February 8, 2008
| MOAA Tells Congress FY09 Priorities: MOAA's Government Relations director testified before Congress this week on health care, concurrent receipt, SBP, and active duty, Guard and Reserve personnel and compensation needs. |
| Key Committees Scrutinize Defense Budget. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman ADM Mike Mullen, USN, were on Capitol Hill Tuesday to roll out the $515 billion FY2009 Pentagon budget. |
| Tax Rebate Covers Retirees, Disabled. It took two weeks, but House and Senate leaders worked out disagreements that threatened to derail tax rebates for some disabled vets and survivors. Check out who will get how much, and when. |
| Enlisted Leaders Talk Quality-of-Life. At a budget hearing on February 7, military senior enlisted advisors thanked House appropriators for improvements to quality of life programs, but said challenges still exist. |
MOAA Tells Congress FY09 Priorities
Invited to a March 28 meeting by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) to discuss veterans' needs, leaders from MOAA and other military associations were pleased to hear a total of 17 Democratic senators in attendance say they're giving this top priority.
Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI), Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and a host of others highlighted the billions of dollars added to the VA budget for FY2007 and FY2008 to address health care and other needs.
"The Nation and the Congress may be divided on the war," said Levin, "but we're united on supporting our troops and supporting our veterans."
An hour of dialogue between the association leaders and senators addressed pressing needs in a wide range of areas, including:
- more accurate budget planning
- cutting red tape for wounded members and families trying to navigate military and VA health and disability systems
- faster and more sensitive processing of VA and military disability evaluations
- correction of disadvantages experienced by returning Guard and Reserve members
- long-term planning for trauma-related needs of wounded members and families
Immediately following the meeting, MOAA President VADM Norb Ryan, Jr. (USN-Ret) had an extended discussion with Armed Services Committee Chairman Levin, highlighting additional needs for an improved pay raise for overstressed troops, MOAA's suggestion to establish a Joint DoD/VA Seamless Transition Office responsible for improving coordination of the two departments' health and disability systems, and the urgent need for additional progress in resolving concurrent receipt and Survivor Benefit Plan inequities.
Key Committees Scrutinize Defense Budget
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen (USN) testified on the FY2009 defense budget this week before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
The majority of their testimonies and subsequent questioning focused on the magnitude of the $515 billion budget submission. Both witnesses stressed the need to establish a floor of four percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the defense budget for the foreseeable future to prevent "disarming ourselves" as done at the end of WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and the Cold War.
Both committees expressed concern over the lack of any cost estimate for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the defense budget request. When pressed, Secretary Gates estimated the additional cost could be $170 billion, but emphasized that the final number could be different.
Other topics of MOAA interest that were addressed in the hearing included:
TRICARE fees - several committee leaders, including Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Ike Skelton (D-MO), attacked the department's proposal to increase health care fees for retirees under age 65. The proposal closely tracks the recommendations of the DoD Task Force on the Future of Military Health Care, except that it does not propose an enrollment fee for TRICARE For Life.
Troop tour lengths - the witnesses reemphasized the need to return to 12-month deployment lengths to reduce the stress on the force. Admiral Mullen stated that the ground forces are not broken, but can break.
Family support - Admiral Mullen said the budget proposes broadening federal hiring preferences for military spouses, expanding child care benefits, and allowing service members the opportunity to transfer their Montgomery GI Bill benefit to a spouse or children.
Wounded warriors - Senator Akaka (D-HI) discussed the cooperative efforts between the VA and DoD to streamline the transition of wounded warriors and solicited Secretary Gates' thoughts of creating a permanent joint DoD/VA office. The Secretary said he's "very open to this…the bureaucracy should be the ally of the soldier, not the adversary."
Tax Rebate Covers Retirees, Disabled
After the Senate missed passing its version of the economic stimulus package by a single vote, congressional leaders did some-last minute horse trading and approved a revised package of tax rebates on February 7.
The Senate wanted to dramatically expand the House-passed package by increasing maximum eligible incomes and including disabled retirees and some military widows who have no taxable income.
They didn't succeed on including people with higher incomes, but won inclusion of those without taxable incomes at a reduced rebate level, as follows:
- People with taxable wages, investment income, or retirement income in 2007 will receive rebates of up to $600 for individuals ($1,200 for couples)
- Those with only nontaxable income of at least $3,000 will receive $300 ($600 for couples)
- Anyone qualifying for a check will receive an additional $300 for each dependent child under age 17
Full payments will go only to single people with less than $75,000 in adjusted gross income ($150,000 for couples). Rebates will be gradually reduced for those with higher incomes, and people making over $87,000 ($174,000 for couples) won't get any rebate.
The President supports the final plan and is expected to sign it into law shortly. But don't expect any check until at least May, since the IRS will have to process the 2007 tax returns before it can determine who qualifies for what rebate amount.
Enlisted Leaders Talk Quality-of-Life
Senior enlisted advisors from the active and reserve components held nothing back in Feb. 7 testimony at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs hearing on quality of life issues.
The top NCOs of the Army and Marine Corps said they're very concerned about stress on the force and on families. "Families' stress could be the most brittle part of the readiness equation," said Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlton Kent.
All of the witnesses said military families give high ratings to the quality of military medical care, but access to health care, housing and child care still falls short of families' needs, despite recent progress. They cited frustrations that shortfalls in military medical providers reduce service by military treatment facilities and force many to go outside the system to get care. They said aging facilities and equipment are also important morale factors.
Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Rodney McKinley said it concisely, "[The troops] should never have to choose between serving and taking care of their families."
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