washingtonscene
ship a second vehicle overseas. More must be done to recognize it’s the government’s responsibility, not the servicemember’s, to pay the cost of military-directed moves.
Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits Sustain the Post-9/11 GI Bill program to support the readjustment of hundreds of thousands of new veterans as the armed forces cut manpower in the coming years. Sustain the transfer-of-benefits author- ity as a military career incentive. Seek consolidation of all GI bill programs into a simpler, clearer framework under veter- ans’ benefits law.
Commissary and Exchange benefits Protect against privatization, consolida- tion, reduction in services, or elimination efforts in commissary and exchange pro- grams. Sustain funding support and guard against diminution of this substantial ben- efit for active, reserve, and retired service- members and their families and survivors.
Dependent education Protect DoD dependent schools, ensure full funding of Impact Aid for public schools with significant populations of military children, and encourage all states to sign the Interstate Compact on Educa- tional Opportunity for Military Children to promote interstate reciprocity for grad- uation and transfer of credit requirements.
Spousal employment Seek expansion of spousal employment opportunities, to include preference or incentives for employers and contractors to hire military spouses. MOAA supports restoration of Military Spouse Career Ad- vancement Account program eligibility for all military spouses, regardless of their sponsor’s rank, to help obtain professional or trade licenses or certification or higher
education and maintain career portability despite multiple military-directed moves.
Additional Issues
Veterans’ employment and disability Support veterans’ employment and ca- reer goals after separating from military service. Ten years of war claims from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and newly approved Agent Orange disease pre- sumptions will drive demand far beyond the VA’s improving capacity to manage the enormous backlog. MOAA supports recognizing “blue water” Navy Vietnam War Agent Orange claims for service- connection. MOAA continues to support digitizing records and processes, training new claims workers to high standards, and providing incentives for first-time quality decisions.
Social Security and Medicare reform Resist initiatives that impose dispropor- tionate penalties on particular segments of the beneficiary or taxpayer population or fail to protect long-lived beneficiaries’ income from the ravages of inflation.
Social Security Sustaining the future financial viability of Social Security often is portrayed as requir- ing either disproportionate benefit reduc- tions or disproportionate tax increases for future generations. Large numbers of older Americans have come to depend on Social Security as old-age insurance programs for which they have paid decades of payroll taxes in good faith. Actions to restore the program’s long-term financial viability must fairly balance the legitimate interests of both current and future beneficiaries, and no group should be forced to bear dispro- portionate sacrifice. MO
JANUARY 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 47
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92