Defense bill to speed up funds for vets

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Veterans with severe disabilities will not have to wait 10 years to get military retirement and disability payments, based on bill approved by the House and Senate.

The final version of 2005 Defense Authorization bill, approved during the weekend, will allow retired veterans with a 100 percent disability rating to receive full amounts of both benefits immediately, as soon as the bill becomes law.

In the past disabled, retired veterans had to forfeit a dollar in military retirement pay for each dollar in disability pay they received.

Last year President Bush approved a $22 billion phased-in program to allow retired veterans with a disability rating between 50 and 100 percent to receive both retirement and disability.

Those who qualified would see a gradual increase in their payments through 2014, but in June the Senate approved an amendment by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to remove the phase-in period for veterans with a 100 percent disability rating. The payments would start immediately, according to Reid's office. The amendment would cost $1 billion over the next 10 years. "When a combat-related incident completely disables a retired member of the military, they shouldn't have to wait the 10 years to get the retirement pay they have earned," Reid said in a statement.

The bill also transfers claims filed through the Energy Department's Energy Employee Occupational Compensation Act to the Labor Department and it extended compensation benefits to contractors.

Congress criticized the Energy Department for its increasing delays and costs in processing its portion of sick worker claims. The department compiles employee work and medical records and then an independent physician panel determines if the job-related exposure to harmful materials caused the illness. If it did, the Energy Department assists the employee in filing state claims.

Under the same law the Labor Department helps former Energy Department employees who are sick from exposure to beryllium or have cancer or silicosis caused by radiation exposure. Those people are supposed to receive lump sum payments of $150,000 each and payment of future medical expenses associated with their illness from their work at department facilities, including the Nevada Test Site, located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Labor Department will now handle all aspects of the claims process, according to the bill.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., also worked to get more federal money to states for National Guard units to conduct homeland security activities, according to his office. It keeps the guard under the command of the governor but makes it more flexible.