Military Officer - August 2008 - (Page 37)

washingtonscene Congress Home in August Recess provides opportunity for face-to-face meetings. legislators to support key issues. Just ask the Capitol operator to put you through to your legislator’s ofﬁce. W hen Congress returns from its August recess, House and Senate leaders will continue work on the FY 2009 Defense Authorization Bill. Before this occurs, it’s important for MOAA members to contact their lawmakers and discuss provisions important to the military community. As an MOAA member, you can help by visiting and writing your legislators, urging them to do everything they can to ensure that the issues important to members of the military community are retained in the ﬁnal version of the FY 2009 Defense Authorization Bill. We’re urging all MOAA members to visit their local legislators’ ofﬁces during the congressional recess and reiterate the need for their strong support in retaining key issues in the ﬁnal version of the defense bill. These include: ■ protections against inordinate TRICARE fee hikes; ■ elimination of the disability offset to retired pay; ■ fair treatment for military widows; ■ fairer reserve retirement beneﬁts; and ■ increased military pay raises. To support your efforts, we’ve posted all the resources you need on MOAA’s Web Base, www.moaa.org/augustrecess. These include talking points to brief legislators and their staffs on each issue. We also encourage you to make multiple copies of the fact sheets so you can leave them behind with the legislators and their staffs for further review. You also can get involved by using MOAA’s toll-free Capitol Hill switchboard number, (866) 272-6622, to urge your MOAA Offers Spending Priorities Health care, pay raise, and GI Bill are top concerns. O n June 4, MOAA deputy director of Government Relations Cmdr. John Class, USNRet., testiﬁed on funding priorities before the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Class urged full funding for the Defense Health Program, including restoration of the $1.2 billion the Pentagon deleted from the budget on the spurious assumption that higher fees would drive thousands of retirees away from military health care. He also asked the subcommittee to fully fund the 3.9-percent military pay raise rather than make the services absorb the extra half-percent raise recommended by the Armed Services committees above the amount requested in the president’s budget. Finally, Class asked the subcommittee to support needed funds for: ■ joint DoD-VA seamless transition programs; ■ expected upgrades in GI bill beneﬁts; ■ TRICARE coverage for drilling Guard and Reserve families, particularly in light of the Armed Services committees’ direction to the Pentagon to reduce TRICARE Reserve Select premiums (which means increased costs for the government); and ■ robust quality-of-life and family-readiness programs at base realignment and closure and global re-basing locations, to AUGUST 2008 MILITARY OFFICER 37 http://www.moaa.org/augustrecess

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - August 2008

Military Officer - August 2008 Contents MOAA Online From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Chapters in Action Financial Forum Ask the Doctor MOAA Member Services Cover Story: A Stronger Voice Virtual Combat Mental Floss Steady as She Goes Pages of History Faces of MOAA Member Books Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps MOAA Scholarship Donors Encore

Military Officer - August 2008

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.