Military Officer - June 2006 - (Page 28)

washingtonscene posed in the Defense budget. This would be one-half percentage point larger than private-sector pay growth, continuing Congress’ seven-year effort to close the “comparability gap” between military and private-sector pay. The subcommittee also endorsed a Pentagon proposal for additional, targeted increases for certain mid-career and senior enlisted members and warrant ofﬁcers, to be effective April 1, 2007. ■ Dependent school support: Authorize $50 million in assistance for schools near military installations, plus an additional $15 million speciﬁcally intended for schools that receive additional students because of population shifts associated with base realignments and closures. ■ Cold War medal: Authorize a Cold War Victory Medal for any servicemember who served at least 180 days between 1945 and 1991. (R-Calif.) on this topic. He made it clear that committee leaders are paying attention to such constituent input. “TRICARE is not an insurance policy and shouldn’t be compared to civilian beneﬁts,” McHugh said. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) chastised Dr. David Chu, undersecretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), for statements that “Congress has gone too far in adding beneﬁts.” In effect, Jones said, the Pentagon is proposing to balance the budget on the backs of beneﬁciaries. “It’s not really your responsibility,” Jones added. “It’s our responsibility in Congress to ﬁnd the funds to pay for this care.” Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), the subcommittee’s senior Democrat, added, “We’re going to sustain the beneﬁt — just not necessarily the way [DoD ofﬁcials] propose. We want there to be a large disparity between military and civilian beneﬁts.” By comparison, the subcommittee was supportive of testimony against the fee increases by MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr., USN-Ret., and by Lt. Gen. William Matz, USA-Ret., of the National Association of Uniformed Services. Ryan expressed great concern that, in this already difﬁcult recruiting and reten- Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.) Mail Those Tear-Out Letters! ■ Many members ask, “Does Congress really pay attention to those form letters and postcards in the magazine?” The answer is a definite “yes”! Check out the story at right. MOAA Letters Sway Hearing Subcommittee leaders cite impact of 40,000 MOAA tearout letters. T he stage was set for the House Armed Service Military Personnel Subcommittee’s TRICARE response at an earlier hearing March 29. Defense and military association witnesses arrived to ﬁnd several thousand letters heaped in front of the witness stand. They were the tear-out letters from the February issue of Military Ofﬁcer, which members sent in to urge committee leaders to stop the Pentagon-proposed TRICARE fee increases. Chairman John McHugh (R-N.Y.) began the hearing by noting that they were just some of the 40,000 letters received by Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter Witnesses at a March 29 TRICARE hearing were confronted with thousands of MOAA members’ tear-out letters from the February issue of Military Officer. PHOTO: ABOVE, SEAN SHANAHAN 28 MILITARY OFFICER JUNE 2006

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - June 2006

Military Officer - June 2006 Contents From the Editor President’s Page Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities MOAA Member Services Living Well 5 Foods for Life The Kindest Cut Winning the Battle Cover Story: Choppers Pages of History Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Scholarship Donors Member Books MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - June 2006

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.