Post by RHMorgan on Apr 22, 2007 14:20:52 GMT -5
Concurrent Receipt
Since March 14, 2005, I have been a cosponsor of HR 303 that would fix the inequality of “concurrent receipt”. This bill, the Retired Pay Restoration Act, would permit retired members of the Armed Forces who have a service-connected disability to receive both military retired pay by reason of their years of military service and disability compensation from the VA at the same time. It would also eliminate the phase-in period under current law with respect to concurrent receipt. Unfortunately, even with 201 Members of Congress as cosponsors, the House Republican Leadership failed to move HR 303 through the legislative process. Therefore, on May 25, 2005 I signed a discharge petition that would immediately take the bill to the House floor for debate and a vote after a required 218 signatures were obtained. Unfortunately, only 191 Members signed the discharge petition. Even the original sponsor of HR 303, Mr. Bilirakis (R-FL), did not signed the petition, making the issue a glaring example of who truly supports our nati on’s veterans and who does not.
Under a similar situation several years ago, the pressure of the Democrat-led discharge petition resulted in a “compromise” proposal by the Majority where only those veterans with 50 percent disability or more would be offset. Furthermore, those eligible veterans will only get ten percent each year until 2014. This compromise was included in HR 1588, the Defense Department FY04 Authorization Act, and became Public Law No 108-136.
Continued pressure has led to several more advancements over the years. In the FY05 Defense Authorization Act, I supported a provision to immediately end the disabled veterans offset for veterans who are 100% disabled. This provision was passed into Public L aw 108-375 on October 28, 2004.
In the FY06 Defense Authorization Act, I supported a provision to move up the date for full receipt for 100% disabled veterans to Oct. 1, 2009 - four years and three months earlier than currently scheduled. This bill passed into Public Law 109-163.
The FY07 Defense Authorization Act contained no action on this issue. Therefore concurrent receipt will need to be reintroduced in the 110th Congress beginning in January