Lawmakers wary of retirement commission plan - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Lawmakers wary of retirement commission plan

Lawmakers generally seem to agree that standing up an independent commission to study possible reforms to the military retirement system is a good idea, but they are less supportive of the fast-track approval process that the Defense Department is seeking to try to force Congress to adopt the commission’s recommendations.

The DoD proposal calls for authority similar to what has been provided to past base closure and realignment commissions, so that Congress could only give an up-or-down vote on the commission’s final recommendations, with no ability to make any changes.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, supports the idea as long as the authority of the commission would be limited to retired pay, and not expanded to include any other parts of the military pay and benefits package. Levin and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., chairman of the armed services committee’s personnel panel, cosponsored an amendment last year to the 2012 defense budget that would have created such a commission, but the amendment was never taken up for consideration.

“This is something we need to look at, and it would be good to get outside advice, but we have to be really careful about how much power we provide” to a retirement reform commission, Levin said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, ranking Republican on the personnel panel, said he also approved of having a commission study retired pay. “With the budget pressures we face, we have to look at everything,” he said. “But we have to look at it very carefully.”

Levin and Graham said one unbending condition for congressional approval of a commission would be a guarantee that all current retirees and current service members be exempt from any retired pay reductions.

Additionally, Graham said he would not support any plan that hurts recruiting.

On the House Armed Services Committee, aides said lawmakers are reluctant to approve the up-or-down voting process that could limit influence over the final plan. “Having a committee of smart people look at military retired pay and come up with ideas for improving it is fine, but the BRAC-like process is not fine,” said an aide, who asked not to be identified.