The Fayetteville Observer - Keep Our Promise to Veterans

Op-Ed

By US Senator Kay Hagan

As North Carolina's U.S. Senator, I travel to every corner of our great state, and one of the highlights of my year is always attending the annual Defense Trade Show at Fayetteville Technical Community College. This event offers a chance to promote our state's defense businesses, but it also allows me to hear directly from service members and military leaders about the most important issues they face as they work to keep our country safe.

A couple of years ago, nearly everyone I met at the Defense Trade Show wore white buttons on their uniforms with the word "sequestration" surrounded by a red circle and a line cutting through it. Everyone who wore a button vehemently opposed sequestration because they knew that such drastic cuts would only harm our service members' morale and our military's preparedness while our country was still at war.

Our military community endured a difficult year in 2013 as these indiscriminate spending cuts took effect, threatening tuition-assistance payments, hard-earned paychecks and the education of service members' children. As I've sought a bipartisan solution to eliminate sequestration, the images of those buttons have stuck with me. And when bipartisan legislation that replaces the harmful sequestration cuts that threaten our military capabilities and the safety of our troops came up for a vote in the Senate last month, I listened closely to North Carolina's top military leadership as they urged me to support the bill.

However, the Murray-Ryan budget bill, which overwhelmingly passed the House and Senate, is far from perfect, and I strongly oppose the cuts it makes to the cost-of-living adjustment for service members, including future retirees still serving our country on active duty. To ensure we keep our promise to current and future veterans, I immediately joined my colleague Sen. Mark Pryor in introducing a bill last month to restore veterans' pension cuts before they take effect in December 2015. I will seek every avenue possible to pass this legislation so tens of thousands of retirees do not lose an average of $80,000 over the course of their lifetimes.

One North Carolina military mother told me how COLA reductions would affect her three sons. Willie, the youngest, is medically retired from the Army after he sustained injuries while deployed in Afghanistan. A COLA cut would have cost Willie, his wife and their three children more than $100,000 and jeopardized his wife's ability to stay home to care for their 3-year-old son, who has Down syndrome. Now, I am pleased to report that Congress already restored these COLA cuts for medically retired service members like Willie, who are among the most severely wounded, as well as beneficiaries of the Survivor Benefit Plan last month. But I am working to make this right for all our veterans, like the mother's oldest son, Michael.

Michael served 24 years in the Marine Corps as a Chief Warrant Officer and, along with his wife, now works as a teacher in the Elizabeth City area. They stand to lose $150,000 over the next 18 years if COLA cuts take effect. And Chris, the middle son, remains on active duty in the Coast Guard. He would lose $100,000, and, in addition to feeling an incredible financial burden as he supports his family, he feels betrayed.

That's unacceptable. We must keep our promises to Willie and Michael and Chris and all of our service members after they've put their lives on the line and sacrificed so much for us. We cannot balance the budget on the backs of those who have answered the call of duty, and I will continue to work to ensure current and future retirees receive the benefits they have earned.

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