House approves bill to boost compensation for many veterans, with some floor drama

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed a major package of veterans bills Wednesday on Veterans Day — but not without confusion and controversy.

The centerpiece of the package is an effort to boost compensation for an estimated 58,000 veterans who are medically retired because of combat-related injuries. That objective has broad, bipartisan support in Congress, but lawmakers and veterans groups aren't on the same page about how to get there.

The dilemma lawmakers are trying to resolve is this: Under current law, combat-injured retirees with less than 20 years of service give up a portion of their military retirement pay when they also receive Department of Veterans Affairs disability compensation . Lawmakers from both parties are trying to change that so that those retirees get all of their injury compensation and military retirement pay.

The change would lead to an average compensation boost of about $1,450 more per month, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Republicans brought to the floor a bill that would help pay for the income boost for those retirees by changing how the department rates tinnitus or sleep apnea . Those changes would lower disability compensation for some future veterans, though they would not affect current veterans receiving compensation for those conditions. Democrats overwhelmingly opposed that trade-off and denounced the measure as the bill was debated.

“It does not take care of veterans. It takes from them,” Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., said of the Republican bill.

Republicans had to pull the bill from consideration earlier this year because they didn’t have the votes to pass it. This time, Democratic leaders again encouraged their members to oppose the measure because they said cutting benefits for one group of veterans to fund new benefits for another is not the answer.

The House chamber was packed and noisy as lawmakers talked among themselves following an earlier vote. As is the normal course of business, the House clerk read the title of the veterans bill and then the presiding officer, Rep. Addison McDowell, R-N.C., said the question for the House was on passage of the bill and that those in favor should say aye and those opposed should say no.

“The ayes have it,” McDowell said. “The bill is passed.”

Normally, Democrats would interject and ask for a roll call vote. But none came. And Republicans simply put the onus on Democrats, with Rep. Mike Bost, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, calling Democrats “asleep at the wheel.”

“If nobody calls for the vote, it's passed, which is a good thing," said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

“If a few of them want to go voice their objections, they can go and make it clear on the House floor why they are against our veterans on Veterans Day. But I was proud to support it,” Scalise said. “I'm glad it passed.”

Rep. Mark Takano, the ranking Democratic member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said there was no opportunity for the minority to ask for a recorded vote.

“The intention was to sneak this through,” Takano said. “Well, all I can say is, I think it's a shallow, a hollow victory because it will go nowhere in the Senate.”

Cory Geisler, the national commander-in-chief at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, blasted the voice vote in a statement.

“If congressional leaders believed this proposal was worthy of passage, they should have had the courage to let every member’s position be recorded for the country to see,” Geisler said. “Playing political games with veterans’ benefits while avoiding public accountability is cowardly and dishonorable.”

Democrats have their own bill dealing with the issue that is expected to be voted on Thursday. Supporters used a discharge petition to get around Republican leadership and force a vote on the floor. But the Democratic measure does not include offsets.

Takano said that while some Republicans have voiced concerns about the price tag of his bill they also have no problem sending soldiers to war and approving the Pentagon budgets that come with it, or in passing tax breaks that primarily benefit the wealthy.

“Why then do they insist on balancing the budget on the backs of our veterans?” Takano said.

If the Democratic-led bill passes, the Senate could pick the one it favors, or neither, leaving it for a Democratic-controlled Congress to take the issue on next year.