Conference Report On H.R. 2647, National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, the conference report increases active and reserve component end-strengths; provides a 3.4 percent pay raise; prohibits increases in TRICARE Prime and Standard cost shares; improves the ability of servicemembers to vote and have their votes counted; and provides numerous improvements to assist wounded warriors.

As a veteran myself and father of four sons serving in the military, I know this is an important bill. However, this conference report falls short of what should be done on behalf of our military and our military families. I am disappointed that the conference report fails to adopt a House provision to allow for concurrent receipt of military disability retired pay and veterans' disability compensation for all disability retirees regardless of disability rating percentage or years of service.

There are numerous explanations for why we did not adopt this paid-for provision, including that the President did not provide the proper offsets, or that the Senate objected to the proposed offsets for the mandatory spending.

In my view, these reasons do not justify inaction on this issue. It sends the wrong message to our military and veterans that this provision was kept out of the conference report.

It is past time we stop talking about support for concurrent receipt and repeals of the offset in the Survivor Benefit Plan-Dependency Indemnity Compensation SBP-DIC offset, the tragic widow's tax. It is time for action to do the right thing now to remove these unfair burdens on widows and disabled military veterans. Sadly, billions of dollars for Cash for Clunkers but lack of consideration for widows and disabled veterans.

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Mr. Speaker, the conference report on H.R. 2647, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, has many provisions that improve the strengths and quality of life of active duty and reserve personnel and their families. It increases active and reserve component end-strengths; provides a 3.4% pay raise; prohibits increases in TRICARE Prime and Standard cost shares; improves the ability of service members to vote and have their votes be counted; and provides numerous improvements to assist wounded service members. As a veteran myself, and a father of four sons today in the military, I know this is an important bill. I am the ranking Republican serving on the Military Personnel Subcommittee led by Chairwoman Susan Davis who I know is devoted to our troops and families.

There are, however, areas where this conference report falls short of what should be done on behalf of our military and their families. I am disappointed that the conference report fails to adopt a House provision, based on the President's proposal, to allow for concurrent receipt of military disability retired pay and veterans' disability compensation for all Chapter 61 disability retirees regardless of disability rating percentage or years of service.

There are numerous explanations for why we did not adopt this paid-for provision, including that the President did not provide the proper offsets, or that the Senate objected to the proposed offsets for the mandatory spending. There are also concerns that the Senate could not muster enough votes on this veterans' issue to overcome a budget point of order against the provision on the floor.

In my view, all these reasons do not justify inaction on this issue. It appears that if this provision had been given the level of priority it demands, leadership both in the House and in the Senate would have found a way to adopt it in the conference report. Just as they found $3 billion of borrowed money for cash for clunkers in a matter of hours.

The House proposal, based on President Obama's budget request, was paid for, even though it was a flawed proposal to start with. It provided only nine months of concurrent receipt benefits which means they would have expired before the House and Senate could have completed another defense authorization bill to extend the benefit.

If the House Democratic leadership had wanted to, it could have found the funding necessary to offset a fully funded benefit ($5.2B over 10 years), or, as a minimum, to fund at least 12 to 18 months of benefit to ensure Congress had time to act again.

It sends the wrong message to our military and veterans that this provision was kept out of the conference report. It sends the wrong message in particular when the objection is a procedural matter--a budgetary point of order--that has been ignored by the Senate in previous instances. In fact, the last time it did arise was when we passed TRICARE for Life and there were votes necessary to defeat the budget point of order.

It should be noted that we had avenues that could have been pursued to address this budgetary concern--namely allowing House repeal of the deepwater drilling to stand as a spending offset. Unfortunately, that option and this opportunity to take action on this issue were not supported.

The bottom line is this. The failure to adopt this provision sends the wrong message to our disabled military veterans that we would not take a modest first step in providing concurrent receipt for all disabled military personnel.

It is past time we stop talking about support for concurrent receipt and repeals of the offset in the Survivor Benefit Plan--Dependency Indemnity Compensation, (SBP-DIC offset) the so-called tragic widow's tax. It is time for action to do the right thing to remove these unfair burdens on widows and disabled military veterans. Sadly, billions for cash for clunkers, but lack of consideration for widows.

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I reserve the balance of my tim

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