A concurrent RESOLUTION

 

to memorialize the United States Congress to ADOPT THE MAJOR RICHARD STAR ACT TO ALLOW ALL MEDICALLY RETIRED SERVICE MEMBERS TO RECEIVE FULL ACCESS TO THEIR RETIREMENT PAY AND BENEFITS.

 

Whereas, Major Richard Star was an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who, after exposure to burn pits during his service, received a diagnosis of lung cancer. Due to his diagnosis, Major Richard Star was forced to retire before completing twenty years of service and was therefore unable to collect his retirement and disability benefits; and

 

Whereas, for every dollar of disability pay a veteran receives, a veteran with less than twenty years of service and a disability rating of less than fifty percent, has his retirement pay reduced by a dollar. An estimated 50,000 retired service members are ineligible for concurrent benefits under the current rules; and

 

Whereas, according to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2022, the average offset was approximately $1,900 a month. The Major Richard Star Act would remove these restrictions and ensure that all service members who have medically retired can receive full access to retirement pay and Department of Veterans Affairs' disability benefits; and

 

Whereas, after dying from his battle with lung cancer in 2021, Major Richard Star's widow claimed that his greatest goal was to get legislation passed providing for the removal of these restrictions. The United States owes these benefits to its veterans regardless of the cost associated with their allocation. Now, therefore,

 

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

 

That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, memorialize the United States Congress to adopt the Major Richard Star Act to allow all medically retired service members to receive full access to their retirement pay and benefits.

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