Representative Walter Jones (N.C.) recently introduced legislation (H.R. 454) authorizing surviving spouses (or other designated survivors) to retain the full month’s retired pay for the month in which a military retiree passes away. “The Military Retiree Survivor Comfort Act” was introduced at the FRA’s request and seeks to ensure survivors are not unfairly burdened when overpayments occur.

Jones’ proposal would allow survivors to retain the full month’s retired pay for any month in which the retiree was alive for at least 24 hours. To offset the cost associated with this proposal, a provision of the bill would delay the first Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuity payment until the month after the retiree dies.

Retirees are urged to use the FRA Action Center (action.fra.org/action-center) to ask their Representative to support this legislation.