The Take Care of Veterans Act...doesn’t
Pass the Major Richard Star Act instead
By Tim Boivin
50501 Veterans Lead Writer
There is nothing more disingenuous, duplicitous and deceitful than elected officials who use veterans as props to burnish their campaign credentials, when the impact of their legislation is at odds with their claims that it helps veterans.
Such is the case, yet again, with the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237 / S. 4744). Call it the Big Beautiful Veterans Bill, and it’s up for a House vote this week.
50501 Veterans has signed on to a coalition of national veterans organizations who have sent a letter to Congress calling for a no vote on this blatant reach around that is trying to screw our veterans.
We ask for your help in contacting your elected representatives in Congress today to voice your opposition to the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. The VFW provides forms on its website for voters to contact Congress for both bills:
Take Care of America’s Veterans Act
Major Richard Star Act Discharge Petition
Won’t Be Fooled Again
We are not fooled. Yes, this bill as proposed will take care of some veterans. But it will do so at the expense of so many other veterans, that it takes practically a perverse Darwinian approach to which veterans receive benefits.
The bill was introduced on June 10th by House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) with the support of Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jerry Moran (R-Kan.).
In a press release, Bost and Moran claim that it “is a comprehensive veterans’ package that includes more than 62 bipartisan bills to modernize, enhance, and reform the delivery of healthcare and benefits services at VA for the entire veteran community.”
Makes it sound like everyone is on board with this, doesn’t it? But they aren’t. There is nothing “bipartisan” about this bill. In the House, 23 Republicans are sponsoring the bill. Not a single Democrat.
What they have done – in a very callous, calculating manner – is take 62 bills introduced over the past few years from both sides of the aisle, bundled them up into one helluva bill that comes in at a monstrous 554 pages, and slapped the almighty “bipartisan” label on it. And they did this with the hope that nobody noticed their sleight of hand.
This is not to say that the 62 bills comprising the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act aren’t important. Most notably, it includes long overdue legislation proposed through The Major Richard Star Act to allow tens of thousands of veterans to collect both disability and retirement benefits they earned, even if combat injuries forced them to retire early.
This legislation was introduced in 2021, most recently cosponsored in 2025 in both the House and Senate by an overwhelming 336 members of Congress. Now THAT is bipartisan support. Yet the tyranny of the minority prevailed, throwing down enough procedural blockages and debates over its projected cost to prevent it from reaching a full vote.
What They Don’t Tell Us
Meanwhile, there remain far too many veterans who are dealt out of their benefits under the Big Beautiful Veterans Bill with the latest underhanded reshuffle. For instance, according to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act actually:
· Cuts benefits for 1.6 million veterans in the future and shrinks their disability compensation payments by as much as $57 billion over 10 years. They’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.
· Stops benefits for veterans suffering from service-related tinnitus. Anyone who has served in combat arms, blasted the Navy’s big guns, or guided an Air Force jet in, knows there is never enough ear protection to prevent hearing loss. And for far too many veterans, that hearing loss is significant and life-altering.
· Dramatically reduces compensation for most disabled veterans suffering from sleep apnea if they use a medical device like a CPAP while sleeping. So veterans who do have sleep apnea should just suck it up and suffer the consequences?
· Applies to all new claims as well as any reassessments or reevaluations of existing claims.
They’re not just robbing Peter to pay Paul; they’re robbing Peter and Patrick and Paula and Pam and millions of other vets for years to pay Paul.
In The Prospect, Kayla Williams, an Iraq War veteran and senior policy adviser at VoteVets, said the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act “pits groups of disabled veterans against one another, steals from future generations of veterans, and is a stealth way of implementing some of the Project 2025 goals of cutting our benefits and privatizing VA.”
Our North Star (Act)
As a country, we are pretty good at going to war. Our elected officials race each other to repeatedly raise the ante to ensure our troops have only the best weapons and equipment that money can buy.
But when the troops come home? When so many vets need help to readjust to civilian life, to merely get by? The cupboard far too often is bare, as it is here. Reshuffling the empty boxes in the VA cupboard isn’t going to feed the needs of our veterans.
50501 Veterans joins Common Defense, the DAV, the VFW and several other veterans’ organizations in their opposition to the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. Instead, we urge our elected officials to sign the discharge petition to bring The Major Richard Star Act to a vote. It is currently just five House members’ short of having the number needed to force a vote on the House floor.
According to House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Mark Takano, the Major Richard Star Act is supported by the DAV, VFW, Veterans Justice Alliance, American Legion, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Military Officers Association of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, Reserve Organization of America, National Guard Association of the United States, Blue Star Families, Fleet Reserve Association, Jewish War Veterans, Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Team Rubicon, Student Veterans of America, Blinded Veterans Association, Non Commissioned Officers Association, Military Family Association, Air Force Sergeants Association, Association of the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Warrant Officers Association, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, National Defense Committee, Mission Roll Call, and several other Veterans Service and Advocacy Organizations – including 50501 Veterans.
You cannot take care of the few at the expense of the many, nor should that choice be forced on the veteran community. In the military, we are taught to never leave our brothers and sisters behind. We won’t leave our veteran brothers and sisters behind, either.
Not a single one. Not now. Not ever.
We urge all members of 50501 Veterans, their families, and our allies across the country to contact their elected representatives, whether in Washington or in their home offices. Tell them in no uncertain terms NOT to approve the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. And tell them in no uncertain terms to sign the discharge petition for the Major Richard Star Act.
Thanks for the summary, very helpful.
Is it time to enforce what so many died to endow to our care with the privilege to protect?
» There is compelling evidence Abigail Adams was a principal author of the Declaration that formed the USA » It contains clauses for the coequality of Women, Black Americans, and those native to these Lands » It is enforceable via the Constitution » Are we serious about composting the Reenter Slavery apocalypse into ancient ancestral spiral thyme or are we still too busy playing Cowboys & Indians For-profit Co. » Either we put down the Saxonophone of Partisan-Politics now to begin playing for the Ultraviolet Sonnesóle and Aquamarine Solannastar or embrace that we’re prepared to go through YET ANOTHER cycle because everyone else thinks everyone else is dumb and screwed »
What is it going to be?
https://republia.substack.com/p/native-coequality-is-the-absolute