Proposed bill to allow Exchange and Commissary to all disabl

Two legislative bills have been introduced into Congress to:

To amend title 10, United States Code, to extend military commissary and exchange store privileges to veterans with a compensable service-connected disability and to their dependents.

H.R. 1477 and H.R. 2495 are identical. This was attempted in the last congress with H.R. 4121, but was dropped since nothing ever happened with it.

You can read the full text of this bill here.

I'm all for it - but to be honest, I don't think shopping at Exchange and Commissaries are any great benefit. It is very rarely that I ever find anything at either one that isn't just as inexpensive, or less, at one of the big discount stores or grocery stores.

I've always found the commissary less expensive than most stores around the area. Right, some of the big discount stores do match or maybe save a little on some stuff -- but who needs 20 rolls of TP, or a six-pack of peas instead of one can, or a three-pack loaf of bread so two can go stale. Seems to when camping or living in an RV, we need space -- and I like the convenience of the commissary even if the price just matched.

And, would rather keep what profit there is from sales on-base, than send it to another country. Commissary also employs local folks, and military family members as well. Have no problem with all DAV's using it either -- we all paid a price for our country.

The commissary definitely saves me money. It should be open to DAV's, it's the least we can do for them.

I'm wondering who this would affect, if you retire from active duty with a 30% or higher disability rating you receive a retired ID and a pension. The retired ID gives you base privileges anyway.

Really the only people this would affect would be those that receive a disability rating from the VA long after they have left the service and in a lot of cases forgotten what services are even available on base. It would be a nice gesture, but IOM not many people would take advantage of it.

The following definitions of ?veteran? and ?service-connected? would seem to indicate that anyone who served, even if only a few hours, was ?injured? and subsequently discharged will, under this bill be granted full, unlimited access to the BX and Commissary. As someone else stated, we find few, if any items in the BX that can not be found downtown for the same/less. We do like the commissary prices, however. Regarding the bill ? I really have no opinion, either pro or con.

TITLE 38 > PART I > CHAPTER 1 > ? 101
? 101. Definitions

(2) The term ?veteran? means a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released there from under conditions other than dishonorable.

(16) The term ?service-connected? means, with respect to disability or death, that such disability was incurred or aggravated, or that the death resulted from a disability incurred or aggravated, in line of duty in the active military, naval, or air service.