Bill Text: FL S1328 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Survivor Benefit Plan/Military Widows and Widowers [GPSC]

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Failed) 2010-04-30 - Died in Messages [S1328 Detail]

Download: Florida-2010-S1328-Introduced.html

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Florida Senate - 2010                                    SM 1328 
 
By Senator Storms 
10-01336-10                                           20101328__ 
1                           Senate Memorial 
2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States, 
3         urging Congress to amend federal law to eliminate the 
4         offset for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation 
5         administered by the United States Department of 
6         Veterans Affairs imposed on benefits received by 
7         military widows and widowers through the Survivor 
8         Benefit Plan administered by the United States 
9         Department of Defense. 
10 
11         WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln advised the nation in 
12  his second inaugural address to “care for him who shall have 
13  borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan,” and 
14         WHEREAS, in 1957 Congress established the Dependency and 
15  Indemnity Compensation (DIC) program in the Department of 
16  Veterans Affairs for survivors of servicemembers who died as the 
17  result of military service, and 
18         WHEREAS, the stated purpose of DIC was to compensate for 
19  the loss of family income and to indemnify the deceased 
20  servicemember’s family for the pain, suffering, and diminished 
21  quality of life caused by the servicemember’s death, and 
22         WHEREAS, DIC payments to surviving spouses are based on the 
23  individual servicemember’s pay grade and time in service, and 
24         WHEREAS, in 1972, Congress created the Survivor Benefit 
25  Plan (SBP) within the Department of Defense as a retirement 
26  benefit earned when a servicemember died on active duty as 
27  “retired eligible” with 20 years of military service, retired 
28  with a disability retirement of less than 20 years of military 
29  service, or retired with 20 years of military service, and 
30         WHEREAS, SBP is an insurance-style program created to be 
31  similar to the federal Civil Service Retirement System’s 
32  survivor benefit plan that allows eligible servicemembers and 
33  military retirees to elect to have premiums deducted from their 
34  pay in order to provide the servicemember’s family with a 
35  continued portion of his or her earned retirement pay after the 
36  servicemember’s death, and 
37         WHEREAS, since 1972 there have been a number of legislative 
38  actions and court cases that have had an impact on both the 
39  Department of Veterans Affairs’ Dependency and Indemnity 
40  Compensation program, the Department of Defense’s Survivor 
41  Benefit Plan, and what is commonly referred to as the “DIC-SBP 
42  offset,” and 
43         WHEREAS, at present, military widows and widowers who are 
44  eligible to receive both DIC and SBP are being unfairly deprived 
45  of monetary benefits to which they are entitled through the 
46  reduction, in the form of an offset, of Dependency and Indemnity 
47  Compensation from benefits they receive through the United 
48  States Department of Defense’s Survivor Benefit Plan, and 
49         WHEREAS, however, this offset is not imposed upon veterans 
50  or military retirees employed as civil servants by the Federal 
51  Government who enroll in the Federal Civil Service survivor 
52  benefit plan and die of service-connected causes, and 
53         WHEREAS, many of these military widows and widowers have 
54  their entire annuity eliminated by the DIC-SBP offset, and 
55         WHEREAS, many of these military widows and widowers are 
56  elderly and live on a fixed income and, as a result of the DIC 
57  SBP offset, are being deprived of their full benefits, thus 
58  further compounding their pain and suffering by making them bear 
59  an unjust financial hardship, and 
60         WHEREAS, in 2009, a Federal Court of Appeals affirmed the 
61  findings of the United States Court of Federal Claims in Sharp 
62  v. United States, recognizing a partial repeal of the DIC-SBP 
63  offset and directing the Department of Defense to pay full 
64  survivor benefit plan annuities to widows and widowers who 
65  remarry on or after December 16, 2003, and on or after attaining 
66  age 57, and 
67         WHEREAS, however, over 53,000 military widows and widowers 
68  are still subject to the DIC-SBP offset, and 
69         WHEREAS, this nation should never fail to recognize and 
70  acknowledge the need for the equitable and appropriate care and 
71  treatment of military widows and widowers whose spouses have 
72  died in battle defending the United States or as a result of 
73  service-connected causes in service to our nation, and 
74         WHEREAS, to that end, it is imperative that Congress amend 
75  federal law to eliminate the offset for Dependency and Indemnity 
76  Compensation administered by the United States Department of 
77  Veterans Affairs imposed on benefits received by military widows 
78  and widowers through the United States Department of Defense’s 
79  Survivor Benefit Plan, NOW, THEREFORE, 
80 
81  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
82 
83         That the Congress of the United States is requested to 
84  amend federal law to eliminate the offset for Dependency and 
85  Indemnity Compensation established within the Department of 
86  Veterans Affairs imposed on benefits received by military widows 
87  and widowers through the United States Department of Defense’s 
88  Survivor Benefit Plan. 
89         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be 
90  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the 
91  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the 
92  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of 
93  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.