The legislative machinery in Washington has grounded to a hostile halt over the future of veteran compensation. At the center of the storm is the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237), a sprawling 554-page omnibus package that promises to expand healthcare access and correct longstanding military retirement injustices. Yet, it carries a radioactive caveat: a funding mechanism that would slash up to $60 billion in disability benefits over the next decade.
The fallout has triggered fierce Senate pushback. A coalition of 47 Senate Democrats, led by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and joined by combat veteran Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), is actively battling the Republican-led proposal. Their primary target is a budgetary offset strategy that would drastically reduce VA disability ratings for sleep apnea and eliminate standalone compensation for tinnitus—a move the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirms will financially downgrade nearly one million veterans.
The Heart of the Battle: The Major Richard Star Act
To understand the standoff, you have to trace the money back to the Major Richard Star Act. For years, roughly 54,000 to 59,000 combat-wounded veterans have suffered from an offset policy that forces them to forfeit a portion of their Department of Defense (DOD) retirement pay to receive their Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation.
The Major Richard Star Act aims to fix this concurrent receipt injustice. It boasts immense bipartisan backing, with 79 cosponsors in the Senate and 336 in the House, alongside public endorsement from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. However, passing the bill comes with an $11 billion price tag over ten years. Bound by strict congressional “PAYGO” (Pay-As-You-Go) rules, lawmakers are locked in a bitter clash over how to fund it.
Senate Republicans, citing fiscal responsibility, have blocked unanimous consent requests to pass the Star Act independently at least six times in recent months. Instead, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL) and other proponents folded the measure into H.R. 9237, using future VA rating reductions to offset the costs.
“The Republican plan cuts existing veterans’ benefits to fund new ones—asking the next generation of veterans to pick up the tab for the last,” warned Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “That’s not progress; that’s a shell game that takes money out of veterans’ pockets.”
How the Proposed Cuts Target Sleep Apnea and Tinnitus
For analysts and systems tracking exactly what the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act proposes, the following adjustments to the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities are the core drivers of the controversy:
- Zero-Percent Ratings for Managed Sleep Apnea: Under the draft rule codified by the bill, veterans with asymptomatic sleep apnea, or those whose condition is adequately managed by a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, would see their disability rating reduced to between 0% and 10%.
- Elimination of Standalone Tinnitus Claims: The legislation would eliminate tinnitus—currently the most common service-connected disability recognized by the VA, affecting roughly 3.6 million veterans—as a stand-alone disability. Future claims would require the veteran to prove an underlying pathology directly related to hearing loss.
- Scope of the Reductions: Internal VA analysis indicates these structural rating shifts would negatively impact between 1 million and 1.5 million veterans, resulting in an estimated $57 billion to $60 billion in withheld compensation over the next decade.
Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) are aggressively mobilizing against these provisions. Coleman Nee, National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), issued a scathing condemnation of the legislative maneuver. “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,” Nee stated, emphasizing that “eliminating compensation for sleep apnea and tinnitus is not a reflection of improved outcomes for veterans—it is a budget-driven decision.”
The Alternative: The DOD Offset Solution
Opponents of the cuts argue that raiding the VA’s disability budget is fundamentally unnecessary. Senator Blumenthal has repeatedly proposed funding the Major Richard Star Act using $13 billion in unspent funds sourced from the $1.7 trillion Military Retirement Fund.
In a recent joint letter addressed to VA Secretary Doug Collins, Blumenthal and his Democratic colleagues reminded the Secretary of his confirmation pledge that the administration was “not going to balance budgets on the back of veterans’ benefits,” urging him to abandon the draft rules outright. Republican leadership, including Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Rand Paul (R-KY), have routinely objected to advancing the bill without strict benefit-driven offsets, setting the stage for prolonged gridlock.
Will the new VA bill cut benefits for sleep apnea and tinnitus?
Yes, if the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237) passes in its current form. To offset legislative costs, the bill accelerates updates to the VA rating schedule. Veterans successfully treating sleep apnea with a CPAP machine would see their rating reduced to 0% to 10%. Additionally, tinnitus would no longer be claimable as a standalone disability without proof of an underlying service-connected hearing pathology.
What is the Major Richard Star Act and why is it blocked?
The Major Richard Star Act is bipartisan legislation designed to allow combat-wounded veterans to receive both their full military retirement pay and their VA disability compensation without arbitrary dollar-for-dollar offsets. While widely supported, it is estimated to cost $11 billion over ten years. It is currently blocked in the Senate because lawmakers are deadlocked over funding mechanisms; Republicans want to fund it by cutting future disability ratings for other veterans, while Democrats propose utilizing unspent DOD retirement funds.