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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, earlier today, there was a discussion here on the Senate floor of the Major Richard Star Act, legislation that I cosponsored and strongly support. This legislation would allow medically retired veterans with combat-related disabilities to receive their full military retirement pay from the Department of Defense and disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

I came to the Senate floor in March to express my support for the Major Richard Star Act and to reiterate to my colleagues that I want to work together to see this bill signed into law this year. That is what I still seek to accomplish.

I have been working with my House colleague Chairman Mike Bost, the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee here in the Senate, with the legislative leadership, the majority leader's office here in the Senate on a comprehensive veterans package that would improve the delivery of healthcare, benefits and services for veterans, servicemembers, survivors, caregivers, military families, and VA staff.

Notably, this package that we are putting together that we have developed and continue to develop would include the Major Richard Star Act. Veterans who did not get a chance to complete their military career due to medical retirement should not be penalized because they received disability compensation from the VA.

This comprehensive legislative package also includes the bipartisan Veterans ACCESS Act, the Love Lives On Act, the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, among a number of other bills sponsored by Republicans and by Democrats.

We are close to a final agreement to introduce this comprehensive veterans package. This is not anything out of the norm, but putting this package together, we are going to include the Major Richard Star Act for which the Armed Services Committee has jurisdiction, not the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

We are doing this because we see a way forward, finally, on the Major Richard Star Act becoming law. We are close to reaching an agreement on that package. We have worked extensively over months with veterans service organizations, a wide array--dozens of them--to garner their feedback, to seek their input, to determine whether they can be supportive, and continue to review this legislation in the way we intend, including the way we intend to pay for it.

In addition to working with veterans service organizations, Chairman Bost and I have met with our Democrat and Republican colleagues in both the House and Senate on our committees, the White House's Domestic Policy Council, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to make certain we are creating legislation that is sound policy, has widespread support, and the ability to gain the necessary votes.

Let me say that again: the ability to gain the necessary votes to be passed and signed into law and, most importantly, at the same time will meet the needs of our Nation's veterans.

It is easy to come to the floor and ask for unanimous consent to make a point, but we are doing something different. It takes hard work and consensus building to pass legislation that meets the needs of veterans and has the ability to become law.

This is not just like a symbolic thing that we are with our veterans; it is how do we make something that matters so greatly to them actual law and the benefits they would receive.

I, again, express my support for the Major Richard Star Act, but that means little--my saying that means little to the veterans who are currently being denied the benefits owed them for their military service. I have served on both the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees and often remark how the committees are the most bipartisan committees in Congress.

In 2020, I worked with then-ranking member Jon Tester, a Democrat, to pass the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act, and when Senator Tester became chairman, I was the ranking member, and we worked to pass the PACT Act.

We were able to work together to pass these bills because it didn't matter which party controlled the Chamber but because we knew we owed veterans the healthcare and benefits they desperately needed, earned, and deserved.

Some of my colleagues would like to see this bill and many others pass without any offset of the costs. That is not and has not been a viable a path forward under either Republican or Democratic majorities. For 5 years, under both Republican and Democratic leadership, the Major Richard Star Act has been unable to pass either the House or the Senate, in significant part, due to the inability to offset the cost of the legislation, something required by law.

We can either continue to encounter this same roadblock--we can do this over and over and over again and see the same result--or we can work together to address the concerns that have prevented this bill from passing for the last 5 years.

Lots of sponsors on the Major Richard Star Act, one of the most sponsored pieces of legislation in Congress, but for 5 years it has not become law. It is my goal to change that, and we are developing a path to do exactly that.

The legislation that I plan to introduce pays for the Major Richard Star Act and other bipartisan and bicameral priorities in their entirety. Ensuring that veterans have the care and benefits they have earned is my primary concern. While some of these benefits typically are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense and not the Department of Veterans Affairs, we don't let that technicality, that technical jurisdiction, stand in the way of helping veterans.

I choose to lead on this effort because I decided to be an original cosponsor of the Major Richard Star Act, not to cosponsor it for the purpose of saying I cosponsored it but for the purpose of seeing it become law.

In the coming days, I will put forth a legislative package that accomplishes the goals of the Major Richard Star Act, and I will do so in a way that addresses the policy and cost concerns that have prevented this bill from passing the House or Senate despite widespread bipartisan support.

I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work with me on this path forward that restores benefits to retirees with combat- related disabilities, offsets the costs of those benefits, earns the support of veterans and advocates, and can feasibly pass the Senate and the House and be signed into law by the President. That would be a great day for us as a Congress, as a legislature, to make certain we do our work. More importantly, it would be a great accomplishment for the veterans who deserve the full benefits of what they have earned.

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