Democrat Bob Filner, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and Republican Steve Buyer, ranking Republican and former chairman, have been feuding since the 110th Congress convened in January.

Their feud took on new intensity last month over an issue that pits pensions for Fili-pino veterans who fought with Americans in World War II against additional pension dollars for a group of elderly American wartime veterans made homebound by non-service connected disabilities.

Buyer accuses Filner of strong-arming through committee a bill with language to give overly generous service pensions to Filipino veterans of World War II and paying for those pensions by, in effect, neutralizing an appeals court ruling that made a special monthly pension available to 20,000 more elderly and housebound U.S. veterans.

A tough floor fight over the bill is expected next month.

Evidence that personalities fuel much of the current dispute over Filipino veterans might be found in how the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee tackled the issue. In June it approved an identical provision using an identical funding source.

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawai'i), the committee chairman, led the effort and former committee chairman Larry Craig (R-Idaho) chose not to criticize or even mention the Filipino provision in his own press release on that bill.

Buyer and Filner, however, appear to seek out opportunities to poke the other in the political eye.

Both came to Congress in the class of 1992. Otherwise, Buyer said, their backgrounds couldn't be more different.

Buyer, from Indiana, is a Citadel graduate, a lawyer and an Army Reserve colonel — someone, he says of himself, who "has served his nation for 27 years of war and peace. You walk into my office and immediately say, 'I can tell this is a military guy.' "

Filner, a native of New York City, claims in his official biography to have "spent several months in a southern jail as a 'Freedom Rider' in the Civil Rights movement." He settled in San Diego and taught at a local university before entering politics.

Filipinos living in the United States would receive the same old-age pension available to U.S. veterans, which is linked to level of income. Those in the Philippines, however, would receive $8,400 a year if married, $6,000 if single and surviving spouses would get $3,600 — regardless of income.

Buyer said these payments are too high, the "equivalent of over $100,000" for a Filipino family living in the Philippines.

Filner shrugged off the criticism, noting Filipino veterans haven't received any compensation for 60 years and most don't have long to live.

It is "no accident" that he has pushed to help Filipino veterans for 15 years, Filner said. Fifteen percent of his constituents are Filipino Americans, the highest concentration of any district outside of Hawai'i.

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