On the recordMarch 24, 2004
Most military retirees die before their spouses; and to deal with this situation, they pay extra money in for what is called spousal benefits. With the Federal civilian retiree system, retirees' spouses get 55 percent of their pay. For military retirees as long as they live, they are going to get their full annuity. But there is an anomaly, an injustice in the current system for military retirees' spouses, and that is as soon as they turn 62 years of age, their benefit drops from 55 percent to 35 percent of their breadwinner's benefits. And thus for all that money that a spouse paid into the system survivors get very little out of it because Social Security offsets it. This Democratic budget fixes that injustice.
Source
govinfo.gov
