U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, delivered the following opening remarks at the full committee markup of H.R. 1282 the Major Richard Star Act.
Chairman Rogers' remarks as prepared for delivery:
Our first order of business is H.R. 1282, the Major Richard Star Act.
This bill gets at a big injustice facing many of our veterans.
Under current law, only veterans with at least 20 years of service and a disability rating of at least 50 percent are entitled to receive both their full retired pay from DOD and their disability compensation from VA.
All other veterans with service connected disabilities are ineligible to receive both benefits concurrently.
Instead, they are unfairly forced to forfeit a portion of the benefits they rightly earned.
H.R. 1282 ensures that veterans who were medically retired from the military with less than 20 years of service AND are eligible for Combat-Related Special Compensation receive full concurrent receipt.
Although I support this bill, I am disappointed the committee is being forced to act on it before a pay for could be found.
Moving a bill forward with mandatory spending that isn't fully offset opens the bill up to a point of order against its consideration on the floor. That is the reason why we cannot carry mandatory spending provisions that have no offset in the NDAA.
Nevertheless, we will work with leadership and the VA committee to see if an offset can be found for this bill.
In the meantime, I will support moving it forward today.
