Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
There is rising confidence across the Senate and House armed services committees that 2015 will be the year Congress passes legislation to modernize military compensation, with an alternative to traditional 20-year retirement and perhaps replacing the triple-option TRICARE health program.
After decades of rejecting military compensation studies, whether from teams of Pentagon analysts or independent blue ribbon panels, Congress this year appears to be embracing the clever weave of proposals prepared by the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, said it was “extraordinary” that nine commissioners endorse proposals unanimously. So before her colleagues are “off to the races trying to politicize” them, she told commissioners who came to testify, they ought to “pause a moment and realize that you might just have gotten this right, and this might be exactly what we need to be doing.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pledged to keep the wellbeing of military members and families “foremost in our thoughts as we deliberate the commission recommendations. But upholding our sacred obligation to them does not mean resisting change at every turn. We must not shrink from the opportunity before us to create a modern system of compensation and retirement benefits that would provide greater value and choice.”
The new chairman of the military personnel subcommittee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, warned commission critics, “If you think they missed a mark, we will certainly listen to you. But we’re not going to play the demagoguery game because change is afoot and it’s necessary.”
McCain and Graham have told staff they hope to include at least some commission recommendations in the fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill.
As military folks try to grasp the complex commission plans, Congress last week also received a fresh set of proposals from the Obama administration, part of its fiscal 2016 defense budget request, to continue to dampen growth in basic pay and allowances.
That budget package asks Congress to consolidate TRICARE options, raise TRICARE fees sharply on working-age retirees, set a first-ever enrollment fee for new Medicare-eligible retirees using TRICARE for Life, and raise pharmacy co-payments.
Obama wants the January 2016 military pay raise capped at 1.3 percent, a point below wage growth in the private sector. His budget proposes a string of “limited” pay raises through 2020. It would continue to dampen annual adjustments to Basic Allowance for Housing until recipients pay 5 percent of rental and utility costs out of pocket.
Tom Philpott can be contacted at Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, Va. 20120-1111, or by e-mail at:
