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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 29, 2015 09:22 AM |
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| From: | Representative Jaret Gibbons |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Judicial Discretion – Dividing Military Retirement Income in Divorce Proceedings |
| In the near future, I plan to re-introduce legislation – House Bill 1192 – to amend Title 23 (Domestic Relations) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to allow for judicial discretion when determining the divisibility of military retirement income in divorce proceedings. Under the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act of 1982, the federal government extends the right to states to determine whether military retirement income is classified as marital property. While standard pensions are viewed as divisible in all fifty states, per U.S. Department of Defense policy, military retirement income is not a pension; it is reduced pay for reduced services while in the Retired Reserves. My legislation would specify that the court may treat disposable retired pay or retainer pay, payable to a military member, either as property solely of the member or as property of the member and the spouse of the member. If the court determines that the disposable retired pay or retainer pay of a military member is marital property, the court will be required to calculate the amount consistent with the rank, pay grade and length of service of the member at the time of separation. Given the clear differences between military retirement pay and traditional pensions, the treatment of this pay as property should be considered more carefully by the judicial branch on a case-by-case basis to determine if the pay should be divided between the military member and the former spouse. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation. ** Last Session’s co-sponsors included the following representatives: D. COSTA, KORTZ, STEVENSON, BENNINGHOFF, and JAMES |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB1612