MILITARY UPDATE
Resistance to concurrent receipt could delay action on defense bill
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.
By Tom Philpott
Congressional leaders are weighing a plan to withhold final action this year on the 2003 defense authorization bill to avoid a veto showdown with President Bush over concurrent receipt.
The idea would be to free Bush and Congress from an uncomfortable box they've built for themselves over whether to allow military retirees to receive both full retired pay and tax-free disability compensation for injuries or illnesses linked to time in service. Retirees now see their retired pay reduced, dollar for dollar, by disability pay.
Scrapping the authorization might not be good news for concurrent receipt. At a minimum, it would push final action on the issue beyond the Nov. 5 election. Lawmakers inclined to soften their support could do so without fear of an immediate backlash from military retirees. Congress might put off any action on the issue until next year.
The Bush administration opposes lifting the ban on concurrent receipt. But Congress planned to do just that. The cost over 10 years would range from $18 billion to $60 billion, depending on whether it was phased in and made available only to the seriously disabled or whether it would take effect immediately for any retiree with a disability.
Both the White House and Congress are worried now about appearances. As the elections approach, lawmakers don't want to seem weak to disabled retirees by dropping concurrent receipt from their bill.
At the same time, the president and Republican leaders don't want Bush to have to veto the bill, particularly as Congress gives him the green light to take the nation, and a force of future veterans, into a war with Iraq.
So, the odds are rising that a defense authorization bill will not be passed before Nov. 5, and perhaps not at all this year.
Having no authorization bill would delay the start of some new programs. Two that are critical are a targeted pay raise Jan. 1 and extension of bonus authority to retain personnel. Lawmakers are looking to attach these two provisions to some other piece of legislation.
White House resistance to concurrent receipt is stiffer than Congress anticipated. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got off a final round of criticism in a Sept. 24 letter to the armed services committees. He urged House and Senate conferees, struggling over differences in separate versions of the bill, to drop concurrent receipt altogether.
"It does not appear necessary to offer such broad authority to address what may be a quite limited number of cases where hardship may exist," Rumsfeld said. Boosting retired pay of those with VA disabilities, he said, "would divert critical resources" from the war on terrorism, the transformation of military capabilities and personnel programs.
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