Urges Congress to support the Major Richard Star Act to allow all medically retired service members to receive full access to their retirement pay and benefits

SECOND REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION NO. 34
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBL Y
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENT A TIVE HARBISON.
6592H.01I JOSEPH ENGLER, Chief Clerk
WHEREAS, Major Richard Star was an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who, after
2 exposure to burn pits during his service, received a diagnosis of lung cancer; and
3
4 WHEREAS, due to his diagnosis, Major Richard Star was forced to retire before
5 completing twenty years of service and was therefore unable to collect his retirement and
6 disability benefits; and
7
8 WHEREAS, for every dollar of disability pay they receive, veterans with less than
9 twenty years of service and a disability rating of less than fifty percent will have their
10 retirement pay reduced by a dollar; and
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12 WHEREAS, an estimated fifty thousand retired service members are ineligible for
13 concurrent benefits under the current rules; and
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15 WHEREAS, according to the Congressional Budget Of fice, in 2022, the average
16 of fset was approximately one thousand nine hundred dollars a month; and
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18 WHEREAS, the Major Richard Star Act would remove these restrictions and ensure
19 that all service members who have medically retired can receive full access to retirement pay
20 and Department of V eterans Af fairs disability benefits; and
21
22 WHEREAS, after dying from his battle with lung cancer in 2021, Major Richard
23 Star's widow claimed that his greatest goal was to get legislation passed providing for the
24 removal of these restrictions; and
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26 WHEREAS, the United States owes these benefits to its veterans regardless of the
27 cost associated with their allocation:
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29 NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOL VED that the members of the House of
30 Representatives of the One Hundred Third General Assembly , Second Regular Session, the
31 Senate concurring therein, hereby ur ge the Congress of the United States to support the Major
32 Richard Star Act to allow all medically retired service members to receive full access to their
33 much-deserved retirement pay and benefits; and
34
35 BE IT FUR THER RESOL VED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of
36 Representatives be instructed to prepare a properly inscribed copy of this resolution for each
37 member of the Missouri congressional delegation.
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HCR 34 2