Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Gears Up for Major Legislative Push Amid Star Act Fallout

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is set to hold a business meeting on March 18, 2026, to consider more than a dozen pending veterans bills — a markup session that arrives at a politically charged moment for veterans legislation in the 119th Congress.

Why it matters: The session represents one of the most ambitious single-day legislative pushes by the committee this Congress, spanning healthcare access, burial services, toxic exposure research, overdose prevention, and rural veterans' care. It also comes just two weeks after a high-profile floor fight over the Major Richard Star Act left veterans service organizations furious and committee leaders scrambling to show progress.

What's on the Agenda for the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Business Meeting

According to the committee's official page, the veterans affairs committee markup will take up at least 15 measures, including:

  • S. 342, the Purple Heart Veterans Education Act
  • S. 410, the Love Lives On Act
  • S. 1116, the Ensuring Veterans' Final Resting Place Act of 2026
  • S. 1726, the ASSIST Act of 2026
  • S. 1868, the Critical Access for Veterans Care Act
  • S. 2309, the Veteran Burial Timeliness and Death Certificate Accountability Act
  • S. 2333, the Health Records Enhancement Act
  • S. 2397, the Caring for our Veterans Health Act of 2026
  • S. 2683, the VSAFE Act of 2026
  • S. 3033, the Improving Access to Care for Rural Veterans Act
  • S. 3138, the Veterans SPORT Act
  • S. 3303, the Leveraging Integrated Networks in Communities for Veterans Act
  • S. 3758, the End Veterans Overdose Act
  • A committee resolution on lease authorizations
  • The Loomis Research for Descendants of Toxic Exposed Veterans Act of 2026

The breadth of the agenda signals that Chair Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are attempting to move a wide slate of bipartisan veterans legislation through committee in a single session — a format that suggests pre-negotiation on many of these bills.

The Star Act Shadow Over the Senate Veterans Hearing March 2026

The political backdrop to this business meeting is impossible to ignore.

Just two weeks before the scheduled session, Ranking Member Blumenthal twice attempted to advance the Major Richard Star Act via unanimous consent on the Senate floor. Both attempts were blocked by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who cited the $39 trillion national debt as justification.

The bill would eliminate a dollar-for-dollar offset that reduces military retirement pay for more than 50,000 combat-injured veterans who were medically retired before completing 20 years of service. Its blocking drew sharp responses from every major veterans service organization.

VFW National Commander Carol Whitmore called the blockage "appalling," stating: "The Major Richard Star Act will fix the unjust offset affecting more than 50,000 medically retired combat veterans."

DAV National Adjutant Barry Jesinoski was quoted in an op-ed saying: "Respect without action is meaningless."

The California American Legion and Stars and Stripes both reported on the broader VSO backlash.

While the Star Act itself is not on the business meeting agenda — it falls outside the committee's direct jurisdiction — the political pressure it generated appears to have intensified the urgency around moving pending veterans bills that the committee can advance.

Chairman Moran took to the Senate floor to reaffirm his commitment to the Star Act, saying: "No veteran in my mind should have their retirement, that they earned, decreased because they also were eligible for disability compensation due to an injury they sustained during their military service." He pledged to continue working in a "bicameral and bipartisan way" to pass the legislation.

What Else Committee Leaders Have Been Doing

Beyond the Star Act fight, Chairman Moran introduced the Veterans STAND Act, which would require the VA to provide annual preventive health evaluations for veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders and expand access to assistive technologies including prosthetic equipment.

Ranking Member Blumenthal, meanwhile, used a joint hearing with the House Veterans' Affairs Committee to highlight the importance of veterans' advocacy, reiterating that the Star Act was the top legislative priority voiced by VSOs at that session.

A concurrent military conflict in Iran has added further urgency to the conversation around combat-injured veterans' benefits, according to reporting from the committee.

The Lobbying Landscape Behind Pending Veterans Bills

The volume of lobbying activity around veterans legislation in 2026 is substantial. Searches across lobbying disclosure databases for filings related to veterans affairs benefits, healthcare, military benefits legislation, and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee pending legislation each returned more than 10,000 matching records over the past four quarters.

Notable filers include:

Filing amounts in the veterans benefits and healthcare category ranged up to $190,000, suggesting meaningful investment from healthcare and advocacy stakeholders seeking to shape the bills now before the committee.

Among these organizations, only EMD Serono operates a confirmed political action committee — the EMD Serono, Inc. Political Action Committee — which has made 349 contribution records to members of Congress across the 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2026 campaign cycles, with individual contributions typically ranging from $745 to $2,500.

What This Means for Veterans

The 15-plus bills on the business meeting agenda touch virtually every corner of veterans' lives:

  • Healthcare access for rural veterans and those with spinal cord injuries
  • Burial services and death certificate accountability
  • Toxic exposure research for descendants of exposed veterans
  • Overdose prevention through the End Veterans Overdose Act
  • Health records modernization
  • Education benefits for Purple Heart recipients

If the committee advances these measures, they would move to the full Senate floor for consideration — a process that could take months but would represent meaningful legislative progress on issues that VSOs have identified as priorities.

The business meeting is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. at 418 Russell Senate Office Building. No witnesses are listed, which is standard for a markup session where committee members vote on legislation rather than hearing testimony.

The bottom line: The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is attempting to demonstrate momentum on veterans legislation 2026 at a moment when the Star Act debacle has put a spotlight on whether Congress can deliver for the veteran community. The scope of the agenda suggests bipartisan cooperation — at least within the committee — even as partisan battles continue on the Senate floor.

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