Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, December 18, 2001 8:29 AM Military Unique Issues (Public Law 107-42) I recommend that the Department of Justice exempt these unique military payments from the category off "collateral source compensation". (1) Any burial benefit or gratuity awarded by the Veterans Administration ("VA") or any death gratuity paid to a uniformed service member by their respective service. Eligibility for VA benefits is contingent upon service in the Armed Forces of the United States. Although they are called "gratuities" they should be viewed as "deferred compensation" and exempted from consideration as "collateral compensation". (2) Servicemen's Group Life Insurance (SGLI) Payments. Under this act insurance payments reduce the amount of compensation. It is necessary to note some critical differences between civilian insurance and SGLI. Unlike civilian insurance policies SGLI has legal restrictions on who can obtain coverage, is neither term or whole life and has no cash value. Additionally, separating or retiring service members cannot retain SGLI coverage after they separate from their respective component. Unlike the vast majority of civilian policies SGLI benefits are paid when death occurs as a result of combat, acts of God or acts of war. These differences clearly distinguish the SGLI program from civilian policies. It may be more accurate to view SGLI as "risk sharing among a closed population" than as a traditional civilian "insurance" policy. (3) Survivor Benefits Plan (SBP)- Under some circumstances the survivors of some uniformed service members may be eligible for SBP. Any benefits collected under SBP should NOT be considered collateral source compensation. If SBP is paid it is an indicator that the service member was eligible to receive retirement pay which is not considered to be a pension. If the qualifying factor is retirement eligibility than SBP payments should not be treated as a "pension" since retirement pay is treated as reduced compensation rather than a pension. (4) If SBP is considered "collateral compensation" then the special master should be compelled to pay the difference between the current calculated values and the SBP value at mandatory retirement. [which is by either time in service or age) Military peculiar losses: (1) When calculating economic loss the special master should be required to calculate and compensate for the economic value of VA pensions or disability payments being paid to any veteran. The value of that economic loss should take into account the difference between the projected life span of the veteran minus their age multiplied by the monthly payment. If the surviving family qualifies for a pension based upon the death of the veteran the economic loss would be the difference between the two values. This value should account for projected annual inflation over the projected life of the veteran. (2) Insert language that acknowledges service members have second careers when we retire. Federal law limits the length of our careers and imposes a maximum age limit. This means there are two components that must be calculated to accurately identify the value of a service member. A. Military compensation to a retirement date + military retirement pay. B. The value of a second career. Recommend you insert language that (1) allows DoD to submit a statement that identifies the compensation the service member would have been paid and an annual value for the retirement pay the individual would have drawn after achieving retirement eligibility. This value must allow for promotion. Just because a victim dies as an E4 it doesn't mean their value should be determined using the actuary age for their sex minus their age times E4 base pay. Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-18 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA002161.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-18