Correction: U.S. Sen. John Boozman voted for the omnibus appropriations bill in January but against the budget agreement in December. This article incorrectly stated which measure Boozman had supported.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate unanimously agreed Monday to move forward on a bill that would restore $6 billion in annual cost-of-living increases for many working-age military retirees.
The Senate voted 94-0 to advance legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor that repeals the cuts. The cost-of-living provision was included in the federal budget approved in January. Monday’s vote was to allow discussion of the bill.
Under that budget, cost-of-living increases will be reduced by 1 percentage point below the cost of inflation each year once a service member retires until that retiree reaches age 62. It goes into effect Dec. 1, 2015.
On the Senate floor Monday, Pryor said that is not the pension promised to members of the military.
“We cannot balance the budget on the backs of our hardworking military members and their families,” Pryor, D-Arkansas, said. “We’ve made a commitment to our service members, and we need to honor our commitment by ensuring they receive the benefits they’ve earned.”
The budget reduced the federal deficit, the amount the federal government spends over what it takes in, by $22 billion.
Pryor’s legislation doesn’t include a way to replace that $6 billion in savings. Some Republican lawmakers have called the legislation a political ploy, saying they cannot support the final legislation unless the restored $6 billion is offset somewhere else in the budget.
Pryor’s staff stressed that even without the pension cuts, the deficit is still cut by $16 billion in the budget.
“Instead of working against each other, let’s work together to get this done,” Pryor said in his Senate speech. “Supporting our men and women in uniform is not a partisan issue, it’s an American issue.”
Several Republicans said on the Senate floor Monday that Congress has an obligation to repeal the pension cuts but is also responsible for reducing the national debt.
They said they allowed the measure to advance for now with the hope that Democratic leaders will allow amendments to the bill so that spending cuts can be added to offset the $6 billion.
Republican members want to raise the money by making it harder for people working in the U.S. illegally to claim a child tax credit.
Arkansas’ junior senator, Republican John Boozman, voted yes Monday. He said before the vote that fixing the veterans’ problem is more important than figuring out how it will be funded. He said the House can pass a bill that pays for the pension increases, and then the two versions can be reconciled.
“It was very much an inappropriate place to get the money from in the first place,” Boozman said. “It simply needs to be fixed.”
The national Republican Party has targeted Pryor’s seat as one of six it must win to take majority control of the Senate. Pryor’s co-sponsors are all either facing or are threatened with tough re-election fights.
The campaign of Pryor’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, said Monday’s vote was a gimmick and pointed to articles published over the weekend by Congress-focused news media that said Democrats are intentionally putting forward proposals they know Republicans will not agree to so that Democrats can criticize GOP candidates during the 2014 election for voting no.
On Monday, Cotton’s campaign manager Justin Brasell, demanded that Pryor apologize.
“Asking America’s veterans to shoulder the consequences of Washington’s out-of-control spending is bad enough, but playing political games on this issue is beyond the pale. Sen. Pryor should apologize to every man and woman who has served our country for this tawdry gimmick, for having voted for these cuts in the first place,” Brasell said.
Cotton and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Arkansas, voted against the federal budget in January, which funds every government agency from the Internal Revenue Service to the Pentagon. They said they couldn’t accept the cuts to veterans’ pensions.
U.S. Reps. Steve Womack and Tim Griffin, both Arkansas Republicans, joined Boozman and Pryor in voting for the budget, saying it wasn’t perfect but avoided a government shutdown.
Pryor’s campaign manager pointed to a statement on Cotton’s website in 2011 that said he would support two Republican budget plans that eliminated all cost-of-living adjustments for veterans before age 62.
“For all of his phony political games, the fact remains that Congressman Cotton has supported devastating cuts to veterans benefits by backing a reckless plan that fully eliminates a cost-of-living adjustment for military pensions.Cotton’s fellow House Republicans from Arkansas, Steve Womack and Tim Griffin, are both veterans who supported the bipartisan budget agreement, and they might have something to say about Cotton’s cheap attacks.”
CQ Rollcall, which primarily focuses on congressional reporting, wrote in an article Monday that both political parties will try to use votes to embarrass the opposition in an election year.
“Such a vote is neither unprecedented nor unique to one party,” it states. “With so little ever getting done legislatively in an election year, a vote like the one slated for Monday is a typical pawn in the political chess match leaders play in the dome while operatives outside of it look for campaign ad and flyer fodder.”
Two political action committees advocating for veterans have gotten involved in the past month.
Concerned Veterans of America, a PAC in Arlington, Va., has blanketed Arkansas airwaves in the past few weeks with an ad thanking Cotton for voting against the budget that included the pension cuts. The ad said Congress had “betrayed” veterans.
Another group, VoteVets. org, a PAC in Portland, Ore., has urged Congress to pass Pryor’s bill and praised him for “taking the lead.”
Pryor urged supporters in an email Sunday to sign a Vote-Vets.org petition encouraging the Senate to reverse the cuts. Pryor spokesman Amy Schlesing said about 10,000 people have signed the petition so far.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 02/11/2014