Posted on: Monday, November 21, 2005
Senate bill lacks money for benefits
By Tom Philpott
The Senate has passed a 2006 defense authorization bill filled with new and improved benefits for military people, but almost none of them is funded.
The lack of committed budget dollars likely dooms, at least for this year, some of the more popular initiatives endorsed by the Senate. House leaders, frustrated by the Senate's handling of the defense bill, predict difficult negotiations ahead.
A House-Senate conference committee will soon begin to iron out differences in the two versions. A separate conference is completing work on a 2006 defense appropriations bill. That bill had no dollars set aside for the Senate's new initiatives.
"The Senate enjoys a certain freedom of process that doesn't apparently require them to pay for anything they put in their bill," said Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., chairman of the House armed services subcommittee on military personnel.
McHugh said the Senate bill endorses "a half dozen or so very popular and very meritorious'' personnel-related provisions that, if enacted, "would add literally tens of billions of dollars" in spending over 10 years. Yet senators, he said, "don't have one cent applied against the cost."
Key initiatives in the Senate authorization bill would:
Eliminate the SBP-DIC offset. This provision would end the dollar-for-dollar reduction in military survivor benefits that occurs when widows or widowers also draw VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. It is the top legislative goal this year for several service associations.
Paid-up SBP. This would move up by three years the effective date of the SBP premium "paid-up" rule. Retroactive to Oct. 1, 2005, premiums would end for retirees who have paid them for 30 years or reached age 70, whichever occurs later. The current effective date of the rule is Oct. 1, 2008.
The cost of the SBP provisions is $9.2 billion over the first 10 years.
Accelerated concurrent receipt. This would accelerate restoration of full retired pay for 28,000 retirees with 20 or more years' service and drawing VA compensation at the 100-percent level.
Reserve TRICARE. The new TRICARE Reserve Select plan would be opened to all drilling reservist or National Guard members willing to pay monthly premiums of $75 for member-only coverage or $233 for family coverage.
Income replacement. Civilian federal employees who see a drop in pay when mobilized as Reserve or National Guard members would receive an income differential under certain conditions. Payments would begin if mobilized for more than 180 days, or for 24 months out of the last 60, or if they are involuntarily mobilized less than six months after a previous mobilization.
Reserve retirement age. This would allow reserve retirement earlier than age 60, the current threshold, to reward service in since 9/11. The start of reserve retired pay would be moved up by three months for every 90 days of active duty served.
Retroactive SLGI hike. The Senate would give $150,000 in retroactive payments to survivors of 1200 service members who died on active duty from Oct. 7, 2001, through May 11, 2005, from conditions unrelated to combat.
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