Ash Carter: National Guard to Suspend Collection of Bonuses

Ash Carter addressed the California National Guard bonus issue Wednesday by suspending attempts to collect reimbursements from improperly awarded enlistment bonuses given to some of its members 10 years after the money was awarded.

Attempts to get National Guard members to give back the bonuses were roundly criticized by veterans, their families, and politicians.

"I have ordered the Defense Finance and Accounting Service to suspend all efforts to collect reimbursement from affected California National Guard members, effective as soon as is practical," Carter, the secretary of defense, said in a statement, according to CNN.

"There is no more important responsibility for the Department of Defense than keeping faith with our people. While some soldiers knew or should have known they were ineligible for benefits they were claiming, many others did not," the statement continued.

The Pentagon had pushed to reclaimed what it charged were excess bonuses from almost 10,000 California National Guard members, the Los Angeles Times reported. Some of the soldiers, who had served multiple combat deployments, had been ordered to repay the bonuses plus interest.

Carter has ordered a review of the program and charged his staff with developing a process to resolve the cases by July 1, 2017, USA Today reported.

"Hundreds of affected guard members in California have sought and been granted relief," Carter said, according to USA Today. "But that process has simply moved too slowly and in some cases imposed unreasonable burdens on service members."

Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, the chief of the National Guard Bureau and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in a Department of Defense release issued Wednesday that issues about over-payment of the bonus first came to light in 2008.

"The ensuing investigation found that something was amiss in the bonus program," Lengyel said in the defense department statement. "Some of it was reenlistment bonuses; some of it was school loan repayment programs and other incentives that keep people in the National Guard."

Lengyel said in the statement that the vast majority of guard members had no ill intent in accepting the money, adding that they will look at the bonuses given on a case-by-case basis.

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