[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 65 (Thursday, May 6, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S4882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SBP BENEFIT IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 1999

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I am pleased to rise to join my Senate 
colleagues in supporting the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) Benefit 
Improvement Act of 1999. This bill corrects a discrepancy between what 
Congress intended at the creation of this Act in 1972, and how it 
eventually got implemented.
  I have always believed that the people most affected by military 
service are not the service members, it is the family. The spouses that 
raise kids on their own during a deployment. The sons and daughters 
that change schools in the middle of a school year because a parent got 
assigned to a new base. It's hard to make up for missed soccer games 
and scout meetings. The Senate has already passed legislation to try to 
improve some of these areas of quality of life, but S.4 was passed 
absent one item that I feel is very important, especially to our 
elderly military retirees living in Montana.
  The uniformed services spousal benefit annuity provides 55 percent of 
retirement pay for a surviving military spouse, as long as the spouse 
is under age 62. Once the survivor reaches age 62, the benefit drops as 
low as 35 percent of retired pay. Let me put it on a more familiar 
level. If a Korean War-era Marine had signed up for this plan after his 
20 years of military service, when he passed on, his wife would only 
get 35 percent of his eligible retirement pay, instead of the 55 
percent she would have received if she was under age 62. No other 
federal retirement plan has this age-oriented cut. It was also intended 
for Congress to pay 40 percent of the benefit, and premiums for the 
plan were set up with that target in mind. Unfortunately, the actuaries 
were too pessimistic, and as a result, premiums now pay for 73 percent 
of the cost, with congress paying for 27 percent. This is a far cry 
from the 40 percent we originally intended. Other federal civilian 
survivor benefit plans pay up to a 50 percent subsidy with no reduction 
after age 62.
  This bill corrects the problem by stepping up the federal share of 
military retirement to 45 percent by FY 2005. Given the sacrifices by 
our service men and women and their families, it's time we provided 
fair survivors benefits and fulfill our original Congressional intent.
  I'm grateful to Senator Thurmond for introducing this legislation to 
correct this discrepancy and for letting me vocalize my support for 
this bill by including me as a co-sponsor. I'm confident that the Armed 
Services Subcommittee will give this a favorable review, and I look 
forward to supporting it when it comes to the floor. I encourage my 
colleagues to lend their support to this important provision as well.

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