washingtonscene
PCS Flexibility Loses The Military Fam- ily Stability Act, which would have provided a uni- form policy for the armed forces to let families move up to six months before or after a service- member to the next duty station, did not make it into the final defense bill. However, conferees found the issue of enough interest to direct the sec- retary of defense to submit a report to Congress on actions DoD is tak- ing to enhance the stability of military families in connec- tion with a PCS. MOAA looks
forward to further study of the ef- fects of PCS on military families and will continue to engage on mat- ters impacting military families.
of acknowledging needs of retirees who already have made plans versus those who might die a century or more from now.
Force Needs and
Sequestration MOAA and SecDef discuss how sequestration would slash DoD’s budget.
M
OAA President and CEO Lt. Gen. Dana T. Atkins, USAF (Ret), and a number of other association leaders met with Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and a group of senior defense and joint staff leaders Nov. 30, 2016. Atkins asked what the fiscal impact
would be on the defense budget if se- questration were to return in FY 2018. Carter said sequestration would re-
quire defense budget cuts totaling about $100 billion over the next five years. This is why MOAA intends to make sequestra- tion relief a top priority in this Congress. Current forces are too big for the cur-
rent budget and too small for the mis- sions being assigned to them. Defense leaders cited recent surveys in which 72 percent of troops said operational stress levels are too high. Nothing is certain beyond the next
year, and our nation faces ongoing threats from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as well as China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and more. When almost everyone recognizes we need more forces to meet the mission, we don’t believe in quibbling about the budget methodology used to bring essen- tial relief.
House OKs
Improvements Omnibus bill passes unanimously.
O
n Dec. 6, 2016, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6416, the Jeff Miller and
Richard Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2016.
This is a bipartisan bill sponsored
in the House by then-Veterans’ Af- fairs Committee Chair Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and in the Senate by Sen. Rich- ard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
This omnibus legislation contains a long
list of changes, including provisions to: expedite payment of survivor benefits; require a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of VA regional of- fices’ claims-processing performance; award veteran status to all Guard and Reserve retirees; expand Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship coverage for sur- vivors of members who died in service between 2001 and 2005; give authority to modify work hours for VA physicians; improve assistance for homeless veter- ans; and require studies of potential effects of vet- erans’ toxic exposures on their children. The Senate followed the House and passed this bill Dec. 9. MOAA strongly supports this legislation and thanks Congress for its quick actions before the holiday recess.
38 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2017
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