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Sen.: Retroactive stop-loss pay still possible

With a new stop-loss allowance of up to $500 a month accumulating for people involuntarily held on active duty after Oct. 1, the chief sponsor of the benefit says there is a chance next year for retroactive payments for those previously affected by stop-loss orders.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., the lawmaker who pushed hardest for the new benefit, said making the payment effective Oct. 1 “was an important step.”

“In the next Congress, we will continue our work to make sure every soldier who has already been kept from their family because of this policy is also compensated,” he said.

The new stop-loss allowance, payable for as little as one day of involuntary service for active-duty, National Guard and reserve members, became law Sept. 30, when President Bush signed an omnibus spending bill that included the 2009 defense appropriations bill.

More than 12,200 soldiers are eligible immediately, although it is not clear when they will get their first payment or even how much the payment might be.

Congress approved payments for all of fiscal 2009, which began Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30, 2009, but nobody gets paid until the Defense Department and services approve regulations.

Congress did not set a timetable for when payments must begin, but the law requires an allowance of up to $500 to be provided for every month beginning Oct. 1 when a member is under stop-loss orders. A full monthly payment is due for as little as one day under stop-loss.

The “up to” wording appears to allow payments of less than $500, but supporters do not expect that to happen. The House and Senate Appropriations committees would have to approve the payment plan before it is implemented, and lawmakers want to make the payment significant.

The bill also prevents the $72 million designated to cover the payments from being used for any other purpose, reducing the Pentagon’s incentive to try to cut costs by paying troops less.

Army spokesman Maj. Nathan Banks said 6,824 active-duty soldiers, 2,935 National Guard troops and 1,475 Army Reserve members were on stop-loss orders as of the end of August.

All the services used stop-loss at some point after the 2001 terrorist attacks, although only the Army continues to do so.

As originally proposed by Lautenberg and the House co-sponsor of the initiative, Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, the stop-loss allowance would have been much bigger — $1,500 for each month of extended service — and would have applied retroactively to the estimated 160,000 service members affected by stop-loss since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Giving up retroactivity

Compromises had to be made to get the allowance approved, according to sources who worked on adding the proposal to the defense funding bill. The options came down to a retroactive allowance of $200 a month or a $500 monthly payment that was not retroactive, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified.

While giving up retroactivity in favor of a higher payment, Lautenberg and Sutton were able to get language included in the legislation that could lead to back payments.

The bill requires the Pentagon to submit a report within six months indicating not only how many people have been affected by stop-loss orders since the 2001 attacks, but also whether the involuntary extensions have had a larger effect on the military by hurting recruiting and increasing stress on troops and their families — something that might be revealed by domestic and sexual assaults, and reports of substance abuse.

The report also must consider the feasibility of making the allowance retroactive.

Congress will face a decision next year, as it takes up the 2010 defense budget, about whether to extend or make permanent the new stop-loss allowance, which expires Sept. 30, 2009. Aides predicted that extending authority for the allowance will prove far easier than creating it.

“Once you get money once, it’s easier to get it the next time,” one congressional staff member said. “The fact that we got money for stop-loss in this Congress may bode well for our troops next time around.

“We already know about the strain that stop-loss causes people and their families,” the aide said. “If that report supports what we already know, that’s a further case to pay the troops who have already served.”