Jason Perry
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A Great Victory for Wounded Warriors!
The end of the year has brought great news for Wounded Warriors and those challenging erroneous military personnel decisions. Congress has done the right thing and removed a provision of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that would have severely limited the rights of military members and veterans to challenge erroneous decisions in Federal Court.
You may recall that I wrote about the offensive provision of the NDAA in my earlier article, "Congress Set to Rob Wounded Warriors." In a nutshell, the law as originally written would have forced those appealing military personnel decisions to file a claim before their branches Board for Correction of Military Records prior to suing in Federal Court. The consequences of this would have meant that the time to file an appeal would be greatly limited and if the applicant waited more than 3 years, the military could deny the application just on that basis alone. The Courts would have been stripped of jurisdiction to review the decision based on "late filing" no matter how wrong the underlying decision was. Effectively, this would have reduced the 6 years now available to file a lawsuit in most cases to four years (there was another provision making an appeal from the BCMR untimely if not filed within a year of the decision), and would have allowed the military to reject a great many cases with little analysis or any reason whatsoever. This would have been a national shame and would have deprived countless thousands (over time, tens of thousands or more) of their rightful benefits.
I do not know what made Congress see the light. What I can tell is that the law signed by President Obama today contained no such language- the entire offensive section was dropped from the 2012 NDAA. (Here is a link to the law). It looks like this was done by the December 12, 2011, conference report (page 83). The earlier versions of the bill, passed by the House and the Senate, still contained the troublesome provisions. As late as Dec. 1, 2011, it looked like Wounded Warriors were going to fact further roadblocks in getting their rightful benefits.
However it happened, kudos to Congress for addressing the concerns about the bill and fixing the problem. It is a great way to end the year and I am pleased that Congress did the right thing.
The end of the year has brought great news for Wounded Warriors and those challenging erroneous military personnel decisions. Congress has done the right thing and removed a provision of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that would have severely limited the rights of military members and veterans to challenge erroneous decisions in Federal Court.
You may recall that I wrote about the offensive provision of the NDAA in my earlier article, "Congress Set to Rob Wounded Warriors." In a nutshell, the law as originally written would have forced those appealing military personnel decisions to file a claim before their branches Board for Correction of Military Records prior to suing in Federal Court. The consequences of this would have meant that the time to file an appeal would be greatly limited and if the applicant waited more than 3 years, the military could deny the application just on that basis alone. The Courts would have been stripped of jurisdiction to review the decision based on "late filing" no matter how wrong the underlying decision was. Effectively, this would have reduced the 6 years now available to file a lawsuit in most cases to four years (there was another provision making an appeal from the BCMR untimely if not filed within a year of the decision), and would have allowed the military to reject a great many cases with little analysis or any reason whatsoever. This would have been a national shame and would have deprived countless thousands (over time, tens of thousands or more) of their rightful benefits.
I do not know what made Congress see the light. What I can tell is that the law signed by President Obama today contained no such language- the entire offensive section was dropped from the 2012 NDAA. (Here is a link to the law). It looks like this was done by the December 12, 2011, conference report (page 83). The earlier versions of the bill, passed by the House and the Senate, still contained the troublesome provisions. As late as Dec. 1, 2011, it looked like Wounded Warriors were going to fact further roadblocks in getting their rightful benefits.
However it happened, kudos to Congress for addressing the concerns about the bill and fixing the problem. It is a great way to end the year and I am pleased that Congress did the right thing.