Newsbytes June 5, 2026

In this Issue:
Star Act Petition Surge
Troops Tracked In War Zones
VA Fast-Tracks Prosthetics
Navy Fires Yokosuka Triad

Star Act Petition Surge
The fight to end the "wounded veteran tax" reached a fever pitch this week as DLP Theo Lawson, with a massive coalition of Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) on Capitol Hill. The unified front gathered for a high-profile press conference hosted by House Veterans' Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-CA), Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA), and Rep. Chris Pappas (NH-01). The lawmakers and advocates issued a fierce, direct challenge to House leadership, demanding an end to the legislative roadblocks that have kept the Major Richard Star Act (H.R. 2102) from the floor despite historic, overwhelming bipartisan support.

The focus of the press conference centered on a newly deployed legislative weapon: a formal discharge petition filed to bypass gridlock and force a direct vote on the House floor. Speakers repeatedly highlighted the fundamental injustice facing approximately 54,000 combat-injured veterans who were medically retired before reaching 20 years of service. Under current outdated statutes, these wounded warfighters are subjected to a dollar-for-dollar offset, forcing them to forfeit their hard-earned Department of Defense retirement pay in order to receive their VA disability compensation. Leaders from the VSO community emphasized that retirement pay rewards honorable service, while disability compensation covers the physical cost of injury, arguing these are two separate promises made to our nation's heroes.

The sheer urgency of the press conference ignited an immediate wave of legislative momentum across the chamber. At the exact time the event kicked off, the discharge petition sat at 177 signees, already representing a substantial portion of the House. By the close of business on Thursday, an additional surge of lawmakers rushed to sign the document, bringing the total to 203 signatures. This leaves the petition just 15 signatures shy of the 218-member majority required to legally pry the bill out of committee and force an immediate vote on the full House floor.

The FRA is fully leveraging its network to bridge this final gap, explicitly targeting the remaining representatives who have previously co-sponsored the bill but have not yet signed the physical petition. If the nation can fund high-tempo maritime engagements globally, it cannot claim a lack of resources to fairly compensate the individuals who lost limbs or developed toxic illnesses in those exact conflicts. We are urging all members to check the signature lists and use the Action Center to pressure their local representatives to sign immediately: https://www.votervoice.net/FRA/Campaigns/137899/Respond

Troops Tracked In War Zones
In a troubling revelation that has sent shockwaves through the national security community, a bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers sent an urgent letter to the Pentagon demanding answers after the Department of War (DOW) acknowledged, for the first time, that foreign adversaries are actively using commercial location data to target U.S. service members in active war zones. The dynamic data tracking allows adversarial actors to harvest precise geolocation coordinates from personal and government-issued mobile devices. This allows them to identify where U.S. troops congregate and map out their daily patterns of life. That intelligence is then exploited to coordinate precision strikes using missiles, drones, and roadside bombs.

The congressional inquiry strongly criticizes the Pentagon's leadership for failing to implement common-sense cyber defenses recommended by federal cybersecurity experts, despite knowing about these vulnerabilities for more than a decade. Lawmakers are pushing the DOW to take immediate steps, such as pre-installing privacy-focused web browsers with anti-tracking and ad-blocking capabilities on all department-managed devices to prevent data-harvesting networks from commoditizing troop locations.

The FRA views this tracking data exploitation as a critical force protection emergency that threatens the lives of our frontline forces. The Association maintains that electronic and data safety should be treated with the same urgency as physical armor. We are echoing congressional calls for immediate structural cyber changes and expanded operational security training within entry-level pipelines across the sea services to ensure that a simple cell phone never becomes a homing beacon for an enemy strike.

VA Fast-Tracks Prosthetics
The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced a major administrative process shift to drastically cut wait times for veterans requiring prosthetic limbs. Under a new directive signed by VA Secretary Doug Collins, approximately 95 percent of prosthetic limb orders are now officially exempted from tedious contracting officer reviews. Previously, every single prosthetic order required a formal sign-off from a centralized contracting official, a bureaucratic layer that added weeks of unnecessary delays for amputees and severely disabled veterans awaiting critical equipment.

The streamlined rules now allow local VA purchasing agents to source prosthetics directly from local suppliers whenever pricing is set by Medicare, completely bypassing the negotiation and review phase. Only the most complex and expensive custom orders will continue to trigger centralized reviews. Early data shows that the policy change has already slashed wait times by 10 days, and the VA fully expects average delivery windows to plummet by over 40 percent, from 94 days down to just 54 days, as the program achieves full implementation across nationwide medical centers.

The FRA strongly applauds Secretary Collins for eliminating this needless administrative roadblock. More than 45,000 veterans rely on the VA each year for prosthetic care, and cutting a month off their wait times directly honors the "Sacred Trust" by prioritizing clinical needs over paperwork. The Association views this change as a massive victory for veteran quality of life and will continue to advocate for similar common-sense removals of red tape across all VA healthcare pipelines.

Navy Fires Yokosuka Triad
In an abrupt sweep of senior personnel, the U.S. Navy relieved the entire top leadership triad of the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center on Wednesday, June 3. Rear Adm. Dan Lannamann, Commander of the Navy Regional Maintenance Center, officially ousted the command's commanding officer, Capt. Wendel Penetrante; the executive officer, Capt. Edwin Catubig; and the command master chief, Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Howell. The sudden firings left the key Yokosuka-based maintenance hub temporarily under interim leadership.

The Navy utilized its standard, blanket "loss of confidence" justification for the reliefs and did not disclose the specific underlying circumstances or investigations that prompted the total leadership vacuum. Naval officials insisted that the abrupt shakeup would have zero immediate impact on the vital ship repair and maintenance missions occurring at the facility, which serves as the primary regional repair hub for Forward Deployed Naval Forces operating in the highly volatile 7th Fleet theater.

The FRA is monitoring this leadership transition closely given the facility's immense strategic importance to ship readiness and personnel stability in the Pacific. While the Association respects the Navy's administrative right to maintain high command standards, mass reliefs of a full triad inevitably place immense stress on the junior enlisted Sailors and civilian technicians executing the daily mission. We maintain that leadership stability is critical to ensuring our hulls are properly maintained and that our Shipmates are not subjected to chaotic working environments during high-tempo maintenance cycles.