VFW Legislative Alert: Keep Pressure on Congress to Eliminate COLA Penalty

Take Action!   Background:  Congress has agreed but not voted on a spending bill that would fund the federal government for the remainder of FY 2014 -- the package contains a provision that will repeal the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) penalty for Chapter 61 medical retirees, as well as thousands of Survivors Benefits Program recipients, but it does not include the more than 800,000 military retirees under age 62.  This would affect tens of thousands in the grade of E-7, who earn $25,200 in taxable retirement pay, which for a family of four is borderline poverty level.     The proposed appropriations omnibus package protects disabled retirees and survivors from the one percent COLA cut, but a full repeal for all retirees is still needed. To do anything less than full repeal is a breach of faith with our military service members, retirees and their families.     "The Omnibus Bill doesn't go far enough to protect the earned retirement benefit of all military retirees," said VFW National Commander Bill Thien, "and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States will continue to work to fix this injustice."     Action Needed: Call and email your legislators today. Tell them that the appropriations omnibus package doesn't go far enough to protect ALL retirees from the one percent COLA reduction, and to support full and immediate repeal of the COLA penalty.