James M. Jeffords: “I rise today to introduce a bill which will correct a great injustice made to our Nation's veterans. As we all know, the…”

“I rise today to introduce a bill which will correct a great injustice made to our Nation's veterans. As we all know, the cold war is over, however, this does not mean that military service is obsolete. In fact, we have called on service men and women most recently for military support in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war, in Somalia, and in Haiti. Many of these men and women, especially those returning from the Persian Gulf war were given an opportunity to assist the Department of Defense in it's downsizing by being offered one of two options, a special separation bonus [SSB] or a voluntary separation incentive [VSI], for voluntary separation from the military. Unfortunately, provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal years 1992 and 1993 states that any military personnel who receives the SSB lump sum payment or the VSI monthly payments cannot receive any disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs concurrently, until the separation compensation is offset completely. This is indeed an injustice and I am introducing a bill today which will repeal these provisions and allow for concurrent receipt.”