Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities rated

Ruptured Duck

Ruptured Duck

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Please note the corrected bill number - HR 333. We apologize for the mistake!
The Issue: Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities rated less than 50% to concurrently receive military retirement pay and VA disability pensionsImmediate Action Required: Contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to support S. 344, introduced by Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Jon Tester (D-MT) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI); and H.R.333 introduced by Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) that would authorize military retirees with service connected disabilities rated at less than fifty percent to collect their military retirement pay and VA disability pensions at the same time
NGAUS needs you to actively contact your Senators and Representative to urge them to support S.344, introduced by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and currently co-sponsored by 17 other senators, and H.R.333 introduced by Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) and currently co-sponsored by 108 other members of the House. These companion bills would remove the 50% disability rating requirement to collect military retirement pay and VA disability pensions concurrently.
Concurrent receipt of military retirement pay and VA disability pensions by military retirees with service connected disabilities is currently authorized only for those with service connected disabilities rated not less than 50 %. This arbitrarily denies an important benefit to those retired members suffering from significant service connected disabilities rated at less than 50%.
NGAUS strongly supports S.344 and H.R.533 that would allow retired members with service connected disability ratings of less than 50% to collect military retired pay and VA disability pensions concurrently.
Our disabled retirees deserve the important pay benefit and recognition that this legislation would provide. TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTION:
By using the “Write to Congress” feature on the NGAUS Web site at www.ngaus.org/writetocongress, you can IMMEDIATELY e-mail your elected representatives. A sample letter is included in our “Write to Congress” feature. You can e-mail the pre-written message or edit the sample letter as you desire. This is the quickest and most effective method of expressing your views to Congress. Also, contact your friends and family and urge them to "Write to Congress" as well. For more in-depth information and background visit our web site at www.ngaus.org. Please direct any questions concerning this issue to Pete Duffy, NGAUS Deputy Legislative Director at 202-454-5307 or via email at [email protected].
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Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

is there a website to be able to keep up with the progress of this bill?
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

In my opinion, it's more important to fix concurrent receipt for the Chapter 61 retirees.
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

excellent point navy peb.
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

navypeb said:
In my opinion, it's more important to fix concurrent receipt for the Chapter 61 retirees.
Click to expand...

In what way? It looks like this bill will do that in part, by opening CRDP to those with less than a 50% rating. Just trying to understand whether this bill meets what you are talking about or if you mean something different.
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

COLTONMD said:
Jason,

This is the other bill (being proposed);

H.R. 186: To amend title 10, United States Code, to expand the eligibility for concurrent receipt of... (GovTrack.us)

Thanks for your time.

Mike
Click to expand...

Mike,

Both bills, 333 as mentioned below and 186 that you bring up, have the same goal. They both attempt to expand CRDP to those with a rating lower than 50% (adding to the current rules of those rated above 50%). The bills text is even almost identical. Duplicate bills are often introduced throughout Congress. Perhaps it's just one guy trying to get the credit for the idea over another guy.

The main difference between the 2 bills is that HR 333 has more supporters (currently 119) than HR 186 (only 14 cosponsors as of now), meaning it is more likely to go all the way through the process.
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

Either way; I think our military members deserve more. Hell they bail out banks etc !!! Thanks Josh!!!
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

Does anyone think this will pass aside from Josh? I just wanted to see other viewpoints?
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

Chances of passing? Hard to say. These proposals come up very often (seems like every year). So, it shows that there are members of Congress who have their eyes on this issue. On the other hand, it comes up every year because it has not passed the year before. I tend to think that this year is more challenging than usual, given the budget battle. That said, I agree that if we can spend money on bailouts, big ticket defense programs, etc., we can find a way to properly compensate those injured or disabled while serving in the military. (A side note, I think that even though folks, naturally, focus on money compensation, Sec. Gates has briefed that healthcare costs are one of the major challenges...if we had a workable universal coverage health care policy, DoD would likely save many billions- which would then be available to restore/fix compensation issues...I don't mean to suggest a solution to this entire issue in one paragraph. But, these issues may well be a way of addressing the problems).
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

thanks Jason
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

Jason said:
In what way? It looks like this bill will do that in part, by opening CRDP to those with less than a 50% rating. Just trying to understand whether this bill meets what you are talking about or if you mean something different.
Click to expand...

One of the problems is that the current CRDP applies only to members with 20+ years of service. If someone is medically retired at 15 years, they don't get CRDP. At least that's my understanding.
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

navypeb said:
One of the problems is that the current CRDP applies only to members with 20+ years of service. If someone is medically retired at 15 years, they don't get CRDP. At least that's my understanding.
Click to expand...

You are generally right in your understanding. An exception is, for example, those retired under Temporary Early Retirement Authority at 15 years. TERAs get CRDP if otherwise eligible.
 
Support Bill Authorizing military retirees with service connected disabilities ra

Dear Legal Eagles:

I tried to read through both these bills and was unable to digest/understand if either of these bills, if passed and signed into law, will then allow those Servicemembers on TDRL/PDRL with LESS than 20 years to qualify for CRDP.

Or, do these changes only apply to those who already have 20 years in?

I'd like to see Servicemembers get both military and VA compensation - even if they have less than 20 years of "good" retirement time, as the majority of those members were injured while on Active Duty and they were NOT able to get to 20 years because of those injuries.

Do either one of these bills fix that TDRL/PDRL and under 20 years issue?

v/r,
nwlivewire
 
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