WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress is revisiting its decision to cut annual cost-of living adjustments to pensions for most working-age military retirees in the wake of outrage from veterans groups and others.
The budget agreement approved this month reduced those adjustments by 1 percent.
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says it was wrong to single out military retirees in the effort to reduce the deficit. Not a single member of the committee voiced disagreement.
The COLA change is scheduled to take effect at the end of 2015.
Pentagon officials asked Congress not to make any more changes to military pensions until a commission completes an extensive review of compensation and retirement benefits. That report is due February 2015.