[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3449 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3449

   To amend title 10, United States Code, to provide eligibility for 
reduced non-regular service military retired pay before age 60, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 3, 2007

 Mr. Wilson of South Carolina introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 10, United States Code, to provide eligibility for 
reduced non-regular service military retired pay before age 60, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Guard and Reserve Early Retirement 
Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Members of the Active Components of the United States 
        Military Services are eligible for an immediate annuity upon 
        attaining twenty years of creditable service.
            (2) Members of the Reserve Components must wait to receive 
        their annuity until age 60.
            (3) Over the last 15 years, the contributions in support of 
        Active Duty missions by both the Guard and the Reserve have 
        increased substantially.
            (4) During the Global War on Terrorism Reserve Component 
        members have gone into harms way and fought alongside members 
        of the Active Duty.
            (5) These contributions have been made under various forms 
        of active duty orders, including Active Duty for Training 
        (ADT), Active Duty for Special Work (ADSW), Presidential 
        Recall, and Partial Mobilization. Only a subset of mobilization 
        orders is being credited as being ``in support of contingency 
        operation.''
            (6) Further contributions have been made to Active Duty 
        commands within the United States during consecutive periods of 
        Inactive Duty Training (IDT) and Annual Training (AT).
            (7) Additionally, both enlisted and officers within the 
        Reserve Component are required for promotion to complete 
        professional training and/or Joint Professional Military 
        Education (JPME), often by taking non-paid correspondence or 
        on-line Distant Learning courses for only inactive duty points, 
        while Active Duty are often sent on Temporary Duty Assignment 
        (TDY) to complete such courses. Currently there is no mechanism 
        in place to compensate National Guard and Reserve Component 
        soldiers for required professional courses.
            (8) Active Duty does not differentiate between stateside or 
        deployed duty when earning creditable duty toward retirement at 
        20 years.
            (9) As defined by section 12733 of title 10, United States 
        Code, RC members earn one inactive duty point toward retirement 
        for each Reserve training drill. They can also earn one active 
        duty point for every day of active duty performed. An Active 
        Duty year is measured as 360 points. Professional courses are 
        assigned inactive duty points.
            (10) Members of the Guard and Reserve understand the point 
        system.
            (11) A minimum of 50 points is required for a creditable 
        service year.
            (12) Basing a Reserve Component retirement system on the 
        accumulation of retirement points would remove differentiation 
        of duty, clarify eligibility, and by using an appropriately 
        structured matrix would encourage volunteerism and retention.

SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY FOR RETIRED PAY FOR NONREGULAR SERVICE.

    (a) Age and Service Requirements.--Subsection (a) of section 12731 
of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
    ``(a)(1) Except as provided in subsection (c), a person is 
entitled, upon application, to retired pay computed under section 12739 
of this title, if the person--
            ``(A) satisfies one of the combinations of requirements for 
        minimum age and minimum number of years of creditable service 
        (computed under section 12732 of this title) that are specified 
        in the table in paragraph (2);
            ``(B) performed the last six years of qualifying service 
        while a member of any category named in section 12732(a)(1) of 
        this title, but not while a member of a regular component, the 
        Fleet Reserve, or the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve, except that 
        in the case of a person who completed 20 years of service 
        computed under section 12732 of this title before October 5, 
        1994, the number of years of qualifying service under this 
        subparagraph shall be eight; and
            ``(C) is not entitled, under any other provision of law, to 
        retired pay from an armed force or retainer pay as a member of 
        the Fleet Reserve or the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve.
    ``(2) The combinations of minimum age and minimum earned points (as 
defined under section 12732 of this title) required of a person under 
subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) for entitlement to retired pay as 
provided in such paragraph are as follows:


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                    The minimum earned points required for that
                   Age, in years, is at least:                                        age is:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                55                                 4500
                                56                                 4225
                                57                                 3950
                                58                                 3675
                                59                                 3400
                                60                                 1000''.
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    (b) 20-Year Letter.--Subsection (d) of such section is amended by 
striking ``the years of service required for eligibility for retired 
pay under this chapter'' in the first sentence and inserting ``20 years 
of service computed under section 12732 of this title''.

SEC. 4. CONTINUATION OF AGE 60 AS MINIMUM AGE FOR ELIGIBILITY OF 
              NONREGULAR SERVICE RETIREES FOR HEALTH CARE.

    Section 1074(b) of title 10, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(b)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE AND APPLICABILITY.

    This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect on 
the first day of the first month that begins no more than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply with 
respect to retired pay payable for that month and subsequent months.
            ``(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to a member or former 
        member entitled to retired pay for non-regular service under 
        chapter 1223 of this title who is under 60 years of age.''.
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