[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 26, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S593-S594]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. NELSON of Florida (for himself, Mr. Corzine, Mr. Hagel, 
        Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Dayton):
  S. 185. A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to repeal the 
requirement for the reduction of certain Survivor Benefit Plan 
annuities by the amount of dependency and indemnity compensation and to 
modify the effective date for paid-up coverage under the Survivor 
Benefit Plan; to the Committee on Armed Services.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and 
Senators Corzine, Hagel, Durbin and Dayton, I am honored to introduce 
legislation today that we are convinced is necessary to fix a long-
standing problem in our military survivors benefits system.
  The system in place right now, even with the important changes we 
have made recently, does not take care of our military widows and 
surviving children the way it should. We should act to correct this in 
this session.
  I have sought and found inspiration on this from Holy Scripture. In 
fact, a simple yet powerful passage in the Book of Isaiah captures so 
much of what we are all about as a Nation theses days and what this 
legislation is trying to do.
  In Isaiah we are told, ``Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the 
oppressed.'' And then we are admonished to, ``Defend the orphan. Fight 
for the rights of widows.''
  Also in the first chapter of James, verse 27 we are told that in 
God's eyes the true measure of our faith is to look after orphans and 
widows in their distress.
  This is powerful and clear direction that speaks to our hearts.
  Last year, under Senator Reid's leadership and at the Senate's 
insistence, the Defense authorization bill corrected a long-standing 
inequity by allowing 100-percent disabled military retirees to receive 
concurrently their full retired pay and disability compensation.
  That correction in law was long overdue and we need to continue to 
work to extend this change to include retirees with lower disability 
ratings.
  But there is another related injustice that needs to be addressed. 
The legislation that we offer today will extend the same protection of 
benefits to the widows and orphans of our 100-percent disabled military 
retirees and those who die on active duty.
  Back in 1972, Congress established the military survivors' benefits 
plan--or SBP--to provide retirees' survivors an annuity to protect 
their income. This benefit plan is a voluntary program purchased by the 
retiree or issued automatically in the case of service members who die 
while on active duty. Retired service members pay for this benefit from 
their retired pay. Then upon their death, their spouse or dependent 
children can receive up to 55 percent of their retired pay as an 
annuity.
  Surviving spouses or dependent children of 100-percent service-
connected disabled retirees or those who die on active duty are also 
entitled to dependency and indemnity compensation from the Veterans' 
Administration.
  But the annuity paid by the survivors' benefits plan and received by 
a surviving widow or a child is reduced by the amount of the dependency 
and indemnity compensation received from the VA.
  I know a little something about insurance and income security plans. 
And I don't know of any other annuity program in the government or 
private sector that is permitted to offset, terminate, or reduce their 
payments because of disability payments a beneficiary may receive from 
another plan or program.
  The legislation that we are proposing today also makes effective 
immediately a change to the military SBP program that we enacted in 
1999. We have already agreed that military retirees who have reached 
the age of 70 and paid their SBP premiums for 30 years should stop 
paying a premium. But we delayed the effective date for this relief 
until 2008. We should not delay their relief any further.
  The United States owes its very existence to generations of soldiers, 
sailors, airmen, and Marines who have sacrificed throughout our history 
to keep us free. The sacrifices of today are no less important to 
American liberty or tragic when a life is lost in the defense of 
liberty everywhere.
  We owe them and those they leave behind a great debt.
  As Abraham Lincoln instructed us, ours is an obligation ``to care for 
him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and for his 
orphan.''
  Too often we fall short on this care. We must meet this obligation 
with the same sense of honor as was the service they and their families 
have rendered.
  We will continue to work to do right by those who have given this 
Nation their all, and especially for the loved ones they may leave to 
our care.
  I appreciate the cosponsorship of my colleagues--Senators Corzine, 
Hagel, Durbin and Dayton--and look forward

[[Page S594]]

to working with everyone in the days ahead.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 185

       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 Retiree Survivor 
     Benefit Equity Act of 2005''.

     SEC. 2. REPEAL OF REQUIREMENT OF REDUCTION OF SBP SURVIVOR 
                   ANNUITIES BY DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY 
                   COMPENSATION.

       (a) Repeal.--Subchapter II of chapter 73 of title 10, 
     United States Code is amended--
       (1) in section 1450(c)(1), by inserting after ``to whom 
     section 1448 of this title applies'' the following: ``(except 
     in the case of a death as described in subsection (d) or (f) 
     of such section)''; and
       (2) in section 1451(c)--
       (A) by striking paragraph (2); and
       (B) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as paragraphs 
     (2) and (3), respectively.
       (b) Prohibition on Retroactive Benefits.--No benefits may 
     be paid to any person for any period before the effective 
     date provided under subsection (e) by reason of the 
     amendments made by subsection (a).
       (c) Prohibition on Recoupment of Certain Amounts Previously 
     Refunded to SBP Recipients.--A surviving spouse who is or has 
     been in receipt of an annuity under the Survivor Benefit Plan 
     under subchapter II of chapter 73 of title 10, United States 
     Code, that is in effect before the effective date provided 
     under subsection (e) and that is adjusted by reason of the 
     amendments made by subsection (a) and who has received a 
     refund of retired pay under section 1450(e) of title 10, 
     United States Code, shall not be required to repay such 
     refund to the United States.
       (d) Reconsideration of Optional Annuity.--Section 
     1448(d)(2) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by 
     adding at the end the following new sentences: ``The 
     surviving spouse, however, may elect to terminate an annuity 
     under this subparagraph in accordance with regulations 
     prescribed by the Secretary concerned. Upon such an election, 
     payment of an annuity to dependent children under this 
     subparagraph shall terminate effective on the first day of 
     the first month that begins after the date on which the 
     Secretary concerned receives notice of the election, and, 
     beginning on that day, an annuity shall be paid to the 
     surviving spouse under paragraph (1) instead.''.
       (e) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     shall take effect on the later of--
       (1) the first day of the first month that begins after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act; or
       (2) the first day of the fiscal year that begins in the 
     calendar year in which this Act is enacted.

     SEC. 3. 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, 
     2005''.

  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to announce the introduction 
of the Military Retiree Survivor Benefit Equity Act of 2005. This bill 
is a major step forward in making our military's Survivor Benefit 
Program fairer, more equitable, and more in keeping with our Nation's 
promise to our service members and their families. The bill combines 
two important fixes to the SBP. The first corrects a serious inequity 
in SBP that currently requires over a hundred thousand older military 
survivors to pay extra into the system for the same benefits as more 
recent enrollees. I have been fighting to fix this problem since the 
last Congress and am confident that this year we will succeed in 
providing basic fairness to these survivors.
  This bill also eliminates the dollar-for-dollar deduction of the 
dependency indemnity compensation, DIC, which the VA pays to survivors, 
from SBP annuities. This policy is effectively a tax on military 
survivors at a time when so many of our brave men and women in uniform 
are dying in Iraq and their families are struggling to get by. Senator 
Nelson has long fought to eliminate this unfairness, and I am proud to 
stand with him today in introducing this comprehensive legislation.
  The legislation that I introduced in the last Congress and which is 
included in this bill eliminates a major inequity in the SBP arising 
from a 1999 congressional act limiting the time required to pay into 
the plan. That act deemed retirees who are at least 70 years old and 
have already been paying into SBP for at least 30 years to be fully 
``paid up'' for the purpose of receiving benefits. This was an 
important piece of legislation, but, unfortunately, Congress only made 
it effective in 2008. The result was that earlier enrollees--those who 
enrolled between 1972 and 1978--were forced to pay into SBP longer than 
enrollees from 1978 or later, up to 6 extra years of premiums. In other 
words, they had to pay in longer for the same benefits.
  This inequity was further magnified by the fact that those earlier 
retirees paid much higher SBP premiums--10 percent of retired pay--for 
two full decades, until 1992, when the premium was reduced to 6.5 
percent of retired pay.
  This bill, by making the ``paid up'' provision effective this year, 
will finally grant these survivors--the widows and widowers of the 
Greatest Generation--the same benefits of those who enrolled in SBP in 
subsequent years. It will provide basic fairness to 135,000 survivors 
and allow us to honor their sacrifice and that of their loved ones.
  This bill also eliminates the dollar-for-dollar reduction of SBP 
benefits by the amount received in dependency and indemnity 
compensation. Under current law, the surviving spouse of an active duty 
or retired military member who dies from a service-connected cause is 
entitled to $993 a month--for a survivor without children--from the 
Department of Veterans Affairs. However, the surviving spouse's SBP 
annuity is reduced by the amount of DIC.
  SBP and DIC payments are paid for different reasons. SBP, in most 
cases, is elected and purchased by the retiree to provide a portion of 
retired pay to the survivor. DIC payments represent special 
compensation to a survivor whose sponsor's death was caused directly by 
his or her uniformed service. To offset DIC--which we provide to the 
families of those who have lost their life in the service of their 
country--from annuities earned and paid for, is blatantly unfair.
  This bill has the broadest possible support among organizations 
representing our troops and their families, including Air Force 
Association, Air Force Sergeants Association, Air Force Women Officers 
Associated, American Logistics Association, AMVETS, Army Aviation 
Association of America, Associations of Military Surgeons of the United 
States, Association of the U.S. Army, Commissioned Officers Association 
of the U.S. Public Health Service, CWO and WO Association U.S. Coast 
Guard, Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the U.S., Fleet 
Reserve Association, Gold Star Wives of America, Jewish War Veterans of 
the USA, Marine Corps League, Marine Corps Reserve Association, 
Military Officers Association of America, Military Order of the Purple 
Heart, National Association for Uniformed Services, National Guard 
Association of the U.S., National Military Family Association, National 
Order of Battlefield Commissions, Naval Enlisted Reserve Association, 
Naval Reserve Association, Navy League of the U.S., Noncommissioned 
Officers Association of the United States of America, Reserve Officers 
Association, Society of Medical Consultants to the Armed Forces, 
Military Chaplains Association of the USA, Retired Enlisted 
Association, United Armed Forces Association, USCG Chief Petty Officers 
Association, U.S. Army Warrant Officers Association, VFW, and Veterans' 
Widows International Network. The Military Coalition has described this 
bill as a top legislative goal, and it is my expectation that it will 
have strong support in the Senate.
  It is vital that we keep faith with the men and women who serve in 
our military as well as their families. The widows and widowers of our 
service members, those who are serving now and those who served us in 
earlier times, are owed our deepest gratitude. But in the face of their 
sacrifice, there is more that we should do. We cannot ever fully 
compensate them for their loss. But we can ensure that the benefits 
that they have earned are fair and just.
                                 ______