Senate cuts expansion of concurrent receipt - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Senate cuts expansion of concurrent receipt

Another congressional effort to expand concurrent receipt of military retired pay and veterans disability compensation has failed.

Facing election-year pressure to dramatically scale back new spending, the Senate voted Tuesday for a stripped-down economic assistance bill that now omits a proposal supported by the White House and approved by the House of Representatives that would have temporarily extended concurrent receipt of both benefits to medically retired veterans who served less than 20 years in uniform.

The revised Senate bill now includes only an extension of unemployment compensation.

House Democratic leaders had added an expansion of concurrent receipt to the bill as a way to get around budgetary restrictions that prevented the benefit from being added to the 2011 defense budget. Congressional aides who have been working on the legislation said there was no immediate fallback plan, potentially preventing any action this year.

House Democrats have talked about trying to restore some of the dropped items, but no firm plans were announced.

The House bill had included a temporary change in law that would have increased pay for some people receiving medical retirement pay by eliminating an offset in the retired pay for those who also receive VA disability compensation.

The change would have started on Jan. 1 for those with a disability rated by VA at 90 percent or more, and on Oct. 1, 2011, for those with disabilities rated at least 70 percent.

The offset would have resumed on Oct. 1, 2012.

The temporary nature of the proposed change was the result of an agreement to try to limit costs, with Democratic leaders hoping they could find money for a permanent and larger plan over the next two years.

The Obama administration wanted a permanent change. The 2011 federal budget proposed a five-year plan in which all medically retired veterans — known as Chapter 61 retirees because of the section of law governing their pay — would have their offset eliminated by 2016.

It also called for the elimination of the offset that still applies to some disabled retirees with low-rated disabilities that are not combat-related.