washingtonscene
MOAA’s Col. Bob Norton, USA-Ret., focused on three areas: prompt implemen- tation of new support services and benefits for caregivers, female warriors, and veter- ans in rural areas, including National Guard and Reserve veterans; veterans’ employ- ment needs; and survivor benefit issues. MOAA strongly supported the 2010 enactment of stipends, training, health care, and other services for caregivers of severely wounded warriors. The VA still is working on rules to implement the law. Norton urged the committees to hold hearings to ensure the VA promptly fields the new benefits and specifically urged eli- gible caregivers’ immediate enrollment in VA health care (CHAMPVA). Worsening unemployment among vet-
erans was a prevailing theme during the hearing. Norton said early intervention before, during, and after separation is the key to successful readjustment. MOAA recommends the VA and DoD do more to educate separating veterans on their Post- 9/11 GI Bill options, including new job- training authority that begins Aug. 1. Norton also recommended enactment
of “real incentives” for employers to hire veterans, including a tax credit bill sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). MOAA also recommended:
• paying special attention to the unique needs of female servicemembers as they enter the VA system; • modernizing the disability claims sys- tem through upgrades in technology, training, and quality control; • raising the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation rate for qualifying survi- vors to equal 55 percent of the disability compensation payable to a 100-percent- disabled veteran; • authorizing Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits for surviving spouses of servicemembers who
died on active duty during the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts; and • strengthening reemployment and finan- cial protections for activated guardmem- bers and reservists and their families.
Credit Where F
Credit Is Due Glitch penalizes Guard, Reserve.
or years, MOAA argued guard- members and reservists needed a fairer retirement deal — in recogni- tion that our country now requires drilling guardmembers and reservists to spend 20 percent to 25 percent of their working lives on active duty. Of necessity, that means guardmembers
and reservists can’t build the kind of civil- ian retirement equity the creators of the current reserve retirement system assumed when that system was built in the 1940s. In many cases, their absence from civil- ian employers because of repeated active duty tours costs them promotions, seniority, and retirement credit. Others return from military service to find their civilian jobs have been downsized, outsourced, or elimi- nated, regardless of supposedly guaranteed statutory reemployment protections. Congress took action to help in the
FY 2008 Defense Authorization Act, au- thorizing a three-month reduction in the normal reserve retirement age for every 90 days called to active duty (i.e., someone called up for a year should be able to draw retired pay at age 59 versus the normal age 60; one called up for two years could do so at age 58, etcetera). MOAA was upset when, to save money, legislators made that rule prospective — crediting only service after the date the law was signed (Jan. 28, 2008), while denying any credit for hundreds of thousands of
MAY 2011 MILITARY OFFICER 35
Bills Would Fix Reserve Glitch H.R. 181, introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson (R- S.C.), would authorize early retirement credit for all activated service since Sept. 11, 2001. As this column went to press, there were indica- tions Pentagon lawyers might have found a possible solution to the “fiscal year” glitch.
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