Making use of unspent money from the Air Force program to lease Everett-built Boeing 767 refueling tankers, the House Armed Services Committee has voted for a speedier phaseout of a sharp drop in survivor benefits for military widows and widowers at age 62.
What lawmakers call the widow’s tax feature of the military Survivor Benefit Plan has existed since the plan began in 1972. But the reduction wasn’t briefed well to all participants. Retirees, spouses and widows have been angered over the years to learn that benefits fall from 55 percent of covered retired pay to as low as 35 percent at age 62, when Social Security benefits typically become available.
The committee’s total force subcommittee voted May 5 to phase out that drop in benefits over five years, but said it couldn’t start until 2009 because any hike in mandatory spending under the Defense Department’s five-year budget must be paid for with an equivalent spending reduction.
As the full committee considered final amendments to the 2005 defense authorization bill May 12, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., announced that funds had been found to begin phasing out the widow’s tax next year.
The cost of more than $2 billion over five years would be covered by money previously earmarked for the Air Force to lease the 767 tankers. That program has been suspended while the government decides whether to proceed. One report earlier this week suggested that the refueling tankers weren’t necessary now.
With no dissent heard, the committee approved Miller’s amendment to raise survivor benefits, starting with 270,000 beneficiaries 62 and older. As of Oct. 1, 2005, their benefit would climb to 40 percent of covered retired pay. It would increase again to 45 percent on April 1, 2006, and to 50 percent a year later. It would be fully restored, to 55 percent, on April 1, 2008.
The amendment would make corresponding adjustments to the survivor annuity program, which allows retirees to avoid the age 62 drop in survivor benefits through payment of higher premiums.
Major military associations have made this reform their top legislative goal this election year. Indeed, moments before the vote, committee Democrats and Republicans squabbled over who deserved credit.
Miller praised committee leaders and mostly Republican supporters. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., committee chairman, praised Miller, noting that that his recent bills to reform survivor benefit pay attracted more than 300 co-sponsors each, as well as the backing of thousands of retirees and survivors.
But Rep. Jim Marshal, D-Ga., said Miller was remiss not to mention Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, who filed a discharge petition in an attempt to force Miller’s bill out of committee. Marshall suggested that the petition forced the Republican-led committee to back reform this year.
Base closures
The House committee also voted to delay next year’s round of military base closings until 2007, citing uncertainty over future needs in light of the expanding war on terrorism and Bush administration plans to realign and transform active and reserve forces.
“We cannot afford to close a base in a 2005 round only to discover in 2010 that assets at that base are both irreplaceable and now are lost forever,” said Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., chairman of the committee’s readiness panel.
Congress in 2001 authorized a new round of base closings. Defense officials estimate the military has 24 percent excess base capacity. In May 2005, the defense secretary is to provide to a new nine-member base realignment commission with a list of facilities. Commissioners will review, amend and send a revised list through the president to Congress.
That process would be pushed back two years under the House committee provision.
Wartime pay
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees moved in lockstep this month to make permanent last year’s increases in monthly family separation allowance (up $150) and imminent danger pay (up $75).
The Bush administration last year urged Congress to roll back the April 2003 increases in favor of raises in hardship duty pay, which can be targeted more precisely at service members sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The House committee did vote to raise the ceiling on monthly hardship pay from $300 up to $750, as defense officials requested. But both committees voted to keep family separation pay at $250 a month and danger pay at $225.
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