One lawmaker is adding another item to the to-do list for negotiators trying to iron out a final version of the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill: Ensuring California National Guardsmen who already repaid their bonuses get their money back.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., wrote in a letter Monday that Congress must “step in and do what’s right” to make sure soldiers are not financially burdened because of the Defense Department’s mistakes. He asked top armed services committee lawmakers to ensure that gets done in the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
“Forcing innocent soldiers and veterans to repay these funds 10 years after they went to war on the nation’s behalf is obscene and unjustified. They did their part and answered our nation’s call to serve at a time when we needed them most,” Buchanan wrote in the letter.
The letter was sent to the so-called “Big Four” who are the top negotiators for the NDAA: Sens. John McCain and Jack Reed, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as well as their counterparts in the House, Reps. Mac Thornberry and Adam Smith.
The Pentagon has told thousands of California National Guard soldiers to repay about $22 million total in bonuses that were wrongly awarded. The backlash from Capitol Hill was immediate, and lawmakers called for the debts to be forgiven.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter temporarily suspended any effort to collect the money while officials looked at and improved the system to review each case individually, with a goal to settle all issues in this case by July 1.
Negotiations are still underway on a final version of the defense policy bill, which is expected to be completed in the lame-duck session of Congress. A release from the House Armed Services Committee said the committee “continues to conference the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act.”
Other issues on which lawmakers still need to reach a compromise include a provision that Democrats say discriminates based on religious beliefs in federal hiring and the endangered species status of the sage grouse, which lives on some military bases in the western U.S.
