According to an article in USA Today, the Pentagon is five months overdue in paying stop-lossed military their due bonuses.
The law requires that the government pay monthly bonuses of up to $500 to soldiers forced to remain on active duty after their enlistment period ends.
Congress added $72 million to their plan to pay for the bonuses. Currently, there are nearly 13,000 soldiers under the Army's stop-loss orders, and the number is only getting higher.
The money was to be paid out to the soldiers after the Pentagon submitted a plan outlining how the payments would be made, but a spokesperson for the Senate Appropriations Committee said that no plan has been provided.
"It is unacceptable that the Department of Defense has failed to construct a plan for issuing these payments," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged the delay and said that the Pentagon is working on a plan to start the payments.
To read the full article, visit USA Today.
