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ARMED FORCES NEWS |
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Using its press weapons, the Department of Defense is going to great lengths to argue against the overwhelming intent of lawmakers to authorize some form of concurrent receipt for military retirees who have been awarded disability compensation by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Coining concurrent receipt as "double dipping," Charles Abell, assistant defense secretary for force management policy, says, "it is two pays for the same event." A DoD press service went farther and asserted that "the U.S. government has always treated this as double dipping." Abell said he could find nothing in the public or private sectors with a truly analogous pay situation. This flies in the face of views by major veterans' organizations that military retirees are the only retirees in any sector who must forfeit one dollar of disability compensation for each dollar of retirement pay earned. It remains up to Congress. |
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