[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 29 (Tuesday, March 9, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2441-S2442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CORZINE:
  S. 2177. A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to change the 
effective date for paid-up coverage under the military Survivor Benefit 
Plan from October 1, 2008, to October 1, 2004; to the Committee on 
Armed Services.
  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Military 
Survivors' Fairness Act of 2004, legislation to eliminate a major 
inequity that has existed for several years among certain year-groups 
of military retirees already enrolled in the Survivors' Benefit Plan.
  In the interest of a strong national defense, it is critical that we 
keep faith with the men and women who serve in our military. This 
applies both while military members are serving, and as they move 
beyond their working years. Our military retirees and their families 
have made significant sacrifices in the defense of their country. They 
deserve benefits commensurate with those sacrifices.
  In 1972, Congress created the Survivors' Benefit Plan (SBP), giving 
career military members the option of taking less retirement pay in 
their own lifetime in return for the continuation of that pay to the 
surviving spouse, in the event the retiree pre-deceased his or her 
spouse.
  SBP was a wise and important decision by the Congress; hundreds of 
thousands of military members have enrolled in SBP since 1972, and the 
program has given much-deserved security and peace of mind to those 
spouses who, along with military members, share the burdens of a 
military career.
  Congress expanded the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) in 1999, by 
creating the ``Paid-Up Provision.'' Under that provision, retirees who 
are at least seventy years old and have already been paying into SBP 
for at least thirty years are considered ``paid up'' and do not have to 
continue paying in to receive benefits.
  This change provides a modest but frequently important boost to 
retirees' income at a stage in their lives, in their 70's, when they 
may be less able to supplement their retirement income from other 
employment.
  However, there is a major caveat, and a significant inequity here. 
The ``Paid-Up Provision'', under the 1999 legislation, does not take 
effect until October 2008. As a result, those who enrolled before 1978 
will continue under the current law to have to pay in as much as six 
years longer than enrollees from 1978 or after.
  The SBP program was created in 1972. An effective date of 2008 for 
the SBP's ``Paid-Up Provision'' means that those who enrolled in the 
first six years of the program, i.e., between 1972 and 1977, must, in 
order to get the same retirement benefits, pay in longer, as much as 
six years longer, than those who enrolled in 1978 or later.
  In other words, those who signed up before 1978 get the same benefits 
but have to pay a much higher price. This arrangement is unfair on its 
face and should be corrected.
  My bill, the Military Survivors' Fairness Act of 2004, simply takes 
the ``Paid-Up Provision''--already established by Congress in 1999, and 
moves its effective date ahead four years, from October 1, 2008 to 
October 1, 2004. That is the only change it makes.

[[Page S2442]]

  This bill, if approved, would benefit some ninety-two thousand 
military retirees nationwide, those who enrolled in SBP between 1974 
and 1977. The Military Officers Association of America has estimated 
that the cost would be $2.7 billion over ten years.
  Under my bill, ninety-two thousand military retirees participating in 
the SBP program, from every State and congressional district, will no 
longer be forced to pay more for their retirement than military 
retirees who enrolled in SBP in 1978 or later. This is only fair--the 
benefits for which these 92,000 are paying are identical, and their 
service was just as worthy.
  The 1999 legislation establishing the ``Paid-Up Provision'' was a 
good idea with the wrong effective date--it was given a 2008 effective 
date because that Congress wanted to defer any budgetary impact. 
Accounting conventions and budgetary targets, however, should not 
determine whether we are going to keep faith with our military men and 
women. Any arrangement that treats them with any trace of unfairness or 
lack of appreciation for their service is not right, is not in our 
national interest and should be fixed.
  The Military Survivors' Fairness Act of 2004 is such a fix it--
corrects a significant inequity among an important group of military 
retirees, and I urge its adoption.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the legislation be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2177

       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 ``Military Survivors' Fairness 
     Act of 2004''.

     SEC. 2. EFFECTIVE DATE FOR PAID-UP COVERAGE UNDER SURVIVOR 
                   BENEFIT PLAN.

       Section 1452(j) of title 10, United States Code, is amended 
     by striking ``October 1, 2008'' and inserting ``October 1, 
     2004''.
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