Obama Signs Bill Restoring Retiree Benefits

Obama Signs Bill Restoring Retiree Benefits
Associated Press
by Darlene Superville
Feb 17, 2014

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- President Barack Obama on Saturday signed separate measures into law to lift the federal debt limit and restore benefits that had been cut for younger military retirees.

Obama signed the bills during a weekend golf vacation in Southern California.

The debt limit measure allows the government to borrow money to pay its bills, such as Social Security benefits and federal salaries. Failure to pass the measure, which the Senate passed 67-31 earlier this week and sent to Obama for his signature, most likely would have sent the stock market into a nosedive.

The Treasury Department is now free to borrow regularly through March 15, 2015, meaning lawmakers won't have to revisit the issue until a new Congress is sworn in after the November elections.

Separate legislation passed in December would have held annual cost-of-living increases for veterans age 62 and younger to 1 percentage point below the rate of inflation, beginning in 2015. The measure was designed to hold the line on the soaring cost of government benefit programs, which have largely escaped trillions of dollars in deficit cuts over the past three years.
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Vets Upset COLA Reduction Remains for New Troops

Vets Upset COLA Reduction Remains for New Troops
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Feb 14, 2014

Veterans welcomed the repeal of the reduction of the cost-of-living-adjustment for retirees starting in 2016, but veterans' advocate groups are disappointed the reduction will still apply to new troops.

The bill now awaiting President Obama's signature grandfathers current retirees and troops as of Dec. 31, 2013, from COLA cuts that were created as a deficit reduction measure. However, troops entering service after that date will see smaller COLAs when they begin retiring in 2034.

Representatives for several veterans organizations say that's not fair and want to see the entire law scrapped.

"Future military retirees will be required to serve just as long and perhaps sacrifice even more than their predecessors," Veterans of Foreign Wars national spokesman Joe Davis said. "It is in that regard that the VFW will continue to fight for a full repeal of the COLA penalty, and we hope that this vote will continue that conversation."
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Veterans getting cost of living raise

Veterans to Receive 1.5 Percent Cost-of-Living Increase

New Rates for Compensation and Pension Benefits in 2014

WASHINGTON (Dec. 4, 2013) – Veterans, their families and survivors receiving disability compensation and pension benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs will receive a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase in their monthly payments beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

“We’re pleased there will be another cost-of-living increase for Veterans, their families and their survivors,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “The increase expresses in a tangible way our Nation’s gratitude for the sacrifices made by our service-disabled and wartime Veterans.”

For the first time, payments will not be rounded down to the nearest dollar.  Until this year, that was required by law.  Veterans and survivors will see additional cents included in their monthly compensation benefit payment. 

For Veterans without dependents, the new compensation rates will range from $130.94 monthly for a disability rated at 10 percent to $2,858.24 monthly for 100 percent.  The full rates are available on the Internet atwww.benefits.va.gov/compensation/rates-index.asp.

The COLA increase also applies to disability and death pension recipients, survivors receiving dependency and indemnity compensation, disabled Veterans receiving automobile and clothing allowances, and other benefits. 

Under federal law, cost-of-living adjustments for VA’s compensation and pension must match those for Social Security benefits.  The last adjustment was in January 2013 when the Social Security benefits rate increased 1.7 percent.

In fiscal year 2013, VA provided over $59 billion in compensation benefits to nearly 4 million Veterans and survivors, and over $5 billion in pension benefits to more than 515,000 Veterans and survivors. 

For Veterans and separating Servicemembers who plan to file an electronic disability claim, VA urges them to use the joint DoD/VA online portal, eBenefits.  Registered eBenefits users with a premium account can file a claim online, track the status, and access a variety of other benefits, including pension, education, health care, home loan eligibility, and vocational rehabilitation and employment programs.

For more information about VA benefits, visit www.benefits.va.gov, or call 1-800-827-1000.

Veterans groups not happy with House Cost of Living Bill

House Passes COLA Bill for Vets
May 22, 2013
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan

The House on Tuesday passed a cost-of-living adjustment bill for veterans that guarantees a raise each year. However, the American Heroes Cost of Living Adjustment Act still contains some provisions that veterans groups don’t like.

Veteran advocates feared that the legislation could tie future increases to a more conservative Consumer Price Index (CPI) formula. Before the bill passed, those fears were resolved.

Lawmakers introduced what is often called “chained CPI” as a measure to lower Social Security spending. Chained CPI more conservatively calculates inflation. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a chained CPI could reduce the deficit by about $340 billion.

Along with Social Security, CPI is also used to determine a veteran's COLA. Veterans groups worried that the American Heroes Cost of Living Adjustment Act would protect the COLA from political interference, but it could also lock them into a lower rate. But before the bill was passed, a compromise was struck.
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Veterans face paying more for America's debt?

Veterans say they wrote a blank check to Uncle Sam the day they signed up to serve. Our first President was a General named George Washington and pretty much felt the same way.

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.”

I have that quote at the bottom of my emails for this reason. They are the first people we thank in November on Veterans Day and their families are the ones we think about on Memorial Day. Too bad too many have such a short memory of the price these men and women paid for the sake of the rest of the country.

Mine is a military family. We don't ask for much and as a matter of fact, wish we didn't have to. The price we are paying everyday for my husband enlisting to go to Vietnam is something we would rather do without. Since he came home so long ago, the war came with him in his body and his mind. He's the reason I do what I do everyday.

Since I read so many reports from across the country for this site, I read some things I wish I didn't ever see. Comments like the VA is a free ride for fakers and they just want the money. Politicians saying that the VA should be privatized and give the disabled vouchers. These same people line up to slam the VA and complain about how much they are messing up, but all of them have very short memories.

It doesn't matter what year they served, or what political party was in charge at the time they were sent. It doesn't matter what nation they were sent to. It shouldn't matter if the American people agreed with it or not because the people they elected sent them. Sent them to do a job and risk their lives to get it done.

We read about the contaminated bases they lived on along with their families. We read about the weapons used that caused their illnesses like Agent Orange. Over and over again we read about the dangers they face for our country from one generation to the next. We also read about people talk about how grateful they are and the debt they owe to the men and women getting the job done but when the rest of this country decides this group is not worth taking care of as much as it was when there was more money in the budget is sickening.

22 million veterans are not being taken care of because they are not all wounded, ill, poor, needy, elderly or receiving a dime from the government. Think about that for a second. We can't even properly take care of a smaller percentage than 7% of the population after they signed their lives over?

Veterans fight changes to disability payments
By Kevin Freking
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Mar 30, 2013

WASHINGTON — Veterans groups are rallying to fight any proposal to change disability payments as the federal government attempts to address its long-term debt problem. They say they've sacrificed already.

Government benefits are adjusted according to inflation, and President Barack Obama has endorsed using a slightly different measure of inflation to calculate Social Security benefits. Benefits would still grow but at a slower rate.

Advocates for the nation's 22 million veterans fear that the alternative inflation measure would also apply to disability payments to nearly 4 million veterans as well as pension payments for an additional 500,000 low-income veterans and surviving families.

"I think veterans have already paid their fair share to support this nation," said the American Legion's Louis Celli. "They've paid it in lower wages while serving, they've paid it through their wounds and sacrifices on the battlefield and they're paying it now as they try to recover from those wounds."

Economists generally agree that projected long-term debt increases stemming largely from the growth in federal health care programs pose a threat to the country's economic competitiveness. Addressing the threat means difficult decisions for lawmakers and pain for many constituents in the decades ahead.
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Obama signs 1.7 percent veterans’ COLA hike

Obama signs 1.7 percent veterans’ COLA hike
Army Times
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 27, 2012

President Obama has signed into law a bill guaranteeing 4 million veterans and survivors will receive the same 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment in their benefits that is going to Social Security recipients and military retirees.

The increase takes effect on Dec. 1, and should first appear in January payments.

While the dollar amount of the increase varies by disability rating, the average increase for the year will be $500, said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., one of the chief sponsors of the veterans’ COLA bill.
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Election over stalled Veteran Benefits Bill Passed By Senate

Veteran Benefits Bill Passed By Senate
11/13/12

WASHINGTON — The Senate sent the White House a bill on Tuesday giving nearly 4 million veterans and survivors a 1.7 percent increase in their monthly benefit payments next year.

Democrats said the normally routine measure was delayed for weeks because an unidentified Republican senator objected to it.

Republicans were not given enough time to ensure that all senators were okay with the bill, said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He said the clearance process was completed soon after Congress adjourned for the elections and that Democrats could have brought the bill up if necessary.

When the Senate returned this week, it acted quickly to ensure that checks issued beginning in January reflect the adjustment for the higher cost of living.

The House approved the measure in July. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.
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