| Issue 1 |
Benefits Busters Back At It?
Senior House leaders reportedly are considering a push for legislation this fall to cap spending on so-called "entitlement programs" - which by Congress' definition include military retired pay, survivor benefits, veterans benefits and TRICARE For Life. |
| Issue 2 |
BRAC Surgery.
It's crunch time for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which began voting this week on cutting or keeping the specific installations on the Defense Department's proposed base closure list. The first decisions established that the Commission isn't just a rubber stamp for the Pentagon |
| Issue 3 |
Key Benefits Panels Get MOAA Input.
MOAA's Director of Government Relations will testify today before the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission and next Wednesday before the Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation. |
Issue 1 Benefits Busters Back At It
Last year, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) introduced legislation aimed at imposing automatic and arbitrary cuts in so-called entitlements spending programs when their cost rose above certain relatively modest levels. Under government accounting definitions, military retirement, survivor benefits, veterans' benefits and TRICARE For Life fall in this category, along with programs ranging from student loans to Medicare.
MOAA and many others, from the Disabled American Veterans to AARP, opposed an effort by Rep. Hensarling and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) to include such a mechanism in a budget bill last year, and the House of Representatives rejected the proposal.
Now, Hill sources tell us, House Majority Leader Tom Delay is consulting with a group of colleagues (including Reps. Hensarling and Kirk) about considering some kind of budget enforcement bill this fall.
Hensarling's proposed legislation (introduced this year as H.R. 2290) would require automatic cuts in selected programs if total entitlements spending growth over the previous year exceeds that due to increases in inflation and population - about 2.4% per year.
But its cutback formula would impose disproportional cuts on selected programs. Social Security would be exempt, as would Medicare Part A (hospitalization) -- but not Part B (doctor bills). Federal civilian retirement would be exempt from automatic cuts, but military retirement and survivor benefits, veterans' benefits, and TRICARE For Life would not.
Because Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the national debt will grow far faster than inflation, cuts in non-exempt programs would have to be far bigger. H.R. 2290 would let Congress elect to cut any entitlement program but Social Security in order to avoid the "doomsday" automatic cuts.
We think Congress is unlikely to enact a plan that draconian, but some such mechanism isn't out of the question. Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit control legislation passed in 1985, which worked on a similar principle, forced substantial delays in military retired pay cost-of-living adjustments for several years in the mid-1990s.
We would hope most members of Congress are more sensitive to military benefit issues these days (especially with a war on) than in the mid-1990s, but history (and current Pentagon rhetoric about the rising cost of military benefits) makes it clear that sentiments can change in a hurry, so this potential threat can't be discounted.
We've posted H.R. 2290 on MOAA's Web site as a bill we oppose, along with a suggested letter to House members to let members and others register their concerns (http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills/?bill=7968841). (H.R. 2290 can be found at the bottom of the bills list, under "Veterans and Other Issues").
In the meantime, MOAA and the Coalition will keep a watchful eye and generate additional updates and alerts if any such initiative takes shape on the Hill.
Issue 2 BRAC Surgery
After long months of hearings, installation visits, and sometimes bitter public debates, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission is getting down to vote on specific basing actions recommended by the Defense Department.
As this update was being prepared, the Commission had endorsed Pentagon proposals to close Fort Monmouth, NJ; Fort Monroe, VA; Forts Gillem and McPherson, GA; Pascagoula Naval Station, MS; and NAS Brunswick, ME; and to realign almost 23,000 jobs out of leased office space in Northern Virginia to installations in Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere. Additionally, the Commission agreed to close Walter Reed Medical Center in favor of expanding medical facilities at Fort Belvoir, VA and Bethesda, MD.
But the Commission denied the Defense Department's plans to close the Groton submarine base in New London, CT; Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, ME; Red River Army Depot, TX and a naval support center in New Orleans.
The Commission's full list of recommendations is to be delivered to the President by Sept. 8. The President must accept or reject the full list. If he rejects it, the BRAC Commission must submit a new list by Oct. 20. If he accepts it, the BRAC plan becomes final unless Congress blocks it within 45 days.
Issue 3 Key Benefits Panels Get MOAA Input
MOAA Director of Government Relations Col. Steve Strobridge (USAF-Ret) is scheduled to testify on concurrent receipt issues before the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission today.
Next Wednesday, Strobridge will be one of three Military Coalition (TMC) witnesses presenting inputs to the Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation (DACMC).
The Disability Commission is reviewing the full range of veterans' disability programs and is scheduled to make recommendations to the President by next August. DACMC owes recommendations to the Secretary of Defense this fall on adjustments to military pay and retirement programs, options to shift more health care costs to military beneficiaries, and modifications to Guard and Reserve personnel and compensation programs to reflect 21st century expectations for the Reserve components.
We'll provide summaries of the two hearings and the text of the MOAA/TMC testimony in next week's legislative update. For more information on the DACMC and the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission, visit http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/dacmc.html or http://vetscommission.org/.
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