Veterans
Our veterans have given so much on behalf of our country; I believe it is our responsibility to use our resources to make their lives and the lives of their families more comfortable. I understand and respect the sacrifice that so many have made for our great country, which is why I will continue to work to ensure that every veteran receives appropriate compensation for their tremendous sacrifice.
Our veterans have given so much on behalf of our country; I believe it is our responsibility to use our resources to make their lives and the lives of their families more comfortable. I understand and respect the sacrifice that so many have made for our great country, which is why I will continue to work to ensure that every veteran receives appropriate compensation for their tremendous sacrifice.
I am also committed to eliminating the claims backlog at the Veterans Benefits Administration. All veterans deserve to receive their benefits in a timely and consistent manner, and clearing the current backlog will help us reach this goal.
I remain concerned as to how the VA Health Care system will fit in, and work with, the newly adopted health care reform plan. Due to the very deep fiscal obligations associated with the new health care reform, I will remain committed to ensuring that our veterans maintain their own unique system of access.
Concurrent Receipt
In the past, I worked closely with the both the House leadership and inside the House Armed Services Committee to solve the concurrent receipt problem. Through our hard work and persistence, my colleagues and I were able to add language into the 2004 Department of Defense Authorization Act that provided concurrent receipt to over 250,000 veterans beginning in January of 2004.
Under this legislation all veterans who have received or will receive any degree of combat related disability will receive full concurrent receipt of their retirement pay and their disability pay. They will receive 100 percent of their earned retirement pay, and 100 percent of the disability pay they are eligible for, regardless of their individual disability rating. There will also be full concurrent receipt of retirement pay and disability pay for any soldier injured during a combat related training exercise. This will not only apply to all veterans who currently receive such pay, it will also apply to all future veterans who may be eligible for disability pay.
In regards to those who have received non-combat related disability or non-combat training related disability, there will be a 10-year phase in for those veterans with a disability rating of 50 percent or higher. This will provide all those individuals with full concurrent receipt of retirement pay and disability pay. In addition, there will be a blue ribbon commission created that will be charged with studying the best way to effectively and efficiently address the concerns of those whose disability rating is below 50 percent with concurrent receipt of their retirement pay and disability pay.
Additionally, this plan extended full concurrent receipt to all retired National Guard and reservists who are Purple Heart recipients, or who are combat-related special compensation (CRSC) qualified. Very few retired reservists and National Guardsmen now qualify under current law for the Purple Heart or CRSC concurrent receipt.
Last year, the administration proposed a comprehensive phase-in of Concurrent Receipt, a solution which I was happy to support. Unfortunately, this provision disappeared during the Conference Committee for the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act due to the fact the administration provided no offsets for implementation of this program. I look forward to working with the administration so that a solution is found to fully phase in this solution to a long-term unfair situation that countless veterans face.