Us Congress 2023-2024 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB303 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	118THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 303
5	5	To amend title 10, United States Code, to permit additional retired members
6	6	of the Armed Forces who have a service-connected disability to receive
7	7	both disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs
8	8	for their disability and either retired pay by reason of their years of
9	9	military service or combat-related special compensation.
10	10	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
11	11	JANUARY11, 2023
12	12	Mr. B
13	13	ILIRAKISintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
14	14	mittee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on Veterans’
15	15	Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
16	16	each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
17	17	tion of the committee concerned
18	18	A BILL
19	19	To amend title 10, United States Code, to permit additional
20	20	retired members of the Armed Forces who have a service-
21	21	connected disability to receive both disability compensa-
22	22	tion from the Department of Veterans Affairs for their
23	23	disability and either retired pay by reason of their years
24	24	of military service or combat-related special compensa-
25	25	tion.
26	26	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
27	27	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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30	30	•HR 303 IH
31	31	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
32	32	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Retired Pay Restora-2
33	33	tion Act’’. 3
34	34	SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS. 4
35	35	(a) F
36	36	INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 5
37	37	(1) For more than 100 years before 1999, all 6
38	38	disabled military retirees were required to fund their 7
39	39	own veterans’ disability compensation by forfeiting 8
40	40	one dollar of earned retired pay for each dollar re-9
41	41	ceived in veterans’ disability compensation. 10
42	42	(2) Since 1999, Congress has enacted legisla-11
43	43	tion to progressively expand eligibility criteria for re-12
44	44	lief of the retired pay disability offset and reduce the 13
45	45	burden of financial sacrifice on disabled military re-14
46	46	tirees. 15
47	47	(3) Absent adequate funding to eliminate the 16
48	48	sacrifice for all disabled retirees, Congress has given 17
49	49	initial priority to easing financial inequities for the 18
50	50	most severely disabled and for combat-disabled retir-19
51	51	ees. 20
52	52	(4) In the interest of maximizing eligibility 21
53	53	within cost constraints, Congress effectively has au-22
54	54	thorized full concurrent receipt for all qualifying re-23
55	55	tirees with 100-percent disability ratings and all 24
56	56	qualifying retirees with combat-related disability rat-25
57	57	ings, while phasing out the disability offset to retired 26
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60	60	•HR 303 IH
61	61	pay over 10 years for retired members with noncom-1
62	62	bat-related, service-connected disability ratings of 50 2
63	63	percent to 90 percent. 3
64	64	(5) In pursuing these good-faith efforts, Con-4
65	65	gress acknowledges the regrettable necessity of cre-5
66	66	ating new thresholds of eligibility that understand-6
67	67	ably are disappointing to disabled retirees who fall 7
68	68	short of meeting those new thresholds. 8
69	69	(6) Congress is not content with the status quo. 9
70	70	(b) S
71	71	ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-10
72	72	gress that military retired pay earned by service and sac-11
73	73	rifice in defending the United States should not be re-12
74	74	duced because a military retiree is also eligible for vet-13
75	75	erans’ disability compensation awarded for service-con-14
76	76	nected disability. 15
77	77	SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY FOR PAYMENT OF BOTH RETIRED PAY 16
78	78	AND VETERANS’ DISABILITY COMPENSATION 17
79	79	FOR CERTAIN ADDITIONAL MILITARY RETIR-18
80	80	EES WITH COMPENSABLE SERVICE-CON-19
81	81	NECTED DISABILITIES. 20
82	82	(a) E
83	83	XTENSION OFCONCURRENTRECEIPTAUTHOR-21
84	84	ITY TORETIREESWITHSERVICE-CONNECTEDDISABIL-22
85	85	ITIESRATEDLESSTHAN50 PERCENT.—Section 1414(a) 23
86	86	of title 10, United States Code, is amended— 24
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89	89	•HR 303 IH
90	90	(1) by striking ‘‘COMPENSATION’’ in the sub-1
91	91	section heading and all that follows through ‘‘Sub-2
92	92	ject’’ and inserting ‘‘C
93	93	OMPENSATION.—Subject’’; 3
94	94	and 4
95	95	(2) by striking paragraph (2). 5
96	96	(b) A
97	97	MENDMENTS TOREFLECTCONCLUSION OF 6
98	98	P
99	99	HASE-INOFCONCURRENTRECEIPT OFRETIREDPAY 7
100	100	ANDVETERANS’ DISABILITYCOMPENSATION.—Section 8
101	101	1414 of title 10, United States Code, is further amend-9
102	102	ed— 10
103	103	(1) in subsection (a), as amended by subsection 11
104	104	(a) of this section, by striking the final sentence; 12
105	105	(2) by striking subsection (c) and redesignating 13
106	106	subsections (d) and (e) as subsections (c) and (d), 14
107	107	respectively; and 15
108	108	(3) in subsection (d), as so redesignated, by 16
109	109	striking paragraphs (3) and (4). 17
110	110	(c) S
111	111	PECIFICATION OF QUALIFIEDRETIREES FOR 18
112	112	C
113	113	ONCURRENTRECEIPTPURPOSES.—Section 1414 of title 19
114	114	10, United States Code, is further amended— 20
115	115	(1) in subsection (a), as amended by sub-21
116	116	sections (a) and (b)— 22
117	117	(A) by striking ‘‘a member or’’ and all that 23
118	118	follows through ‘‘is entitled’’ and inserting ‘‘an 24
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121	121	•HR 303 IH
122	122	individual who is a qualified retiree for any 1
123	123	month is entitled’’; and 2
124	124	(B) by inserting ‘‘retired pay and veterans’ 3
125	125	disability compensation’’ after ‘‘both’’; 4
126	126	(2) in subsection (b)— 5
127	127	(A) by striking ‘‘S
128	128	PECIALRULES’’ in the 6
129	129	subsection heading and all that follows through 7
130	130	‘‘is subject to’’ and inserting ‘‘S
131	131	PECIALRULES 8
132	132	FORCHAPTER61 DISABILITYRETIREES.—In 9
133	133	the case of a qualified retiree who is retired 10
134	134	under chapter 61 of this title, the retired pay 11
135	135	of the member is subject to’’; and 12
136	136	(B) by striking paragraph (2); and 13
137	137	(3) in subsection (d), as redesignated and 14
138	138	amended by subsection (b), by adding at the end the 15
139	139	following new paragraph: 16
140	140	‘‘(3) Q
141	141	UALIFIED RETIREE.—The term ‘qualified 17
142	142	retiree’ means a member or former member of the 18
143	143	uniformed services who, with respect to any 19
144	144	month— 20
145	145	‘‘(A) is entitled to retired pay, other than 21
146	146	in the case of a member retired under chapter 22
147	147	61 of this title with less than 20 years of serv-23
148	148	ice creditable under section 1405 of this title 24
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151	151	•HR 303 IH
152	152	and less than 20 years of service computed 1
153	153	under section 12732 of this title; and 2
154	154	‘‘(B) is entitled to veterans’ disability com-3
155	155	pensation.’’. 4
156	156	(d) C
157	157	LERICALAMENDMENTS.— 5
158	158	(1) S
159	159	ECTION HEADING.—The heading of section 6
160	160	1414 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to 7
161	161	read as follows: 8
162	162	‘‘§ 1414. Members eligible for retired pay who are also 9
163	163	eligible for veterans’ disability compensa-10
164	164	tion: Concurrent payment of retired pay 11
165	165	and disability compensation’’. 12
166	166	(2) T
167	167	ABLE OF SECTIONS.—The item relating to 13
168	168	such section in the table of sections at the beginning 14
169	169	of chapter 71 of title 10, United States Code, is 15
170	170	amended to read as follows: 16
171	171	‘‘1414. Members eligible for retired pay who are also eligible for veterans’ dis-
172	172	ability compensation: Concurrent payment of retired pay and
173	173	disability compensation.’’.
174	174	(e) CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 1413a(f) of 17
175	175	title 10, United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘Sub-18
176	176	section (d)’’ and inserting ‘‘Subsection (c)’’. 19
177	177	(f) E
178	178	FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 20
179	179	this section shall take effect as of January 1, 2021, and 21
180	180	shall apply to payments for months beginning on or after 22
181	181	that date. 23
182	182	Æ
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