Since 2004, military retirees with a Department of Veterans Affairs disability rating of 50% or higher have been able to receive their complete military retired pay and their full VA disability compensation without being docked for collecting both.
But veterans who were medically retired and who served less than 20 years, or those with a lower disability rating, are subject to offsets, ensuring that they don’t collect more each month than their military retirement pay.
Members of Congress are again trying to change that, eliminating the dollar-for-dollar penalty for medically retired combat veterans — a change that could add thousands to the pockets of an estimated 50,000 veterans each year.
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Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., called on their fellow lawmakers Tuesday to pass the Maj. Richard Star Act, a bill supported in the last Congress by more than 335 House members and 66 senators. The bill failed to pass after attention turned to the $280 billion PACT Act, which expanded VA health care and services for millions of veterans sickened by environmental exposures overseas.
“This is a top priority for nearly every veterans service group … and so we will take our marching orders from them,” Tester said Tuesday during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol. “They are…
