Released 12/18/16 at WTOP | Tags: Congressional Legislation
For some veterans who were shortchanged millions by the government, it took an act of Congress to finally get the money they were owed. “It literally takes an act of Congress to try to right this historic wrong that was done to them,” said Thomas Moore, a lawyer with the nonprofit National Veterans Legal Services Program. For several decades, the government knowingly and wrongfully taxed the severance packages of these veterans who suffered service-ending combat disabilities, Moore said. “We have estimated that it’s about 14,000 veterans, and the total amount taken from these veterans we’ve estimated as about $78 million,” Moore said.