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Temporary benefits boost called pittance

A stripped-down and temporary boost in pay for some disabled military retirees approved Wednesday by House lawmakers is drawing swift criticism.

The bill, HR 2990, authorizes people who receive military disability retirement short of 20 years of service to draw their full military retired pay and veterans disability compensation over a five-year period, with no offsets in retired pay.

That would be a major improvement for the 121,000 veterans who receive military disability retired pay from the Defense Department and disability pay from the Veterans Affairs Department. This is exactly what President Barack Obama proposed as part of the 2010 defense budget.

But the bill includes something Obama didn’t request that is drawing harsh words from some lawmakers: a provision that would terminate the new benefit after just nine months of payments, after only about 44,000 of the disabled retirees receive any money.

Only those with disabilities rated at 90 percent or higher would be allowed to receive their full military and veterans benefits — and on Oct. 1, 2010, the extra payments would end.

Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, ranking Republican on the House Armed Services military personnel panel, said the bill is a “ghost of a proposal” that “could have done so much more.”

He called it a “small pittance for a small number of retirees.”

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the House Armed Services Committee chairman and chief sponsor of bill, admits it is just a “temporary fix” to a big complaint about the government’s long practice of reducing military retired pay by any amount received in veterans disability pay, and he pledged that Congress would try to do more.

“Our veterans have never given up on America and you can be assured we will not quit on them,” Skelton said.

The reason for the nine-month authorization — from Jan. 1, 2010 through Sept. 30, 2010 — is that Democratic leaders could find only enough money to pay for a new federal entitlement program for that length of time, given budget rules. The money would come from repealing a deepwater oil and gas development program.

Rep. John Spratt Jr., D-S.C., the House Budget Committee chairman, said the bill spends about $228 million in 2010 for an initiative that has a $5.2 billion price tag over five years if fully implemented.

“To continue doing this, and that is our intent, we will have to come back every year with additional money, and the cost gets bigger each year because the number of retirees with lower-rated disabilities is greater than those covered in the first year,” Spratt said. “This is a step forward, but a step we have not completed.”

Another sore point is that the bill is called the Disabled Military Retiree Relief Act of 2009, a name that helped guarantee passage. But the $228 million designated for higher payments for disabled retirees is less than one-fourth of the bill’s overall total of $968 million. The rest involves mostly changes in retired pay and sick pay rules for federal civilian workers.

One of the chief advocates for concurrent receipt of military and veterans benefits said something is better than nothing, and the House bill at least tries to do something.

“For the first year, it’s the same as the Obama plan would have been, but it will be embarrassing if they don’t come up with the money” to continue the initiative, said Steve Strobridge of the Military Officers Association of America.