Support Our Veterans

This has been another strong year in Congress for America's veterans. The House-passed VA Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2004 includes a 13% increase in spending on veterans health care. In fact, in just the last five years, we have raised veterans health spending by 49%.

For our future veterans, we have been steadily increasing military pay. This year's National Defense Authorization Act includes a 4.15 % average increase in base pay for our men and women in uniform, and extends special pay and bonuses for active duty personnel through December 31, 2004. In fact, we have increased military pay by over 4% every year since President Bush took office, after military salaries were allowed to lag behind those of the private sector during the Clinton years.

Recognizing the reality that "you recruit the member but retain the family," this bill calls for a reduction in the average amount of housing expenses paid by service members from the current 7.5 percent to 3.5 percent in fiscal year 2004. We are also on track to see a total elimination of out-of-pocket expenses by fiscal year 2005.

And as you may have heard, we have finally enacted a Concurrent Receipt offset for military retirees who are also entitled to VA disability compensation. Of course, for many years now, retiree pay has been offset dollar for dollar by the veteran's disability pay. I have long argued that this policy is unfair, as retirement pay and disability pay are two separate benefits earned for two separate reasons - the receipt of one should not impinge on the receipt of the other. Under this new plan, retirees who are 50% disabled or more will see their monthly checks increase on an annual basis, until the offset is entirely phased out in 2014. And for retirees whose service-connected disabilities are combat-related, the offset will be repealed altogether, regardless of disability rating.