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Legislation Summary

• Allows the receipt of both military retired pay and veterans' disability compensation with respect to any service-connected disability.
• Extends full concurrent receipt eligibility to individuals who were retired or separated after at least 20 years of military service due to a service-connected disability.

Issue Background 

• For more than 100 years prior to 1999, all disabled military retirees were required to fund their own veterans' disability compensation by forfeiting one dollar of earned retired pay for each dollar received in veterans' disability compensation.
• However, in 2003, due to the persistent advocacy efforts over the years by the AFSA and our Coalition partners, military retirees with a service-connected disability of at least 50% have been able to concurrently receive all of their military retirement pay and VA disability compensation without any offset.
• Unfortunately, those with disabilities rated below 50% still lose one retirement dollar for each compensation dollar received from the VA. Additionally, if a service member's career prematurely concludes due to a medical condition that forces a mandatory early retirement, the service member is also subjugated to a dollar-for-dollar reduction in their military retired pay.
• Over the past several years, members of both houses of Congress have introduced legislation calling for full CRDP, only to see their legislation dropped before inclusion in the annual defense bill.

Where Are We Now?

• This legislation has been introduced in the House (H.R.303).
• As a stand-alone measure, H.R.303 has 2 co-sponsors. 

AFSA’s Position: Support

• Military retired pay earned by service and sacrifice should not be reduced, under any circumstances, simply because a military retiree is also eligible for veterans' disability compensation awarded for a service-connected disability.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this legislation, please reach out to AFSA's Military & Government team at Milgov3@hqafsa.org .