House Passes Disabled Veterans Bill
House Passes Bill Expanding Disabled
Veterans' Benefits
By Matthew M. Johnson, CQ Staff
The House passed a bill on Wednesday to increase the number of disabled
veterans eligible for both military retired pay
and veterans' disability compensation.
"The disabled veterans' tax has for decades prevented retirees
from receiving the full benefits they earned in military pay
and compensation," said Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo.,
who sponsored the bill (HR 2990).
"The one group of retirees that have endured great hardship, but
have been among the last to be embraced by reform,
is the disabled retirees with less than 20 years of service."
Many, he said, would have served a full military career but could not
do so because of their disabilities.
The measure, which passed 404-0, would:
Expand disabled veterans' eligibility for simultaneous military retirement
and veterans' disability payments;
Extend eligibility for bonuses and allowances to military personnel,
including Reserve forces, health care professionals and nuclear officers,
by a year; and Refigure the retirement pay scale to reflect reservists'
post-retirement service and allow them to receive retired pay if they
are performing non-regular, post-retirement service.
Under the rule governing floor consideration of the fiscal 2010 defense
authorization bill (HR 2647),
Skelton's measure would be added to the defense bill before the House
votes on passage.