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Editorial: A simple solution

The Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act provides troops with legal protections for breaking apartment and auto leases upon receiving deployment orders.

But Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., a former military lawyer and paratrooper, doesn’t think that goes nearly far enough — and he doesn’t think the law punishes businesses that don’t comply.

He has introduced a bill, HR 3298, which would greatly expand the scope of the SCRA, allowing troops to cancel, without penalty, contracts for cell phone service, cable or satellite television, Internet service, automobile insurance, water, electricity, oil, gas, telephone and other utilities.

The bottom line, Murphy says, is that troops should not have to pay for any services they are not using while they are serving their country — and companies that don’t cooperate should not get off lightly.

Murphy’s bill would give troops deploying abroad the option of suspending or canceling a contract. If companies are willing to do the right thing, odds are the service member would be willing to merely suspend accounts and then pick up when he returns — a fair and equitable solution for all concerned.

Murphy’s effort is partly a recognition of the fact that cell phones are far more ubiquitous now than when the SCRA was last updated — and problems with cell phone contracts for troops who cannot use the phones while deployed have recurred regularly in recent years.

Charging someone for any type of service they cannot possibly use — while they are fighting in a combat zone, no less — goes against any reasonable sense of fairness.

Murphy has a simple, no-cost solution to a straightforward issue. There’s no reason for lawmakers not to quickly make this bill a law.