Bills would give wounded troops full bonuses - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Bills would give wounded troops full bonuses

Combat-injured troops unable to continue serving would get any unpaid portion of enlistment and retention bonuses in a lump sum after they leave the military under a bipartisan bill introduced Monday.

The Defense Department promised last week that service members forced by combat injuries to get out of the military would continue to receive installment payments of enlistment bonuses, but the Senate bill is an effort to expand and clarify what its chief sponsor calls a “serious loophole” in law.

Nine senators, led by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., are pushing what they call the Wounded Warrior Bonus Equity Act. Under the Senate proposal, service members eligible for bonuses would receive any unpaid portion in a lump sum within 90 days of leaving active duty if their departure is the result of combat-related injuries, which could include disability or illness suffered in training for combat, direct action with hostile forces or involvement in hazardous duties.

Bonuses that would be covered include aviation, medical, dental retention and critical skills bonuses for officers; reserve affiliation and extension bonuses; special pay and bonuses for nuclear-qualified officers; foreign language pay; and special pay for special warfare officers, surface warfare officers and judge advocates.

Also included would be bonuses for converting to a new military occupational specialty, for transferring between services and for retirees who volunteer for high-demand assignments.

The bill would be retroactive to Sept. 11, 2001.

Sessions, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says the bill, S 2400, would “fix a serious loophole in the law that has prevented some of our wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan receiving their full enlistment bonuses when they are discharged as a result of wounds they receive in combat.”

A similar bill was introduced in the House in October, with a slightly different name and a few differences in details. The Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act, sponsored by Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., would cover fewer bonuses and special pays and would require a lump-sum payment in 30 days, rather than the 90 days under the Senate bill.

Aides said differences between the House and Senate bills would not be difficult to resolve. Sessions hopes the Senate could pass the measure by the end of the year, they said.

Senate co-sponsors include Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa.; Mel Martinez, R-Fla.; Bernard Sanders, I-Vermont; Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.; and Jim Webb, D-Va.

“It is unthinkable that the Department of Defense would fail to provide the financial compensation promised to those willing to serve, particularly when those same soldiers have suffered serious injuries in combat,” Sessions said.

Both bills are the result of complaints that service members are not receiving the full bonuses they were promised when, through no fault of their own, an injury ends their military service.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Nov. 28 that it is Defense Department policy to continue paying enlistment bonuses for combat-injured troops who could not fully complete their promised tour of service.

Morrell’s comments came after the Army received a black eye from reports that a disabled private first class had received a demand from the service to partly repay an enlistment bonus because he got out before the end of his contractual obligation.

Morrell said the repayment demand was a mistake. “We do not believe this is a widespread problem,” he said Nov. 28, adding that the Defense Department and the services “do not require repayment of any enlistment bonus when a service member is separated because of a combat injury.”

However, Morrell did not say if that policy applied to retention incentives for career service members that are specifically mentioned in the congressional legislation.

Defense officials did not immediately respond to questions about what other pays might also treated in the same way as enlistment bonuses under the current Pentagon policy.