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Vets bill may be untangled from DoD budget

The Senate’s top Democrat said he could move by week’s end to separate a bill that would improve treatment and benefits for wounded combat veterans from the 2008 defense budget.

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, said linking so-called wounded warrior legislation to the defense authorization bill, which seemed like a good idea two weeks ago, doesn’t seem so wise now that the defense policy bill has bogged down over political squabbling about Iraq policy.

“I intend to peel the wounded warrior amendment from the defense authorization bill and seek unanimous consent that we pass it as a stand-alone bill,” Reid said Tuesday. “Given the immediate care that these people need and the immediate need to act on the wounded warriors amendment that has overwhelming bipartisan support, I am hoping we can all work together to pass it.

Reid set a goal of getting the Senate to approve the measure before Congress takes its monthlong summer recess in August.

With that schedule, it is unclear how much faster the improvements would take effect. House and Senate aides could meet in August to prepare a compromise bill, but a final version could not be passed until after Labor Day at the soonest. That would be only a few weeks before the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, which is the deadline for passage of the defense authorization bill.

Nobody raised an objection when Reid spoke, but that does not mean the path is clear. Because Reid is treating the wounded warrior package as a piece of must-pass legislation, the package becomes a target for lawmakers trying to either attach their own initiatives to the bill, or to block the Democratic leadership from passing major initiatives.

Most provisions of the authorization bill take effect Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, or later, such as the Jan. 1 pay raise of 3.5 percent, so there is time to work out differences. But most of the wounded warrior provisions would take effect as soon as the bill is signed, which means any delay hurts veterans, Reid said.

The wounded warrior legislation includes provisions that would improve substandard military and veterans’ health facilities, expand the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, simplify and increase severance pay and disability retired pay for combat-injured service members who cannot continue on active duty, and try to make it easier for injured combat veterans to transfer from the military to veterans’ medical systems.

Most provisions of the defense bill “wouldn’t kick in until the new fiscal year, but most provisions of the pending wounded warrior plan become law upon passage and approval,” Reid said. Approval, in this case, means being signed into law by President Bush.

The House of Representatives passed its own Wounded Warrior Act as separate legislation and as part of its version of the 2008 defense authorization bill, and has been waiting since May for the Senate to catch up in the legislative process so that negotiations can begin on a compromise version.

The Bush administration and Pentagon have raised objections to the wounded warrior plans, mostly because Congress is acting so quickly that the administration has not been able to formulate its own ideas. But a veto of the final package is considered unlikely by congressional leaders.