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ARMED FORCES NEWS
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The struggle between Congress and the administration over concurrent receipt legislation might be comical to those not affected, but it’s deadly serious to many military retirees who have been counting on it. The following is a partial chronology compiled from various sources: Earlier this year, the House approved partial concurrent receipt to be phased in over five years, and the Senate approved full concurrent receipt. The two versions were sent to a conference committee considering the fiscal '03 National Defense Authorization Act. The House passed a non-binding resolution 391-0 to instruct House conferees to include full concurrent receipt in the NDAA. The Senate conferees then offered to accept the House's original version, but give the President the authority to delay implementation on an annual basis for "national security" reasons. Supporters of the administration's resistance to concurrent receipt placed a provision in the VA funding bill essentially stating that if any concurrent receipt legislation should pass after Oct. 1, 2002, no military retiree subsequently seeking disability compensation or an increase in compensation would be eligible for concurrent receipt. Finally, Congress recessed until after election day, subject to the unlikely event of a completed conference report. |
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