AlexVillas

U.S. Army Veteran | Gamer |
Puertorriqueño 🇵🇷 |

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[AlexVillas @AlexVillas89]

🫡

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

Freedom is never free.

God bless our troops. 🇺🇸

[mike bski @BskiMike22802]

BREAKING — filed TODAY at 4:02 PM — Rep. Bost of Illinois dropped an amendment to H.R. 9237 replacing the Major Richard Star Act language in the TCAVA. I read every line. Here is the honest scorecard.

WHAT IMPROVED:

The amendment creates a pathway — subparagraph (C) — that strips the dollar-for-dollar offset for combat-related Chapter 61 medical retirees. No 50% disability rating barrier in (C). If your disability is certified combat-related and you were medically retired before 20 active-equivalent years, the offset is GONE. Sections 5304 and 5305 of Title 38 — the two statutes that legally take your retirement — get removed. For a vet like me, that is the difference between $0 net retired pay and roughly $2,145/month. Starting at enactment. Not age 60.

WHAT STILL NEEDS TO BE FIXED:

PROBLEM ONE — THE MISSING PRIORITY SENTENCE.

I hold a 20-year letter. That means I qualify SIMULTANEOUSLY as a "career retiree" under the old (b)(1) provision AND as an "under-20 retiree" under the new (C). The Bost Amendment does NOT add a tiebreaker. DFAS gets to pick. If they pick wrong, a 43-year-old combat vet gets $0 now and $713/month at age 60. One sentence closes this. It is not in the bill. Demand it before this goes to conference.

PROBLEM TWO — THE "LESSER OF" CAP.

Subparagraph (C) says you receive the LESSER of your actual chapter 61 retirement or a hypothetical 20-year calculation. My actual chapter 61: $3,565/month. The hypothetical cap: $2,377. Under the current language I still lose $1,188/month to a ceiling that should not exist. Full concurrent receipt means BOTH benefits — fully. Strip the cap.

PROBLEM THREE — AND THIS ONE AFFECTS NEARLY TWO MILLION VETERANS.

Section 208 of H.R. 9237 is UNTOUCHED by the Bost Amendment. The tinnitus and sleep apnea rating cuts — the same ones the VA's own Regulatory Impact Analysis scored at $57.1 BILLION taken from disabled veterans — are still sitting in the bill exactly as written. The MRSA language got better today. The offset that funds it by gutting the most-claimed wounds in the system did not move an inch.

Fix the MRSA. Strip Section 208. Both. Not one or the other.

WHERE WE ARE RIGHT NOW:

213 signatures on the discharge petition.

218 needed.

FIVE. More. Votes.

330+ members already co-sponsored H.R. 2102. There are people in that building RIGHT NOW who signed their name to support this bill and have NOT yet signed H.Res. 1247 to force it to the floor.

WHAT I NEED YOU TO DO — TODAY:

Call your House representative. Not email. Not tweet at them. CALL.

Tell them: "I am calling to urge you to sign H.Res. 1247, the discharge petition for the Major Richard Star Act. You already co-sponsored H.R. 2102. It is time to turn your signature into action. We are five votes away from a floor vote. Sign the petition."

Make the call. We are five votes from ending this.

@54KVeterans @passmajstaract @MajorStarAct @Chrisujwo3 @davidmedic81 @TeeeRoy1 @DavidWarrenVet @Jeremy_Profitt @SeabeeBonner @THEHUMBLE19 @GuntherEagleman @catturd2

But what do I know — I am only a science teacher and medically retired Army combat medic who read the amendment line by line, did the math, and knows what FIVE VOTES means to 54,000 people the government broke and has been robbing ever since.

#MajorRichardStarAct #MajStarAct #EndTheWoundedVeteranTax #Veterans #54KVeterans

[VoteVets @votevets]

Republicans are pitting veteran against veteran, and they're betting you won't notice. Iraq Veteran and VoteVets Senior Advisor Kayla Williams breaks down the so called "Take Care of America's Veterans Act."

[David Warren | Veterans Policy @DavidWarrenVet]

.@RepLuttrell, You are a cosponsor of the Major Richard Star Act and have long advocated for veterans.

With H.Res. 1247 now within reach of the signatures needed to force a House vote, many combat-injured veterans would appreciate understanding your position on the discharge petition.

Will you support bringing the Major Richard Star Act to the House floor for a vote?

#MajorRichardStarAct #Veterans

[VoteVets @votevets]

.@TheProspect - Over the past week, veterans’ advocates from across the political spectrum, 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.

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.

Now Republicans have suddenly embraced it. Why this sudden turnaround? Because they’ve found a clever way to offset its price tag that will allow them to deny millions of veterans access to health care and benefits that they were promised.

[Pass the Maj Star Act @passmajstaract]

@RepDonBacon after reviewing TCAVA and the statements made from the VA stating they had no plans or even a timeline to implement the ratings changes we once again ask you to sign the discharge petition!

#MajorRichardStarAct

[David Warren | Veterans Policy @DavidWarrenVet]

.@CoryMillsFL Before the introduction of the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, you expressed concerns about whether the standalone #MajorRichardStarAct could clear the Senate.

With TCAVA now on the table and H.Res. 1247 only 5 signatures from success, many veterans would appreciate an update.

Do you believe the discharge petition remains the best path forward, or do you support TCAVA as the preferred vehicle?

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

We really saved America before GTA 6

[David Warren | Veterans Policy @DavidWarrenVet]

.@MilitaryOfficer Your June 9 SITREP reaffirmed that the Major Richard Star Act remains a top legislative priority and encouraged members to contact Congress and demand a vote.

Since that update was published before the introduction of the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act could MOAA issue an updated Action Alert focused on the Major Richard Star Act and the available paths to passage?

Many combat-injured veterans would welcome guidance on how best to support this long-overdue legislation.

#MajorRichardStarAct #Veterans

[54KVeterans @54KVeterans]

1 question for every member of congress who signed onto TCAVA:

Did you read the #MajorStarAct section 101a before signing?

Because veterans did.

We read the bill.

We saw the 50% cap.

We saw the "lesser of" language.

We saw VA benefit reductions being used as the pay-for.

The original H.R. 2102 had 334 bipartisan cosponsors and united veterans behind a simple promise: restore earned retirement pay for combat-injured medical retirees.

TCAVA replaced that promise with a controversial package that has divided veterans, divided VSOs, and raised more questions than answers.

So let's have an honest conversation.

If TCAVA is better than H.R. 2102, prove it.

Release the side-by-side comparison.

Show who gets more.

Show who gets less.

Show who gets capped.

Show who pays for it.

59,000 combat-injured veterans are still waiting.

@RepGusBilirakis @RepRichHudson @RepMikeLawler @RepVanOrden @RepMMM @RepGregMurphy @RepMcGuire @RepTomBarrett @RepJackBergman @RepJimBaird @RepMeuser @RepAbeHamadeh @RepFrenchHill @JayObernolte @RepChuckEdwards

#MajorStarAct #HR2102 #TCAVA #54KVeterans

[David Warren | Veterans Policy @DavidWarrenVet]

Look at the timeline carefully.

On June 10, @RepGusBilirakis—the six-year champion of the clean Major Richard Star Act—signed on as an original co-sponsor of the 554-page Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237/S.4744).

On June 15, he addressed the @AmericanLegion and urged support for the bill, arguing that we cannot let “the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

Rep. Bilirakis stated that the legislation is funded by “savings generated by a previous VA decision.”

The VA did not discover excess funding.

According to VA spokesman Quinn Slaven:

“No changes are planned or imminent.”

The underlying proposal would come from changes to sleep apnea and tinnitus disability ratings that has generated significant opposition from veterans, VSOs, and lawmakers.

This omnibus would permanently codify an estimated $57 billion in savings through future rating changes affecting approximately 1.5 million future disabled veterans.

Congress may call it an offset.

Veterans may call it something else.

Rep. Bilirakis has also stated that he would have preferred an offset from the Department of Defense rather than veterans’ disability compensation.

On June 16, the American Legion announced its support for the package.

The timeline is what it is.

But the larger issue is the precedent.

As Dr. Kyleanne Hunter of IAVA stated:

“Congress should not set the precedent that earned disability compensation can be reduced whenever lawmakers need an offset.”

If Congress establishes that precedent today with tinnitus and sleep apnea, many veterans worry that other disability categories could become future targets whenever lawmakers need funding.

That is why organizations such as the DAV, VFW, IAVA, and PVA continue to oppose using one veterans benefit to pay for another.

We do not need a compromised omnibus.

Congress already has a clean path forward.

Pass the standalone Major Richard Star Act through the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition.

5 signatures remain.

#MajorRichardStarAct #Veterans

[AlexVillas @AlexVillas89]

RT @54KVeterans: None of this makes sense at the 5,000 foot view.

.@HouseDemocrats and @HouseGOP have 334 bipartisan #majorstaract cospon…

[Richard Blumenthal @SenBlumenthal]

Once again, Republicans blocked my effort to advance the Major Richard Star Act, even with a clear way to pay for it out of DOD unused funds. The cost of caring for veterans is part of the cost of war. We must keep our promises.

[David Warren | Veterans Policy @DavidWarrenVet]

Interesting statement from VA:

“No changes are planned or imminent.”

VA also states:

“VA is still reviewing the proposed rule, which was introduced by the Biden Administration in 2022. VA received significant public comment on the proposal, and it would need to undergo significant changes prior to being finalized.”

According to VA spokesman Quinn Slaven:

If that’s the case, why should Congress incorporate those same provisions into law before the review process is complete?

Congress should debate these issues on their own merits rather than incorporating them into a large omnibus package.

#MajorRichardStarAct #Veterans

[mike bski @BskiMike22802]

#MajorRichardStarAct #MajorStarAct #MajStarAct #54KVeterans #EndTheWoundedVeteranTax @54KVeterans @Chrisujwo3 @davidmedic81 @TeeeRoy1 @DavidWarrenVet @Jeremy_Profitt @rg81416 @SeabeeBonner @smith8024 @kniftarqr9y @restore_GI_Bill @passmajstaract @SgtJoebishop
@restore_GI_Bill @DavidSt59726197

[ZCrush @kniftarqr9y]

This: "Courts no longer rubber-stamp the VA's reading of an ambiguous statute. They decide the meaning themselves. Which means a VA regulation that zeroes out a CPAP veteran or erases tinnitus is not a freight train you cannot stop. It is a RULE. A challengeable, beatable rule, built on 38 USC 1155, which says ratings must track the average impairment of EARNING CAPACITY, not budget targets."

The VA even made a public statement in 2022 asserting that it would present justification for the rating changes based on earning capacity. In their own words, "...proposed rule (Federal Register) for sleep apnea and tinnitus changes asserted that the revisions would "incorporate modern medical data and terminology" and better reflect "average impairment in earning capacity" per 38 U.S.C. § 1155."

They obviously knew in 2022 (and in every subsequent year) that for the changes to comply with the law (38 USC 1155), that condition would need to be met.

Does Congress understand that it is on the verge of "rubber stamping" modifications to the ratings schedule that are possibly illegal?

[mike bski @BskiMike22802]

UPDATE, and I am going to try very hard not to say I told you so.

For weeks the message aimed at veterans has been simple: the VA is cutting tinnitus and sleep apnea anyway, it is happening this year, so we might as well let the Take Care of America's Veterans Act grab the "savings" and call it an offset. Resistance is futile. Sign here.

Then the VA opened its mouth.

This week the VA's own spokesman said, on the record, "No changes are planned or imminent." He added that the 2022 proposed rule, a leftover from Biden's Autopen, drew significant public comment and would need significant changes before it could ever be finalized. Read that again. Not imminent. Not scheduled. Not a done deal. The agency everyone swore was about to drop the hammer just admitted the hammer is still sitting in the drawer.

So let us revisit the argument I have been making for weeks, the one a few folks told me was too lawyerly for a combat medic.

In 2024 the Supreme Court decided Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and overturned Chevron. Courts no longer rubber-stamp the VA's reading of an ambiguous statute. They decide the meaning themselves. Which means a VA regulation that zeroes out a CPAP veteran or erases tinnitus is not a freight train you cannot stop. It is a RULE. A challengeable, beatable rule, built on 38 USC 1155, which says ratings must track the average impairment of EARNING CAPACITY, not budget targets. Pile the major questions doctrine and the pro-veteran canon on top of that, and the rule is in serious trouble the day a veteran drags it into court.

Here is the part that matters right now. If the cut is NOT inevitable, and the VA just told us with its own mouth that it is not, then the entire "it is happening anyway" justification for Section 108 collapses. Section 108 does not capture some unavoidable savings. It MANUFACTURES the cut. It codifies a not-even-finalized regulation into hard statute, and by doing so it strips away the very Loper Bright shield that would otherwise let veterans kill that cut in court. Congress would be reaching into the drawer, pulling out the hammer the VA just set down, and swinging it for them. Permanently. And then charging the next generation of veterans for the rest of the package.

And I am not the lone voice on this anymore, not even close. The VFW just planted its flag: "We support the help. We reject the offset." They said in plain English that the argument that veterans should swallow cuts because they are supposedly inevitable does not hold up. DAV said the same. IAVA warned that today it is tinnitus and sleep apnea, and tomorrow it is whatever becomes the next convenient budget target. The premise died this week, and the people still building their strategy on that dead premise need to notice.

So maybe, just maybe, I was more right about Loper Bright than I even knew when I started typing about it. The cut was never a foregone conclusion. It is a CHOICE. Section 108 is that choice, written down. And we can still tell Congress to strip it, pass the Major Richard Star Act clean, the discharge petition is five signatures from the 218 it needs, and let the VA try its luck in a post-Chevron courtroom if it has the nerve.

But what do I know. I am only a medically retired combat medic and a science teacher who read the bill, read the Supreme Court, and apparently read the VA better than the people who spent a month telling us to surrender to it.

IF you agree: LIKE this so the algorithm carries it to the veterans who need to see it. SHARE it, because the "it is happening anyway" line dies the second people read the VA's own words. COMMENT and tell me straight: should Congress strip Section 108 and make the VA fight in court, yes or no? And if you want more of this, the law, the data, the receipts nobody else is pulling, JOIN Bski's Classroom on X or YouTube.
@VFWHQ @MajorStarAct @StarActEnemies @passmajstaract
#Veterans #MajorRichardStarAct #LoperBright

[David Warren | Veterans Policy @DavidWarrenVet]

I respect Mission Roll Call’s advocacy and their desire to advance multiple veteran priorities through one legislative package.

Where many of us disagree is on the financing mechanism.

The concern has never been about expanding mental health programs, caregiver support, suicide prevention, or other veteran benefits. The concern is whether those priorities should be funded through an estimated $57 billion in future reductions to sleep apnea and tinnitus compensation.

Veterans should not have to choose between veterans.

Congress still has a clean path forward through the Major Richard Star Act H. Res 1247 discharge petition and other standalone legislation that avoids creating that choice.

#MajorRichardStarAct #Veterans

[VFW National HQ @VFWHQ]

"No changes are planned or imminent."

That's VA's position.

The argument that veterans should accept benefit cuts because they're inevitable doesn't hold up.

And even if it did, veterans shouldn't have to fund veterans' benefits.

We support the help. We reject the offset.

https://t.co/7UFZQbKpZY

#HonorTheContract #Veterans #VeteranBenefits #VeteranAdvocacy

[House Veterans' Affairs Democrats @VetAffairsDems]

Veterans don't want a watered-down piece of legislation. They want the benefits they are owed, full stop.

[VFW National HQ @VFWHQ]

🚨 Action Alert

They said they wouldn't cut veterans' benefits.

The Take Care of America's Veterans Act does exactly that.

$57 billion. 1.5 million veterans. Tinnitus. Sleep apnea. Conditions earned in combat. Stripped from future veterans to pay for other veterans' benefits.

VFW National Commander Carol Whitmore: "A grateful nation pays its debts to veterans; it does not send them the invoice."

This community has a code. We don't eat our own.

Take action: https://t.co/CeC7052N42

#WeDontEatOurOwn #HonorTheContract #VFW #Veterans #ProtectVeteransBenefits