MILITARY UPDATE
Veterans remain in dark over concurrent receipt

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

Encouraged by the White House, using a political strategy by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have refused to negotiate with Senate colleagues over the contentious issue of concurrent receipt for military retirees.

The impasse will last at least a week or two beyond Nov. 5, Election Day, and possibly until next year, keeping many retirees with disabilities in the dark over the size of future retirement checks.

The 110-year-old ban on "concurrent receipt" prevents military retirees from receiving both full retired pay, for 20 or more years of service, and tax-free disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs for injuries or ailments tied to time in service. Retired pay must be offset, dollar for dollar, by the amount they draw in VA disability compensation.

The Senate voted this year to lift the ban entirely and immediately, but it failed to fund such a change. The House funded a more modest proposal, to restore full retired pay over five years but only for the seriously disabled — that is, retirees with VA disability ratings of 60 percent or higher.

President Bush, through top aides, has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill if it includes any change to the concurrent receipt ban. To avoid such a showdown, and the image of Bush nose-to-nose with angry retired veterans while he readies the current force for war with Iraq, House Republicans decided to ice the defense authorization bill until after the election. On Oct. 16, with concurrent receipt the only issue blocking the authorization bill, House Republicans failed to show for a final meeting.

"I want to put it very clearly," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in a floor speech later that day. "The veterans of this country ... are going to be denied concurrent receipt because of the instructions from the White House staff and President Bush."

Nelson saw irony in House Republicans' refusal to negotiate on concurrent receipt only days after the House passed a nonbinding resolution, 391-0, to instruct conferees to support full concurrent receipt.

Congress showed again that support for lifting the ban on concurrent receipt might be a mile wide but an inch deep. Despite the unanimous vote for full concurrent receipt, House leaders listened to the White House and stopped the authorization bill.

Proponents of concurrent receipt suffered another setback in October when the House Appropriations Committee, by voice vote, inserted language in the 2003 spending bill for VA-HUD (HR 5605) that would block current and future military retirees from filing new VA disability claims, if the ban on concurrent receipt is lifted.

An appropriations committee staff member said Rep. James T. Walsh, chairman of the benefits subcommittee, inserted the provision to prevent the VA from being swamped with new claims. The provision would bar the VA from handling claims from new military retirees or from current retirees seeking first-time VA ratings or higher disability ratings.

Military associations and veteran organizations said they were shocked by the committee's language and urged that it be withdrawn on the House floor. But the committee staffer said "advocacy groups" should view the bill's language as "a shot across the bow," a warning that Congress won't ignore the "huge cost" of concurrent receipt for the VA as well as the Department of Defense.

Most of the cost, $18 billion over 10 years under the House plan and up to $60 billion under the Senate's, would be borne by the Defense Department. But if just the House proposal is approved, he said, VA's budget would need to rise by $124 million a year to cover higher claim-processing costs and added benefits.

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