Sen. Rand Paul, R.-Ky., objected to a vote on the Major Richard Star Act, without a funding mechanism to pay for it. “We are approaching $40 trillion in debt. Likely, the biggest threat to our country is our national debt.” (Screenshot)
WASHINGTON — A Republican lawmaker blocked two more attempts by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, to bring the Major Richard Star Act to a vote on the Senate floor.
Sen. Rand Paul, R.-Ky., objected twice Tuesday to Blumenthal’s motions for an immediate vote. A motion to bring the bill to the floor can be defeated by a single objection.
“We are approaching $40 trillion in debt,” Paul said. “Likely the biggest threat to our country is our national debt. No one disputes that our veterans deserve to receive the benefits they’ve earned. But we should offset it.”
The bill would grant full benefits to an estimated 54,000 combat-injured veterans, enabling them to receive their full pensions while also collecting disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
It would eliminate the so-called “wounded warrior tax,” which forces medically retired, combat-injured veterans to forfeit part of their pension for every dollar received in disability compensation.
Senate Republicans have now prevented a floor vote on the legislation six times, according to Blumenthal’s office.
Each time, they have cited the costs for funding the bill, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2023 would run to $9.75 billion over a decade.
The bill has yet to be brought to the floor in either chamber.
“We’re failing to pay the cost of war for more than 50,000 combat-injured veterans. The Major Richard Star Act is our legislation to fix this injustice and finally deliver combat-injured veterans their full military benefits,” Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal said he also objected to ideas “floated behind closed doors” to offset the costs for funding the Major Richard Star Act by targeting benefits disabled veterans receive for tinnitus and sleep apnea.
Paul first stood to object to Blumenthal’s motion to pass the legislation on the Senate floor by unanimous consent.
“Just spending money because we say it is for a good cause is not enough. We have to have a way to pay for it,” Paul said.
Blumenthal then offered a motion for a roll call vote on the bill “at a 60-vote threshold,” which Paul also blocked.
The legislation would add, on average, $1,200 more each month in benefits for affected veterans, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“Opponents have claimed that our nation cannot afford this bill and demand that we offset it by cutting benefits from other disabled veterans,” Blumenthal said. “And they are acquiescing in spending billions of dollars a day on the president’s war of choice in the Middle East.”
