Join NAUS, who remains in the forefront of advocacy on Capitol Hill

The National Association of Uniformed Services (NAUS) originated support for Surviving Widows and remains a key advocate the full repeal of the SBP/DIC offset as one of their primary legislative goals. The NAUS president, Bill Matz was wounded in Vietnam and awarded the the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Army, awarded for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force. Additionally, Bill Matz served on the President's Veterans Disability Benefits Commission.

One of the NAUS top legislative priorities is H.R. 775 (185 cosponsors) introduced by Reps Ortiz and Brown, and S. 535 (24 cosponsors) introduced by Sen. Bill Nelson.  Passage of these measures would repeal the unfair SBP/DIC offset.

To complete total repeal, NAUS suggests you contact your elected officials to ask for their co sponsorship of H.R. 775 in the House and S. 535 in the Senate. Click here to send an email to your elected officials.

There are approximately 57,000 military widows/widowers affected by the DIC offset and the CBO estimated cost of this proposed legislation is $480 million next year.

The Obama Defense budget proposed to Congress for FY 2010 eliminates military disability offsets "concurrent-receipt" of retired disability pay for Chapter 61 retirees

Under this $6B proposal, 103,000 military members retired under Chapter 61 RETIREMENT OR SEPARATION FOR PHYSICAL DISABILITY and were separated from the Service because of injuries preventing normal retirement, will see phased pay increases, depending on VA disability rating averaging $6000.00 annually beginning in October, 2010.

Some will be disappointed that CRDP pay for those with less than 50% VA disability will not be included in the same proposal.

The Services paid 251,189 CRDP eligible retirees $319M, and 68,659 CRSC retirees $67.6M in February 2009. In the past, this cost was transferred to the Treasury through the Military Retirement Trust Fund, but this Administration intends to transfer this cost directly to the Department of Defense. This annual cost approaching $5B is significant, but amounts to less than 1% of the Defense budget.