fromthepresident Member Influence I
The administration’s FY 2017 budget proposes higher health care fees, a lower pay raise, and a commissary funding cut — but MOAA’s 390,000 members can make a diff erence.
I look forward to seeing many of you in Washington, D.C., this month for MOAA’s spring board of directors meeting, Council Presidents’ Seminar, and Storming the Hill. The winter months have been busy on the legislative front: The administration released its budget proposal for FY 2017. While that is just the fi rst step in a long leg- islative process, many proposals echo those in DoD’s 2016 request, including increased health care fees, a reduced military pay raise, and a commissary funding cut. We’ve received your correspondence
expressing concern regarding the TRI- CARE For Life benefi t and rising health care fees — correspondingly, this is our top legislative priority. The reality is some fees likely will rise, but we need your con- tinued engagement to protect against im- posing a disproportional share of budget sacrifi ce on military families. During recent testimony, we expressed our concern to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the proposed budget still seems focused more on raising benefi ciary fees — for retired families in particular — than on fi xing well-documented problems with military health care. We hoped to see specifi c proposals that addressed concerns over access, referrals, and coverage for the National Guard and Reserve. While De- fense leaders say improvements are on the way, they have off ered few specifi cs. The budget proposes a 1.6-percent pay
raise for currently serving troops, which DoD touts as the largest increase in four
years. That’s true; however, the past seven military pay raises have been lower than any in the previous 40 years. Further, the pro- posed raise lags behind the average Ameri- can’s raise (measured at 2.1 percent by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) for the fourth consecutive year. If approved, the four-year cumulative shortfall versus private-sector raises would grow to 3.1 percent. Our con- cern is not this one specifi c raise but the return to a trend of repeated pay caps that Congress and MOAA worked so hard to re- verse over the fi rst 10 years of this century. DoD also proposed cutting commissary funding by $221 million. We’re concerned this is counter to the FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act requirement to sustain current levels of customer satisfac- tion, product quality, and patron savings, absent any defi ned reform. There’s still time to infl uence legisla- tion on these and other areas. Every MOAA member can help — as I hope you did by signing and mailing the postcards on the cover of the March issue. Congress cannot discount the power of our 390,000 engaged members. Consider House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. Mac Thornberry’s recent comment to MOAA’s Texas Panhan- dle Chapter, “MOAA is a trusted source of help for us.” Your engagement inspires and encourages us all to “never stop serving.”
— Lt. Gen. Dana T. Atkins, USAF (Ret)
read more: See Washington Scene, page 33, for details of recent health care reform proposals. 12 MILITARY OFFICER APRIL 2016
PHOTO: ROB CANNON
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