GOP Faces Uprising on Veterans

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Compromise Sought on Retirement and Disability Benefits

Facing a rebellion in their ranks, House Republican leaders and Bush administration officials are working to come up with compromise legislation to allow hundreds of thousands of veterans to collect both retirement and disability benefits.

The move -- which could cost the government several billion dollars a year -- would change how disabled veterans receive pensions. Under current law, retirees generally must forfeit a dollar of their military pensions for every dollar they receive from the Veterans Administration in disability compensation.

Lawmakers and the administration came up with a compromise last year in the fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill that provided special compensation equal to the amount of retirement pay forfeited because of the disability compensation, allowing "concurrent receipt" of benefits. But the compromise applied to only a limited number of disabled retirees.

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"The veterans and retirees of this country are tired of being second-class citizens," Jones said. "This has become a flag issue across this country."

The lobbying has intensified in recent days. This week, 400 general and flag officers wrote President Bush asking him to allow disabled veterans to collect both sets of benefits.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32695-2003Sep5.html