Reid introduces veterans bill

Benjamin Grove

Friday, April 7, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's veterans would be allowed to collect both full retirement pay and full disability pay under a bill introduced by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who was wounded in World War II.

The Armed Forces Concurrent Retirement and Disability Payment Act aims to finally give disabled veterans their due, Reid said Thursday.

Under current law veterans who collect a disability paycheck must forfeit that amount of their military retirement pay. That has the effect of requiring veterans to pay their own disability, the senators argue.

"Like my friend and colleague Sen. Inouye, these brave men and women sacrificed their own safety to protect America's freedom, and they deserve to be treated equitably under the law," Reid said in a written statement.

The legislation would benefit about 400,000 veterans nationwide, Reid aides said. The bill would cost roughly $8 billion over five years, according to Congressional estimates.

The bill will be sent to the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. Reid and Inouye hope the bill will be considered by the full Senate before Congress adjourns this year.

The House is considering a similar bill introduced last year. Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., an Air Force veteran, have both signed on as sponsors of the bill.

The highly-decorated Inouye lost his right arm to a rifle grenade at close range and also received bullet wounds in the leg and abdomen during a battle in Italy in the closing months of the war, according to his biography. He spent 20 months recovering in the hospital.

Inouye later became the first member of Congress to represent the new state of Hawaii and the first member of Japanese descent.