CommunityEditor
04-21-2009, 07:36 PM
A bipartisan group of 12 senators have reintroduced legislation to give retroactive retirement credit to National Guard and Reserve members mobilized since the 2001 terrorist attacks, allowing them to begin receiving military retirement checks before age 60.
Introduced Monday by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the bill, S. 831, would make retroactive to Sept. 11, 2001, a change in reserve retired pay that took effect last year. It allows reservists to begin receiving military retired pay 90 days earlier for every 90 days of deployment, which would provide earlier retirement checks to about 600,000 people.
The original intent of the 2008 law was to have the mobilization credit apply to Guard and Reserve members mobilized since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But the plan ultimately was scaled back at the last minute because of the cost, and now limits credit to mobilizations since Jan. 28, 2008 — the day the defense bill containing the provision was signed into law.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., but congressional aides expect Wilson will run into problems trying to convince the House Armed Services Committee to consider his bill, HR 208, because of the House’s stricter budget rules. Wilson would not be able to get his measure passed unless he could find the roughly $550 million needed to cover the cost of the retroactive benefits.
The Senate, which has approved retroactive retirement credit before, is likely to consider the reserve retirement bill when it takes up the 2010 defense authorization bill, where having a bipartisan group of cosponsors improves chances for passage.
Joining Kerry in sponsoring the bill are Democratic Sens. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island; and Republicans Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Susan Collins of Maine and Pat Roberts of Kansas; and Independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.
Kerry and Chambliss have been longtime sponsors of reserve retirement legislation, and the latter was the chief champion of the provision that became law in 2008.
Chambliss said last year that, if necessary, he would accept the idea of phasing in retroactive retired pay over several years if that made it more affordable than doing it all at once.
Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/04/military_reserve_retired_pay_042109w/
Introduced Monday by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the bill, S. 831, would make retroactive to Sept. 11, 2001, a change in reserve retired pay that took effect last year. It allows reservists to begin receiving military retired pay 90 days earlier for every 90 days of deployment, which would provide earlier retirement checks to about 600,000 people.
The original intent of the 2008 law was to have the mobilization credit apply to Guard and Reserve members mobilized since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But the plan ultimately was scaled back at the last minute because of the cost, and now limits credit to mobilizations since Jan. 28, 2008 — the day the defense bill containing the provision was signed into law.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., but congressional aides expect Wilson will run into problems trying to convince the House Armed Services Committee to consider his bill, HR 208, because of the House’s stricter budget rules. Wilson would not be able to get his measure passed unless he could find the roughly $550 million needed to cover the cost of the retroactive benefits.
The Senate, which has approved retroactive retirement credit before, is likely to consider the reserve retirement bill when it takes up the 2010 defense authorization bill, where having a bipartisan group of cosponsors improves chances for passage.
Joining Kerry in sponsoring the bill are Democratic Sens. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island; and Republicans Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Susan Collins of Maine and Pat Roberts of Kansas; and Independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.
Kerry and Chambliss have been longtime sponsors of reserve retirement legislation, and the latter was the chief champion of the provision that became law in 2008.
Chambliss said last year that, if necessary, he would accept the idea of phasing in retroactive retired pay over several years if that made it more affordable than doing it all at once.
Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/04/military_reserve_retired_pay_042109w/