washington scene
MOAA members launched nearly 200,000 messages to Capitol Hill in less than a week. Ryan said, “We may have lost this round, but we have not lost the fight. The Senate Armed Services Committee leadership has vowed to take a look at this provision in January, when the House and Senate return, and we will hold them to it.”
If not repealed, the provision goes into effect in December 2015.
\\ COLA News //
COLA Dip Continues The Consumer Price Index declined for the second straight month to 0.5 percent below the FY 2014 COLA baseline. Follow the trends at
www.moaa.org/colawatch.
Military Pay Capped
The FY 2014 defense bill passes in late December 2013.
The FY 2014 Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 3304) cleared the Senate Dec. 19, keeping intact the 52nd consecutive year of a defense bill passage. The bill authorizes nearly $527 billion in defense base budget spending, with more than $80 billion for overseas contingency operations.
The final bill includes:
Military pay raise: The bill omits a critical provision that would have guaranteed servicemembers a 1.8-percent pay raise in accordance with private-sector wage growth. Without that protection, the president’s executive authority, transmitted to Congress in September 2013, will set the 2014 military pay raise at 1 percent.
End strength: The bill authorizes just more than 1.36 million active duty personnel, a reduction of more than 40,000 from FY 2013 levels.
Executive compensation reform: The bill caps private-sector compensation on DoD contracts at $625,000 and allows for the cap to be adjusted based on the Employment Cost Index. (It’s baffling Congress would allow defense contractors an increase of 1.8 percent but cap military pay at 1 percent.)
TRICARE: The bill flatly rejected all administration proposals to establish or increase TRICARE fees. It also included a grandfather clause for TRICARE beneficiaries affected by the reduction in Prime service areas. Those who were removed from TRICARE Prime coverage now will have a one-time option to remain in the program. Finally, it requires a study of TRICARE compound pharmacy policy.
Military sexual assault: The bill includes more than 30 provisions that strengthen measures to combat military sexual assault within the chain of command.
Special and incentive pays: The bill provides one-year extensions to several special and incentive pays.
BRAC: The bill prohibits the Pentagon from initiating another round of BRAC.
Disability evaluations: The bill requires the secretary of defense to review the backlog of pending Integrated Disability Evaluation System cases and outline steps to eliminate the backlog.
The defense bill fell short on many MOAA-supported issues. The bill did not include provisions to:
■ end the Survivor Benefit Plan/Dependency and Indemnity Compensation offset;
■ expand concurrent receipt;
■ expand the Applied Behavioral Analysis TRICARE benefit;
■ deem career reservists with no active duty service veterans of the armed forces; and
■ allow a special needs trust for survivor benefit annuities.
These provisions, along with restoring full COLAs for military retirees under age 62, are among MOAA’s legislative priorities in 2014.
See the chart on pages 36-37 for other important issues addressed in this year’s defense bill.
38 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2014
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