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| Wilson Urges President to Consider Concurrent Receipt for Military Veterans |
October 10, 2002 |
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| Washington, DC - Congresswoman Heather Wilson sent a letter today to urge that President Bush meet with her and other House members to discuss the important issue of “concurrent receipt.” Currently, disabled military veterans are not able to receive both military retirement pay and VA disability compensation concurrently.
“As a former officer in the Air Force and the first woman veteran to serve in Congress, I understand the many sacrifices our veterans and their families have made,” said Wilson. “Disability pay is intended to help compensate for the fact that someone cannot work, as they might like to after they retire. Retirement pay is earned by service and should not be "docked" because of disability pay. I have long been an advocate of correcting this error and I am working to ensure we have the support of the President as well.”
The FY 2003 Defense Authorization Act that Wilson has worked on, contains an important provision to eliminate the current offset between military retired pay and VA disability compensation. This issue has garnered strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. The issue has also received a great deal of attention in the veterans’ community and in the media.
Members of the President’s administration have hinted that they would recommend that the bill be vetoed if it includes the language fixing this inequity.
“This is important to veterans. We’ve been working to get it fixed for almost ten years. I think we need to talk to the President directly to make sure this gets done,” said Wilson.
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