Congressman Chris Smith (R-Hamilton), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, helped broker a historic compromise today that will fix a 100-year-old problem and provide hundreds of thousands of veterans with full disability payments for the first time ever.

    The compromise brokered on the issue of concurrent receipt means that military retirees with a 50 percent or greater service-connected disability will no longer lose part of their pension as an offset against their disability benefit.

    “Today’s agreement on concurrent receipt represents historic progress toward ensuring that the men and women who are injured in service to our country receive fair and equitable compensation.  For over 100 years, military retirees have been prohibited from receiving their full retirement pay when they were also in receipt of VA disability pay.  With implementation of this proposal, that will dramatically change,” Smith said.

    “While others have been holding press conferences, my colleagues and I have invested real sweat equity to produce a substantive reform package,” he added. “The deal we have agreed to today is real, comprehensive, and historic.”

    “Once the first component of the benefit is phased in over the next 10 years, concurrent receipt will be fully in place for any military retiree with a VA service-connected disability 50 percent or greater.

    “In addition, the compromise also extends this significant benefit to the men and women who serve in our National Guards.  With our guardsmen and women being called upon to provide significant services both at home and abroad, we owe this benefit to our retired reservists who are injured while serving,” he added.

    The current offset penalty has existed for more than100 years, making the compromise reached truly historic.

    “Everyone has talked about this for years but nothing has happened except for a lot of mindless chatter, press conferences, and rhetoric on the floor that has not been backed up with action.  After months of work, we have a deal that once signed into law will give us $22 billion more for service connected veterans than we had yesterday. To me, that is historic,” Smith said.

    Smith said the deal will be attached to the Fiscal Year 2004 Defense Authorization Bill and should be signed into law by President Bush within weeks.