House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday demanded a permanent solution to the problem of collecting millions of dollars worth of illegally paid bonuses from veterans, and said the Republican answer isn’t good enough.
Pelosi welcomed the Defense Department’s decision to halt the process of collecting these bonuses, which had drawn outrage from Republicans and Democrats as the press reported that some veterans had no ability to pay. The bonuses were improperly awarded to members of the California National Guard years ago, either fraudulently or by accident.
Pelosi welcomed the department’s decision as “welcome news.” But she was critical of a House Republican plan to permanently fix the problem in the 2017 Defense Authorization bill that is still being negotiated.
Pelosi called the GOP solution “completely inadequate fig-leaf language,” and said it does not take effect until 2027.
Ryan, R-Wis., issued his own statement praising the decision by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to stop the clawback of $22 million in bonuses, and said he was “glad the Pentagon came to its senses.”
The House and Senate, he noted, are negotiating a bill that includes “any reforms necessary to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
That provision, included in the House-passed version of the Defense Authorization measure, would in the future implement a 10-year deadline for the Pentagon to demand the return of military bonuses issued fraudulently or by mistake.
