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forces cut manpower in the coming years. Support the use of the transfer-of-benefits authority as a military career incentive. Seek consolidation of all GI bill programs into a simpler, clearer framework under veterans’ benefits law.

Commissaries and exchanges 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 mem- bers 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 work to establish an identifier for military children in educa- tion data systems.

Spousal employment Seek expansion of spousal employment opportunities, including incentives for employers and contractors to hire military spouses. Seek tax credits or other sup- port means for military spouses to obtain licenses or certifications required as a result of military relocations. Continue to advocate at the state level for legislation that supports military spouse license por- tability and encourage remaining states to extend unemployment benefits to military spouses forced to resign because of mili- tary-directed relocations.

Additional Issues

Veterans’ employment and disability Support legislative and executive initia- tives to support veterans’ employment and career goals after separating from military

service. Thirteen years of disability claims from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and ap- peals of denied claims from earlier conflicts continue to threaten the VA’s goal to elimi- nate the backlog this year. As a service or- ganization, MOAA will work with leading veterans’ groups to forge recommendations to upgrade the claims processing system. 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 stan- dards, 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 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. Older Americans depend on Social Security after paying de- cades 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 benefi- ciaries, and no group should be forced to bear disproportionate sacrifice.

MO

— Contributors are Col. Mike Hayden, USAF (Ret), director; Col. Mike Barron, USA (Ret); Col. Bob Norton, USA (Ret); Capt. Kathy Beasley, USN (Ret); Col. Phil Odom, USAF (Ret); Col. Catherine Mozden Lewis, USA (Ret); Karen Golden; Matt Murphy; and Jamie Naughton, MOAA’s Government Relations Department. To subscribe to MOAA’s Legislative Update, visit www.moaa.org/email.

JANUARY 2015 MILITARY OFFICER 49