Military COLA

Floor Speech

Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I rise to speak on the issue of the military COLA. This is a cost-of-living adjustment for our military retirees. In the budget agreement, the COLA was reduced for military retirees by 1 percent until they reached age 62, and then the COLA is restored. I am opposed to this provision in the budget, and I have since cosponsored legislation to fix it, meaning fully reinstating the COLA for our military retired.

The bill we are considering and voting on later today fixes the COLA problem. It reinstates the COLA in full, and that is good. That is what I want to do, and that is what I believe the vast majority of Members in this body on both sides of the aisle want to do. We should pass the bill, and I believe this afternoon we will.

The bill we have been considering this week fixed the COLA problem and restored the cost-of-living adjustment for our military retirees, but it did not cover the cost of doing so. The cost of the legislation is about $6.8 billion over a 10-year period, which, of course, is the Congressional Budget Office's scoring period. We can cover that cost, and we should. We have the deficit and the debt. We have to address our deficit and debt. We have to make sure we are paying for things, and we can absolutely do that in this case. In fact, we put forward amendments to do just that.

The first amendment I joined in putting forward was one led by Senator Kelly Ayotte, the Senator from New Hampshire. Her amendment fully covers the cost of fixing the COLA. The way it works is it covers the cost by simply requiring that the additional child tax credit statute is properly enforced. I will explain that.

This amendment will require families with children who apply for the additional child tax credit must have Social Security numbers for those children. This is a simple straightforward enforcement provision to ensure the law is followed. Why wouldn't we make sure the law is enforced? After all, I believe that is an important part of our job.

In fact, I also believe the Treasury Department supports this enforcement provision as well, and I would wish to cite from a recent inspector general's report.

In 2011, the Treasury Department's Inspector General reported that individuals who were not authorized to work in the U.S. received billions by claiming the ACTC, and several news investigations found troubling instances of abuse of this tax credit. In just one example, according to a 2012 news report, an undocumented worker in Indiana admitted that his address was used to file tax returns by four other undocumented workers who fraudulently claimed 20 children in total--resulting in tax refunds totaling nearly $30,000.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates this change would save approximately $20 billion over 10 years. That is $20 billion in savings over 10 years, which obviously far more than covers the $6.8 billion cost of the COLA fix we are putting forward. Clearly that works.

I understand we have not been able to get bipartisan agreement on this pay-for, so we need to find something we can agree on because we need both Republicans and Democrats to pass this legislation to fix the COLA, and that is why I have since offered another pay-for. It is a simple 1-page amendment that provides a pay-for for restoring the cost-of-living adjustment for our military retirees. What it does is it simply extends the provisions of the Budget Control Act--the budget we passed--for one more year, from 2023 to 2024.

I am pleased to say we will be voting on my amendment this afternoon--not because I have offered the amendment but, rather, because the leadership has agreed to offer the House version of the COLA fix. The legislation we will be voting on this afternoon has the pay-for I have just outlined. It is not identical to the amendment I have submitted, but it is very close to it. It ensures our military retirees will receive their much-deserved retirement.

I have urged my Republican colleagues in our caucus to fix this problem, and I have urged my Democratic colleagues on the Senate floor to fix this problem. I believe we will fix the cost-of-living adjustment in a bipartisan way today and restore it for our military retirees. This amendment will make sure we pay for it so we are not increasing the deficit or the debt.

As a former Governor and now as a Senator, I have had the honor and privilege to work with our military men and women. I have been to Iraq and Afghanistan. I have gotten the calls when one of our heroes makes the ultimate sacrifice. I know they put it all on the line for us.

Today I ask my fellow Senators to join with me and vote for our men and women in uniform. We need to fix the COLA for our military retired. We should support those great men and women who wear the uniform and honor and protect us and serve this Nation in the cause of liberty and freedom with their dedicated service.

Join with me and support them and vote for this legislation.

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor.

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