In Amicus Brief, Brown, Durbin, Blumenthal, Brown, Maloney, Norton, And Wexler Call On Supreme Court To Ensure Military Reservists Do Not Lose Pay When Called To Active Military Duty

Statement

Congressman Anthony G. Brown joined, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and U.S. Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY-12), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and former U.S. Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL-19), to submit an Amicus Brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to consider Adams v. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a case related to differential pay provision for reservists as outlined in the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009. Authored by Durbin, a provision in the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 prevents federal employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserves from losing income when they are called to active military duty. Durbin has been actively involved in this issue since 2001 when he first introduced the Reservist Pay Security Act.

The amicus brief expresses support for Mr. Bryan Adams' petition to the Court, explaining that Congress' clear intent in enacting the provision in the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 was to ensure that reservists are paid the equivalent of their full civilian salary while they have been called to active military duty.

Despite Congress' enactment of this provision, the Federal Circuit recently ruled that Mr. Adams, a human resources specialist with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and a member of the Arizona Air National Guard, was not entitled to differential pay unless his service was connected to a national emergency because of the particular authority under which he was called to active duty. The Federal Circuit's narrow reading of the law undermines Congress's express purpose of ensuring no reservist called from federal employment to active duty during a national emergency suffers financial hardships for heeding that call to duty.

The lawmakers wrote: "Both contemporaneous statements by the law's authors and other legislative materials confirm that Congress did not intend to limit the application of the law by the kind of service the reservists rendered or the provision of law under which the reservists were call to active duty…If allowed to stand, the Federal Circuit's decision would severely burden a significant number of Americans solely because they wear the Nation's uniform."

Click here to read the full Amicus Brief.