washingtonscene
website for information on health care, edu- cation, and other VA benefi ts.
MOAA Meets
House Leaders 2011 priorities are addressed.
O
n May 12, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.) and 16 other House members, including many
key committee leaders, met with MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr., USN- Ret., and other association leaders to dis- cuss military and veterans’ legislative issues. Pelosi began the meeting by announcing
House and Senate leaders were working on an agreement to fi x the 21-percent cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doc- tors now scheduled for June 1 (see p. 29). Ryan expressed MOAA’s strong support
for that important initiative to address the No. 1 health care access concern for Ameri- ca’s seniors and the military community. Other topics discussed during the
meeting included needed efforts to address double-digit veteran unem- ployment; the overwhelming VA claims backlog; the importance of substantive progress on concurrent receipt and Survivor Benefi t Plan fi xes; and health care, retirement, and veteran status for guardmembers and reservists. House Armed Services Chair Ike Skel-
ton (D-Mo.), expressed frustration at the “serious challenge” his committee has en- countered searching for qualifying spend- ing offsets to act on concurrent receipt and survivor benefi t fi xes. Skelton said he and other leaders are continuing to work on that and hope they “might have some light at the end of the tunnel” (see page 29). Ryan thanked the leadership for their
continuing efforts to provide fairer pay and manpower levels.
3 6 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R J U LY 2 0 1 0
MOAA strongly agrees with the “three- F challenge” expressed at the meeting by Vivianne Wersel of the Gold Star Wives: “Find the Funds, and Fix It!”
Separation Payback to
Resume New rules limit recoupment.
I
n late April, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) announced it will resume recoupment of military
retirees’ Voluntary Separation Incentive, Special Separation Benefi t, and other sep- aration pays in August 2010. In June 2009, DFAS halted recoupment
from retired pay pending a formal review of the separation pay recoupment program, specifi cally reviewing whether past re- coupment practices were correct and fair. Since then, DoD has completed the
review and, with the help of Congress in amending the law, DFAS now has increased fl exibility to accommodate fi - nancial hardships some retirees might ex- perience. Specifi cally, recoupment amounts will be limited to 40 percent of a service- member’s retired pay (previous law al- lowed withholding up to 90 percent). Retirees affected by the recoupment
restart already should have received letters from DFAS explaining the restart and pro- viding information on how they can request a more lenient repayment plan, if justifi ed. Retirees can fi nd additional informa-
tion by visiting
www.dfas.mil/rapay.html or by calling (800) 321-1080.
MO
— Contributors are Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF- Ret., direc tor; Col. Mike Hayden, USAF-Ret.; Col. Bob Norton, USA-Ret.; Cmdr. René Campos, USN- Ret.; Capt. Kathy Beasley, USN-Ret.; Col. Phil Odom, USAF-Ret.; Joy Dunlap; Bret Shea; and Matt Mur- phy, MOAA’s Government Relations Department.
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