With only 5 signatures remaining, let me remind every one of the 60 House veterans who have not yet signed the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition. It’s not a procedure. It’s a choice. The public can see those choices. Who do you choose to stand behind? #MajorRichardStarAct

After working for months to find a way to pass the Major Richard Star Act and other benefit and health care improvements, new legislation was introduced in the House and Senate yesterday that included many DAV-supported bills, but also contained a “poison pill” that would cut benefits for up to 1.5 million veterans and reduce future disability compensation payments to them by as much as $57 billion. This is wrong and we need your help to stop it.The legislation (H.R. 9237/S. 4744, Take Care of America’s Veterans Act) would effectively stop compensating veterans for the impact of service-connected tinnitus and dramatically reduce compensation for most disabled veterans suffering from sleep apnea if they use a medical device (CPAP) while sleeping. These changes would apply to all new claims as well as any reassessments or reevaluations of existing claims.Eliminating compensation for sleep apnea and tinnitus is not a reflection of improved outcomes for veterans—it is a budget-driven decision that shifts the burden onto those who have already sacrificed in service to our nation. We reject the premise that the only way to fulfill the promises made to the men and women who served in the past is by cutting benefits for veterans in the future.DAV will not compromise our core mission of ensuring veterans receive the benefits they have earned and deserve. Nor will we compromise our principles and leave future generations of servicemembers with fewer protections and benefits than those available today.Please contact your senators and representative today and urge them to oppose the cuts to veterans benefits. dav.quorum.us/campaign/16455…

Respectfully, @RepJenKiggans, this expansive package actually compromises the very benefits you want to protect. Section 101 of (H.R. 9237/S. 4744) forces our 54,000 combat-injured veterans to wait until January 2027 just to see the Star Act take effect. Worse, Section 108 pays for this delay by executing a permanent $57B budget raid on veterans with tinnitus and sleep apnea—money originally intended to expand mental health capacity for 1.8M veterans. We have a unique opportunity to deliver this relief without forcing our disabled veterans to absorb the cost of a broader omnibus. The clean, standalone Major Richard Star Act is already just 5 signatures away from the floor via H.Res. 1247. Let's work together to pass it the right way, safeguarding baseline care and avoiding the Section 101 deficiencies for Guard/Reserve and Section 108 offsets entirely.

Glad to see the mental health breakdown, but 54,000 medically retired combat-injured #Veterans shouldn't have to hunt through external links to find out if this bill helps or hurts them. The #MajorRichardStarAct has massive support and deserves front-row transparency in this thread, @SVACGOP.

It’s completely understandable that Chapter 61 combat-injured retirees are celebrating Section 101 they’ve fought a brutal, multi-year battle for the #MajorRichardStarAct. But we cannot let that hard-earned joy create a blind spot for what Section 108 is doing. Washington is banking on tunnel vision. They want us so focused on the victory in Section 101 that we don't notice Section 108 picking the pockets of 1.5 million #Veterans with tinnitus and sleep apnea to pay for it. True brotherhood means we don't fix an injustice for one group of heroes by creating a massive $57B benefit raid on another. We don't leave fellow veterans behind to balance a budget. Drop the toxic Section 108 offsets, waive PAYGO, and pass a clean Star Act via the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition! cc: @SenBlumenthal @HouseVetAffairs @DAVHQ @VFWHQ @starsandstripes

I'm a combat-wounded veteran the Major Richard Star Act is written to help and I stand with the national @VFWHQ against paying for it by cutting other disabled vets' benefits. Pass the Star Act. Drop the offset. A grateful nation pays its debts; it doesn't send veterans the invoice.

Congress allowed the VA to sneak rating schedule revisions into the omnibus legislation to avoid legal process, scrutiny, and public feedback. The "savings were going to happen anyway" claim is simply inaccurate. Some argue that bundling the @MajStarAct into H.R. 9237 (Take Care of America's Veterans Act) was a smart move by the VA because "the tinnitus and sleep apnea rating changes were happening anyway," allowing the projected savings to serve as clean offsets. This reasoning contains several fallacies. First, the changes were not happening anyway. The VA’s 2022 proposed rule has been stalled for more than four years with no final rule issued. The administrative process is not on the verge of completion; it is effectively frozen in the remaining stages. Second, the only genuinely shrewd (many veterans would say sneaky) aspect of this maneuver is that VA and congressional sponsors inserted the exact rating schedule revisions directly into legislation. This bypasses the six remaining steps of the standard administrative rulemaking process that would otherwise have been required: ➡️Comprehensive analysis of and formal responses to the 2,680 public comments. ➡️Revision of the draft final rule. ➡️Multiple layers of internal VA and legal review. ➡️Inter-agency and OMB/OIRA clearance for an economically significant rule. ➡️Publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. ➡️Congressional Review Act scrutiny. By embedding the changes in H.R. 9237, proponents avoid further public comment, additional agency analysis, OMB cost-benefit review, and the real possibility of further delays or modifications that veteran opposition had already forced. Periodic modernization of the rating schedule does not justify using major, high-volume compensation reductions (long delayed precisely because of that opposition) as budgetary offsets for new spending, especially when those savings are used to penalize huge numbers of deserving veterans.

Introducing a package of 60 bills sounds great, Congressman, but we must be completely transparent about how Congress is choosing to pay for it. Section 108 of this Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237 / S. 4744) weaponizes a stalled 2022 administrative proposal to legally codify massive cuts to future sleep apnea and tinnitus ratings. That translates to a $57 Billion statutory raid on the backs of 1.5 million disabled #Veterans just to meet Washington's budget rules. The DAV and VFW oppose this package for a reason. We should never pit one group of disabled veterans against another to pay for combat injury reform. Congress needs to waive PAYGO and pass a clean #MajorRichardStarAct via the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition!

Rep. Bilirakis, the Major Richard Star Act is vital, but we must be transparent about what "fully funded" actually means here. This package pays for combat injury pay by resurrecting and codifying the stalled 2022 VA rating cuts for sleep apnea and tinnitus. That is a $57B raid on 1.5 million disabled veterans. The DAV and VFW strongly oppose this funding mechanism for a reason. We shouldn’t fund the wounds of combat by stripping the earned benefits of other disabled heroes. Congress needs to waive PAYGO, drop these toxic offsets, and pass a clean Star Act via the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition!

The @DAVHQ has officially launched their national grassroots Action Alert! National Commander Coleman Nee didn't mince words: "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." The Take Care of America's Veterans Act uses a toxic PAYGO shell game to fund the #MajorRichardStarAct by executing a $57B raid on 1.5M veterans with sleep apnea and tinnitus. We completely reject the premise that future generations must lose their protections so combat retirees can win what they already earned. Every advocate needs to click the link below right now, flood Congress, and demand they drop the offsets. Congress must waive PAYGO, protect our benefits, and pass the clean bill via the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition. Let's finish this! ACT NOW: dav.quorum.us/campaign/16455…

It amazes me that Republicans are all of a sudden worried about 1 billion dollars (cost of the Major Richard Star Act) and are trying to MAKE OTHER VETERANS pay for a slight increase to our EARNED MILITARY RETIREMENT when, and I quote, "Federal prosecutors estimate that more than half of roughly $18 billion spent since 2018 across 14 Minnesota-linked programs may have been fraudulent." So that's $8 Billion. Just in one state.

Thanks to @DAVHQ National Commander Nee for calling out the "poison pill" hidden inside the Take Care of America's Veterans Act (H.R. 9237/S. 4744). Trying to fund the #MajorRichardStarAct by raiding $57B from 1.5M veterans with sleep apnea and tinnitus is a gut punch to the community. Can the DAV activate an immediate digital Action Alert so veterans can flood Congress against this budget-driven betrayal? When the DAV rallied the veterans community in Feb 2026 against the VA’s medication final rule, it amassed over 19,000 comments in days, forcing the VA to back down so veterans wouldn’t be penalized for taking needed medication. This infrastructure can stop this bill the exact same way. Congress must waive PAYGO and pass Major Star's bill cleanly via the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition, which is just 5 signatures away. We reject the premise that we must strip benefits from future generations to pay for promises already made to our combat retirees!

The @VFWHQ has officially launched a national Action Alert! As the VFW rightly stated, "A grateful nation pays its debts to veterans — it does not send them the invoice." The Take Care of America's Veterans Act tries to fund the #MajorRichardStarAct by codifying a massive $57B cut to sleep apnea and tinnitus benefits, impacting 1.5M disabled heroes. We refuse to accept the premise that one group of veterans must lose so another can win. Every advocate, veteran, and supporter needs to click the link below immediately, flood Congress, and demand they remove these toxic offsets. Congress must waive PAYGO and pass Major Star's bill cleanly via the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition. TAKE ACTION NOW: votervoice.net/VFW/Campaigns…

Thank you @VFWHQ for drawing a line in the sand against the Take Care of America's Veterans Act. Trying to fund the #MajorRichardStarAct by stripping $57B in hard-earned benefits from 1.5M disabled veterans is a toxic shell game. Can the VFW launch an immediate digital Action Alert so veterans can flood Congress opposing these specific offsets? When the VFW launched an immediate digital Action Alert in Feb 2026 for the medication final rule the VA was trying to implement, it amassed over 19,000 comments in just a few days and the VA rescinded the final rule. This can work the same way. Congress needs to hear from all the veterans and advocates who oppose the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237/S. 4744) concerning the Major Richard Star Act. Congress must waive PAYGO and pass Major Star's bill cleanly via the H.Res. 1247 discharge petition, which is just 5 signatures away. We don't fund the wounds of war by raiding the pockets of other disabled veterans!

The narrative out of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee is crumbling, and the family of Major Richard Star is rightfully rejecting the committee's trap. Yesterday, David Star commented on my timeline hoping a committee compromise could give his brother's bill a path forward, and @HouseVetAffairs quote reposted him in another post that he tagged @HouseVetAffairs @VetAffairsDems and @RepMarkTakano to try and validate their offsets. But when we pointed out the stark reality that the committee is trying to fund the #MajorRichardStarAct by stripping $57B from 1.5M #Veterans with tinnitus and sleep apnea the conversation shifted. Following powerful pushback from the veteran community, @DAVHQ, and @VFWHQ against this toxic shell game, David Star quietly deleted his comments. He knows his brother's namesake bill was written to fix an injustice, not to be weaponized to rob Peter to pay Paul. @HouseVetAffairs' thank-you post to David Star is still live, but the post they were using for political cover is gone. After all the years Major Richard Star and his wife Tonya advocated for the clean bill (H.R 2102 and S. 1032) the House Committee on Veterans Affairs used his own brother as a publicity stunt and it backfired. Even the family won't let Major Star's legacy be used to hurt other disabled veterans. @DonBacon we are 5 signatures away from 218. Please put your name on the discharge petition and protect all veterans.

STATEMENT FROM VETERANS FOR AMERICA FIRST Veterans for America First strongly opposes any proposal that would reduce disability compensation for veterans suffering from service-connected sleep apnea, tinnitus, and other long-term conditions resulting from military service. For many veterans, sleep apnea is a lifelong medical condition that requires nightly treatment with a CPAP machine simply to breathe properly while sleeping. The fact that a veteran must sleep every night connected to a machine is not evidence that the disability has disappeared it is proof that the disability continues to exist and requires ongoing treatment. Likewise, tinnitus is far more than a minor inconvenience. Millions of veterans live every day with constant ringing, buzzing, hissing, or other intrusive sounds that never stop. These symptoms affect sleep, concentration, communication, mental health, and quality of life. There is currently no cure. The men and women affected by these conditions did not develop them by choice. They developed them while serving our nation in combat zones, aboard ships, on flight lines, in motor pools, in maintenance facilities, and in countless other military environments where exposure to hazards was part of the mission. Veterans fulfilled their obligation to this nation. The nation must fulfill its obligation to them. Reducing disability compensation because a veteran uses a CPAP machine is no different than arguing that a wheelchair eliminates a disability because it helps someone move. Treatment does not cure the condition. It simply allows the veteran to function despite it. Veterans for America First believes that veterans who have already established service-connected disabilities should not live in fear that benefits they earned through honorable service could be reduced years or decades later due to changing policies or budgetary pressures. We urge Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs to reject any proposal that unfairly diminishes earned benefits for veterans and to preserve the commitments that have been made to those who answered the call to serve. America's promise to its veterans must not be broken. Respectfully, Robert Cornicelli National President Veterans for America First

Congress is considering changes to VA disability ratings for tinnitus and sleep apnea that could impact up to 1.5 million veterans and cut compensation by $57 billion over 10 years Veterans should not pay for veterans’ benefits @repgabeevans @RepJeffCrank @RepBoebert @RepJeffHurd

“The VFW strongly opposes the Take Care of America's Veterans Act as currently drafted because it asks future disabled veterans to bear the cost of expanding benefits through changing the VA rating schedule for tinnitus and obstructive sleep apnea which are common conditions associated with combat poly trauma. We have long maintained that veterans' benefits are an earned obligation of the nation, a promise made through the military service contract, and should not be financed through offsets, fee increases or reductions that place additional burdens on veterans, military families and survivors.” - VFW National Commander Carol Whitmore vfw.org/media-and-events/lat… #VFW #HonorTheContract

Great to see @CoryMillsFL engaging with the independent #Veterans advocate community on here! Thank you for keeping an eye on our platform, Congressman. With the official introduction of the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (H.R. 9237 / S. 4744), advocates and constituents are closely studying the proposed funding mechanism. We know your ultimate goal is ensuring the #MajorRichardStarAct successfully passes both chambers. As the conversation evolves, we are eager to hear your perspective on how this new package compares to the standalone discharge petition (H.Res. 1247), which is now just 5 signatures away from a clean vote. We look forward to hearing your insights as a vital voice on the House Armed Services Committee!