Ayotte: Budget Deal Unfairly Singles Out Military Retirees

Press Release

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte tonight voted against a budget deal that unfairly targets military retirees by cutting their retirement benefits by $6 billion.

"This budget deal unfairly singles out military retirees by cutting their hard-earned retirement benefits - including disabled veterans who retire because of their injuries," said Senator Ayotte, noting that changes made to federal civilian employee retirement benefits apply only to new hires. "If both parties worked together, we could have easily replaced the cuts to military retiree benefits - starting with the hundreds of billions in wasteful spending that the Government Accountability Office has identified. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats blocked all amendments, including mine, from being voted on to replace the cuts with alternative spending reductions."

Ayotte continued: "With billions in wasteful spending throughout the federal government, it's a false choice to suggest that the government would shut down unless military retiree benefits are cut. Saying we should just pass this budget agreement with these offensive military retiree cuts in it and fix it later is a cop out and no comfort to our military retirees, who now have to rely on Washington politicians to change a law they voted for. With the Congressional Budget Office estimating that the federal government will spend $47 trillion over the next decade, the notion that we can't find $6 billion from somewhere else is absolutely ridiculous."

A provision in the budget deal requires a one percent annual reduction in the cost of living adjustment for military retirees. Under the legislation, a Sergeant First Class in the Army who qualifies for retirement at twenty years of service at age 40, and who has most likely deployed multiple times to war, could lose approximately $72,000 between retirement and turning age 62.

Over the past three years, the Government Accountability Office has uncovered 162 areas of fragmentation, overlap, and duplication in federal agencies - adding up to hundreds of billions in unnecessary spending. And just this week, Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released his annual oversight report "Wastebook 2013" highlighting 100 examples of wasteful and low-priority spending totaling nearly $30 billion.

VETERANS AND MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS STAND WITH SENATOR AYOTTE IN OPPOSING MILITARY RETIREE BENEFIT CUTS:

* "I think it is wrong to achieve savings at the expense of those who serve and have served. NGAUS appreciates Senator Ayotte's unwavering commitment to our Nation's service members and military retirees." -- Major General (Ret.) Gus Hargett, President of the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS)

* "On behalf of the over 380,000 members of the Military Officers Association of America, I wanted to personally thank Senator Ayotte for her opposition to the proposal within the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 which penalizes future uniformed service retirees and current retirees under the age of 62 with a reduction in the annual cost-of-living adjustment. Senator Ayotte has stood up for those who have served and are willing to serve the Nation for two decades or more." -- Norb Ryan, President, Military Officers Association of America

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