep apnea is already rated, this proposal — even if it becomes law — does not reach back and cut it.
This is also why the offset is contested. The VFW, DAV, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America oppose paying for one group's benefits by trimming another's, and the ranking Democrats on both veterans' committees have pushed to pass the Star Act on its own instead. The American Legion has called the bundled approach a "pragmatic path forward" given years of gridlock. We're not here to take a side in that debate — only to make sure you can see the actual mechanics through the noise.
What this means for military retirees
For the retirees we work with, four practical points matter most.
1. If you're a combat-disabled Chapter 61 retiree, the Star Act is the bill to watch — but don't wait on it.
It would be a real improvement for you. It is also not guaranteed to pass, and "stalled in a stalled chamber" is a long way from a signature. CRSC works today. It is the only path that currently lets an under-20-year medical retiree recover the retired-pay offset, and the Soto decision already removed the six-year cap on CRSC back pay (we cover that in our Soto guide).
2. Even if the Star Act passes, CRSC won't become irrelevant.
CRSC is tax-free; restored retired pay under concurrent receipt is taxable. CRSC and concurrent receipt are mutually exclusive — you elect the one that's better for you, and you get an annual window to switch. For many combat-disabled retirees, CRSC's tax-free status can still make it the better election. That's a personal calculation, not a one-size answer, and it's exactly the kind of comparison we walk through with clients. (See CRSC vs. CRDP.)
3. If you already get tinnitus or sleep-apnea compensation, you are not in the crosshairs.
The proposed changes are forward-looking. Don't let a scary headline push you into a rushed or panicked decision about ratings you already hold.
4. The combat-related record you build for CRSC is never wasted.
Whether Congress restores full concurrent receipt or not, the documentation that proves a condition is combat-related — incident reports, line-of-duty findings, award citations, the causation narrative — is what unlocks tax-free CRSC. That work holds its value no matter which way the bill goes.
What you should do now
- Confirm where you stand. Know your years of service, your VA combined rating, and whether you're currently on CRDP, CRSC, or neither. That determines which tools apply to you.
- Don't pause a CRSC packet to "wait and see." The Star Act may take months, and it may change. CRSC back pay now runs from your statutory effective dates with no six-year cap.
- If you're considering a future tinnitus or sleep-apnea claim, file under today's rules. Current standards still apply. Nothing has changed, and rushing rarely helps a claim.
- Track the bill from primary sources. Congress.gov (H.R. 9237) shows the real status; skip the viral posts.
Document checklist for a combat-related (CRSC) claim
- DD Form 214 (and any DD 215 corrections)
- VA rating decision letters listing each service-connected condition and percentage
- Retirement orders showing Chapter 61 / disability retirement and your years of service
- Evidence tying conditions to combat: incident/after-action reports, line-of-duty determinations, award citations (Purple Heart, CIB/CAB, etc.), and hazardous-duty or jump/dive records
- A causation narrative connecting each condition to one of the four combat-related categories
- DD Form 2860 (the CRSC application)
Frequently asked questions
Has the Major Richard Star Act passed in 2026?
No. As of September 27, 2026, it has not become law. Rep. Mark Takano's discharge petition reached 218 House signatures in mid-September, which forces the bill onto the House calendar, but no floor vote is expected before the House returns in November. It would then still need to pass the Senate, where standalone attempts have been blocked repeatedly, and be signed.
Does the Richard Star Act change CRSC?
Not today. CRSC's rules, categories, and effective dates are unchanged. If the Star Act becomes law, eligible Chapter 61 retirees could receive full concurrent receipt, but you would still want to compare CRSC (tax-free) against concurrent receipt (taxable) before electing.
Are VA tinnitus and sleep-apnea ratings being cut?
There is a proposal to change how both are rated for future applicants, attached to the Take Care of America's Veterans Act as a funding offset. It is not law, and reporting indicates it would not affect veterans who already receive those ratings.
Who would the Richard Star Act help?
Roughly 54,000 combat-disabled medical (Chapter 61) retirees who, because they have fewer than 20 years of service, currently cannot receive full retired pay and full VA compensation at the same time.
Does the Star Act include back pay?
As written in the reported bill text, it takes effect the first month after enactment and applies to payments going forward. It does not include a retroactive provision. CRSC can include retroactive pay, and after Soto it is no longer limited to six years.
Should I wait for the bill before filing for CRSC?
We don't recommend waiting. CRSC works now, the Soto decision removed the back-pay cap, and the combat-related evidence you assemble keeps its value regardless of what Congress does.
The bottom line
The Major Richard Star Act is closer to the floor than it has been in years, and that is genuinely good news for combat-disabled medical retirees. But "closer" is not "passed." Right now it is bundled into a larger, contested bill whose vote has stalled, and the only thing that has actually changed for you is the news cycle. CRSC remains the working tool for recovering the offset, the Soto decision still governs back pay, and a well-documented combat-related claim is still the difference between a denial and tax-free compensation. We'll keep tracking the bill and update this page when something real changes.