Restoring the Benefits Our Military Retirees Earned

This week, Congress acted to keep our promises to those who have served.

The House and Senate came together to pass legislation I strongly supported to eliminate the cuts to military retiree benefits. The next stop is the Presidents desk, where we can expect it to be signed into law any day now.

The bill ensures retirees get what was promised. It restores COLA increases to all veterans and service men and women who joined the military before January 1, 2014.

When Congress reached a budget agreement for the first time in four years, it was presented as a compromise that no one was really happy with but everybody could live with. It better protected retirees’ benefits than the alternatives, like the President’s Simpson-Bowles proposal which would have completely eliminated COLAs for military retirees and slashed veterans’ benefits across-the-board.

But taking from our veterans – in any capacity – is wrong. It is unacceptable to ask them to sacrifice any more than they already have.

This week, Congress took action and restored COLAs for ALL existing military retirees. Under the bill, no retiree who joined before January 1 will face any cut to his or her benefits.

Im grateful Congress could reach a solution to remove this potential burden from our military retirees. Ive been an ardent supporter of removing the COLA reductions and serve as a current cosponsor of four bills to eliminate cuts to all current and future military retirees.

We made a promise to our veterans - and this week we made sure we keep that promise.