Research - Rehabilitation - Re-Employment

Sgt. Shaft 12/09/2002

Dear Sgt. Shaft:
The House and Senate recently passed the Conference Report for H.R. 4546, the FY 03 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes many provisions important to the military community. Among them are the active duty pay raise for FY 03, improvements to the Tricare benefit, Reserve Component retirement issues, and Reserve Montgomery GI Bill, and an additional emergency leave of absence program. The Non-Commissioned Officers Association (NCOA) is grateful to Congress for these improvements; however, there is one disappointing provision that has resounding effect on every servicemember, past and present.

Congress authorized a “new special compensation program” for disabled military retirees in place of the more substantial concurrent receipt provisions that were in the bill going into Conference. This program builds onto the current special compensation program, which provides a limited payment for disabled retirees with 20 or more years of service who have a 60% or higher disability rating. The new program provides monthly payments ranging from $103 to $2,160 for disabled retirees who received a Purple Heart or those with 60% or higher who incurred their injuries during “combat-related activities,” which will be defined by the Department of Defense. Retirees eligible for both programs must choose which program they would like to receive. 

With 403 House supporters and 82 Senate supporters, disabled military retirees everywhere believed that Congress would finally correct this injustice. Many NCOA members and friends are outraged and disappointed that all of the supporters did not follow through.

NCOA is very disappointed and alarmed at how quickly many proponents of concurrent receipt caved in at the last minute. Do not be misled; this is NOT concurrent receipt as we know it! NCOA members declared, in Resolution #02-32, that they want FULL concurrent receipt for every eligible retiree, and NCOA will not stop pounding the concurrent receipt drum in the halls of Congress until they are satisfied. We will continue to send the message to Congress that the members of NCOA are not done and that we will continue to fight for what is right for our Nation’s warriors!

Every person in the military community who feels strongly about this issue needs to contact their Representative and Senators to tell them the only acceptable outcome to this battle is FULL concurrent receipt. Even if you have called, faxed, e-mailed, or visited your elected representatives 100 times before, we have to continue this message. Don’t sit back and wait for “others” to do the work. Start rallying the troops today!

In the meantime, NCOA will work closely with the Department of Defense to ensure that their eligibility requirements are fair and inclusive.

NCOA would like to offer a special thanks to Congressman Michael Bilirakis (R-FL) for his hard work and dedication to this issue. Mr. Bilirakis conveyed his displeasure with this program by refusing to sign the Conference Report. The Association looks forward to continuing to work with Mr. Bilirakis to finally resolve this issue.

Sincerely,
David W. Sommers
NCOA President/CEO
11th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps (Ret.)

Dear Dave:
Glad you gave special kudos to that great veterans advocate, Congressman Bilirakis.

On November 13, 2002, Congress gave final approval to the conference report for the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year (FY) 2003. Although the conference report included many provisions, such as a pay raise for military service members (supported by Rep. Bilirakis), the Congressman expressed his strong disappointment with the conference report's scaled-back provision for a partial repeal of the dollar-for-dollar offset of military retired pay and VA disability compensation.

In a recent statement, Rep. Bilirakis said, "For more than 17 years, I have worked to eliminate the offset that unfairly penalizes disabled military retirees. I am extremely disappointed that the conferees for the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act scaled back the original House-passed concurrent receipt provision, which were based on my legislation and would have provided full-concurrent receipt to disabled military retirees rated 60 percent or more."

"At a time when our nation is calling upon our Armed Forces to defend democracy and freedom, I am afraid we are sending the wrong message to our military service members. We must send a signal to these brave men and women that our Government takes care of those who make sacrifices for our Nation." 

Specifically, the final defense bill authorizes new payments to be made to all military retirees whose disability resulted from a combat injury or wound for which they were awarded a Purple Heart. In addition, the conferees authorized military retirees whose 60 percent or greater disability is attributable to combat situations, combat-oriented training, hazardous duty, or instrumentalities of war. The Secretary of Defense is charged with developing the criteria that will be used to determine qualifying combat-related activities.

Last year, Rep. Bilirakis once again introduced legislation to eliminate the offset between military retired pay and VA disability compensation. It was designed to rectify an 1891 law that requires a disabled career military veteran to waive the amount of his retired pay equal to the amount of his VA disability compensation. This bill received strong bipartisan support with 403 cosponsors in the House -- roughly 93 percent of House members. A Senate companion bill, S. 170, also received strong support, with 82 cosponsors.

"While the provisions included in the conference report will help some severely disabled retirees, the majority of disabled veterans affected by the offset will continue to be penalized. I will continue fighting to restore the military retired pay benefits earned by our nation's disabled retirees until the current offset is completely eliminated," said the Congressman.

Rep. Bilirakis is the Vice-Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, having served on that Committee for 20 years, and a member of the Oversight Subcommittee.

Send letters to Sgt. Shaft, c/o John Fales, P.O. Box 65900, Washington, D.C. 20035-5900; fax to 301-622-3330; call 202-462-4430 or email sgtshaft@bavf.org.

BAVF Home | Who We Are | Sgt. Shaft | Flag Week | Links | Financials | Search | Contact BAVF

BAVF - P.O. Box 65900, Washington, D.C. 20035-5900

Copyright BAVF 2002