I know something about what happens next. The uniform eventually comes off, but the consequences of wearing it do not.

When these sailors come home, some will carry injuries we can see. Others will carry injuries we cannot. Some conditions may not reveal themselves for years.

That’s why the stalemate in Washington over the Major Richard Star Act troubles me.

The legislation would correct a long-standing inequity affecting combat-injured veterans who were medically retired before completing 20 years of service. Under current law, many cannot receive their full military retirement pay and VA disability compensation concurrently.

The stand-alone Major Richard Star Act has overwhelming bipartisan backing, yet it remains stalled.

Lawmakers tried another route by incorporating the Star Act into the much larger Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. That effort has halted amid a dispute over how to pay for it. The House pulled a planned vote on the legislation, and a subsequent Senate attempt to advance an amended version failed.

The disagreement raises a question that should trouble every veteran: Should Congress fulfill its promise to one group of disabled veterans by finding savings in benefits that would otherwise go to another?

The proposed funding mechanism would use savings from changes affecting future VA disability compensation for sleep apnea and tinnitus. According to a VA analysis cited by Disabled American Veterans, those changes could reduce future disability payments by as much as $57 billion over 10 years, potentially affecting 1.5 million veterans.

As a disabled veteran, that number stopped me cold.

Washington is effectively debating whether keeping its promises to one group of injured veterans should be financed through savings affecting another. I don’t believe that is how America should pay its debts.

I understand disability programs need standards. I don’t believe every disability rating should remain unchanged forever. If medical evidence shows ratings are outdated, Congress and the VA should examine them.

But make that case on its merits. 

Veterans benefits are not charity. They are part of the cost of war. 

During my military career, I served alongside people who didn’t stop before a mission to calculate what a damaged back, hearing loss, respiratory illness, or another injury might someday be worth under a VA disability schedule.

Neither did I. You go because that’s the mission. We trusted that if military service changed our bodies or minds, the country we served would keep its end of the bargain.

Today’s service members are tomorrow’s veterans. The sailors aboard the Abraham Lincoln are finally heading home after an extraordinary deployment. Years from now, some may file disability claims for conditions connected to what they experienced while serving their country.

What will we tell them? That America had enough money to send them to war but needed to find savings when they came home?

If lawmakers believe VA disability standards need reform, debate that separately. Present the medical evidence. Let veterans organizations testify. Explain who will be affected. But don’t make one group of veterans pay for promises made to another. Congress should find another path and pass the Major Richard Star Act.

VETERANS DIED ON SECRET WAITLISTS WHILE BUREAUCRATS TOOK BONUSES. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN

Politicians decide when America goes to war. The sailors aboard the Abraham Lincoln do not. They carried out the mission they were given. Now Washington needs to carry out its mission.

America should pay the full cost when its warriors come home.

Scott W. Patton is a disabled combat veteran and gold star family member whose work has appeared in the Plain Dealer, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Examiner, and other national publications.