Since 06-02-05
House Bill Targets Military Benefits
Since 06-02-05
From:
Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 7:03 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: House Bill Targets Military Benefits
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053101536.html
House Bill Targets Military Benefits
Measure
Would Reduce Wait to Get Both Disability, Retirement
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
June 1, 2005
Some military retirees with service-related disabilities would have to wait less
time to collect both their full retirement pay and disability compensation under
legislation the House passed last week. The measure, included in the Defense
Authorization Bill by Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), would end by 2009, for
some retirees, a system that requires their federal disability payments to be
offset by dollar-for-dollar reductions in retirement pay.
Under current law, that trade-off is scheduled to be phased out by 2014 for
military retirees with more than 20 years of service and a disability rated at
50 percent or higher by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"We have a responsibility to support the fighting men and women," said Rep. G.
K. Butterfield (D-N.C.). (Alan Campbell - AP)
"We have a responsibility to support the fighting men and women who put their
lives on the line to protect our way of life," Butterfield said in a written
statement. His provision would allow military retirees who served for at least
20 years, and who are rated as both 60 to 90 percent disabled and unemployable,
to collect their full VA disability and military retirement benefits at the same
time beginning Oct. 1, 2009.
That group includes about 30,000 retirees, according to the Congressional Budget
Office, which estimated the cost of the change at $164 million over five years.
Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is preparing an amendment that
would match the House provision, said his spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen. Hafen said
Reid, like Butterfield and other lawmakers of both parties, would prefer to
eliminate the offset right away if they could. "The goal is always 100 percent,"
she said.
"He tries for a step at a time." The political jockeying over the issue, known
as "concurrent receipt," has been an annual affair on Capitol Hill in recent
years. Proponents of changing the system argue that disability compensation and
retirement pay address two different issues, and that denying veterans the full
benefit of both shortchanges their service and sacrifice. Other critics say that
some veterans are seeking more than their fair share, and that the issue is more
nuanced than military retirees and their advocates let on.
In 2003, lawmakers agreed to eliminate the offset over a 10-year period for
about 200,000 veterans who have 50 percent or higher VA disability ratings and
served for 20 years or more. Last year, Congress decided the most severely
injured among that group, those rated 100 percent disabled by the department,
should not have to wait. They began collecting full disability and retirement
pay in January. But other veterans who say they have similar medical problems
and years of service say that they were left out.
They have formal VA disability ratings as low as 60 percent, but VA doctors say
their service-related health problems render them unemployable. This group, the
target of the new legislation, currently must wait out the 10-year period before
collecting full compensation -- a delay that will cost each an average of $2,400
in 2010, according to the CBO. Win Reither, a co-director of Vetspac, a
political action committee that focuses on veterans' issues, said the proposed
change is a marginal improvement because most benefits of the 10-year phase-out
are already set to take place in the first five years."It's really of very
little benefit to veterans," Reither said.
"There's very little advantage, but, no less, it's a good move because there is
some inequity there." Critics of the proposed change point out that everyone who
would benefit from the provision had to be fit enough to stay in the military
for two decades. Other veterans whose injuries were so severe they had to leave
the military before serving for 20 years can collect disability payments but
will never get retirement pay.
They also note that service members with at least 20 years of service can
collect retirement pay as soon as they retire, often in their late thirties or
early forties. In this way, they say, the system compensates retirees for the
wear and tear of a strenuous military career. Private-sector retirees often must
wait until their late fifties or early sixties to begin collecting benefits.
Finally, some critics say the affected retirees often suffer from ailments that
have as much or more to do with age as with military service, including high
blood pressure, hearing loss and arthritis.
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)