About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

Testimony of Robert F. Hale, before the Military Compensation Subcommittee of the Military Retirement Accounting 1 (October 1977)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo9427 and id is 1 raw text is: Testimony of Robert F. Hale Before the Military Compensation Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee on Military Retirement Accounting October 5, 1977 Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I appreciate the opportunity to testify this morning on methods of accounting for military retirement costs. As you know, the current method of accounting for military retirement in the federal budget is quite simple. The defense budget includes the outlays actually paid to those who are already retired. This is the only place where military retirement costs appear in the federal budget. However, it is likely that in the next few months the Executive Branch will recommend major changes in the way the federal budget accounts for military retirement costs. These accounting changes will not affect anybody's retirement benefits. But they should Improve the way defense manages its manpower, increase the visibility of savings from retirement reform, and bring more consistency to accounting in the federal budget. In matters of budget presentation, we believe it is appropriate for CBO to state a clear view. For the reasons cited, we believe these accounting changes should be implemented. What I would like to do this morning is to first describe these accounting changes to you. Then I'll discuss what advan- tages the changes offer, as well as some problems associated with them. I will also show you how they will affect the costs in the federal budget. If I may, Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit as a prepared statement a CBO report done last spring which describes these changes in detail. Then in my testimony this morning, I will cover the key points of that report. There are three accounting changes that are likely to be proposed for military retirement. The first change would transfer the Defense Retired Pay appropriation out of the defense budget. The appropriation would probably be transferred to an entirely new budget function created to house the costs of the federal retire- ment systems. As I have said, this Defense Retired Pay appropri- ation is the one that is now in the defense budget to pay for the costs of those already retired. So the effect of this change will be that the defense budget will no longer include the costs of those already retired.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most