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LEGISLATIVE NEWS THAT AFFECTS YOU Defense Bill News
The House-passed bill includes a 1.6-percent pay raise, modest improvements in payments to survivors, and important limitations on future TRICARE fee hikes.
T
he House approved its version of the $690 billion FY 2012 Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 1540) May
26. In the process, the House approved a provision allowing modest increases in TRICARE Prime enrollment fees and phar- macy copayment changes for FY 2012 but adding important protections against dis- proportional increases in the future. The new provision would allow DoD to
raise the TRICARE Prime enrollment fee by $2.50 a month ($5 for family coverage) and retail pharmacy copayments by $2 or $3, while eliminating copayments for generic drugs in the mail-order pharmacy program. More important, it would put a provi- sion in the law formally recognizing that career servicemembers pay the bulk of their premiums up front and in-kind, through de- cades of service and sacrifice. In recognition of that, the bill specifies the percentage fee increase in future years may not exceed the percentage increase in military retired pay. (See articles on pages 33 and 40.) The bill also proposes increasing the Special Survivor Indemnity Allow- ance (SSIA) payable to those whose Survivor Benefit Plan annuity is reduced because they also receive a survivor an- nuity from the VA for their sponsor’s service-caused death. Under existing law, the current $70 monthly SSIA payment will rise Oct. 1 to $80 and then grow to $90 for FY 2013, $150 for FY 2014, $200 for FY 2015, $275 for FY 2016, and $310 for FY 2017. Unless
the law is changed, the program will ex- pire as of Oct. 1, 2017. The House-passed defense bill would in-
crease the allowance to $163 instead of $90 for FY 2013 and then jump to $200 in FY 2014. It would offer significantly more mod- est increases for FY 2015 through FY 2017 and extend token payments of $9 to $27 a month through FY 2021. The latter small amounts are intended as “placeholders” to establish Congress’ intent to continue the program beyond FY 2017, while seeking ad- ditional funding sources in the meantime. On May 25, MOAA sent an alert urging members to support a defense bill amend- ment by Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) that proposed additional compensation im- provements for 100-percent disabled retir- ees, SSIA-eligible survivors, and called-up guardmembers and reservists. Despite thousands of messages of sup-
port from MOAA members, the Andrews amendment was ruled out of order and ended up not being considered. But the House plowed through more than 150 other amendments before voting to approve the defense bill by a vote of 322 to 96. Other important provisions include: • more specific requirements to measure “dwell time” between deployments; • consolidation and simplification of travel and transportation authorities; • $40 million in impact aid to assist civil- ian schools serving military children, in- cluding those affected by base realignment and closure actions;
JULY 2011 MILITARY OFFICER 31
Stay Tuned The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to begin craſt- ing its version of the defense bill in mid-June. Aſter the full Senate passes its version of the bill, House and Senate leaders will convene a conference committee to work out the differences between the two bills. Typically, that process extends well into the fall — or later.
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