Boosted bennies in 2005

Since 06-30-04

Senate version of defense bill would: increase help for disabled veterans, keep danger pay out of income pool, let close family take FMLA leave

By Rick Maze
Navy Times staff writer
5 July 2004 Issue

The Senate had problems trying to draw the line on how much is too much when it comes to improving military benefits.During debate on the 2005 defense authorization bill, S 2400, which the Senate passed 97-0 on June 23, senators agreed to:• Speed up retired pay increases for some disabled veterans, which would help about 30,000 military retirees who have noncombat but service-connected disabilities.

• Expand time off from work under the Family and Medical Leave Act to spouses and immediate family members of deployed troops.

• Exempt danger pay and family separation allowance from being counted as income in determining a service member’s eligibility for federal assistance, such as subsidized school lunches for children.

• Order the Pentagon to improve the tracking of injured and killed service members so families get more accurate and up-to-date information.The Senate also passed — without the usual rancorous debate — a change in policy that would allow abortions to be done at government expense in military medical facilities in cases of rape or incest.Approval of some of these initiatives was a case of simple expediency. After three weeks of debate, Senate leaders were anxious to finish the bill and were willing to accept amendments that do not necessarily have the full support of Republican leaders.

Senators were not willing to support everything, however. Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., tried but failed to reduce the age at which reservists can begin drawing retired pay after Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said the cost of that move would be too high.

Under current law, reserve and National Guard members must wait until age 60 to receive retired pay and military health care. Corzine wanted to reduce that to age 55, which he said was more appropriate, considering the increased role reservists are playing in today’s military. “It is clear our reserve forces are no longer part time,” he said.

Warner, though, warned the retirement plan would add $1.7 billion in retired pay costs and $427 million in health care costs to the 2005 defense budget at a time when defense officials are worried about paying for transformation of the military.

The amendment, he said, is an example of how costs in the bill “are going up and up and up” to the point that support for the bill may drop among lawmakers worried about keeping spending under control.Defense officials have urged against spending on benefits enhancements not specifically aimed at improving recruiting and retention or at service members in combat.

Eighty percent of the people who would be affected by Corzine’s proposal are already retired, said Warner, who used a procedural motion to kill the amendment.Cost concerns undercut other amendments as well.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., for example, had an ambitious plan to improve transition benefits for separating service members but ended up, instead, offering a compromise that asked for a General Accounting Office study of transition programs.

No fuss was raised, however, when Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., proposed a change in last year’s concurrent receipt legislation for military retirees who are also eligible for veterans’ disability compensation. Part of last year’s law was a 10-year phase-in of extra retired pay for retirees with noncombat disabilities of 50 percent or more. The extra pay results from eliminating the dollar-for-dollar offset in retired pay required for those who also receive disability pay.

Reid’s amendment, which would take effect Jan. 1, would immediately give 100 percent-disabled retirees their full retired pay, while leaving intact the remaining nine-year phase-in of additional retired pay for those with noncombat disabilities ranging from 50 percent to 90 percent.

Disabled retirees whose service-connected disabilities are combat related or caused by combat training received full concurrent receipt of retired pay and disability pay under the 2004 Defense Authorization Act, although there have been delays in processing claims.

Reid said the amendment is not really an expansion of law but a recognition that those with the most severe disabilities deserve to “get their money now.

”The House version of the defense bill contains no similar provision, leaving a decision on concurrent receipt to be made in a conference later this year when lawmakers will iron out that and hundreds of other differences to craft a single compromise bill.
--------------------------------------------------------
Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(Ret)