Buchanan: Congress Must Step in to Help Veterans

From Vern Buchanan, Member of Congress:

In a letter sent today to a joint House-Senate panel tasked with funding the Defense Department, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan said thousands of veterans who were forced to return enlistment bonuses should be repaid the money.

“If the Pentagon isn’t going to treat our veterans fairly then Congress needs to step in and do what’s right,” Buchanan said. “These soldiers put their lives on the line and now they’re being told to return enlistment bonuses from 10 years ago even though they did nothing wrong. That is wrong, unfair and shameful.”

Buchanan’s letter to members of the conference committee that will finalize details of the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill that outlines funding for the Defense Department, arrives after nearly 10,000 California National Guard soldiers – many of whom served multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan – were ordered by the DOD to return their enlistment bonuses and student loan repayments of $15,000 or more, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The recoupment effort has taken more than $22 million from soldiers so far, according to the Times. “The soldiers did nothing wrong in accepting these bonuses,” Buchanan noted. “Yet now they are being forced to repay money because some government bureaucrat made a mistake in calculating their eligibility.”

“Lifting the financial burden from the shoulders of these veterans is the right thing to do,” Buchanan said.

Buchanan has also written to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and called for the Pentagon to back off their recoupment efforts. In his letter to Carter, Buchanan also requested that the Secretary provide specific information on whether any Florida service members have received similar orders and on steps the department is taking to rectify the situation.

“We need accurate information to ensure that service members from other states – including Florida – have not been affected.”

Buchanan’s office was told by Florida National Guard officials that an internal audit failed to find any Florida vets affected yet.

The Florida National Guard is one of the largest state Guard organizations in the country with more than 11,600 soldiers and airmen.

During 2006 and 2007, the California National Guard encouraged soldiers to stay in the service by offering upfront re-enlistment bonuses and student loan repayments. The incentives were part of a federal program run by the National Guard Bureau and the U.S. Army that was meant to boost the number of U.S. troops as the country continued its involvement in the post-9/11 wars.

Federal investigators later discovered that millions of dollars were mistakenly given to California National Guard soldiers who did not qualify.

Since then, current and retired soldiers have been told by the Pentagon to repay some or all of their bonuses. If the soldiers refuse to give back their bonuses, they face interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens, according to the Times.

Several veterans service organizations have voiced their opposition to the Pentagon’s recoupment efforts, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

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