House Panel Would Drag SBP Fix to 2014

The House Armed Services Total Force Subcommittee put a Survivors Benefit Plan fix into its draft of the fiscal 2005 authorization bill, but it wouldn’t start phasing out the inequity until Oct.1, 2009, and wouldn’t complete it until 2014. The reason given for the laggard start date was because the budget committee had provided no funding for the next five years. Still pending is a discharge petition by Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, to force a floor vote on HR-548, which would begin the phase-in on Oct. 1 of this year and complete it by 2007. The discharge petition, which requires 218 signatures to pass, had 201 as of May 6. Currently, surviving military spouses who receive SBP annuities find them slashed by 36 percent when they reach age 62. Survivors of federal civilian employees do not face this “military widows tax.”