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Bill to aid Filipino vets cuts pay for others

In a meeting filled with political fireworks, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee moved Tuesday to fulfill a 61-year-old promise some World War II veterans.

The way the committee plans to pay for it drew sharp criticism. To provide unprecedented benefits for Filipino World War II veterans who were drafted into service on behalf of the U.S., the committee voted to eliminate special pensions to some severely disabled, poor and housebound U.S. veterans.

That prompted a Republican revolt against the Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2007, even though many Republicans on the committee support giving pensions to Filipino veterans and their survivors. The measure — which also includes an increase in mileage reimbursement rates for veterans traveling long distances for health care, and expanding GI Bill benefits to include paying for truck-driver training classes — ended up passing by voice vote, but not before some heated debate.

In an unusually angry committee meeting, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the committee chairman and a longtime advocate for Filipino pensions, was determined to pass the measure. At one point, he called a recess so he and other Democrats could plan strategy.

After winning a party-line vote to reject a Republican amendment to block the plan, Filner refused to recognize Republicans trying to offer any more amendments to the bill while the committee’s ranking Republican and former chairman, Rep. Steve Buyer of Indiana, shouted again and again, “It is appalling. It is unbelievable. There are repercussions for this.”

The Filipino veterans’ provisions in HR 760 are similar to a plan passed by the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. It would provide full veterans’ status to Filipino veterans and their survivors, including disability pay for service-connected disabilities, survivor pay for service-connected deaths and pensions and death benefits, payable at the same rate as for U.S. veterans for Filipinos living in the U.S., and at reduced amounts for non-U.S. citizens living outside the U.S.

Filner said the bill “addresses injustices going back to World War II” and sends a sign to all veterans that the U.S. keeps its promises.

“To those who say we cannot afford to pay this debt, I say we cannot afford not to,” he said.

Buyer, who led the charge against the bill, said he didn’t want to take money from one veteran to give to another.

“It is unconscionable that the Democrats voted today to deny elderly, indigent, severely disabled or housebound American veterans the special monthly pension in order to finance a new entitlement program to benefit Filipino veterans,” Buyer said.

The disputed method of paying for the bill is a clarification of eligibility for a $2,200 special annual payment to disabled veterans who cannot leave their homes. Initially intended to cover just indigent veterans who were totally disabled, the benefit was challenged by a blind veteran, who won a decision in the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims that ruled in 2006 that veterans with disabilities of 60 percent or greater could also qualify.

By restating the law to again restrict the benefit to those who are 100 percent disabled, the bill claims $1 billion in savings over 10 years that could be used to pay for the new benefits for Filipino veterans. Filner said he wasn’t denying anyone anything, but simply clarifying the law. The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee did the same thing, he noted.

Buyer, however, said he does not see the issue “as a mere technicality.” His amendment to block the Filipino veteran pensions failed on a 16-13 vote.

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Benefits bill for Filipino vets