At least some of the massive changes proposed in January by a panel reviewing the military retirement system are getting House and Senate panel backing.
The Military Times reported Tuesday that House Armed Services Committee leaders gave their blessing to aspects of the recommendations made in January by the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission.
On Wednesday, it reported that the Senate Armed Services Committee followed suit, with Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, saying that the Senate committee also planned to follow the commission's recommendations.
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The intent is to include the overhaul as part of the fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill, with the new retirement system to be in place by October of 2017. Some of its provisions include a 401(k)-style investment plan and an end to the existing 20-year, all-or-nothing system.
The reconfigured retirement plan will affect only those troops enlisting in the future. Active service personnel will continue to be covered under the existing system, although they will be able to choose to opt into the new system. And some provisions suggested by the commission won't be part of the House plan—or the Senate's.
The House draft currently proposes to replace the present 20-year plan with an automatic federal contribution of 1 percent of servicemembers' basic pay to their Thrift Savings Plan account, plus additional matching contributions of up to 5 percent of basic pay.
There would also be a lump-sum "continuation pay" available to servicemembers who remain on active duty past 12 years, and they would still get traditional retirement pay if they complete 20 years of service. But the payout level would be reduced from its current 50 percent of active duty pay to 40 percent—and that has made a number of military advocates unhappy about the provision's potential to harm retention rates among senior military members.
The White House has said that it will also provide its own proposal based on the commission's recommendations on April 30, once the full Armed Services Committee has come up with its version.
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