CALL FOR ACTION ON CONCURRENT RECEIPT LEGISLATION -- A PLEA TO

THE VSOs AND EVERY VETERAN

This morning I received another email from a reader who is concerned about the Concurrent Receipt legislation and is calling on the VSOs and individual veterans to get involved.

The email is printed below in its entirety.  Please pass this along and get it to your elected representatives.

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Once again Congress has cheated “Concurrent Receipt” Service Connected Disabled Military Retirees. For those of you who are not familiar with CONCURRENT RECEIPT, see http://www.moaa.org/lac/lac_factsheets/lac_factsheets_retired/lac_factsheets_retired_1.htm and http://www.va.gov/vetscommission/august_26_2005/Disability_Comm_Brf(Aug_05).pdf . This issue seems to be a joke among members of Congress. We 28,000 affected retirees are not looking for a handout. We are simply demanding that our Government pay us the full retirement we earned and deserve.

There is another attempt underway to correct this issue. The only problem is that time has almost run out. In case you haven’t tracked the status of the Discharge Petition H.R. 303 (Concurrent Receipt), presented by Rep. Jim Marshall, the number of co-signers is now at 210. 8 more co-signers would force this issue to be considered on the floor of Congress. I know for a fact that between MOAA, TMC, and other military and Veterans organizations they could easily muster those 8 additional signatures. The question is, will you?

MY PRIMARY POINT: The House and Senate Armed Services Committees yesterday completed their Conference Report on the FY06 National Defense Authorization Act (FY06 NDAA). In Conference there were two amendments to help correct/improve the Concurrent Receipt issue. There was a Senate amendment by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) that would have given people like me our full retirement back immediately, plus the pay would be back dated to December 31, 2004. God bless Senator Reid for his efforts, but his amendment was killed in conference, presumably by the Republican Majority. I’m confident that the other Senator from Nevada, Senator John Ensign (R-NV), could verify that statement since he was one of the Conferees voting on the amendment. Unfortunately, the House amendment on Concurrent Receipt was approved, instead of Senator Reid’s. The House amendment is titled “SEC. 655 CONCURRENT RECEIPT OF VETERANS DISABILITY COMPENSATION AND MILITARY RETIRED PAY”. Concurrent Receipt is currently being phased in over a 10 year period which began in 2004. The return of our retirement pay is heavily front-loaded. Although the 10 year period extends out to 2014, we actually will be receiving 100% of our retirement pay effective January 1, 2013. Apparently, Congress assumes that we are a bunch of idiots that will not be able to figure out what an insult their latest amendment is. The amendment allows the current phase-in to continue through September 30, 2009. On October 1, 2009 we will start receiving 100% of our already earned retirement pay. By current law, at that time, we will already be drawing 90.1% of our retirement pay anyway. Without this Amendment we would have to wait an additional 39 months (Oct 1, 2009 until Jan 1, 2013) to get the remaining 9.9% of our retirement back. I’ve already called several Congressional offices to tell them what a disgrace this amendment is, and asked that the amendment be removed from the FY06 National Defense Authorization Act, because it is worthless, insulting, and means nothing. All Congress wants to do is pat each other on the back and say that they support Concurrent Receipt. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I ask for your support on two issues. First is to get an additional 8 co-sponsors (Congressmen) for the Discharge Petition H.R. 303 (see http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR00303:@@@P  ). Secondly, expose Congress’s disgraceful behavior in refusing to correct the Concurrent Receipt issue. A good start in that direction would be to get them to remove the approved Concurrent Receipt amendment contained in the Conference Report. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) has already opened the approved Conference Report to make an addition to the Report. In this political environment, Conference Reports are not guaranteed to be approved when it comes to the House and Senate to be voted on. The most recent example occurred yesterday when the Senate held a filibuster to prevent the Conference Report that would have extended the Patriot Act, from passing. So as you can see, dismissing my request based on past precedent would be wrong. Even if your efforts failed, it would at least let Congress know that we know that their amendment is a disgrace and should be removed. By doing so, that would free up a few hundred dollars for or active troops. The amendment as worded sounds like Congress really did something good for us. The facts prove otherwise. I would rather lose the remaining 9.9% retirement pay, than let the Congressional Majority take credit for something that amounts to nothing.

Most disturbing is the thousands of permanently disabled servicemembers who are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan who will be treated equally as bad as current veterans, or because of fiscal constraints even worse. That’s the appalling truth about how much our Government really cares about its military, disabled military, and worst of all veterans. More disturbing, however, is the fact that while we are at war, the Leadership has failed to pass what should have been the two most important Bills of the year, the Defense Authorization Bill (FY06 NDAA) and the Defense Appropriations Bill. Both Bills are suppose to be passed not latter than September 30th of each year. It’s obvious how important the military and injured veterans are to these incompetents. It would appear that their only priorities are their 4 to 5 months of vacation each year, and the luxuries that lobbyists rain down on them. When will these people be held accountable for their apathy, lack of work ethic, and ethics violations in general?

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Larry Scott

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