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Managing America: Military Matters

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Week Ending June 26, 2009

H.R.2990 To provide special pays and allowances to certain members of the Armed Forces, expand concurrent receipt of military retirement and VA disability benefits to disabled military retirees, and for other purposes.

Here is a Majority breakdown of the bill elements:

H.R.2990 provides special pays and allowances to certain members of the Armed Forces, expands concurrent receipt of military retirement and VA disability benefits to disabled military retirees, and makes several important changes to the retirement system for federal employees.

Title I-Compensation and Benefits for Members of the Armed Forces and Military Retirees

• Sections 101-107-One-Year Extension of Bonus and Special Pay Authorities
  These sections would extend bonus and special pay authorities that would provide incentives for enlisted and officer service members to enlist, accept appointment, reenlist, remain on active duty, and accept certain assignments until December 31, 2010.  In addition to providing incentives generally to all service members, certain bonuses and special pays would target service members in critical skills such as aviation, health care professions, nuclear operations and service members in the reserve components.

• Sections 111-112 - REcomputation of Retired Pay and Adjustment of Retired Grade and Election to Receive Pay for Non-Regular Service for Reserve Component Members
  These sections would authorize the secretaries concerned to allow members of reserve components to recompute the retired pay, adjust the retired grade, and elect non-regular retirement in lieu of active duty retirement after they are recalled to an active status in the Selected Reserve for not less than two years.

• Section 121-One-Year Expansion of Eligibility for Concurrent Receipt of Military Retired Pay and Veterans' Disability Compensation to Include All Chapter 61 Disability Retirees Regardless of Disability Rating Percentage or Years of Service
  This section would temporarily expand the eligibility to receive concurrent receipt of military retired pay and disability compensation paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) to include service members that are retired for disability under chapter 61 of title 10, United States Code, with less than 20 years of service who have been rated 100 percent disabled, 100 disabled by reason of individual unemployability, or 90 percent disabled.  The period of eligibility would begin on January 1, 2010 and end on September 30, 2010. This section would also establish the legislative framework to extend the eligibility period and incrementally expand the eligible population to include retirees with disability ratings less than 90 percent.

Title II-Federal Employee Benefits

H.R. 2990 makes several important changes to the retirement system for federal employees. These changes will enhance the system's efficiency and effectiveness as a recruiting and management tool.  Most of these provisions were included in H.R. 1804, a bill that passed the House by a unanimous voice vote on April 1, 2009.

Specifically, title II would:

·         Allow employees covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) to receive credit for unused sick leave toward their retirement annuity, as is currently the case for employees covered by the older Civil Service Retirement System. This change would reduce the incentive for employees to use excess sick leave as they approach retirement. OPM estimates that the current "use it or lose it" system results in $68 million in lost productivity each year. (Section 201)

·         Correct the method for calculating annuities under the older Civil Service Retirement System to ensure employees are not unfairly penalized for working part-time at the end of their career. (Section 203)

·         Give former federal employees who would like to return to federal service the option of repaying any annuity refund they received, with interest, in order to restore credit toward retirement upon return. This change would help encourage highly-talented individuals to return to government service at a time when the federal government needs to attract such individuals to prepare for a wave of upcoming retirements. (Section 204)

·         Make several other technical changes to correct the retirement calculations for a small number of federal employees (Sections 202, 205);

·         In addition, Subtitle B would ensure retirement equity for Federal workers in Hawaii, Alaska, and the U.S. Territories by providing these employees with locality pay. Federal employees in these areas have a disadvantage in retirement security due to a lack of locality pay. These workers may receive a non-foreign cost of living allowance. However, this pay adjustment does not count toward their retirement, as does locality pay. The inequity in retirement benefits for Federal workers in Hawaii, Alaska, and the U.S. Territories hinders efforts to recruit and retain employees in these areas, and it has led to several lawsuits against the Federal government.

Title III-Funding Source Repeal

·         Subtitle J of Title IX of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-58) established the Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Research Fund ("Fund") as part of a new research program for petroleum resource exploration and production. $50 million in receipts from oil and gas leasing in the Outer Continental Shelf are credited annually to the Fund and are available without further appropriation to carry out the research program.

·         H.R.2990 would amend Public Law 109-58 to provide that effective October 1, 2010, the Fund is abolished and funding from OCS receipts is eliminated. The research program would remain in place and funding would continue to be available for the program through an existing $100 million annual authorization of appropriations.

Sponsor:  Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO-4^th)

Vote: Passed House June 24, 2009 404 to 0 RC 433. In accordance with the rule governing HR 2647 the text of HR 2990 is added to the text of HR 2647.

Cost to the taxpayers:

Earmark Certification:  

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