WASHINGTON, D.C. – John Kerry, D-MA and Saxby Chambliss, R-GA introduced legislation to benefit members of the National Guard and Reserve today by amending current law to include any duty performed after September 11, 2001 as service qualifying for reducing the age at which retired pay can be received. Currently, National Guard and Reserve members are the only federal retirees who must wait until age 60 to collect retirement pay. The bill is cosponsored by a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators including Lamar Alexander, R-TN, Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, Norm Coleman, R-MN, Susan Collins, R-ME, Johnny Isakson, R-GA, Blanche Lincoln, D-AR, Mark Pryor, D-AR, and Pat Roberts, R-KS.

“Our National Guard and Reserves have sacrificed over and over, again and again, since September 11th. America’s heroes have helped put the pieces back together in the aftermath of the worst attack on our homeland and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, while fighting courageously overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. Providing our Guard and Reserve retroactive credit for retirement benefits they’ve earned is one small way Washington can honor their tremendous sacrifices,” said U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-MA.

“The way we rely on our National Guard and Reserve has fundamentally changed since September 11, 2001,” said U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-GA. “The bill we are introducing today enhances what we did in last year’s defense bill and rewards our men and women who have deployed since our nation was attacked. Their service was critical as well as sacrificial, and they should be rewarded for it. We need our military personnel and their families to know that we stand behind them and honor the great sacrifices they make on behalf of our nation.”

The bill, the “National Guard and Reserve Retired Pay Equity Act of 2008,” builds upon legislation authored by Senate Armed Services Committee members Chambliss and Pryor, which was accepted as part of the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. Specifically, that legislation, which was signed into law in January 2008, reduced the age for receipt of retirement pay by three months (counting down from age 60) for every 90 days a Guard or Reserve member spends on active duty in support of a contingency operation, or on active service for purposes of responding to a national emergency declared by the president or supported by federal funds. However, the provision in that Act only counted service performed after the date the bill was enacted and was not retroactive to September 11, 2001.

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