Army Pay Charts - Army Times

Bonuses, special pays could expire at year’s end

With Jan. 1 looming as the cutoff day for 28 bonus and special-pay programs, Congress has a contingency plan to reauthorize the cash incentives and prevent morale-sapping disruption in the ranks.

But nobody can guarantee when or even if a temporary bonus extension bill could be approved, because the fate of that bill is likely to become tangled in the same partisan politics that has been leading to the brink of expiration in the first place.

“We are aware of the possibility of a problem at the end of the year and want to avoid it,” said a House aide, who asked not to be identified.

If authority to pay the bonuses and special pays expires, the services could not make new payments, but they could still make installment payments for those who previously qualified. Because the services, especially the Army, depend heavily on large cash bonuses to meet recruiting and retention goals, even a temporary lapse in the programs could be unsettling.

If a lapse occurs, retroactive coverage is expected but not guaranteed, the House aide said.

“The best way we can make certain nobody is hurt is to not let the bonuses lapse,” the aide said. “The best thing we could do is to pass the delayed defense bill, and get it signed into law.”

Twenty-seven bonuses and special pays expire Dec. 31, and another retention incentive, loan repayments for Selected Reserve health professionals, expires Jan. 1. Both the House and Senate versions of the 2008 defense authorization bill would extend all 28 programs for two years.

Bonuses and special pays used to expire on Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, but after Congress was late in approving extensions several times in the 1980s, lawmakers decided to add three months to provide a cushion for their frequent tardiness.

The Defense Department and the services have tried, without success, to make the programs permanent. Congress hasn’t done so mainly because lawmakers think the expiration date creates an opportunity to see if recruiting and retention incentives are working.

Pentagon warnings about turmoil if bonus programs are interrupted could come true. Work on the annual defense authorization bill, which sets military policy, ground to a halt Nov. 13 over an issue that has no direct bearing on the military: Negotiators cannot agree whether to leave Senate-passed federal hate-crimes legislation attached to the defense bill.

The provision would expand existing legislation on racially motivated crimes to include crimes aimed at gays, lesbians and transgendered people.

Senate negotiators want the language to stay, in part because 60 senators voted in favor of the amendment that added it to the defense bill in October. House negotiators do not want the hate-crimes measure attached because they fear it will keep Republicans from voting for the final bill. The White House is threatening to veto the bill if the final version has the hate-crimes provisions.

House and Senate aides called the situation a standoff, with concerns rising about whether enough votes can be found in either legislative chamber to pass a compromise bill.

Negotiators vowed to try again in December to reach a compromise, get the bill passed and avoid a veto. If it appears the defense bill will not be enacted before Dec. 31, a temporary extension could be passed as a separate bill or attached to other legislation.