“Our legislation addressed and corrected the inequity experienced by the vast majority of military survivors,” Rehberg said. “I’m pleased to say that language has been folded into the final Defense Authorization bill, restoring Survivor Benefit Plan payments to military widows.”

       Crafted from the original bill, the amendment phases out the reduction in benefits in the military Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) with which a vast majority of military survivors faced a reduction from 55% to 35% in their SBP annuities at age 62. The amendment restores payments to surviving spouses over the next 31/2 years.

        “For a long time, I have been concerned that this benefit to military spouses hasn’t measured up to what Congress intended; it’s not what SBP enrollees were promised,” Rehberg explained. “The program is supposed to provide the kind of financial protection military survivors need and deserve. The language added to the National Defense Authorization Act fixes that shortfall.”

       Retirees who were asked to sign up for the program in the 1970s and early 1980s weren’t informed of the drop in benefits after age 62. As a result, large numbers of retirees and survivors feel betrayed by having been asked to sign an irrevocable contract to pay lifetime SBP premiums without being told what annuity level they were actually buying.