[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 87 (Friday, June 13, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         DISABLED VETERANS TAX

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JIM MARSHALL

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 12, 2003

  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, today I am signing a discharge petition 
that I brought to the House floor to right a wrong that has been done 
to disabled American veterans for more than a century. In 1891, the 
United States of America imposed the Disabled Veterans Tax. We did not 
call it by this name. We did not even call it a tax. Instead we called 
it a prohibition upon concurrent receipt. We called it something few 
Americans would understand.
  Mr. Speaker, our predecessors in Congress called their law a 
prohibition upon concurrent receipt because they did not want to call 
it what it is, a tax on disabled veterans. This bad law prohibits 
retired veterans from receiving both their retirement pay and any 
benefit for a service-related disability at the same time. In effect, 
it is a 100% tax on a retired veteran's disability benefits. As a 
veteran's disability increases, so does the tax imposed by our 
government.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to call the concurrent receipt prohibition 
what it really is: the Disabled Veterans Tax. It was wrong then. It is 
wrong now. It is time to end the Disabled Veterans Tax.
  Mr. Speaker, I receive a disability benefit for wounds received in 
Vietnam. But my benefits are not taxed away. The Disabled Veterans Tax 
does not apply to me because I only served two years. Had I provided 
more service to my country--enough to be entitled to military 
retirement benefits--then the Disabled Veterans Tax would tax away my 
disability benefit completely.
  Mr. Speaker, I cannot imagine how any member of this body can defend 
the Disabled Veterans Tax, a tax that not only punishes disabled 
veterans, but punishes most those who served our country most, those 
who made the military a career. Congress should be ashamed of itself.
  Mr. Speaker, for years a large majority of the members of this House 
have cosponsored House Resolution 303, a bill that would end the 
Disabled Veterans Tax. And for years, House Resolution 303 has been 
bottled up in committee, just like campaign finance reform was bottled 
up. The discharge petition process forced a vote on campaign finance 
reform. I am using that same process to force a vote on ending the 
Disabled Veterans Tax.
  At last count 322 members of this Congress are co-sponsors of House 
Resolution 303. Only 218 of these co-sponsors must sign the discharge 
petition for us to force a vote. This bill has broad bipartisan 
support. Both Democrats and Republicans have co-sponsored House 
Resolution 303. I am a Georgia Democrat, but by my discharge petition 
seeks to force a vote on a bill authored by a Florida Republican.
  Mr. Speaker, some will ask whether we can afford this tax cut, 
whether we can afford to let these disabled veterans keep their benefit 
money. I believe many cosponsors of House Resolution 303 have already 
answered that question twice this year. These cosponsors already have 
voted for tax cuts 400 billion dollars and 200 billion dollars greater 
than what we eventually enacted. So Mr. Speaker, on the question 
whether we should finally eliminate the Disabled Veterans Tax, I trust 
we will not hear questions about affordability coming from those 
already on record in support of far, far larger tax cuts.
  Mr. Speaker, the Disabled Veterans Tax is wrong. As of this morning, 
322 cosponsors of House Resolution 303 agree with me. Let's bring it to 
a vote. No more half measures. No more evasions. No more hypocrisy. 
It's time for members who continually co-sponsor this bill to put up or 
shut up, once and for all.

                          ____________________