Sec. 606. Requirements in connection with suspension of retired pay and retirement annuities
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The Defense Finance and Accounting Service may not suspend the payment to a military retiree or annuitant of retired or retainer pay or an annuity otherwise provided by law until 90 days after the date of the delivery of written notice to such military retiree or annuitant, as applicable, or a designated representative, of the suspension. Each notice of a suspension of payment under paragraph
(1)shall set forth the following: The payment proposed to be suspended. A full description of the basis for the proposed suspension. Notice of the right of the military retiree or annuitant concerned, or a designated representative, to submit matters in response to the proposed suspension. If at the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date of the delivery of a notice of suspension of payment under subsection
(a)the military retiree or annuitant concerned, or a designated representative, has not submitted to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service a response to such notice, the Service may suspend payment as described in such notice. The lack of response of a military retiree, annuitant, or designated representative to a notice under subsection
(a)within the 90-day period described in paragraph
(1)shall not constitute a waiver of the right to submit a response to the suspension of payment proposed in such notice at some date after such period. If a military retiree, annuitant, or designated representative responds to a notice of suspension of payment under subsection
(a)within the 90-day period beginning on the date of delivery of such notice, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service shall, not later than 30 days after the date of receipt of such response— make a final determination of whether the suspension of payment remains warranted; and submit to the military retiree, annuitant, or designated representative a notice of such final determination. The Service may not suspend any payment covered by a response described in paragraph
(1)while taking action with respect to such response pursuant to that paragraph. If the Defense Finance and Accounting Service determines in connection with any suspension of payment provided for pursuant to subsection
(b)or
(c)that the military retiree or annuitant concerned has received any overpayment of any amount to which such suspension of payment relates, the Secretary of Defense may take appropriate action to recover such overpayment. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the Secretary of Defense from immediately suspending payment to a military retiree or annuitant in a case as follows: A case in which the Secretary determines that the initial claim for payment was based upon a fraudulent application. A case in which payment is being diverted to a person ineligible to receive payment due to suspected identity theft or similar criminal act. A case involving immediate termination of retired or retainer pay as a result of a conviction of a criminal offense. Payment may be suspended under this subsection effective upon the date that the Secretary refers the report of the suspected fraud or similar unauthorized payment in question to a law enforcement organization. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall prescribe in regulations a single annual eligibility determination procedure for determinations of eligibility for military retired or retainer pay and survivor annuities in connection with military service as a replacement of the current procedures in connection with the Certificate of Eligibility and Report of Existence for military retirees and annuitants. Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Homeland Security, submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on a process by which notifications of the death of a military retiree or annuitant may be shared among such Secretaries for the purpose of determining the termination of eligibility for benefits administered by such Secretaries. Subsections
(a)through
(e)of this section shall be carried out in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense for purposes of this section. In this section: The term appropriate committees of Congress means— the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate; and the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives. The terms military retiree and annuitant shall have the meaning given such terms in the regulations prescribed pursuant to subsection (h). The term designated representative shall have the meaning given such term in the regulations prescribed pursuant to subsection (h), and shall include a guardian and a trustee of a qualified special needs trust of an annuitant.