If there’s one thing everyone in Washington agrees on at the moment, it’s that 10,000 California National Guard troops are being screwed by the Pentagon for having to repay enlistment bonuses they got 10 years ago.
It turns out the troops were not technically eligible for the re-enlistment cash, some as high as $15,000, but they didn’t know that when they accepted the money in return for agreeing to stay in uniform, and in many cases go back to war.
The people responsible for the improper bonuses have been punished, in one case sent to prison, but the Guard soldiers are paying the price, facing tax liens, interest penalties and wage garnishment as the government attempts to claw back some $20 million in “overpayments.”
So far at least 900 troops have forked over more than $6 million to get the Pentagon off their backs.
Everyone agrees it’s unfair, unjust and indefensible, but no one seems to have the power to stop it, and there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on between Congress and the Pentagon.
The Pentagon insists its hands are tied. The law is the law, and the law says if the government gives away taxpayer dollars by mistake or malfeasance, it has to try to get the money back.
As much as Defense Secretary Ash Carter might want to wave his pen and forgive the debt in the interest of decency and common sense, he can’t really.
That’s because if the Pentagon fails to collect the $20 million it’s owed without authorization, in the eyes of the law it’s the same as spending $20 million without authorization. That’s illegal.
It’s the same thing with Congress. When the National Guard complained that its members were suffering severe financial hardships because of the clawbacks of enlistment bonuses, members of Congress were outraged, but not outraged enough to fix the problem.
According to Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., ranking member on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, a proposal by the National Guard to end the collection efforts fell victim to what he called “a philosophy of extreme austerity” that pervades Congress these days.
However, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and members of the House Armed Services Committee — and not Takano’s committee — have taken the lead in dealing with the issue, according to a House aide.
Takano told CNN Tuesday morning that because providing millions of dollars of relief to the victimized troops was considered new spending by the Congressional Budget Office, the current political climate required that offsets, or corresponding cuts, be made to pay for the proposal. Takano, like many lawmakers who have expressed outrage since the weekend, doesn’t have jurisdiction over the matter.
So like so many other noble ideas, this one may have died for lack of agreement on what other program to trim to pay for it.
So how does the Pentagon resolve this mess, as Carter has promised to do? Right now, individual soldiers must appeal their cases, but they have to show they had no reason to think the bonus was improper, and that they don’t have the income to pay it back without suffering undue financial hardship.
What the Pentagon could do is streamline that process, cut a lot of the red tape and make it much easier to get a waiver of the repayment, say by creating a simple online application.
What the Pentagon will do is unclear. It’s up to Carter’s No. 2, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, to find a solution.
In making his remarks to reporters overseas Tuesday, Carter said the issue “has got its complexities to it,” and the Pentagon is “going to look into it, and resolve it.”
“Anybody who volunteers to serve in the armed forces of the United States deserves our gratitude and respect, period,” Carter said.
