Military Officer - May 2006 - (Page 30)

washingtonscene 46-53, with Sens. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) casting the only Republican votes in favor, and Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) voting against it. Burns was absent. The next opportunities to address the issue in the Senate will be in the defense authorization and appropriations bills. ■ VA health funding. Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-Mich.) amendment calling for mandatory funding of VA health care programs suffered a 46-54 defeat, with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) the only Republican voting yes and Sen. Ben Nelson (DNeb.) the only Democrat voting no. circumstance should be ‘vested’ so they don’t suffer that penalty.” MOAA is grateful to Reid for championing this cause and going the extra mile to make sure our nation’s disabled heroes no longer suffer such indignities. An identical bill (H.R. 1366) already has been introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-Fla.). Reid and Bilirakis have led the charge in winning signiﬁcant gains to concurrent receipt legislation over the past three years and are continuing to do so. “Ending the ban on concurrent receipt remains one of my highest priorities,” said Reid. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made so far, but we need to keep chipping away at the unfair policy in place now. I am committed to that goal 100 percent.” Senate Has CRSC Champ Reid bill would cover combatdisabled medical retirees. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) S en. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has introduced a bill that would extend combat-related special compensation to medically retired military members with less than 20 years of service. Introduced in mid-March, S. 2385, the “Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) Act of 2006,” would eliminate the disability offset to military retired pay for combat-injured members who are forced into medical retirement before 20 years of service. “A military retiree who spent at least 20 years in uniform and who has any combat-incurred disability no longer suffers deduction of VA disability compensation from his or her earned retired pay,” said MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr., USN-Ret. “But anyone who suffers a 100-percent disabling combat injury and is forced into medical retirement with 19 years and 11 months of service can still lose his or her entire retired pay. We believe strongly that people in that No More 20-Year Retirements? DoD panel recommends sweeping changes to military compensation system. T he Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation (DACMC) used its ﬁnal public hearing Feb. 28 to announce preliminary recommendations for sweeping changes to the military compensation system. The DACMC is supporting a revamp of the current military retirement system. The committee’s view is that the current 20-year “cliff-vested” system is outdated, overly “generous,” inﬂexible, and inequitable (with no retirement eligibility before 20 years and no incentive to serve beyond 30 years). DACMC’s recommended changes (most of which DACMC envisions as applying only to future service entrants) include: 30 MILITARY OFFICER M AY 2 0 0 6

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Military Officer - May 2006 Contents From the Editor President's Page Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Raising Iraq Dogfight Fun Caring For Our Own Pages of History Information Exchange MOAA Scholarship Donors Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - May 2006

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