Letter to the Hon. James Inhofe, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the Hon. Jack Reed, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the Hon. Adam Smith, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and the Hon. Mac Thornberry, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee - Senators Jones and Collins Lead Colleagues in New Push to Repeal Military Widow's Tax

Letter

Dear Chairman Inhofe, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Reed, and Ranking Member Thornberry:

We write to ask you to include House-passed provisions which repeal the Survivor Benefit Plan -- Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (SBP-DIC) offset, the so-called "widow's tax," in the final National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (NDAA) conference agreement. The widow's tax prevents more than 67,000 surviving spouses of servicemen and women who die of service related causes from receiving the full SBP annuities they deserve.

As a result of the widow's tax, tens of thousands of surviving spouses are prevented from collecting the full insurance benefits from the Department of Defense for which their military retiree spouses paid because those benefits are offset by the DIC payments they receive from the Department of Veterans Affairs. On average, this offset means that surviving spouses are denied more than $11,000 per year in SBP benefits. In response to this unfairness, thousands of military widows have become grassroots advocates, working in many cases for more than 30 years to right this wrong for their own families and the entire military family community.

There has never before been more bipartisan support in Congress for repealing the SBP-DIC offset. Currently, there are 75 co-sponsors of legislation to repeal the widow's tax in the Senate and 371 co-sponsors in the House. Numerous military and veterans advocacy groups have joined us in this effort.

We have an obligation to make sure that we are taking care of our military families who have sacrificed so much. This problem goes back decades, but this year we can finally solve it once and for all. It is our time to do our duty not only to support the brave men and women of our military, but also to support their families.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.