Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Omaha World-Herald
March 21, 2007
Pg. 6
Separate payouts to survivors from the Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments wouldn't partly offset each other under a revised bill.
By Jake Thompson, World-Herald Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Chuck Hagel wants to eliminate a financial penalty for surviving spouses of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who died from service-related disabilities in other wars.
Hagel and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., reintroduced a bill Tuesday that would allow qualifying spouses to receive two survivor benefits at the same time. Currently, the benefits count against each other.
The Military Retiree Survivor Benefit Equity Act could affect 61,000 survivors and raise the monthly benefits they receive by $300 to $1,066 a month, said Steve Strowbridge of the Military Officers Association of America.
"We're very pleased to see this," he said.
Hagel, R-Neb., said America owes a great debt of gratitude to its military service members. "It is important to remember that years of devoted service not only affects service members, but their families," he said.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., co-sponsored the bill when Hagel and Bill Nelson introduced it in 2005 and could co-sponsor it again, his spokesman, David DiMartino, said. That bill did not pass.
Ben Nelson is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, which oversees military benefits.
Under current law, when a retired soldier dies from a service-related disability, the surviving spouse can be eligible for a benefit paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The spouse also can get a survivor's annuity from the Defense Department, but the first benefit is offset by the second, reducing the overall benefit.
The Nelson-Hagel legislation would allow surviving spouses to receive both payments.
"This legislation will ensure that surviving military spouses are guaranteed access to the benefits that were earned and purchased by the service of their loved one," Hagel said in a statement.
Martha Didamo of Bellevue, chairwoman of the Gold Star Wives organization, said the change in the law would help many young spouses of soldiers who have died in Iraq or from war-related disabilities.
"This will really help some of the younger widows. For some of these widows, I know, it will mean their children will have more available to them," Didamo said. "It won't be such a difficult situation."
Didamo also was affected by the offsetting payments when her husband Francis, a Vietnam veteran, died at 54 from a service-related disability. Had she been able to qualify for both payments, she said, she would have received an extra $37,000.
"That may not seem like much to people, but $37,000 invested since that time could be much more today," she said.
March 21, 2007
Pg. 6
Separate payouts to survivors from the Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments wouldn't partly offset each other under a revised bill.
By Jake Thompson, World-Herald Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Chuck Hagel wants to eliminate a financial penalty for surviving spouses of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who died from service-related disabilities in other wars.
Hagel and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., reintroduced a bill Tuesday that would allow qualifying spouses to receive two survivor benefits at the same time. Currently, the benefits count against each other.
The Military Retiree Survivor Benefit Equity Act could affect 61,000 survivors and raise the monthly benefits they receive by $300 to $1,066 a month, said Steve Strowbridge of the Military Officers Association of America.
"We're very pleased to see this," he said.
Hagel, R-Neb., said America owes a great debt of gratitude to its military service members. "It is important to remember that years of devoted service not only affects service members, but their families," he said.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., co-sponsored the bill when Hagel and Bill Nelson introduced it in 2005 and could co-sponsor it again, his spokesman, David DiMartino, said. That bill did not pass.
Ben Nelson is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, which oversees military benefits.
Under current law, when a retired soldier dies from a service-related disability, the surviving spouse can be eligible for a benefit paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The spouse also can get a survivor's annuity from the Defense Department, but the first benefit is offset by the second, reducing the overall benefit.
The Nelson-Hagel legislation would allow surviving spouses to receive both payments.
"This legislation will ensure that surviving military spouses are guaranteed access to the benefits that were earned and purchased by the service of their loved one," Hagel said in a statement.
Martha Didamo of Bellevue, chairwoman of the Gold Star Wives organization, said the change in the law would help many young spouses of soldiers who have died in Iraq or from war-related disabilities.
"This will really help some of the younger widows. For some of these widows, I know, it will mean their children will have more available to them," Didamo said. "It won't be such a difficult situation."
Didamo also was affected by the offsetting payments when her husband Francis, a Vietnam veteran, died at 54 from a service-related disability. Had she been able to qualify for both payments, she said, she would have received an extra $37,000.
"That may not seem like much to people, but $37,000 invested since that time could be much more today," she said.