HM 781

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States urging
3	Congress to amend federal law to eliminate the offset for
4	Dependency and Indemnity Compensation administered by the
5	United States Department of Veterans Affairs imposed on
6	benefits received by military widows and widowers through
7	the Survivor Benefit Plan administered by the United
8	States Department of Defense.
9
10	WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln advised the nation in
11	his second inaugural address to "care for him who shall have
12	borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan," and
13	WHEREAS, in 1957 Congress established the Dependency and
14	Indemnity Compensation (DIC) program in the Department of
15	Veterans Affairs for survivors of servicemembers who died as the
16	result of military service, and
17	WHEREAS, the stated purpose of DIC was to compensate for the
18	loss of family income and to indemnify the deceased servicemember's
19	family for the pain, suffering, and diminished quality of life
20	caused by the servicemember's death, and
21	WHEREAS, DIC payments to surviving spouses are based on the
22	individual servicemember's pay grade and time in service, and
23	WHEREAS, in 1972, Congress created the Survivor Benefit Plan
24	(SBP) within the Department of Defense as a retirement benefit
25	earned when a servicemember died on active duty as "retired eligible"
26	with 20 years of military service, retired with a disability
27	retirement of less than 20 years of military service, or retired
28	with 20 years of military service, and
29	WHEREAS, SBP is an insurance-style program created to be
30	similar to the federal Civil Service Retirement System's survivor
31	benefit plan that allows eligible servicemembers and military
32	retirees to elect to have premiums deducted from their pay in order
33	to provide the servicemember's family with a continued portion of his
34	or her earned retirement pay after the servicemember's death, and
35	WHEREAS, since 1972 there have been a number of legislative
36	actions and court cases that have had an impact on both the
37	Department of Veterans Affairs' Dependency and Indemnity
38	Compensation program, the Department of Defense's Survivor
39	Benefit Plan, and what is commonly referred to as the "DIC-SBP
40	offset," and
41	WHEREAS, at present, military widows and widowers who are
42	eligible to receive both DIC and SBP are being unfairly deprived
43	of monetary benefits to which they are entitled through the
44	reduction, in the form of an offset, of Dependency and Indemnity
45	Compensation from benefits they receive through the United
46	States Department of Defense's Survivor Benefit Plan, and
47	WHEREAS, however, this offset is not imposed upon veterans
48	or military retirees employed as civil servants by the Federal
49	Government who enroll in the Federal Civil Service survivor
50	benefit plan and die of service-connected causes, and
51	WHEREAS, many of these military widows and widowers have
52	their entire annuity eliminated by the DIC-SBP offset, and
53	WHEREAS, many of these military widows and widowers are
54	elderly and live on a fixed income and, as a result of the DIC-
55	SBP offset, are being deprived of their full benefits, thus
56	further compounding their pain and suffering by making them bear
57	an unjust financial hardship, and
58	WHEREAS, in 2009, a Federal Court of Appeals affirmed the
59	findings of the United States Court of Federal Claims in Sharp
60	v. United States, recognizing a partial repeal of the DIC-SBP
61	offset and directing the Department of Defense to pay full
62	survivor benefit plan annuities to widows and widowers who
63	remarry on or after December 16, 2003, and on or after attaining
64	age 57, and
65	WHEREAS, however, over 53,000 military widows and widowers
66	are still subject to the DIC-SBP offset, and
67	WHEREAS, this nation should never fail to recognize and
68	acknowledge the need for the equitable and appropriate care and
69	treatment of military widows and widowers whose spouses have
70	died in battle defending the United States or as a result of
71	service-connected causes in service to our nation, and
72	WHEREAS, to that end, it is imperative that Congress amend
73	federal law to eliminate the offset for Dependency and Indemnity
74	Compensation administered by the United States Department of
75	Veterans Affairs imposed on benefits received by military widows
76	and widowers through the United States Department of Defense's
77	Survivor Benefit Plan, NOW, THEREFORE,
78
79	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
80
81	That the Congress of the United States is requested to
82	amend federal law to eliminate the offset for Dependency and
83	Indemnity Compensation established within the Department of
84	Veterans Affairs imposed on benefits received by military widows
85	and widowers through the United States Department of Defense's
86	Survivor Benefit Plan.
87	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
88	presented to the President of the United States, to the
89	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
90	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
91	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.