Combat-injured vets fight Congress for full benefits

Army Sergeant Will Fisher fell 40 feet during a nighttime mission in Balad, Iraq, crushing his ankle and breaking his back. The injuries eventually cost him his leg and ended his military career after nearly 15 years of service, five years short of qualifying for a full military pension. His story represents an estimated 54,000 veterans who sustained career-ending combat injuries before reaching the 20-year service mark required for full retirement benefits, and now those veterans are pushing Congress to fix what many call a fundamental injustice in the military benefits system.

Under current law, service members must complete 20 years of service to qualify for a full military pension, but only 17 percent reach that threshold according to a 2011 Defense Department report. Veterans who are medically retired before hitting 20 years receive military retirement pay, but that payment is reduced dollar-for-dollar by the amount they receive in VA disability compensation. Last fall, those reductions averaged roughly $1,650 per month, or nearly $20,000 per year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This offset means combat-injured veterans who gave their bodies in service often receive significantly less in total benefits than they would have earned had their careers not been cut short by their injuries.

The Major Richard Star Act, named after an Army major medically retired following combat injuries, would eliminate this offset for combat-injured veterans. The legislation has attracted substantial support, with backing from nearly 80 senators, more than 330 House members, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of the bill's lead sponsors, has called the offset "one of the deepest injustices in our present veterans' disability system."

The primary obstacle to passage is cost. When first introduced in 2023, the bill applied only to the 54,000 veterans medically retired due to combat injuries and carried an estimated price tag of $10 billion to $13 billion over ten years. Eligibility was later expanded to include an additional 255,000 medically retired veterans regardless of how they became injured, inflating the cost to $78 billion over a decade. This sevenfold increase has prompted concerns from lawmakers like Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who argue the long-term financial impact requires greater scrutiny despite their support for the bill's underlying premise.

Lawmakers attempted to include a combat-only version of the Major Richard Star Act in the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, a larger legislative package with more than 60 veteran-related measures, but that bill failed to receive a floor vote in July. The situation is further complicated by opposition from Disabled American Veterans to the larger package due to its funding mechanism, which would reduce future disability claims for certain conditions including tinnitus and sleep apnea. DAV argues this approach forces one group of veterans to finance benefits for another and could set a dangerous precedent for future benefit reductions.

For veterans like Fisher, who spent four years enduring chronic pain and multiple surgeries before choosing to have his right leg amputated below the knee, the debate centers on a simple principle of fairness. Combat-injured veterans argue they earned both their military retirement pay through their years of service and their disability compensation through their sacrifice. The offset effectively penalizes them for injuries sustained in the line of duty, reducing benefits they would have fully earned had their bodies not failed them in service to their country.

Veterans affected by this issue should contact their congressional representatives to express support for the combat-focused version of the Major Richard Star Act and stay informed about the bill's progress through veteran service organizations. Understanding your current retirement and disability compensation structure can help you determine whether passage of this legislation would affect your benefits and by how much.