Military Officer - January 2007 - (Page 38)

washingtonscene “unemployable” by the VA. MOAA also places priority on expanding eligibility to include Chapter 61 retirees who were forced out of uniform short of attaining 20 years of service solely because their military service caused them to become disabled. Restricting eligibility to those with 20 years or more implies the servicemember had a choice in the matter. Servicemembers whose careers were cut short involuntarily by horriﬁc combat and operational injuries in Iraq, Afghanistan, and earlier conﬂicts have earned and deserve “vesting” of their military retired pay at the same 2.5 percent per year of service rate applied to disabled retirees with 20-plus years. MOAA will closely monitor the Veterans’ Disability Beneﬁts Commission’s ongoing study of the VA disability system and take all possible steps to ensure a fair and unbiased process that protects the interests of disabled veterans. The VA sometimes takes many years to reach a ﬁnal disability ruling, and affected servicemembers must ﬁle amended tax returns to recover income taxes on retired pay that should have been deemed taxfree disability compensation. But current law precludes ﬁling amended returns for more than three tax years, which causes thousands of disabled retirees to be taxed unfairly simply because of VA claims-processing errors or delays. Stay Informed: Protect Your Interests ■ If you have access to e-mail and don’t already receive MOAA’s weekly Legislative Update, we strongly suggest subscribing to stay informed and participate in short-notice calls to action. Go to www .moaa.org/email today to get the full benefit of your MOAA membership. USFSPA equity Reform the unfair provisions of the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act (USFSPA). Eligibility for an award of lifetime retired pay should be the same for former spouses as it is for servicemembers — 20 years of marriage during military service, with annual payments limited to the number of years of marriage during military service for former spouses who don’t attain that standard. Divisible retired pay should be based on the servicemember’s grade and years of service at the time of the divorce rather than at the time of the member’s retirement from service. State courts should be barred from requiring payments to start before the servicemember actually retires from active duty and barred from dividing VA disability compensation, which is the exclusive property of the servicemember. DoD has supported certain additional modiﬁcations of USFSPA requirements. MOAA continues to seek congressional sponsors and hearings. COLA commitments Work to ensure continued fulﬁllment of congressional intent concerning retired pay COLAs. It is important to protect against COLA caps, such as those included as part of some Social Security reform proposals. MOAA will exert every effort to preserve the congressional intent, as expressed in the House Armed Services Committee Print of Title 37, USC, “to provide every military retired [service]member the same purchasing power of the retired pay to which he was entitled at the time of retirement [and ensure it is] not, at any time in the future eroded by subsequent increases in consumer prices.” Permanent ID card reform Expand eligibility for permanent military ID cards for older and disabled family members. As more installations close, demand on remaining ID card facilities increases. And as retirees and their family members age, accessing military bases to renew dependent ID cards becomes more difﬁcult. Expiring ID cards place medical beneﬁts at risk, and that’s not fair for Disability tax refund Support the repeal of the three-year statute of limitations on ﬁling amended federal income tax returns to recover income taxes improperly levied because of VA delays in processing of disability claims. 38 MILITARY OFFICER JANUARY 2007 http://www.moaa.org/email http://www.moaa.org/email

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Military Officer - January 2007 Contents From the Editor From the Chairman Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: Osprey Rising? Battlefields of the Great War I Resolve ... New Mission Pages of History Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Scholarship Donors MOAA Member Services MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Member Books Encore

Military Officer - January 2007

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