Washington, D.C.– Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today called on all soldiers and veterans who performed extended service from Sept. 11, 2001 through Sept. 30, 2009, to apply for stop loss payments provided by Congress through legislation in 2009. Service members whose duties were extended under stop loss orders in Iraq and Afghanistan have until Oct. 21 to apply for retroactive pay.

Troops eligible for retroactive pay will receive $500 a month for each month their service was extended. The Defense Department estimates that while 145,400 troops are eligible, only 58,000 claims have been paid out so far.

“These soldiers and veterans went through tremendous hardships, both in combat and in being separated from their families for extended periods, and they deserve all the support we can give them,” Grijalva said. “All eligible troops should submit their claims so they can receive the pay they earned. I want to make sure that Arizona veterans and their loved ones are taken care of when they return from extended combat duty, and veterans themselves have an important role to play in making sure that happens.”

Grijalva voted in favor of the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which extended the stop loss payments originally created by the War Supplemental Appropriations Act. The original law established retroactive stop loss special pay and allows troops whose service was involuntarily extended during the dates in question to file claims and receive retroactive pay if eligible. The average benefit is $3,800.

For more information, or to submit a claim, visit http://www.defense.gov/stoploss.