Congress clears bill ending military pension cuts

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Congress has sent President Barack Obama legislation restoring full cost-of-living pension increases for younger military retirees, a capitulation to veterans groups that opposed a modest cut when it was enacted late last year.

The 95-3 Senate vote yesterday came one day after the House approved the bill, 326-90. Obama is expected to sign it.

Lawmakers retreated after veterans groups and their allies argued strenuously that a change Congress approved in December broke a bargain with the men and women who fight the nation's wars.

The bill also underscored the difficulty that lawmakers face when they try to restrain the growth of benefit programs.

Under the measure that passed in December, annual cost of living increases for veterans age 62 and younger would have been held to 1 percentage point below the rate of inflation. The change would have begun in 2015.

Pentagon officials have said that reducing their personnel expenses is a top priority in view of budget cutbacks, and a commission is expected to make recommendations later this year on reining in costs.

Yet even lawmakers most familiar with the Pentagon's budget said the cut enacted in December was a mistake.

"It was wrong to do it the way it was done. . . . There wasn't any hearing or anything," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) of the broader agreement negotiated by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) "They just decided it was a way to save money. That's not the proper way to do it."

The savings to the government from the reduction was pegged at $7 billion over a decade, but critics said it would cost individual veterans tens of thousands of dollars over their lifetime.

The bill headed to the White House would only apply to those already in the service. Newcomers to the military would still have their cost of living increases held below the rate of inflation when they begin retiring, in two decades or more.