Major Richard Star Act: What the House Votes Mean for Your Pay

This is a developing story. The House was still debating when this was published on 12 November 2026, and we are updating this page as it moves. The date stamp at the top of this article shows when it was last revised.

If you medically retired with fewer than 20 years of service, you already know the arithmetic problem at the center of this bill. Your Chapter 61 retired pay is reduced, dollar for dollar, by the VA disability compensation you receive. The Major Richard Star Act would end that reduction for retirees whose disabilities are combat related.

Two things happened in the House on 11 and 12 November 2026. News coverage of them disagrees, and the disagreement is not sloppiness. Two different bills carrying the same name are moving at the same time, and they do not pay the same.

Here is what the record shows, what each version would actually do to a monthly payment, and what has not happened yet.

Status as of 12 November 2026

Nothing here has become law. No payment, rating or offset has changed. Both bills are in the legislative process, and both would still need to pass the Senate and be signed before anything reaches a bank account.

This page is being kept current while the House finishes. If you are reading it some time after 12 November 2026, check the roll call links in the sources at the foot of the page, which are the official record and will be ahead of any article.

What the House actually did

Three separate actions, which are easy to confuse with each other:

1. Wednesday 11 November, 1:04 p.m. The House voted to force the standalone bill to the floor. Members agreed to a motion offered by Representative Takano to discharge H. Res. 1247, the rule for considering H.R. 2102, by a vote of 245 yeas to 175 nays, with 13 not voting. The breakdown was 210 to 0 among Democrats, 34 to 175 among Republicans, and 1 yea among independents. That was Roll Call 320.

A discharge motion is a procedural tool that moves a measure out of committee and onto the floor without the committee releasing it. It does not pass the bill. It only creates the opportunity to debate and vote on it.

2. Wednesday 11 November. The House passed a larger package by voice vote. H.R. 9237, the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, passed with no recorded vote. The Congressional Record entry reads, in full, "The question is on the passage of the bill. The bill was passed." Because it was a voice vote, there is no roll call showing how individual members voted.

This bill is large. It runs 555 printed pages and contains more than 60 separate measures across compensation, education, health care and VA organization. Its Section 101 is titled "Major Richard Star Act."

3. Thursday 12 November, 9:45 a.m. The House adopted the rule. Members agreed to H. Res. 1247 by 271 yeas to 135 nays, with 26 not voting: 210 to 0 among Democrats, 60 to 135 among Republicans, 1 independent yea. That was Roll Call 322, and it opens debate on H.R. 2102 itself.

At the time this was written, the House had not yet voted on passage of H.R. 2102.

Why the two versions are not the same

This is the part that matters for your pay, and it is the part the headlines skip.

The standalone bill, H.R. 2102, adds a rule to Title 10 Section 1414 stating that a Chapter 61 retiree entitled to retired pay and to VA compensation for a combat-related disability "is entitled to be paid both for that month without regard to sections 5304 and 5305 of title 38." Sections 5304 and 5305 are the offset. Removing them removes the reduction, with no ceiling attached.

Section 101 of H.R. 9237 carries the same title and splits retirees into two groups:

• 20 or more years of creditable service. You receive the retired pay you would have been entitled to had you not been retired under Chapter 61, plus your VA compensation.
• Fewer than 20 years of creditable service. You receive "the lesser of" your actual Chapter 61 retired pay plus VA compensation, or a retired pay figure computed as though you had 20 years of creditable service, plus VA compensation.

That second branch is a ceiling. Chapter 61 retired pay can be calculated using a disability percentage multiplier rather than a longevity multiplier, and the disability multiplier is often the higher of the two. Where it is higher, the "lesser of" test caps the benefit at the 20 year figure. The standalone bill has no equivalent provision.

So a veteran medically retired at, say, 12 years would be treated differently under the two bills. Both are called the Major Richard Star Act. Only one pays without a ceiling.

For how the current offset rules work today, see our guides to CRDP and CRSC. If you want to estimate your own combat-related figure under existing law, the CRSC calculator uses today's rules, not either proposal.

The ratings changes in the same package

H.R. 9237 also contains Section 108, "Reforms relating to Department of Veterans Affairs disability ratings." It has drawn objection during floor debate, and it is worth reading carefully because two of the most commonly claimed conditions are in it.

Sleep apnea. The bill directs the Secretary to revise the rating schedule so that sleep apnea syndrome is rated:

• 0 percent when asymptomatic, with or without treatment
• 10 percent when treatment yields incomplete relief
• 50 percent only if treatment is ineffective, or the veteran cannot use the prescribed treatment because of a comorbid condition, and there is no end-organ damage
• 100 percent only if there is end-organ damage

Tinnitus. The bill directs that tinnitus "may not be assigned a separate compensable disability rating," except that 10 percent is assigned when tinnitus is diagnosed as associated with service-connected hearing loss that is otherwise noncompensable.

Two qualifiers matter enormously here, and both are in the text:

Existing ratings are protected. The revisions "may not serve as the basis for reducing, discontinuing, or otherwise adversely affecting compensation that was in effect on the day before the date of the enactment." If you hold a rating for either condition today, this section does not reduce it.

The cut-off date was moved backwards. As introduced in July, the new criteria would have applied to claims filed after enactment. Under the amendment the House adopted as part of the rule, the text applies to claims filed "on or after October 1, 2026." That date is already in the past. If the bill became law in this form, a claim filed after 1 October 2026 and still pending would be decided under the new criteria rather than the current ones.

That combination is worth being precise about. A rating already granted and in payment is protected. A claim filed since 1 October 2026 but not yet decided is not in the same position.

One caveat on sourcing: the engrossed text, meaning the official version as passed, had not been published when this was written. The description above reflects the bill as introduced together with the amendment that the rule treated as adopted on 16 July 2026. If the engrossed text differs, we will update this page.

What has not happened

• Neither bill has passed the Senate. The Senate has taken no recorded action on H.R. 2102 or H.R. 9237.
• Nothing has been signed. No change takes effect without enactment.
• No VA rating has changed. The rating schedule for sleep apnea and tinnitus is unchanged today. Any revision would require the Secretary to go through rulemaking after enactment.
• The House has not passed H.R. 2102. As of 12 November it had adopted the rule and begun debate.

Separately, on the same day

The Senate passed H.R. 8552, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, on 11 November. It would increase disability compensation rates, and dependency and indemnity compensation rates, effective 1 December 2026. That is a different bill from the two above, and we have not independently verified its current status beyond that Senate vote.

What to do now

Honestly, very little, and that is the correct answer rather than a dodge.

• Do not change a filing decision based on a bill that is not law. That applies in both directions. Rushing a claim in, or holding one back, on the strength of a pending bill is a gamble on a process that frequently does not finish.
• If you have a pending claim for sleep apnea or tinnitus filed since 1 October 2026, nothing has changed today. It is worth watching, not acting on.
• If you are a Chapter 61 retiree with a combat-related disability, the number that matters to you is whether a final bill includes the 20 year ceiling. Read for that specifically, because both versions share a name.
• Check the roll calls yourself. They are public and they take about a minute to read. Links are below.

We will update this page as the House completes action and if the Senate takes either bill up.

Sources

All of the above is taken from primary records rather than news coverage:

• Congressional Record, Daily Digest, 11 November 2026 (pages D1012 and D1014, for the discharge motion, the voice vote, and the Senate COLA bill)
• House Clerk Roll Call 320 (motion to discharge, 11 November)
• House Clerk Roll Call 322 (adoption of the rule, 12 November)
• H.R. 2102 as introduced (the standalone Star Act text)
• H.R. 9237 as introduced (Section 101 at page 13, Section 108 at pages 59 to 61)
• House Report 119-749 (Part B, the amendment to H.R. 9237 considered as adopted)

This page reports what the House did and what the bill texts say. It does not take a position on the legislation.