Lawmakers voted to move forward with reforms to the military retirement system Wednesday night, despite concerns from some that Congress was moving too fast and disregarding objections from veterans service organizations or concerns over implementation.
Rep. Chris Gibson, New York Republican, urged lawmakers to pump the breaks on a massive overhaul of the military retirement system that would establish a 401k-like account for troops. Mr. Gibson argued lawmakers needed more time to listen to veterans and get advocacy groups onboard.
“Respectfully, I think we’re in no rush to do this,” he said. “We’re better off listening first.”
The House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Military Personnel included changes to retirement that were recommended by the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission’s report earlier this year in its draft of the annual defense policy bill considered by the full committee Wednesday.
The proposal would institute a 401k-like account for troops to contribute to that would be partially matched by the government. All current service members and retirees would have the option to join the new program, but would automatically be grandfathered into the current pension-based retirement program if they didn’t want to make the change.
Lawmakers voted 55-8 to keep the retirement changes in the bill.
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Mr. Gibson’s amendment would have thanked the commission for its two years of work to recommend the best ways to reform the military compensation system and asked lawmakers to hold listening sessions so they could be better prepared to enact legislation this time next year in the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill.
Committee leadership disagreed, with Rep. Mac Thornberry, Texas Republican and chair of the House Armed Service Committee, saying “it makes no sense to delay this further,” and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, Washington Democrat, saying that Mr. Gibson “could not be more wrong in saying we have to look at this further.”
Those who supported putting the changes into place in this year’s bill – though they will not take effect until Oct. 1, 2017 – said that more listening sessions weren’t needed since commission members already spent two years talking to troops and veterans.
Mr. Thornberry also said that no one will pay attention at the Defense Department until the proposal is “real,” so lawmakers should put it into law now and spend the next year educating service members and their families on the changes.
President Obama has said that he supports many of the changes proposed by the commission. Administration officials are taking a closer look at the proposals and are set to report back to Congress by the end of the month with specific details on implementation.
The American Legion last week announced that it did not support the retirement changes recommended by the commission because too many questions remained about how it would be implemented.
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• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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