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• Wednesday, January 08, 2014

  Tell Congress to Repeal Military Retiree COLA Cut

  The American Legion is urging Legionnaires and all military/veteran supporters to contact Congress and tell them to repeal the military retiree cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) reduction in the recently passed budget. This link makes it easy to send a message to Congress.
  
  “This provision penalizes military retirees one percent of their COLA every year until they reach age 62,” American Legion Legislative Director Louis Celli noted in a call-to-action Jan. 7. “At that time, the provision adjusts their reduction to the full amount of their COLA, but doesn’t replace the lost income. Aggregated, this loss of income can be between $70,000 and $120,000 over the lifetime of the retiree.”

  He continued: “What we believe is happening now is congressional leaders are taking a lot of heat over the COLA issue, especially because they neglected to parse out the medically retired veterans who were separated from the military due to life-long catastrophic injuries. In an attempt to appear as if they are addressing the whole issue, it looks as if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is planning on allowing an amendment to an upcoming bill that would address the COLA issue by only fixing it for medically retired veterans, leaving the rest of the retired veteran community, about 1 million retirees, to single handedly give the government back a portion of their retirement checks in order to help roll back the cost of sequestration. Most important to note is that this is the ONLY group being asked to give money out of their pockets that will never be returned.”

  Take action now by telling Congress to overturn cuts to military pensions, Celli urged. It’s easy. This link takes you to The American Legion Legislative Action Center where you can submit emails to members of New York’s Congressional delegation.