The battle for Veterans earned benefits continue.
After more than three years on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep Rich Nugent is still frequently baffled by how Washington operates.
His latest bill is intended to correct one recent piece of congressional business that he found particularly perplexing.
The Brooksville Republican has introduced the America First Act, which would restore budget cuts made so pension benefits to military retirees younger than 62 could get a boost.
Under a bipartisan budget deal reached in December, which President Barack Obama signed in January, those veterans saw their annual cost-of-living adjustments trimmed by 1 percent, with 1 percent also lopped off the benefits paid to former troops who are forced to retire because of a disability.
Nugent, whose district encompasses most of Marion County including the city of Ocala, was one of 62 Republican lawmakers to reject the package, which easily passed the House by a vote of 332-94.
A staunch proponent of veterans, Nugent at the time labeled the much-hailed budget agreement as “a rotten deal.”
But a fix seemed to only make matters worse, Nugent noted in an interview on Tuesday.
Congress restored the COLAs for middle-aged military retirees, including the disabled troops, a month ago. Yet lawmakers did so by reducing benefits under Medicare — another seemingly bipartisan idea, since it emerged from the Republican-led House by a 326-90 margin and sailed through the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority, by a tally of 95-3.
HT Theo Spark