Pentagon lawyers are studying the 2005 National Defense Authorization Act to determine if a provision to restore full military retirement to retirees who are fully disabled can be interpreted to apply to 28,000 retirees who have lesser disabilities but are deemed unemployable.
At stake for these retirees is, on average, more than $46,000 in restored retirement payments – also called concurrent retirement and disability payments – over the next nine years.
Congress in 2003 voted to phase out over 10 years the ban on receipt of military retirement and disability compensation for 150,000 retirees with 20 or more years of service and disability ratings of 50 percent or greater. This year’s law ends the phase-out and lifts the ban as of Jan. 1 for retirees with disabilities rated as 100 percent.
A Bush administration source familiar with the ongoing legal review said a straightforward reading of the law appears to limit accelerated concurrent receipt, as reported earlier, to retirees with disability ratings of 100 percent.
A senior congressional staff member said that, indeed, was what senators assumed when they voted for the provision and what they asked the Congressional Budget Office to score by providing cost estimates.
Yet, the same administration that had argued in years past against any relaxation of the dual payment ban now has its legal experts studying whether the new law should be viewed more broadly, to include retirees with ratings below 100 percent but eligible for 100 percent-level compensation because Veterans Affairs has classified them as unemployable.
Officials expect an internal legal opinion in one to three weeks .
Declining dollar: Despite a three-month drop in the value of the dollar against foreign currencies, the buying power of 290,000 service members overseas largely has been protected by a system of allowances tied directly to exchange rates, Department of Defense officials say.
A weakening dollar can squeeze travel budgets for American tourists and raise the cost of imported goods, a setback for many U.S. businesses. But the Defense Department’s committee on per diem, travel and transportation allowances in Alexandria, Va., is there to insulate U.S. service members overseas from currency fluctuations.
“We are looking at them constantly and making adjustments as warranted,” said Roy Sammarco, chief of the committee’s economics and statistics branch.
The adjustments to protect the military from a weak dollar involve two payments available overseas: a cost-of-living allowance for all, and for members and families living off base, an overseas housing allowance.
The committee daily collects exchange-rate data from banks that serve the U.S. military abroad. In countries where few service members are assigned, the committee tracks daily currency rates through The Wall Street Journal.
When there is a 5 percent change in the dollar’s value, up or down, the two allowances are adjusted on the next payday, either the first or 16th of the month. The system cannot make daily changes, said Sammarco, and needs a week’s time to make next payday changes.
Current rates and more on how allowances are set can be found at the committee’s Web site, https://secureapp2.hqda. pentagon.mil/perdiem/.
To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111, e-mail milupdate@aol.com or go to www.militaryupdate.com.
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