washingtonscene
equate to one day of active duty pay and proportional tax-advantaged allowances. Reduce the annual qualification for retire- ment to 35 points. Authorize receipt of re- tired pay on the 30th anniversary of military service after a guardmember or reservist completes 20 qualifying years. A reservist who entered at age 20 and completed 20 years’ qualifying service at age 40 would draw reserve retired pay and benefits at age 50. The QRMC also called for consolidating 30 reserve duty statuses to no more than six. MOAA agrees with some of the recom- mendations but disagrees with others. We will be taking a closer look at the report.
Protections T
Coming? House adopts hiring and child custody bills.
wo bills moved from the House to the Senate in early June that would provide addition-
al protections to servicemembers faced with deployments. H.R. 3670, sponsored by Rep. Tim
Walz (D-Minn.), would force the Trans- portation Security Administration (TSA) to comply with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act that requires employers to hold jobs for National Guard and Reserve employ- ees called to active duty. TSA currently is exempt from those requirements. H.R. 4201, the Servicemember Family
Protection Act sponsored by Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), would prohibit family courts from using deployment as a factor in determining child custody rights. The TSA bill now moves to the Senate,
where companion legislation, S. 1990, is sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and has 27 cosponsors.
The child custody bill potentially faces an uphill battle in the Senate, which has considered similar legislation seven times before without any success.
Still Not O
Seamless Problems with the integrated disability system continue.
n May 23, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee held a hearing to review progress in addressing
shortfalls in the DoD and VA Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES). Committee Chair Sen. Patty Murray (D-
Wash.) held a similar hearing in 2011 on VA and DoD efforts to improve wounded-war- rior transition. The May hearing focused on findings cited in a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report and the committee staff’s own interim investiga- tion, highlighting significant problems with servicemember satisfaction and impedi- ments that prevent streamlining the IDES process and achieving system goals. “Now that the joint disability evalu-
ation system has been implemented na- tionwide, I have to say that I am far from convinced the departments have imple- mented a disability evaluation process that is truly transparent, consistent, or expedi- tious,” Murray said. Murray told DoD and VA officials their departments are “failing these service- members,” and the officials agreed a great deal more needs to be done. More than 27,000 servicemembers are
in IDES, and that number is expected to grow in the next few years as the war winds down in Afghanistan and military force levels shrink. Though VA witnesses asserted veterans are receiving VA benefits 79-percent faster
AUGUST 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 39
Quote of the Month “Sequestration would undermine the readi- ness of the armed services, dramatically reduce our ability to project power and defend our interests, jeopardize the liveli- hood of civilian and uniformed personnel alike, and increase risk to national security — not to mention the shattering impact on our fragile economy with the potential for hundreds of thousands of layoffs.”
— Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
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