Vetted

The Senate approved a measure Wednesday that may allow more disabled veterans to draw their full retirement and disability benefits.

An amendment to the fiscal 2004 Defense authorization bill offered by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., would allow all disabled military retirees with 20 years or more of service to draw their full pensions and full disability benefits at the same time. A 100-year-old law prohibits military retirees from collecting both disability and retirement payments at the same time.

"We should be doing everything we can to make life better for our veterans," Reid said after the amendment's passage. "We can not sit idly by and deny benefits to those who have served our country honorably for 20 years. Correcting this unfair practice is an opportunity to do more than just talk about supporting our military," he said.

Reid's amendment was one of several struck down last month by the Senate parliamentarian as irrelevant to the authorization bill, but Senate Democrats were able to offer some of those amendments to the House version of the authorization bill when it came to the Senate floor.

Fiscal 2003 Defense authorization legislation included language that allowed military retirees with 20 or more years of service who are recipients of the Purple Heart or have a serious combat-related disability to receive both disability and retirement pay, but the Reid amendment would extend the measure to all disabled military retirees.

The Retired Officers Association has lobbied for years to get elected officials to support adding disability pay to retirement pay. Lawmakers tried to revoke the 19th century law last year, but were forced to scale back their proposal after the Bush administration threatened to veto Defense authorization legislation if the provision was included. White House officials said then that funding the measure for all disabled veterans over the next 10 years would cost $58 billion. The Defense Department now spends an estimated $35 billion each year on military pensions and healthcare entitlements.

Pay Parity

The fiscal 2004 Defense authorization legislation extends an average 4.1 percent pay raise for military personnel next year, while the Bush administration hopes to hold the civilian across-the-board pay raise to 2 percent next year. The smaller raise is one-half of a proposal that includes creating a $500 million pay-for-performance fund that managers would use to give some employees raises based on performance appraisals.

Though he introduced an amendment to the authorization bill creating the administration's Human Capital Performance Fund, House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., is still committed to military-civilian pay parity, a committee spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

"Davis has a long history of supporting pay parity, and his amendment creating the performance fund requires parity to 'the maximum extent practicable,'" wrote spokesman Dave Marin in an email message. "Needless to say, he and other members of the regional delegation will continue to fight year in and year out for identical pay raises for civilian and military employees. It's the right and just thing to do."