MILITARY UPDATE
Plan addresses double-dipping of disability pay
By Tom Philpott
Congressional leaders and the Bush administration, scorched by criticism from veterans groups over a Republican House proposal to end annuity offsets for disabled retirees by cutting benefits for future veterans, are weighing a simple alternative — expand eligibility for CRSC.
Combat-Related Special Compensation, fashioned by Congress last year as a "beachhead" toward ending the ban on concurrent receipt of military retired and disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), is intended to ease for the most deserving retirees the dollar-for-dollar offset in retired pay that occurs when they elect to draw tax-free VA compensation for service-connected disabilities.
Two groups of retirees are eligible: Purple Heart recipients with combat wounds rated at least 10 percent disabling, and retirees with combat-related disabilities rated 60 percent or higher by the VA. Combat-related disabilities are from armed conflict, hazardous service, training for war or an instrumentality of war, such as friendly fire or exposure to Agent Orange.
With only about 35,000, or 5 percent, of 700,000 retirees drawing disability compensation who are expected to be eligible for CRSC, military associations and veterans groups continued to press Congress to do more, and ideally lift the ban on concurrent receipt.
Critics, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, say full concurrent receipt is too expensive — almost $60 billion over 10 years. And there is concern about creating windfall payments to retirees whose disabilities are tied to aging, inherited diseases or to smoking, alcohol abuse or mis-haps not tied to military service.
Balancing such concerns led House Republicans to propose a five-year phase-in of full concurrent receipt if veterans groups would agree to Congress' tightening disability rules, limiting future eligibility to illnesses or injuries during performance of duty. House leaders would then try to insert language in the 2004 defense authorization bill being negotiated by House-Senate conferees.
Not only did vet groups disagree, their blistering rhetoric has stung House Republican leaders and, by association, the president.
Administration officials are said to be discussing a three-part proposal that would allow some progress on the issue this year and rehabilitate leading Republicans in the eyes of veterans.
Part one, almost certain to be approved, would extend CRSC eligibility to all reserve retirees who have qualifying disabilities. Dropped would be a requirement that disabled reservists have 7,200 drill points, the equivalent of 20 years on active duty.
A second part would lower the CRSC eligibility threshold for combat-related disabilities from 60 percent to perhaps 30 percent, still a serious disability. That could make an additional 80,000 to 100,000 retirees eligible for CRSC.
A third initiative would be a congressionally directed study of both VA and DoD disability programs, including the concurrent receipt law, with an eye toward modernization and reform.
Anthony Principi, secretary of Veterans Affairs, hinted at these initiatives, said to be under study by the administration, at a Sept. 23 hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee called by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
"Congress was on the right path last year when it enacted the Combat-Related Special Compensation program," Principi said, adding that Congress "could look at refinements.
"We are asking our Reserve and Guard to play a much more meaningful role in combat operations today, and perhaps the CRSC program could be expanded to embrace more of the reservists and guardsmen."
Also, he said, the 60-percent rating threshold for noncombat injuries or illness could be adjusted to ensure that serious disabilities are compensated fairly.
Mark Olanoff of the American Legion testified that if the House proposal were in effect in 1996, when terrorists bombed Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, "heroes injured in their quarters ... would not be eligible for VA disability pay because they were off duty."
Scores of Marines who have contracted malaria during the deployment to Liberia, said Dennis Cullinan of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, might have to show they were bitten by mosquitoes "while on duty rather than while in their bunks."
What is at issue, Cullinan said, "pure and simple, is money, and an attempt to pit one set of veterans against another."
After the hearing, Specter said the proposal that offended so many veterans had been floated for House conferees working on the defense bill.
"It's definitely not a White House proposal," he insisted.
Questions, comments and suggestions are welcomed. Write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111, or send e-mail to: milupdate@aol.com. Or visit Tom Philpott's Web site.
