washingtonscene
Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010, which was signed into law in early January. However, extending eligibility beyond
the “armed services” (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard) to Public Health Service and NOAA Corps officers required those officers’ department secretaries (HHS and Com- merce, respectively) to request that ac- tion by the secretary of defense. MOAA and the Commissioned Offi-
cers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service led The Military Coalition in lobbying to have DoD sign off on the HHS request for Public Health Service officers. MOAA firmly believes the trans- fer authority is needed to ensure the Public Health Service can sustain its manpower programs with highly qualified officers and carry out their vital missions that support the security of the nation. At press time, the Public Health Service planned to roll out the benefit option Aug. 1. We hope NOAA Corps officers also soon will be eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill transferability, but that request must come from the secretary of commerce. MOAA hopes to help facilitate that re- quest and its approval.
Who Is Leon
Panetta? New defense secretary is a budget-cutter.
O
n July 1, Leon Panetta was sworn in as the 23rd secretary of defense, succeeding Robert Gates’ four-
and-a-half-year term. Panetta’s previous job was director of the CIA, which is being filled by Army Gen. David Petraeus.
42 MILITARY OFFICER SEPTEMBER 2011 Panetta began his political career as a
congressional staffer in 1966. He was elect- ed to Congress in 1976, where he served as a member of the House until 1993. As chair of the House Budget Commit-
tee, he helped broker a deal to slash the federal budget in the early 1990s. During the Clinton administration,
Panetta served as both director of the Of- fice of Management and Budget and as White House chief of staff. He was a key player in Clinton administration negotia- tions with Congress aimed at balancing the budget. All of that executive and legislative
branch experience in brokering tough budget deals will be needed in his new job. Unprecedented deficits and the wan- ing popularity of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will increase pressures on the defense budget dramatically in the next several years. Already, Panetta has echoed comments
of his predecessor concerning possible cutbacks in force levels, health care fund- ing, and military pay and retirement. MOAA will continue to remind admin-
istration leaders and Congress that the defense budget and military personnel and compensation programs cannot be mere chips in political budget games. As proven by unwise, budget-driven
manpower, pay, retirement, and health care cutbacks of the past, those initiatives entail substantial retention and readiness consequences that too often have ended up costing the country far more than their architects had hoped to save.
MO
— Contributors are Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF- Ret., direc tor; Col. Mike Hayden, USAF-Ret.; Col. Bob Norton, USA-Ret.; Cmdr. René Campos, USN- Ret.; Capt. Kathy Beasley, USN-Ret.; Col. Phil Odom, USAF-Ret.; Karen Golden; Bret Shea; and Matt Murphy, MOAA’s Government Relations Depart- ment. To subscribe to MOAA’s Legislative Update, visit
www.moaa.org/email.
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