Bill Would Ease Reserve Retirement Payment

Retired reservists and National Guard members may no longer have to accrue 90 aggregate days of service within a fiscal year in support of a contingency operation or national emergency to reduce by three months the age-60 eligibility date to collect retirement pay. A bill pending before Congress, H.R. 4947, would allow the accrual to spread over two fiscal years. It is sponsored by Reps. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, and Dan Boren, D-Okla. The existing law has raised hackles of military service organizations. "By only crediting an aggregate of 90 days served during a fiscal year, the law unfairly excludes credit for 90 days of otherwise qualifying serviced that is spread over two fiscal years," the National Guard Association said in an advisory to its members, published on its Web site. "If [someone] served 90 days in Operation Iraqi Freedom from Sept. 1, 2008 through Nov. 29, 200, that service would not be credited to reduce the retirement eligibility age." NGAUS is urging its members to write letters o Congress in support of the bill.