Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today delivered remarks on the Senate floor announcing approval of an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill passed by the Senate today that will improve retirement and TRICARE benefits for National Guard members and Reservists. Senator Clinton authored the amendment with Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), colleagues of Senator Clinton on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Today’s victory builds on Senator Clinton’s longstanding commitment to ensuring that members of our National Guard and Reserve and their families have access to the retirement and health care benefits they need and deserve.

Click here to watch video of Senator Clinton's remarks.

The following is the text of Senator Clinton’s remarks:

Remarks on the Senate Floor of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Senate Approval of Chambliss-Graham-Clinton Amendment Improving Retirement and TRICARE Benefits for Guard and Reserve

I am honored and delighted to join my voice along with my colleagues, Senator Graham and Senator Chambliss, and to thank them for their efforts.

Today we've made further progress in improving benefits for National Guard members and Reservists. This bill makes great strides in improving retirement benefits for Reservists and Guard members who serve for longer periods.

For every consecutive 90 days a member spends in an active federal status, the age at which they receive their retirement annuity would be decreased by three months. The lowest a member could collect retirement pay as a result of this provision would be age 50. The age at which they would qualify for health care benefits would not decrease. Any Guard or Reserve member who is called or ordered to active duty or volunteers for active duty would qualify.

This will greatly help us with recruitment and especially retention. We have a problem in our Reserve component which has been under great stress over the last several years.

Last year, thanks to the leadership of Senator Graham, we made great progress in expanding access to TRICARE. All members of the Selected Reserve are eligible to enroll in TRICARE, and we created a separate category based on whether a Guard member or Reservist had been deployed. Category 1 for members of the Selected Reserves who had been activated: members would accumulate one year of TRICARE coverage for every 90 days of active duty service and would only have to pay 28 percent of the cost. Category 2 established a 50-50 cost share for those without health insurance, owing to unemployment or lack of employer-provided coverage. And Category 3 was for the remainder of members of the Selected Reserve who did not fit in the other categories, allowing them to buy into coverage at an 85 percent cost share.

Now our improvements this year will allow small businesses with fewer than 20 employees to qualify for the 50-50 cost share, and it reduces the amount of those who qualify for category 3 to 75 percent.

This is not only a win-win for Guard Members and Reservists, this is a win-win for our military services and for our country. We are sending a clear message, not just rhetoric, not just rah, rah, but a very clear, solemn message that those who volunteer to be our citizen-soldiers perhaps in the past they might have thought they would have, you know, a weekend a month, two weeks in the summer. Well, now they know that they are part of the war against terrorism. They are on call literally at any moment.

And what we found is that when we began to activate those Guard and Reserve members, 20 percent to 25 percent were found to be medically unready. They had physical problems. They had dental problems. They were not ready because they did not have health insurance. They fell into the category of Americans who go without because they can't afford it or their employer doesn't provide it.

Mr. President, in addition to the work I've been privileged to do with Senator Graham on health care benefits and under the leadership of Senator Chambliss with respect to retirement, we've really sent a great message to our men and women in the Guard and Reserve that we care about you, we care about your families, we value your service, and we want you to know that when it comes to retirement and health care, your country is grateful.

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