Major Richard Star Act

2025-2026 Bill 4575: Major Richard Star Act - South Carolina Legislature Online

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026
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H. 4575
STATUS INFORMATION
Concurrent Resolution
Sponsors: Reps. Erickson and Pope
Document Path: LC-0414SA-SA26.docx
Introduced in the House on January 13, 2026
Currently residing in the House Committee on
Invitations and Memorial Resolutions
Summary: Major Richard Star Act
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

Date

Body

Action Description with journal page number

12/16/2025

House

Prefiled

12/16/2025

House

Referred to Committee on
Invitations and Memorial Resolutions

1/13/2026

House

Introduced (
House Journal-page 27
)

1/13/2026

House

Referred to Committee on
Invitations and Memorial Resolutions
(
House Journal-page 27
)

View the latest
legislative information
at the website
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
12/17/2025

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.

W
hereas, 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

W
hereas, 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

W
hereas, 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

W
hereas, 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,

B
e it resolved by the House
of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

T
hat 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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This web page was last updated on January 13, 2026 at 2:41 PM