House approves bill to boost compensation for many veterans, with some floor drama

Detailed summary

The House passed a major package of veterans bills Wednesday on Veterans Day — but not without confusion and controversy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed a major package of veterans bills Wednesday on Veterans Day — but not without confusion and controversy.

The centerpiece of the package is an effort to boost compensation for an estimated 58,000 veterans who are medically retired because of combat-related injuries. That objective has broad, bipartisan support in Congress, but lawmakers and veterans groups aren’t on the same page about how to get there.

The dilemma lawmakers are trying to resolve is this: Under current law, combat-injured retirees with less than 20 years of service give up a portion of their military retirement pay when they also receive Department of Veterans Affairs disability compensation. Lawmakers from both parties are trying to change that so that those retirees get all of their injury compensation and military retirement pay.

The change would lead to an average compensation boost of about $1,450 more per month, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Republicans brought to the floor a bill that would help pay for the income boost for those retirees by changing how the department rates tinnitus or sleep apnea. Those changes would lower disability compensation for some future veterans, though they would not affect current veterans receiving compensation for those conditions. Democrats overwhelmingly opposed that trade-off and denounced the measure as the bill was debated.

“It does not take care of veterans. It takes from them,” Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., said of the Republican bill.

Republicans had to pull the bill from consideration earlier this year because they didn’t have the votes to pass it. This time, Democratic leaders again encouraged their members to oppose the measure because they said cutting benefits for one group of veterans to fund new benefits for another is not the answer.

The House chamber was packed and noisy as lawmakers talked among themselves following an earlier vote.

Normally, Democrats would interject and ask for a roll call vote.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Toronto Star. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.