Military Officer - December 2006 - (Page 44)

washingtonscene recover from the erosion-of-beneﬁts era of the late 1970s — including double-digit pay raises in 1981 and 1982 and establishment of the ﬁrst variable housing allowance. Warner is a two-time recipient of MOAA’s Arthur T. Marix Award for Congressional Leadership. Every member of the military community is deeply in his debt and is fortunate to continue to have the beneﬁt of his leadership experience in the Senate. MOAA Endorses H.R. 6250 ■ To show your support for Representative Snyder’s bill, visit the MOAA Web site at http://capwiz .com/moaa/issues/bills. Scroll down to Active Duty/Guard and Reserve Issues and click on H.R. 6250 to send an MOAAsuggested message to your representative. Snyder: Fix Reserve GI Bill New bill supports major MOAA priority. F Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) ollowing an unusual joint House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs subcommittees hearing Sept. 27, Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) introduced legislation to improve the reserve Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB). MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr., USN-Ret., testiﬁed at the hearing. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 550,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve have been called to federal active duty. But Congress has neglected to adjust reserve MGIB beneﬁts, either to keep pace with active duty beneﬁt improvements or to acknowledge the vastly greater burden of sacriﬁce imposed on our “warrior-citizens” in the war on terrorism. Snyder’s bill, H.R. 6250, signals his strong support for equitable improvements in reserve MGIB programs. Snyder is the ranking minority member of the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee and a senior member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. At the hearing, Snyder highlighted the great disparity between education beneﬁts for thousands of today’s wartime veterans versus beneﬁts provided to their predecessors. He observed that his 21 months’ service during the Vietnam War (including a 13-month deployment) earned him 45 months of MGIB educational beneﬁts that he had 10 years to use after leaving service. He declared it “unconscionable” that today’s Guard and Reserve veterans are not entitled to any post-service use of the beneﬁts they earn for being called up for combat. H.R. 6250 would combine active duty and Reserve MGIB beneﬁts under the same law to ensure equal increases and let Guard and Reserve servicemembers activated for a “contingency operation” use their mobilization beneﬁts for up to 10 years after satisfactorily completing their reserve service or retiring from the Selected Reserve. At present, reserve MGIB beneﬁts can only be used while a soldier continues to serve in the Guard or Reserve. Ryan testiﬁed at the hearing on behalf of the Partnership for Veterans Education. The Partnership is an umbrella group comprising members of The Military Coalition, major higher education associations, and veterans’ service organizations. It was formed to advocate linking MGIB beneﬁts to the cost of a four-year public college education and consolidating the reserve and active duty programs in the Veterans Beneﬁts public laws (Title 38). The American Legion also passed a resolution at its annual convention last summer endorsing a “total force” approach to the MGIB. Ryan told legislative leaders that the all-volunteer force is badly out of alignment and could be headed into a ditch if improvements to education and other beneﬁts for reservists are not made. MOAA endorses H.R. 6250 as a ﬁrst step toward realizing a total force approach to the MGIB. MO — Contributors are Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., director; Col. Mike Hayden, USAFRet.; Col. Bob Norton, USA-Ret.; Cmdr. René Campos, USN-Ret.; Cmdr. John Class, USN-Ret.; Col. Ana Smythe, USMC-Ret.; Cass Vreeland; and Bret Shea, MOAA’s Government Relations Department. 44 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2006 http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills

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Military Officer - December 2006

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