I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 303
To amend title 10, United States Code, to permit additional retired members
of the Armed Forces who have a service-connected disability to receive
both disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs
for their disability and either retired pay by reason of their years of
military service or combat-related special compensation.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY11, 2023
Mr. B
ILIRAKISintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on Veterans’
Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend title 10, United States Code, to permit additional
retired members of the Armed Forces who have a service-
connected disability to receive both disability compensa-
tion from the Department of Veterans Affairs for their
disability and either retired pay by reason of their years
of military service or combat-related special compensa-
tion.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Retired Pay Restora-2
tion Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS. 4
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 5
(1) For more than 100 years before 1999, all 6
disabled military retirees were required to fund their 7
own veterans’ disability compensation by forfeiting 8
one dollar of earned retired pay for each dollar re-9
ceived in veterans’ disability compensation. 10
(2) Since 1999, Congress has enacted legisla-11
tion to progressively expand eligibility criteria for re-12
lief of the retired pay disability offset and reduce the 13
burden of financial sacrifice on disabled military re-14
tirees. 15
(3) Absent adequate funding to eliminate the 16
sacrifice for all disabled retirees, Congress has given 17
initial priority to easing financial inequities for the 18
most severely disabled and for combat-disabled retir-19
ees. 20
(4) In the interest of maximizing eligibility 21
within cost constraints, Congress effectively has au-22
thorized full concurrent receipt for all qualifying re-23
tirees with 100-percent disability ratings and all 24
qualifying retirees with combat-related disability rat-25
ings, while phasing out the disability offset to retired 26
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pay over 10 years for retired members with noncom-1
bat-related, service-connected disability ratings of 50 2
percent to 90 percent. 3
(5) In pursuing these good-faith efforts, Con-4
gress acknowledges the regrettable necessity of cre-5
ating new thresholds of eligibility that understand-6
ably are disappointing to disabled retirees who fall 7
short of meeting those new thresholds. 8
(6) Congress is not content with the status quo. 9
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-10
gress that military retired pay earned by service and sac-11
rifice in defending the United States should not be re-12
duced because a military retiree is also eligible for vet-13
erans’ disability compensation awarded for service-con-14
nected disability. 15
SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY FOR PAYMENT OF BOTH RETIRED PAY 16
AND VETERANS’ DISABILITY COMPENSATION 17
FOR CERTAIN ADDITIONAL MILITARY RETIR-18
EES WITH COMPENSABLE SERVICE-CON-19
NECTED DISABILITIES. 20
(a) E
XTENSION OFCONCURRENTRECEIPTAUTHOR-21
ITY TORETIREESWITHSERVICE-CONNECTEDDISABIL-22
ITIESRATEDLESSTHAN50 PERCENT.—Section 1414(a) 23
of title 10, United States Code, is amended— 24
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(1) by striking ‘‘COMPENSATION’’ in the sub-1
section heading and all that follows through ‘‘Sub-2
ject’’ and inserting ‘‘C
OMPENSATION.—Subject’’; 3
and 4
(2) by striking paragraph (2). 5
(b) A
MENDMENTS TOREFLECTCONCLUSION OF 6
P
HASE-INOFCONCURRENTRECEIPT OFRETIREDPAY 7
ANDVETERANS’ DISABILITYCOMPENSATION.—Section 8
1414 of title 10, United States Code, is further amend-9
ed— 10
(1) in subsection (a), as amended by subsection 11
(a) of this section, by striking the final sentence; 12
(2) by striking subsection (c) and redesignating 13
subsections (d) and (e) as subsections (c) and (d), 14
respectively; and 15
(3) in subsection (d), as so redesignated, by 16
striking paragraphs (3) and (4). 17
(c) S
PECIFICATION OF QUALIFIEDRETIREES FOR 18
C
ONCURRENTRECEIPTPURPOSES.—Section 1414 of title 19
10, United States Code, is further amended— 20
(1) in subsection (a), as amended by sub-21
sections (a) and (b)— 22
(A) by striking ‘‘a member or’’ and all that 23
follows through ‘‘is entitled’’ and inserting ‘‘an 24
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individual who is a qualified retiree for any 1
month is entitled’’; and 2
(B) by inserting ‘‘retired pay and veterans’ 3
disability compensation’’ after ‘‘both’’; 4
(2) in subsection (b)— 5
(A) by striking ‘‘S
PECIALRULES’’ in the 6
subsection heading and all that follows through 7
‘‘is subject to’’ and inserting ‘‘S
PECIALRULES 8
FORCHAPTER61 DISABILITYRETIREES.—In 9
the case of a qualified retiree who is retired 10
under chapter 61 of this title, the retired pay 11
of the member is subject to’’; and 12
(B) by striking paragraph (2); and 13
(3) in subsection (d), as redesignated and 14
amended by subsection (b), by adding at the end the 15
following new paragraph: 16
‘‘(3) Q
UALIFIED RETIREE.—The term ‘qualified 17
retiree’ means a member or former member of the 18
uniformed services who, with respect to any 19
month— 20
‘‘(A) is entitled to retired pay, other than 21
in the case of a member retired under chapter 22
61 of this title with less than 20 years of serv-23
ice creditable under section 1405 of this title 24
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and less than 20 years of service computed 1
under section 12732 of this title; and 2
‘‘(B) is entitled to veterans’ disability com-3
pensation.’’. 4
(d) C
LERICALAMENDMENTS.— 5
(1) S
ECTION HEADING.—The heading of section 6
1414 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to 7
read as follows: 8
‘‘§ 1414. Members eligible for retired pay who are also 9
eligible for veterans’ disability compensa-10
tion: Concurrent payment of retired pay 11
and disability compensation’’. 12
(2) T
ABLE OF SECTIONS.—The item relating to 13
such section in the table of sections at the beginning 14
of chapter 71 of title 10, United States Code, is 15
amended to read as follows: 16
‘‘1414. Members eligible for retired pay who are also eligible for veterans’ dis-
ability compensation: Concurrent payment of retired pay and
disability compensation.’’.
(e) CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 1413a(f) of 17
title 10, United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘Sub-18
section (d)’’ and inserting ‘‘Subsection (c)’’. 19
(f) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 20
this section shall take effect as of January 1, 2021, and 21
shall apply to payments for months beginning on or after 22
that date. 23
Æ
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