H.R. 303: Retired Pay Restoration Act

This bill, known as the Retired Pay Restoration Act, aims to amend the existing regulations regarding how retired military personnel with service-connected disabilities receive their compensation. Specifically, the bill proposes changes to allow certain additional military retirees to receive both their retired pay based on their years of military service and veterans' disability compensation for their service-related disabilities without a reduction in either payment.

Key Aspects of the Bill:

• Current System Overview:
  • Historically, disabled military retirees had to forfeit a portion of their retired pay (specifically one dollar for every dollar received in veterans' disability compensation).
  • This set-up remained in place until legislative changes began in 1999, progressively easing these financial restrictions for some retired personnel.
• Goals of the Bill:
  • To further expand eligibility for concurrent receipt of retired pay and disability compensation.
  • To include retirees with compensable service-connected disabilities rated less than 50 percent.
• Changes to Eligibility:
  • The bill seeks to eliminate the requirement that retirees with certain disability ratings must forfeit a portion of their retired pay.
  • This change would allow those who have been rated less than 50 percent disabled to receive both their retirement pay and disability compensation simultaneously.
• Specific Definitions:
  • A "qualified retiree" is defined as a member of the uniformed services who is entitled to both retired pay and veterans’ disability compensation.
• Implementation and Effectiveness:
  • The amendments proposed in the bill would take effect as of January 1, 2021, applying to payments beginning from that date onward.

Legislative Progress:

The bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on January 9, 2025, by Mr. Bilirakis and has been referred to the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs for consideration.

Relevant Companies:

• None found