Another Bait and Switch on VA Care by Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon

[justaprogressive]

Over the past week, veterans’ advocates from across the political spectrum—including Common Defense, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)—have roundly denounced a new bill Republicans are trying to ram through Congress next week. The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, a 553-page package of over 60 bills hammered out in secret with no Democratic input, was introduced with great fanfare on June 10 by Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jerry Moran (R-KS) and House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL). It is touted as improving veterans’ economic opportunities and access to health care.

In fact, with the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, Republicans are reprising the role they played during the lead-up to the PACT Act, the long-overdue bill providing needed care and benefits for veterans who’d suffered from toxic exposures. In cynical fashion, they are now championing a bill they originally opposed, disguising their effort to fulfill the Project 2025 intention to dismantle the VA health care system and reduce veterans’ benefits. This bill is a “poison pill,” DAV National Commander Coleman Nee proclaimed. “A grateful nation should never try to balance its budget on the backs of the men and women who sacrificed so much for our freedom.”

The bill’s centerpiece, and its bait, is the Major Richard Star Act, which has widespread support because it remedies a deep injustice known as the “wounded veteran tax,” which affects 54,000 veterans. The bill would allow combat-injured veterans to simultaneously collect their full military retirement pay and VA disability compensation if they were medically retired prior to completing 20 years of service. The act is named after Maj. Richard Star, a combat engineer who developed lung cancer due to exposure to burn pit smoke in both Iraq and Afghanistan and had to choose between collecting military retirement pay or disability compensation, when in fact he should have gotten both after his terminal diagnosis.

Republicans had multiple opportunities to support passage of this bill and refused every one. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) blocked it in October 2025; Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) quashed it in March 2026; and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) twice prevented a vote on the bill last week, despite 79 co-sponsors and more than enough support for it to pass.

https://prospect.org/2026/06/18/veterans-va-health-care-republicans-take-care-americas-veterans-act-project-2025-trump/