CONCURRENT RECEIPT UNDER ATTACK

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL WOULD PREVENT VA FROM DECIDING MILITARY RETIREES CLAIMS FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY COMPENSATION

October 16, 2002

Dear Colleague: 

Before Congress has even given final approval to pending “concurrent receipt” legislation, the House Appropriations Committee has approved a measure to effectively deny military retirees service-connected disability compensation.  The provision in section 114 of H.R. 5605, the “Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2003,” is a blatant and deliberate attempt to nullify concurrent receipt legislation should Congress enact it. 

Specifically, the bill recently approved by the House Committee on Appropriations would prohibit the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from expending any appropriations “for the adjudication of any claim for disability benefits filed after the date of the enactment of a new concurrent receipt law by a veteran who is entitled to retired or retainer pay based upon service in the uniformed services if the Secretary determines that, if compensation under the claim is awarded to the claimant, the veteran will, by reason of the new concurrent receipt law, be entitled to payment of both compensation under the claim and some amount of such retired pay. . . .” [Emphasis supplied.]  This is a disgraceful attempt, prior to passage of any new concurrent receipt legislation, to ignore the legitimate claims of military retirees who are statutorily entitled to VA service-connected disability compensation benefits.

VA service-connected compensation benefits are a statutory entitlement for veterans who have a disability which was incurred or aggravated by military service.  This section of the VA-HUD bill attempts to deprive veterans in receipt of military longevity retirement benefits of their statutory entitlement by prohibiting action on their legitimate claims for VA benefits.  Without authority to expend the resources necessary to adjudicate their claims, VA could simply dump the claims of disabled veterans into a “black hole.”

According to House report 107-740, the House Committee on Appropriations believes that the passage of concurrent receipt will result in a deluge of hundreds of thousands of claims and is “concerned that the deluge of new concurrent receipt claims will paralyze the system and those veterans who have been waiting for years will never see the benefit.”  It is true that the pending caseload of compensation claims increased by almost 50% (from 402,772 on January 19, 2001 to 601,237 on March 8, 2002).  However, since that date, the backlog has trended downward to 472,328 as of October 11, 2002.

Since there is a current financial advantage for most military retirees to choose tax-exempt VA service-connected disability compensation benefits in lieu of taxable military retirement benefits, it is possible that the “deluge” of claims submitted to VA has been vastly overstated.  Even assuming that the “deluge” of claims is not overstated, legislation which bars one subgroup of deserving and entitled veterans from service-connected compensation in order to achieve administrative efficiency for other claims is unacceptable.   

          It is doubtful such legislation could withstand a court challenge and constitutional scrutiny.  Nonetheless, I urge all Members who support concurrent receipt to oppose this provision.  In the event that this measure is brought to the floor, I intend to use all available means to block its passage.