[Vision2020] SWEEEEEEEEEEET!

[Matt Decker]

It's about time. All vets earned this and deserve much more in my opinion.

Thanks to all that served.

MD

> Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 13:50:14 -0800
> From: thansen at moscow.com
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] SWEEEEEEEEEEET!
> 
> This amounts to a 55-percent pay hike for yours truly effective January 1,
> 2013.
> 
> Courtesy of the Army TImes at:
> 
> http://www.ArmyTimes.com
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 
> Budget plan has money for concurrent receipt
> 
> By Rick Maze - Army Times Staff writer
> Posted : Tuesday Feb 2, 2010 14:44:59 EST
> 
> A new call by the Obama administration to give full payment of retired and
> disability pay to all disabled military retirees by Jan. 1, 2015, is very
> similar to a proposal that was rejected last year, with one major
> difference:
> 
> This time the White House has put some money behind its plan.
> 
> President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget request seeks to add $408 million to
> the military retirement trust fund in order to begin phasing in so-called
> “concurrent receipt” benefits in 2011 for severely disabled veterans who
> spent less than 20 years in the service.
> 
> But because nothing involving concurrent receipt is ever simple, the plan
> may not satisfy congressional budget rules.
> 
> The $408 million is part of almost $5 billion earmarked in the budget for
> the military retirement trust fund to pay for future retired pay
> specifically as a result of concurrent receipt legislation.
> 
> But the House of Representatives has strict rules covering changes in
> mandatory spending, which require that an increase in one place must be
> offset by either a cut somewhere else or a revenue increase — a budgeting
> process known as “pay-go” that has been the nemesis of supporters of
> allowing disabled retirees to concurrently receive full military retired
> pay and veterans disability compensation if they are eligible for both.
> 
> “We see the increase in the military retired pay trust fund in the budget.
> We don’t see any offsets, and that could be a problem,” said a
> congressional aide who has followed the concurrent receipt issue.
> 
> The first sign of whether the Obama proposal might work will come in April
> when the House and Senate budget committees prepare a 2011 spending and
> revenue guide, known as a concurrent budget resolution, which paves the
> way for allocation of funds to various congressional committees.
> 
> If the budget resolution includes language adopting the concurrent receipt
> funding, that would be sufficient for the House and Senate services
> committees to include the Obama plan in the 2011 defense budget.
> 
> A White House statement describing the concurrent receipt initiative does
> not clearly explain the details. It includes just two sentences: “For the
> first time, highly disabled veterans who are medically retired from
> service will be eligible for concurrent receipt of disability benefits
> from VA in addition to DoD retirement benefits. All medically retired
> service members will be eligible for concurrent receipt of VA and DOD
> benefits by 2015.”
> 
> Congressional aides and administration sources said they expect the
> concurrent receipt plan, which will be included in legislative initiatives
> provided to Congress by the Defense Department, will be modeled on last
> year’s proposal that died for the lack of funding.
> 
> That initiative is aimed, at first, at providing retired pay and
> disability pay without any offsets to retirees who served less than 20
> years and are receiving military disability retired pay under Chapter 61,
> Title 10 of the U.S. Code. Those people are not now eligible for
> concurrent receipt, although Chapter 61 retirees who served 20 or more
> years have been covered.
> 
> Here is how the plan would work:
> 
> • Beginning Jan. 1, 2011, concurrent receipt would be provided to all
> Chapter 61 retirees whose retired pay is based on a disability rating of
> 90 percent or more.
> 
> • On Jan. 1, 2012, concurrent receipt would be extended to all Chapter 61
> retirees with retired pay based on a disability rating of 70 percent or
> more.
> 
> • On Jan. 1, 2013, concurrent receipt would be extended to all Chapter 61
> retirees with retired pay based on ratings of 50 percent or more.
> 
> • On Jan. 1, 2014, concurrent receipt would be extended to Chapter 61
> retirees with retired pay based on a rating of 30 percent or more.
> 
> • On Jan. 1, 2015, all disabled veterans drawing both military retired pay
> and veterans disability benefits would be eligible for concurrent receipt
> of both payments. This final phase of the plan would, for the first time,
> provide full concurrent receipt to retirees whose disabilities are not
> related to combat or combat training and are rated at less than 50
> percent.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 
> Nice!
> 
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
> 
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
> 
> "The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
> and the Realist adjusts his sails."
> 
> - Unknown
> 
> 
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet, 
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>                http://www.fsr.net                       
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469226/direct/01/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20100202/3be96b08/attachment.html