Congressman Dennis Cardoza
18th Congressional District of California

Cardoza is a strong supporter of H.R. 303, The Retired Pay Restoration Act, which would end the controversial practice of reducing veterans’ retirement benefits if they also receive disability compensation. He cited a new House report that shows 1,197 disabled veterans in the 18^th District losing out on $6.3 million annually – an average of $5,257 per affected veteran.

"We must eliminate the disabled veterans tax in its entirety," Cardoza said. "We can’t continue to shortchange veterans, particularly those who are disabled. In addition to veterans who served our country in previous decades, troops in Iraq are incurring major injuries that also render them disabled. We are not properly honoring their sacrifice until we resolve this issue."

There are currently about 560,000 retired service members who qualify for military retirement benefits and VA disability benefits. An 1891 law, however, bars "concurrent receipt" of both military retirement benefits and disability benefits. As a result, for veterans who receive both benefits, military retirement benefits are reduced dollar-for dollar for each dollar of VA disability benefits – hence the commonly used term "disabled veterans tax."

Republican legislation would phase in the restoration of both benefits, but Cardoza said the plan has serious flaws. Although he believes the Republican measure is a step in the right direction, it would cover only a small minority of disabled veterans and would not restore full benefits until 2014. The bill would also establish an arbitrary cutoff point of 50 percent disability in order for a veteran to qualify for full benefits, potentially wreaking havoc on the already controversial system used to assess disability.

"The solution to this problem is not to solve it for a small group of veterans and then leave the rest behind," Cardoza said. "We send the wrong message if we don’t take care of all disabled veterans."

There are now 203 signatures on the discharge petition; 218 are required to force the bill to the House floor for a vote.