Political Quotes

“Another letter from a man from my home State, a Mr. Lutz, who said: Eight out of ten members of the Senate have cosponsored S. 170 . . . which would permit retired members of the Armed Forces who have service-connected disability to receive both military longevity retired pay and disability compensation. Last year, provisions from S. 170 were included in the National Defense Authorization Act to authorize concurrent receipt, but with the conditions that keep concurrent receipt provisions from taking effect unless the President included funding in his budget and Congress enacted other legislation to offset the costs. Our members are deeply frustrated that such a large majority of the Senate has cosponsored S. 170, but still the injustice continues. That is the point. What the Senate is doing now--and I congratulate Senator Warner and Senator Reid, Senator Hutchison, and Senator Levin for their cooperation--we now have said this legislation, which provides full compensation to 450,000 to 500,000 veterans who have a disability and are retired, they get it both; whether the disability is 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent or 60 percent, they get the compensation. We are not drawing lines, saying one injury was more or less important than another.”