washingtonscene
and require a DoD implementation plan by March 31, 2011; n provide a payment to assist in relocating caregivers of severely wounded warriors; n provide $65 million for civilian schools that support children of military families; n extend TRICARE eligibility to reserv- ists who receive retired pay before age 60 (by virtue of extra credit for active duty service); n restore the retired pay date to the first of the month (versus the next weekday when the first falls on a weekend or holiday); n increase the permanent change-of-sta- tion mileage allowance; n direct a review of military specialties available to women; n require a GAO review of exceptional family member programs to assure consis- tency across the services; n authorize commissioning of all warrant officers (only W-2s and above currently hold commissions); n require standardization of best practices on pre- and post-deployment assessments for PTSD and traumatic brain injury; n reaffirm the sole responsibility of the sec- retary of defense to administer TRICARE; n require reports on programs to assist spouses with education and employment; n require a report on service practices of declaring an injured servicemember fit for duty and separating the servicemember for the same medical reason; and n redesignate the Department of the Navy as the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps. Personnel Subcommittee Chair Susan
Davis (D-Calif.) said she was relieved the committee “did not have to deal with dramatic increases to TRICARE fees this year” but hinted that might not be true in the future. She said she and her fellow sub- committee members were willing to “col- laborate with DoD and organizations that represent our military personnel and their families to explore fair and equitable pro- posals to control significant cost growth.”
At press time, the full House was scheduled to vote on the defense bill dur- ing the last week in May. The Senate Armed Services Committee
was expected to begin action on its version of the defense bill that same week.
Latham Pushes
“Roll-over” Fix Rule undermines reserve retirement credit.
R
ep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) in- troduced the Reserve Retirement Deployment Credit Correction Act
(H.R. 4947) to fix current statutory lan- guage that bars thousands of guardmem- bers and reservists from receiving proper credit for their active duty service toward early reserve retirement. Since Jan. 28, 2008, activated guard- members and reservists receive a three- month reduction in the normal retirement age (60) for each aggregate active duty service period of 90 days. Congress adopted the 2008 law to ac-
knowledge the unprecedented reliance on reserve component forces for operational duty at home and overseas. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 770,000 reservists have been called up, and more than 250,000 have served multiple tours. The glitch is that each 90-day increment
of creditable active duty service must be performed within a single fiscal year. That means someone who serves a 90-
day tour beginning in October through June receives full credit, but someone who starts a tour in July, August, or September gets none — because it crosses the Oct. 1 start of the next fiscal year. Similarly, a 12-month tour earns 12 months of reserve retirement credit only if the tour starts in the first one or two days of January, April, July, or October. Other-
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