U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has ordered the Pentagon to stop seeking repayments of enlistment bonuses given to California National Guard members who served overseas.
His decision comes in the wake of angry reaction from members of Congress who demanded he relieve the burden on the Guard members. And the White House said President Barack Obama has warned the Defense Department not to “nickel and dime” service members who were victims of fraud by overzealous recruiters.
In a statement issued during a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels, Carter said effort to collect reimbursement should stop “as soon as is practical” and will continue until a process to help the troops deal with the problem is worked out.
The House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday called for the Pentagon to immediately suspend efforts to recover enlistment bonuses paid to thousands of soldiers in California.
“When those Californians answered the call to duty” to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, “they earned more from us than bureaucratic bungling and false promises,” Ryan said. He urged the Pentagon to suspend collection efforts until “Congress has time … to protect service members from lifelong liability for DOD’s mistakes.”
The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that the Pentagon has demanded that some soldiers repay their enlistment bonuses after audits revealed overpayments by the California National Guard. Recruiters under pressure to fill ranks and hit enlistment goals at the height of the two wars improperly offered bonuses of $15,000 or more to soldiers who re-enlisted, the newspaper reported.
Defense Department spokesman Maj. Jamie Davis said an audit more than five years in the making concluded last month that 1,100 soldiers improperly received bonuses for which they were ineligible. Another 5,400 soldiers had erroneous paperwork that could have made them ineligible.
Luckily, lawmakers stood up for our soldiers, and these debts will be absolved.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Well, of course the Government suspended their attempts to collect. That situation would not set well with California voters and Hillary is counting on that state. If she gets in, I bet collections will resume.
Those assholes should be fired immediately. America doesn’t need those kind of people. We the taxpayers pay them big time to be idiots. We should be more selective of who we give power to in the pentagon and the entire government. The military leadership is in need of looking into. Needs house-cleaning. Get rid of the cobwebs. Replace some of those idiots with more inteligent enlisteds.
Those idiots must go. Their stupidity is always in the news. Enough already!
ITS NOT OUR SOLDIERS WHO ARE OVERPAID, ITS THIS RIDICULOUS GOVERNMENT WHO ARE OVERPAID,LETS TAKE HALF OF THR SALARIES BACK OR MORE. TALK ABOUT A SHIP OF FOOLS.
i THINK THE PENTAGON FINALLY WOKE UP AND FIGURED OUT THE MONEY THEY SKIMMED OFF EACH SOLDIER WILL HAVE TO BE RETURNED SO THEY CHANGED THR MIND TO KEEP FROM BEING CAUGHT
They damn well better halt asking our vets to pay back money they more than earned. It’s their mistake …let them come up with the money. Oh, I know , how about taking it out of foreign aid, or welfare for “immigrants” fund, or better yet!, take it out of the retirement fund of every Senator and Congress persons’ pension? They sure as hell haven’t earned it!
I will go along with that plan. Congress people make to much as it is for not doing anything.
When they first came into that position, they were only to be there maybe a month or so. Then they returned back home to go to their regular work. History tells you that, just have to read it. That was classified as only a temporary job to begin with. Not only that, United States Government is to rule only a 10 miles radius, that only goes to the border of Maryland and not across the Potomac River into Virginia. Since all 50 states are sovereign states, anything that is done within that 10 mile radius, means only that is for the people within that 10 mile radius. I am glad I don’t live within that 10 mile radius. They are responsible for paying their bills.
The men and women in the National Guards that were sent to a foreign war, deserve more than what they were paid. They put there LIFE on line for this country. These National Guard members most have full time jobs in the private sector. When called up for duty, they must leave there full time jobs for duty, receiving a lot less than what there regular pay check brings home. How many people in government and congress have military duty in their life?
Thank you Jesus!!!!!! how dare they do that to our soldiers the ones in the WH and all the rest are over paid
It looks to me to be a second attempt by Obama to create a rebellion, the first being the bathroom law, to justify gun confiscation.
How much salary increase of President Obama for corrupting this country and how much did Hillary Clinton receive as Secretary of State after allowing Ambassador Stevens and others to be killed in Bhengazi? Yet the government has the nerve to ask for the overpayments of these great soldiers who gambled their lives to protect this country. What a shame!
What about the captain that got a 2nd mortgage to repay this? Will they pay off his mortgage?