FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
Contact:
Tim Kauffman
202-374-6491
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AFGE Applauds House Passage of Richard Star Act
Categories:
VA, Congress, House
Union thanks lawmakers for passing legislation extending full benefits to injured veterans, chastises House leadership for pushing through separate bill that undermines veterans’ care
WASHINGTON – The American Federation of Government Employees thanks the U.S. House for passing legislation that would ensure veterans receive all of the compensation they are owed for their military service.
The Major Richard Star Act (H.R. 2102, S. 1032) would allow certain combat-injured veterans to receive both their full military retirement pay and as well as any disability benefits owed to them by the Department of Veterans Affairs, without offset.
The House overwhelmingly passed the bill Thursday by a vote of 392 to 18, sending it to the Senate for consideration.
“The Major Richard Star Act is an important legislative fix that would allow combat veterans to rightfully receive their full military retirement pay as well as any disability benefits owed to them – regardless of their disability rating. I urge the Senate to pass this bill immediately and send it to the president for his signature,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.
Passage of the bill came one day after House leaders snuck through a vote on a larger bill that would undermine veterans’ care and reduce workplace rights and protections for thousands of veteran caregivers in the civil service.
That omnibus bill, misleadingly called the “Take Care of America’s Veterans Act,” would eliminate or reduced benefits for up to 1.5 million veterans, cut $57 billion in future disability payments over the next decade, further privatize mental health services and VA clinical research, and strip thousands of VA psychologists of their workplace rights.
This summer, AFGE joined members of the Democratic Veterans Caucus, Veterans Service Organizations, and other labor unions in calling on lawmakers to reject the omnibus bill and pass the Richard Star Act on its own.
“House leaders should be ashamed of themselves for using parliamentary trickery – on Veterans Day, no less – to push through dramatic cuts to veterans benefits on top of the tens of thousands of staffing cuts across the VA last year,” Kelley said. “If we are to keep our promise to take care of those who have served us, we cannot turn our backs on them, and we cannot weaken the system designed to care for them.”
AFGE National VA Council President M.J. Burke also said she’s disappointed by the mixed message Congress is sending.
“Today, the House took an important step toward justice by overwhelmingly passing the Major Richard Star Act and ending an unjust policy that discriminated against combat-wounded veterans forced into medical retirement by their injuries. But veterans deserve better than having Congress give with one hand while it another takes away veteran benefits with the other,” Burke said. “It is deeply disappointing that the House paired this victory with legislation that cuts benefits and undermines the VA health care system veterans rely on every day.”
Written by OPEIU 2 AFL-CIO
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