Military Update
Bill changes how retiree pay is split in case of divorce

By Tom Philpott

Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.

Military retirees who have railed for years against a 1982 law that allows division of service retirement as property in divorce settlements have a new champion in Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C..

The seven-term congressman from North Carolina's 10th District, who ran unopposed in last year's election, has introduced HR 1983, a bill to "restore a measure of balance to the way military retired pay is handled during a divorce."

The bill is identical to legislation introduced in previous years by Rep. Bob Stump, R-Ariz., now chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Stump is expected to join the list of 17 co-sponsors. But, perhaps because the bill is controversial, Stump wants to avoid primary sponsorship while chairing the committee that will have jurisdiction.

The bill, which will face tough opposition from ex-spouse groups, would change the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act, to:

• Terminate retired payments to any former spouse who remarries.
• End "windfall" payments to ex-spouses tied to promotions earned after divorces are final.
• Set a two-year limit, after the divorce, for an ex-spouse to file for a share of retired pay. This change would not take effect until six months after the bill's enactment.
• Limit spouses' ability to "shop" for a favorable court ruling by requiring divorce filings where service members or retirees reside.
• Exclude from "disposable income" in divorce settlements any disability pay that military retirees draw in lieu of service retirement.

Each change would be retroactive to June 25, 1981.

The 74-year-old Ballenger, a World War II veteran, was traveling and unavailable for comment. Brian Bogle, his spokesman, said the congressman decided to take the lead on this issue after hearing years of complaints from retirees about their ex-spouse taking a share of retirement only to remarry.

Laws governing federal cooperation with state courts in divorce cases for officers retired from the CIA and foreign service call for termination of payments upon remarriage.

Ballenger wants military retirees treated similarly.

The Defense Department, in a long-delayed report to Congress, is expected to endorse only one of Ballenger's provisions — eliminating windfall payments tied to post-divorce promotions — and would apply it only to divorces that occur after the law is amended.

In other action, the Bush administration appears to be shelving, for at least two years, a controversial proposal in its 2002 budget that would force military retirees with disabilities to choose between enrolling in military health care or VA health care.

Retiree and veteran groups have blasted the cost-saving idea, crafted by White House budget officials, as imposing a tough choice on deserving veterans. Without formally withdrawing the budget item now before Congress, Bush gave lawmakers more reason to ignore it when he announced on Memorial Day formation of a task force to improve health-care delivery to veterans.

Military Update columnist Tom Philpott's first book, "Glory Denied: The Saga of Jim Thompson, America's Longest-Held Prisoner of War," has been published by W.W. Norton & Co.

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