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Veterans slam Congress on omission of retirement pay increas
The nation's largest veterans organization is "furious" over the omission from the final 2010 defense authorization bill of promised increases in retired pay for people whose disabilities cut short their military careers.
Clarence Hill, national commander of the 2.5-million-member American Legion, said in a statement Friday that the compromise version of the 2010 defense authorization bill approved Thursday by the House of Representatives "should be named the Unfinished Business Act of 2009."
Hill's ire stems from the fact that the final bill does not include a provision that would extend the right to concurrently receive full military retired pay and veterans' disability compensation to people who received military disability retirement short of 20 years of service, sometimes known as "Chapter 61" retirees for the section of the U.S. Code that addresses their retirement status.