Paired Organ legislation passed HR 797 but problems with Pension Tax bill
BVA LAG members,
January 2, 2008
Just wanted to include the following on the Paired Organ act being completed and we thank Senator Akaka for his strong leadership in final days of the first session of the 110th Congress in making sure that the legislation did get passed, and the President signed it last week.
VA VISION CARE UPDATE 01: U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, noted with gratitude Senate action approving a House amendment to H.R. 797, the Dr. James Allen Veteran Vision Equity Act of 2007. Last month, the Senate passed a modified version of H.R. 797, which was introduced by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). On 17 DEC, the Senate concurred with the subsequent House amendment, paving the way for the bill to be sent to the President's desk for signature. "This bill will allow veterans who are legally blind to receive compensation that VA's current strict eligibility requirements preclude them from receiving.” said Senator Akaka. Akaka is the author of S.1163, a companion bill to H.R.797. The House bill as amended would alter the vision impairment standard for two groups of veterans: those with service-connected blindness in one eye who later lose vision in the other eye, and those who receive special compensation for multiple disabilities that include vision impairment. The bill also provides important improvements to certain burial and memorial benefits that govern how fallen veterans are honored. It:
• Authorizes financial assistance from VA to state veterans' cemeteries.
• Eliminates the time limitation for states filing for reimbursement for interment costs.
• Makes permanent the authority for VA to furnish government headstones and markers for veterans buried in private cemeteries.
• Directs VA to design and make available an appropriate marker to denote the veterans' status of those interred in private cemeteries, as an alternative to a government furnished headstone.
[Source: Senator Akaka Press Release 18 Dec 07 ++]
Included in the following news on other legislation was a section on the state annuities for blinded veterans not being counted as income for Social Security purposes being held up because of differences in bills. The veterans from New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania who receive state annuities have complained since 1992 to congress about this being included as income. Well, Congressman Reynold’s from New York state introduced legislation last January 2007, H.R. 649 that was passed in the Ways and Means Committee in October 2007, and attached and voted on inside of HR 3997 to correct one aspect of the problem by removing these annuities as income for purposes of SSI. The plan was to get this passed, and then try to use this leverage in dropping a new bill into the second session of congress starting this month to change the current VA pension law that also counts these state annuities. The argument would be if they just “exempted these from being counted as income in the Ways and Means (TAX) Committee” and approved the legislation for Social Security to not count this as income, why should VA continue to count this as income and offset the veterans’ pensions.
Well, from below you can tell that things went off course in the final couple weeks of the session in December so we must wait now for them to fix this. Blinded Veterans Association is in constant contact with Ways and Means Committee staff and we will continue to follow this issue in next few weeks.
MILITARY TAX RELIEF: In the last month, the House and Senate have each twice passed HR 3997, the Defenders of Freedom Tax Relief Act of 2007 unanimously. The problem is that every time it passed, it was a slightly different version, and the House and Senate never passed the same one before Congress adjourned for the year. It’s sad to say that Senate-vs.-House quibbling over a few final details derailed the whole bill, virtually on Christmas Eve. Hopefully they can reconcile their and pass the bill in the second session of the 110th Congress which convenes in late JAN. The bill calls for a range of tax relief for military members, their families and some small business employers of mobilized reservists. Among other things, it allows:
• Disabled retirees who suffer delays in the VA claims process file for refunds of up to five years of back taxes (vs. three under current law).
• Military widows to put their death gratuity amounts (now up to $100,000) into tax-deferred IRA, and
• Employers to make deposits in 401(k) s for employees who are deployed to combat zones.
[Source: MOAA Leg Up 21 Dec 07 ++]
Last but always a concern to use up here in Washington DC is how many members of congress are veterans?
VETERANS IN OFFICE UPDATE 01: The 110th session of Congress has the lowest percentage of veterans in the House and Senate since before World War II. And that number is expected to drop even further with 10 veterans planning to retire or run for other offices. After the Korean War, well over 70% of all members of the House and Senate were veterans. Now the number is 24% - 29 Senators and 100 House members have had some military experience. (In the 109th Congress the total number was 141). Only eight World War II vets are still serving: Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye, both D-Hawaii; Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and John Warner, R-Va.; and Reps John Dingell, D-Mich.; Ralph Hall, R-Texas, and Ralph Regula, R-Ohio. Warner and Regula will retire in 2009. [Source: TREA Washington Update 21 Dec 07 ++]
Obviously the thought is a member of congress who is a veteran will be more understanding of issues brought before them and support veterans legislation. Well, this obviously isn’t always the case and going back in recent history some of the opponents of veterans’ issues have been these lawmakers who are veterans. But, it is a concern and we must always take these things into consideration as we try to make friends and get co-sponsors on legislation we want passed.
Tom Zampieri
Director Government Relations
Blinded Veterans Association
Washington DC
End of Document