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March 26, 2023 - Stew Peters Show
57:31
The Richard Leonard Show: The Major Richard Star Act
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We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
The date was February, 2020.
Introduced was a bill called the Major Richard Starr Act, which would give medically retired veterans of the United States military concurrent receipt with their VA benefits if passed.
Today we're going to talk about why this is important.
My friend Steven is here to join us to talk about this, so stick with us.
Don't go away.
We start now.
Hey everybody and welcome here to the next installment of the Richard Leonard Show of Of course, as always, I want to thank you for joining us.
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Okay, so today my friend Stephen London is going to join us.
We are going to have a conversation about the Major Richard Starr Act, which is pretty important.
It doesn't affect as many veterans as folks would think, but it affects enough that it makes it very important.
And for many reasons that we will discuss.
Let me find Stephen here.
There he is.
Mr.
London, how are you, sir?
I'm doing quite well, sir.
How are you?
I'm good.
Thank you for joining us.
So let's just dive right in.
First, would you mind just kind of giving us an introduction about yourself, who you are and where you come from and that type of thing?
Definitely.
So my name is Steven London.
I served in the United States Army for almost 10 years of active duty before I was medically retired due to combat injuries.
After I left the service, I returned back to academia, and I'm a Michigan native.
Go Wolverines!
I was just going to ask, Wolverines or Spartans?
I appreciate both, but I'm more of a Wolverine at heart.
But for what I do now, I help advocate for veterans' issues, just like the Major Richard Starr Act.
Okay, perfect.
So why don't we talk about that?
Can you give us a little overview about what the Major Richard Starr Act is and how it would work should it pass Congress and be signed into law?
Definitely.
So just to provide everybody an overview of the Major Richard Starr Act, it was introduced originally in the 116th Congress.
Unfortunately, the last two Congresses, despite growing support, it wasn't passed into legislation.
But now, in the current 118th Congress, support is growing very strongly, very rapidly.
A lot of lawmakers who previously co-sponsored this legislation have reaffirmed their commitment to the Major Richard Starr Act.
So, to talk a little bit more about what The legislation does and who it affects.
The Major Richard Starr Act, it's focused on veterans who meet three criteria.
Those criteria are that they have served under 20 years of active, credible service, that they were medically retired, and that they have a combat-related injuries.
So for those veterans, approximately 50,000 veterans is the current estimate that this legislation would affect.
And that goes even beyond the veterans themselves.
We can probably talk about it a little bit later in the show.
And what the bill does, it provides something called concurrent receipt, which allows veterans and administrative choice to receive Their Veterans Affairs, their VA disability pay, plus their earned retirement pay.
Or if they choose to, they can also have their VA disability pay and choose their Combat Related Special Compensation Pay, or CRSC. So this is kind of an overview of some of the information about the STAR Act.
Okay, so just for clarity of the viewers and the listeners, CRSC is a benefit that is afforded to medically retired veterans for conditions or injuries that were obtained during combat service, correct?
Yes, generally correct.
Most of them are, well, all of them are combat related.
It also extends To some other areas such as hazardous service or even sometimes training related to combat environments.
But yeah, combat related.
So in the title, CRSC, Combat Related Special Conversation.
Okay, so when we talk about the training aspect, would something like NTC or JRTC be considered combat training that would afford you CRSC? Should something have happened to you at either one of those training facilities?
So how CRSC eligibility is determined is by each individual veterans branch.
And what they'll do is you will submit your paperwork and your evidence.
So if you believe that a training event simulating war during that time, your injury that caused you to be medically retired occurred, then you could submit that to your respective branch to make a determination for your eligibility for CRSC. Okay.
Okay.
You had said that you get VA disability.
You earned what I would call it a pension, retirement from DOD. So you could take that pension or your CRSC. Do they care which one you take?
Or is it whichever one is greater?
I guess I didn't know that part.
I thought it was just everything that you were eligible for is what you're afforded to be awarded, but that doesn't sound like I have it correct.
Yeah, so there's something within our legal structure, within the laws, That prevents what's called a duplication of benefits.
Simplified, that just means not being able to receive two payments because of the same reason.
Okay.
So, what concurrent receipt does, it opens up these kinds of payments or entitlements, let's say, that would benefit veterans that may have in the past been viewed as a duplication of benefits But have been seen to be for two different reasons.
For example, VA disability pay is seen as compensation for loss of future income, while retirement pay is often viewed as, as you might say, a pension or payment for time served in the military.
Okay.
Okay, well that makes it a whole lot more clear.
Is there any kind of idea about We have about five minutes left in the segment.
So is there any idea about why this didn't pass in the first two Congresses that it was presented in?
So the 116th and 117th Congress?
Yeah, definitely.
So for the STAR Act, one of the leading reasons given for why it wasn't considered as legislation that would be passed There were financial concerns as to how much the Major Richard Starr Act would cost to be able to provide this concurrent receipt for veterans.
So that was one of the concerns listed by lawmakers.
Was there any, and I know that offline we talked about a Congressional Budget Office estimation, but has there been any kind of estimation, whether it was from the government, Congress, or anybody else, about what this might cost taxpayers?
Yes, so there have been a few different estimates that are out there.
Last year, an unofficial score, I believe, was released when Media interviewed one of the lawmakers.
And last year, an estimate of about $11 billion over 10 years was given.
This year, as Senator Tester was advocating for the reintroduction of the Major Richard Starr Act, he provided a figure of about $7 billion over 10 years.
And if you take that raw data that's in the Department of Defense, Actuary reports you will likely get a number that's even less than that over Yes, even less than that over the next 10 years Interesting so I wonder if I wonder why the difference in numbers.
Is it maybe because some folks that would qualify for this benefit maybe are, you know, kind of up there in age and they may pass or, you know, that type of thing.
I mean, I guess I would consider it to be pretty static from, you know, in a two or three year period, I would think.
But maybe part of that equation is, you know, folks get old and It's proven that a lot of veterans have issues that are extremely hazardous to their health, and you can't really tell.
I don't know.
I don't want to make it sound grim and gory, you know, that, hey, veterans are dying, so it'll be cheaper.
But that is probably something I would imagine that's taken into account, don't you think?
So when we talk about, let's say, the overall cost of the STAR Act, One thing that I would like to draw people's attention to, veterans who currently receive combat-related special compensation, so CRSC, if they chose to receive their retirement pay instead,
maybe a simple way of looking at it is that because they would no longer receive their CRSC pay because they've chosen to receive their retirement pay instead, that's kind of an offset of those costs.
So, quick Quick dirty math, let's say that a veteran receives $750 in CRC payments and their retirement is $1,000.
So a way to look at it is that because that $750 has already been budgeted for that veteran, we're focusing on the additional $250.
So even though it might seem like a bigger number, it doesn't really increase the cost that much.
Yeah, well, that's a really good point.
See, this is why, Stephen, we have folks like you on the show that are a lot more knowledgeable about these things than I am, because I wouldn't have thought of that.
I wouldn't have taken that into account.
But that's a really good point.
At the end of the day, I mean, for me, I'm a medically retired veteran, and I receive CRSCs.
I'm not sure what my retirement would be.
I guess I wasn't given that number because I was offered CRSC because my conditions were combat related.
But it seems reasonable to believe that it's not going to be a whole lot more than what my CRSC payment would be.
So that's good.
It offsets, it kind of saves the government a couple dollars here and there.
So that would explain the differences in the numbers.
I like that.
See, now we're saving the government money already, and we've only been 14 minutes into the show.
This is why we're here.
I appreciate you being here.
Folks, we've run out of time for the segment, so please stick with us.
We will be right back.
Hey folks, welcome back here to the second segment of the show.
Stephen, we established what the Major Richard Starr Act is.
We talked about a little bit of why it was not passed.
Some of that came out to be cost.
There probably are some other reasons that we could discuss, but I think we should move on.
But one question that I really wanted to ask you that I came up with during the break was, is there anything about this...
Bill.
So we've established that this allows veterans to get concurrent receipt who have been medically retired and who are also receiving CRSC, the Combat Related Special Compensation.
Is there anything about this that is retroactive?
So, for example, I retired February 9th, 2021.
If this thing passes next year and goes into law, let's just say next March, am I going to receive retroactive payments back to February of 2021?
Yeah, that's an excellent question and a good concern that's been raised by a lot of veterans.
So just to tell everybody, no, there will be no back pay under the Major Richard Starr Act.
Legislation like the Starr Act, it's barred by federal laws from paying back pay.
But veterans might be happy to know that with the language of the bill, once the Major Richard Starr Act is passed, it takes effect the month after its passage.
So it would pay benefits and entitlements moving forward.
Okay.
All right.
So I'm glad that we established that because what I can see possibly happening is that those veterans that may qualify under the STAR Act are of maybe Vietnam era and have been in this system for many, many, many years.
But I think it's important to identify that It's a great benefit for us moving forward, even if it's not retroactive.
And I think I agree with you, what you said offline, that there probably wouldn't be a whole lot of government officials that would sign off on something like that because the amount it would cost would be way more than what we discussed in the last segment.
It would be crazy.
So thank you for sharing that.
Let's transition, sir, and talk about Why this is important?
I think that part of this discussion always should be is why.
Why is the Major Richard Starr Act important for the 50-ish thousand veterans that it would affect?
What say you about that?
Yeah, so there's a few different reasons that I could probably list that would be good reasons why the legislation needs to pass.
So starting first with the 50,000 veterans that it would directly impact.
A lot of these veterans have severe combat-related injuries, and some of these injuries might preclude these veterans from gainful employment or having a steady normal income, let's say.
So right there, by providing these veterans their Their earned retirement, access to their earned retirement as a choice.
That right there kind of lifts a lot of the financial burden that some of these veterans may be facing through no fault of their own because they were medically discharged due to their combat-related injuries.
And then when we look at some of the secondary or even tertiary effects of this, caregivers, spouses, Children, so family members, if we think about this as a secondary kind of effect or area that is affected by the Major Bridges Starr Act, sometimes spouses have to surrender their career in order to take care of their injured veteran.
This would also provide a little bit of that financial comfort and stability by allowing eligible veterans to Receive their earned retirement pay and even going outside of the family in the communities that would be affected by the Major Richard Starr Act.
We might want to also look on military recruiting.
So, recruitment's been down this past year and that's one of the big issues moving forward.
If an all-volunteer force is going to be maintained, what kind of Confidence or what kind of message does that send to potential recruits that, hey, if you serve, you raise your hand and serve, you may not be taken care of or you may not receive something you've earned due to being medically retired.
So the Major Richard Starr Act, as to why it's important, there's lots of different reasons and it can range anything from individual All the way to what I would call it's a national issue, as it should be.
And there are many excellent reasons why this legislation should pass.
Well, I think that you bring up a couple really good points there.
I agree that recruiting and retention in our services as of right now Is an absolute tragedy.
And I think that a lot of folks who are considering the military as a career moving forward from high school or even, you know, on from college or whatever.
I mean, I've heard of...
Tori Seals was on the show last week and her husband, Jay, joined when he was 34 years old, just felt a call to serve.
But I don't think that many people who are considering the military really think past their service.
I mean, the military is really good right now about offering all these enlistment bonuses.
I've heard of up to $60,000 for some IT paths through the military.
But It's important to remember, folks, if anybody's watching this that has college kids or high school children who are thinking about military for their career, encourage them to also think about what's going to happen after their service.
Of course, nobody plans.
On being injured and having to be medically retired from the military, but as we have learned and we can see, it happens probably a lot more than we would think.
And Stephen, that's a really good point, that this is something that could be touted To potential recruits that, hey, we have been doing these types of things as a government to ensure that you are taken care of when your time in the military is over should you fall into this position.
You know, it's...
I would have liked to known that when I joined, but I certainly wasn't thinking about what's going to happen 19 years down the road from the day I rose my hand and swore my oath to the government.
So I really like that.
The other thing that you had mentioned was that there are spouses and family members that give up their We've been talking about that on this show for the last five or six weeks.
We've met Robin Stitt.
We met Tori some time ago.
We've met many caregivers on this show.
They all have done exactly what you said.
They've given up their careers, their college educations.
We've This is a way for veterans to still be able to provide for their families.
Because, you know, Stephen, like you and I talked about offline before the show, nobody plans on it.
I didn't choose to get hit with an IED and, you know, have the issues that I have now.
Whatever your injuries were, you certainly didn't plan on it.
I really wanted to finish my career.
But I think one thing that made it a little more palluable, a little more acceptable, was that I was able to collect my medical retirement benefits right away.
So being a National Guard soldier, When I was medically retired, it was put right to an active duty retirement, which meant I could collect it right away versus having to wait until Social Security age if I would have done my full career in the Guard.
So those kind of benefits are nice.
Is there anything else about the act that we can tell people?
Because I think at the end of the show, we should talk about a call to action.
Anything else about why this might be important to folks and why it's...
Maybe folks who aren't connected to the military or aren't connected to veterans but are checking out the show.
Yeah, definitely.
And I think you raise a really good point there also.
A lot of times, a lot of military issues...
They don't bridge that gap between the military-civilian divide.
So for civilians, those who may not have ever served or maybe you've known somebody who served, one of the reasons that the Major Richard Starr Act is so important to pass is because it's going to be the next step and hopefully the The end goal of being able to provide for medically retired veterans.
So by focusing on one of the more severely injured groups of veterans who volunteered and raised their hands, making progress moving forward to take care of all medically retired veterans.
So it's just one of those things that I think a lot of people get caught up In the numbers and the raw data of issues that the STAR Act would address.
But in the end we really need to humanize it because it's a human issue.
And I think deep down a lot of people just genuinely want to be able to offer a helping hand to those in need.
So I think that the STAR Act helps bridge that gap between Civilian and military life and it's also one of those pieces of legislation that's one thing that all military members have in common.
We all transition out.
We all leave eventually one way or another.
So this is also something that's going to be good financially and to provide an additional level of support and comfort for Veterans, their families, and their communities.
Yeah.
And, you know, as you were talking, I was thinking, you know, this is something that is also probably good.
I mean, mental health is a big concern in the veteran community.
And being able to, as you said before, this is, the retirement is a benefit or an allotment or whatever you want to call it that is earned.
And so when folks who are medically retired, of course, before they're ready to leave, as I was, I wasn't ready.
I didn't feel like I was finished.
But I think that for a lot of folks, this may play on their mental health as well.
I mean, a lot of folks have children that want to go to college, that are in sports, that, you know, maybe they...
You know, I want to buy my kid a car or something when they turn of age to drive.
And lacking the ability to provide those things for your children or for your family, I think really is a huge shot to the ego.
Because as military members, you know, Stephen, you were in the Army.
I was an Army soldier.
You're taught to walk with a different gait and to hold yourself to a little bit of a higher standard.
And what a shot in the shorts it might be to think, well, okay, so this was my plan, this was my career.
Now that I've been medically retired, what am I going to do now?
And in the interim of finding those things...
You still got to pay your bills.
You still got to provide for your family.
And so this type of legislation becoming law would probably be a huge help to veterans who are thinking that all is lost.
And so I'm glad that we touched on this because you're right, humanizing it is extremely important to me.
And it should be extremely important to everybody else.
But we've run out of time in the segment, folks.
Stick with us.
We'll be right back.
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Hey folks, welcome back here.
We're into the third segment of the show.
Stephen, first of all, I want to thank you for your time.
This has been very educational.
I really appreciate it.
I hope everyone else watching appreciates this information as well.
During the break, you and I were having a short conversation about different ways that the Major Richard Starr Act could pass through the House and the Senate.
I think that we should enlighten the viewers.
So what are those different ways that we could get this thing done?
Okay.
So with the Major Richard Starr Act and generally most legislation, the typical or traditional route of passing legislation into law, it starts with the committees or committee that a particular bill is assigned to.
So with the Major Richard Starr Act, the House Armed Services Committee, the Veterans Affairs Committee, and in the Senate, the Senate Armed Services Committee.
So right now, those are the committees that have the oversight of the legislation in both chambers of Congress.
And traditionally, the chair of a committee will Pass a bill out of committee once it's been debated and discussed with those members.
And once it leaves the committee, it goes to the floor typically for a vote, for debates, possible amendments that could be added to it.
And that's the time when the CBO or Congressional Budget Office estimate scores are usually also available.
Just as a general piece of education to inform other lawmakers outside the committee to provide them more information on a particular bill.
So the traditional route is to pass out a committee, then go to the floor, be voted on.
Because the STAR Act involves financial costs, Typically, the House, because they hold the purse, the power of the purse, so legislation that requires financial support or costs, the funding associated with it, usually originates in the House.
So once it would pass the House, then the Senate could pick it up, the same process from their committee to their floor, and then What happens is both versions of the bill in the House and the Senate, the text needs to be the same.
And once that's passed, then it's sent to the president for his signature or veto.
I kind of doubt that the Star Act would get vetoed by the president.
I sure hope not, especially coming into an election year.
Yeah, an election year, yeah.
But that's the traditional route.
But there are some other routes for legislation like the STAR Act to be passed.
One of those is called the Consensus Calendar.
So the Consensus Calendar, it's a mechanism that was initiated in the 116th Congress, I believe, by Speaker Pelosi at the time.
And what this does, it provides legislation that's received high levels of support but hasn't left a committee.
It allows the ability for it to be considered on the floor, the House floor.
So, in order to meet those requirements of the consensus calendar, the STAR Act would need to gain 290 or more co-sponsors and then Maintain that level for a minimum of 25 legislative days.
After that period has expired, then the STAR Act, if it went the consensus calendar route, then it could be eligible to be brought to the floor for vote and discussion and then kind of follow the more traditional route as we first described.
And then a third option, Sometimes what lawmakers tried to do, they might try to take legislation and attach it to the National Defense Authorization Act or the NDAA. Kind of is a national defense bill that has passed every year I think for the last 60 plus years.
So that could also be another route taken and These are different avenues or vehicles as lawmakers might refer to them, vehicles for passage of the Major Richard Starr Act.
Well, so I wonder, so the second option where you said it could then come out onto the floor for discussion.
It seems to me that this piece of legislation that the Major Richard Starr Act is for the most part inexpensive.
To the taxpayers.
As we talked in the first segment, there's some offset there with the finances.
You had also mentioned that if a veteran decides to take their retirement versus their CRSC, well that's now taxable income, so there's some offset there.
If I decide to take my retirement, I'm going to pay taxes on that where my CRSC payments are tax-free.
So there's some more money going back in.
I wonder if there is anybody that would have a good argument on either the House or Senate floor against this thing.
And in the grand scheme of things, this doesn't affect a large amount of veterans.
But as you also mentioned, it's some of our most severely injured or plagued, if you will, veterans.
And so I guess I would have a hard time believing that there is any legislator on either side of the aisle That would have an argument against this thing.
Do you agree with that?
Or do you think that there's probably some people that are just going to be 100% against it?
Well, I don't think that there would be any legislator that would probably be 100% against legislation like the STAR Act.
And of course, I can't speak to the mindset of any particular lawmaker, but...
Well, that's dangerous waters, maybe.
Yeah, dangerous waters.
But as a relevant example, one of the recent co-sponsors of the Major Richard Starr Act in the House, Representative Johnson out in Louisiana, I had the pleasure of speaking with his staff.
And we opened this dialogue and we talked about what concerns does he have.
And for example, you know, cost costs.
Was one of them, so we discussed cost.
I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more in another segment about this, but just opening up that dialogue with lawmakers is also a great way to advocate for the STAR Act.
Well, and I think that's a really good point to bring up because it's not very common, in my experience, and maybe it's more common than I realize, for legislators or their staff to get the nod from said legislator to just have conversations about this thing.
Or anything in particular.
I know that when I was a congressional staffer for a member back in 2009-ish, we were very careful about...
The conversations that were had about particular legislation.
And at that time, it was Obamacare and No Child Left Behind were a couple of the really big topics.
But, you know, it was always, okay, well, if we're going to talk to this interest group or we're going to talk to this person or these people, About, you know, HR 1234.
Here are the things that we are not going to talk about as it relates to this legislation.
So, but it's really good to hear that legislators are open to having discussion and then also hearing you and everyone else who's, you know, supporting this and talking about it, hearing you out about it because I don't think that that has been very common in the past.
Maybe it has been, but in my experience and a little bit that I know about it since being a congressional staffer, it wasn't very common.
So that's really good to hear.
Do you have a sense or do you have your finger on the pulse of...
Whether or not this thing is getting pretty good support, I mean, I saw that there's a lot of co-sponsors that have signed on, and this Congress has only been in session for a few short months.
So is there a lot of support so far in this Congress?
Yes, actually.
One of the really great things about the STAR Act and its current level of support in the House, so the House version of the bill, H.R. 1282, And the Senate version of the bill, Senate 344, both of them have overwhelming support in both chambers of Congress.
So the House version of the bill, it already has over 240 co-sponsors who have signed on.
And in the Senate version of the bill, it already has over 60 co-sponsors who have signed on.
Wow.
What that means is if you go through the congress.gov site, you can actually search legislation.
Both versions of the bill are their number one most co-sponsored bill in each chamber of Congress.
So I think that that also sends a very strong message of support out there for the STAR Act.
Now, hold on a second, Stephen.
You're telling me, right here, right now, that in both the U.S. Congress and the United States Senate, the Major Richard Starr Act is the number one supported piece of legislation?
Yes, it is.
Wow, that's awesome.
Yeah, number one most co-sponsored bill.
So, of course, you have other pieces of legislation like resolutions and such, but as far as bills that would become laws, the Major Richard Starr Act is the number one most supported in both chambers.
So, I see that as very promising with such a high level of support so far.
Yeah, that's good.
I guess I'm very surprised to hear that.
I wasn't expecting that, but I am very pleasantly surprised.
Wow.
You know, I really don't like to get very political on this show because I believe that veterans' issues should be nonpartisan and the facts are the facts.
But it seems as if, in this instance, the system is working as it should.
Not to say that I'm excited about it because it's the most co-sponsored bill and that it hopefully has a really good chance of passing, but with that being said, and then also hearing that legislators are open to having dialogue with folks such as yourself about it and raising their concerns and having a meaningful productive conversation about it is super exciting to me and I'm really glad to see it because there's
not a whole lot of things that are going on in our government right now in my opinion that are going smoothly.
So it's good to see that this is getting support.
It's being talked about.
And hopefully, I look forward to watching YouTube videos or C-SPAN videos of discussions about this because I'm super interested.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, it's one of those areas of just keeping communication open.
There may be the stereotype that things are broken when it comes to To legislation and Congress and government.
But, you know, there still is that ray of hope.
There are those lines of communication.
That's what lawmakers have out there.
And one of the things in advocating for the STAR Act, you know, it's about being concise, being polite, you know, being to the point and, you know, asking also on the other side, what are the concerns on the other side?
And when we have these meaningful conversations, I really think that that's what helps develop this high-level support that we're seeing right now, even among some lawmakers who might be considered fiscally conservative or who might not typically place their name on legislation.
I think that's something that we're seeing right now, and I think it's trending in the right direction, in a positive direction.
Yeah, I agree with you a thousand percent.
I think that it's great.
And the key thing you said there is a ray of hope.
A ray of hope that the system can work and that we can get back to some kind of positive outcomes from our government.
So this is a really good thing.
Stick with us, folks.
We'll be right back.
Hey folks, welcome back here for the last segment of the show.
Stephen, we have talked about overwhelming support, it seems, for this bill in both the House and Senate in the last segment.
I'd like to talk, if you don't mind, about who in particular has been maybe the most vocal and As far as legislators go, congressmen and senators, what is the climate of legislators look like that are actually supporting this vocally and outwardly?
Yeah, so as mentioned before, support among lawmakers right now, it's strong and it's growing.
When we think about the original sponsors of The Major Richard Starr Act, so in both chambers of Congress, so Senator Tester and Representative Bilirakis in the House.
So both of them as sponsors with their counterparts as well.
So for example, Representative Bilirakis and Representative Ruiz have been vocal and adamant supporters of this legislation.
And Senator Tester and I believe it's Senator Crapo, they've both been very strong supporters of this legislation, just out the gate of this current session of Congress.
But they're not the only lawmakers who have made public statements of support.
I think you have Senator Hassan, you have Some other representatives and senators, and they're releasing these public statements on their official government sites showing their support for the Major Richard Starr Act, which removes an injustice that's being faced by some of our nation's most severely injured veterans.
So I think with that level of support, Seeing lawmakers every day engage, whether it's on their websites or through Facebook, whatever medium or modicum they use, lawmakers are engaging more with this legislation.
So I think that that's really showing a lot of their support publicly.
Yeah.
Again, we discussed offline, and I think that this is a really good time to point out that these types of things are important because having what is clearly bipartisan support outwardly, vocally by these legislators Is that we're setting up a precedent for future generations of veterans.
Because I think that you'd agree with me, Stephen, that in the future there is going to be more issues and more concerns regarding the safety and welfare of veterans that is going to require legislation.
Some of it may not be as easy to get behind as the Major Richard Starr Act, but Having this open communication that is not combative, I think is something very important to point out.
We are a community of warriors.
I like to call it the warrior culture.
A really good friend of mine, Hector, who was actually my first platoon sergeant in the Army, he was an Army Ranger, and he used to talk about, hey, I'm raising you in what I call the warrior culture, and that stuck with me My whole career and now even after.
And there's this gap, seemingly, between civilian culture and us, the warrior culture.
And so bridging that gap is important, in my opinion, which is the purpose of this show in general.
But having those open lines of communication that we can have a grown-up Conversation with legislators about why these things are important is great.
There is no reason Why, even if they disagree with us, Stephen, that we can't sit down, have a conversation.
Of course, at the end of the day, the decision is up to them whether to vote yes or no for any piece of legislation or a bill.
But like you said, we're gonna get a whole lot more bears with honey than we are without it.
So yeah, I think, you know, Let's cross our fingers and hope that this thing takes off.
What do you say to...
Let's do a call of action, so to speak.
What would you say...
I'll tell you...
Here, I'll give you three to five minutes for a call to action.
What would you say to folks watching this as it relates to the Richard Starr Act?
Okay.
Well, first thing that I would mention to...
All the viewers of the podcast.
First, by the way, thanks, Richard, for having me on and be able to provide a place for a conversation to hold with the viewers on this.
So for you, the viewers, I would talk to you directly or speak with you directly and let you know that this isn't just a veteran issue.
It grows and blossoms into something Even beyond that.
As we talked about before, it affects the family members and the communities of these veterans.
It's a national issue.
So if I were to provide you with a call to action or what we can do together to help the Major Richard Starr Act and even other legislation pass is to reach out to your lawmakers.
This is a national issue.
Taking care of wounded veterans.
So to reach out to your lawmakers at your state level, at the national level, hold these conversations.
Grab a cup of coffee.
Remember the conversation is two ways.
A lot of the lawmakers that I've had the privilege of speaking with, you know, our conversations are fruitful and sometimes just through We're able to hash out the differences and to gain support.
And that's really what it's about.
Just like there might be a military and civilian divide sometimes in understanding our different dynamics, that might exist between people like you and me and our politicians.
Sometimes there might be that Divide as well, whether it's real or perceived.
So just making those steps and those efforts to reach out, be concise, be polite.
As I said before, a lot more bears with honey.
Taking a diplomatic approach can really work and gain support.
Absolutely.
Very well said.
Let me ask you this real quick.
How important, all these things that you just said, how important are these to keep in mind when we're talking about how we speak with legislators and approach these types of issues?
Is it for future generations of veterans?
Because, God willing, our military will stay strong and There's gonna be, I mean, we're not the last generation of veterans that are gonna walk this country, or the world for that matter.
How important is having these conversations with legislators go smoothly?
Is it for future generations of veterans, do you think?
Oh, I would say it's extremely important.
Just like with prior generations of veterans.
Each generation of veterans Builds or strengthens the foundation of communication and interaction between lawmakers and our citizens.
So it's extremely important.
And by setting a good example and strengthening that foundation now, we're also providing future veterans, future service members.
We're providing them that kind of support that they're going to need.
Yes, I agree.
And folks, this is something that I think, as of late, maybe has been kind of lost in our country.
I don't believe that our country has ever been more polarized or divided than it might be right now.
To be honest with you, Stephen, this is a breath of fresh air to talk about something that is being supported by both legislators and seemingly the civilian population that know about it.
For being the most supportive bill in both the House and Senate, a lot of people outside of the circle don't really know about it.
But it's a breath of fresh air to see that the system is working as intended.
There's open lines of communication.
We're not at each other's throat.
And, you know, at the end of the day, I really hope and would be super excited for this to pass.
But if for some reason it doesn't, I still feel good about it.
I still feel good about the progress that was made as far as communicating with legislators and the like.
So, folks, again, this is super important stuff.
Please reach out and talk to your legislators.
It seems as though they all should know about it.
But there will be...
Places for you to go and get information.
Steven, there is a Facebook group and a website.
We got about a minute.
You want to talk about those really quickly?
Sure can.
So there's a few different Facebook groups.
If you type in Major Richard Starr Act in your Facebook search bar, you should come up on some of those groups.
Mm-hmm.
There's also a website which was started by another veteran.
That's www.majorrichardstarract.org.
It keeps up information, blogs, articles about the Starr Act.
So it's another great way.
There you go, folks.
So if you are looking for reasons why, or things to say to your legislators when you call, or if you're out in the driveway having a beer with your neighbor to talk about, you know, whatever, talk about this stuff.
Check out the Facebook page.
Check out the website.
The links and the addresses will be below in the description of the video.
And of course, Stephen, thank you very much for your time.
When this thing passes, I would like to have you back so we can kind of talk about and celebrate a little bit.
Are you cool with that?
Definitely.
I'd be more than honored to do so.
Okay, perfect.
Well, that does it for the show today, this week, folks.
Again, thank you for joining us, and come back next week.
We are going to get back into caregiver program talk and even some Elizabeth Dole Foundation stuff.
So please make sure you join us next week, and thanks for joining us.
See you later.
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