(Reprinted from The Macon Telegraph of Monday, June 16, 2003)

Political cowardism blocks correction in veterans' pay

The Combat-Related Special Compensation bill is finally inching closer to a vote with continuing pressure from veterans groups and U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall. Marshall has put himself on record, and wants every House member to do the same, to force HR303 out of committee to a full vote.

The bill, renamed last year more descriptively the Retired Pay Restoration Act, has been introduced and either defeated or languished in committee for each of the last 16 years. It is meant to correct an inequity in military retirees' pay, as opposed to that for other federal retirees. Military retirees who also are disabled can't collect full retirement along with disability pay. Retirement pay is offset by the amount paid for any disability by the Veterans Administration. It is a law first enacted in the last decade of the 19th century.

Veterans argue that one promised pay for one status should not preclude payment for the other. It's a point hard to argue against, so opposition is centered around the expected cost, estimated to be $10 billion over a 10 year period, for the half million disabled veterans currently impacted by the law.

Marshall, former Macon mayor and a veteran himself, has pushed for a put-up or shut-up stand by his fellow solons, has commitments from 100 of the 218 Congressmen he needs to force the issue to a vote. Funny thing is, commitments to force a vote are hard to come by, even though the measure has 296 co-sponsors. Politicians who say the right things but shy away from action are only paying lip service to a voting constituency that is tired of waiting.

Whether the solidarity of support shown by numerous veterans' rights groups, along with the letter-writing campaign mounted by individual retirees, can budge the representatives holding back on a vote remains to be seen.

The Senate has already taken a vote. The costs of the bill are obviously a consideration, even though a change in the law is the right thing to do. But co-sponsors of the House bill who won't even raise their hands to vote on it are political cowards of the worst kind.