Mr. Chairman and distinguished committee members, on behalf of the 136,000 members of the Air Force Sergeants Association, thank you for this opportunity to offer our views on the military personnel programs that affect those serving our nation. AFSA represents active duty, Guard, Reserve, retired, and veteran enlisted Air Force members and their families. Your continuing effort toward improving the quality of their lives has made a real difference for those who devote their lives to service, and our members are grateful.
Although military members do not serve their nation to gain wealth, we do owe them a decent standard of living. This is even more important today because America’s is an all-volunteer force, and because this nation increasingly tasks military members and often separates them (for greater lengths of time) from their families. This testimony covers several issues in the areas of Military Pay and Compensation, Education, Heath Care, Military Shipment, Guard and Reserve, and Retiree/Survivor Programs. We simply ask this committee seriously consider providing the necessary funding for these important programs. MILITARY PAY AND COMPENSATION
✦ Continue Enlisted Pay Reform. We applaud your efforts in recent years to ensure that all military members get the minimum annual pay raise in accordance with congressional intent by formula (Employment Cost Index [ECI] plus one-half percent). AFSA supports further raises and targeting. However, we caution the committee on the perception among the force that might be created if the lowest ranking enlisted members receive below the congressional formula--so that dollars can be transferred to the higher ranking members. We support higher NCO pay raises, but believe that if a “rob Peter to pay Paul” approach is to be used, it should not be by taking pay away from the lowest ranking military members.
✦ Resist Efforts to Change the Military Pay Formula. This committee was instrumental in protecting the troops by tying military pay growth to the growth of wages in the private sector (by focusing on the ECI). Recent Administration suggestions to tie future annual military pay raises to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) alarm military members with the prospect of significantly lower annual pay adjustments. AFSA urges this committee to resist Administration efforts to lower military pay raises by abandoning the current formula.
✦ Reform the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH). There is room for significant correction and improvement in the methodology used to determine BAH. Enlisted members most significantly feel the brunt of these problems. Currently, the only enlisted members whose BAH square-footage/dollar amounts are based on stand-alone dwellings are E-9s. The BAH amount for all enlisted grades below E-9 is based on apartments and townhouses.
✦ Provide those stationed in Korea the same tax advantages and special pays afforded to those stationed in “hostile” areas. With the challenges and austere conditions servicemembers face in Korea, the daily threat from North Korea, and the risks inherent in the geopolitical situation relative to the Korean peninsula, it is only fair to provide equitable tax and pay for these members who, in a real sense, are serving on the tip of the sword. We urge this committee to take action on this now in recognition of those stationed in Korea.
✦ Reduce the threshold of eligibility for CONUS COLA from its current level of 108 percent of the national median. Several large city areas (such as Washington, D.C.) do not receive CONUS COLA. We urge this committee to take another look at which municipalities receive CONUS COLA.
✦ Provide Guard and Reserve members equity in Career Enlisted Flier Incentive Pay (CEFIP). It is unfair that members of the Guard and Reserve receive a fractioned CEFIP (based on a 1/30 formula for each day flying). CEFIP recognizes the extraordinary challenges and risks associated with military flight. As such, Guard and Reserve fliers should be paid on the same “whole month” basis as other military fliers.
✦ Establish a standard, minimum re-enlistment bonus for all re-enlistments. Air Force enlisted members tell us that there ought to be a minimum re-enlistment bonus. Selective re-enlistment bonuses are paid to those with between 21 months and 14 years of service. Those who re-enlist after the 14-year point receive no re-enlistment bonus. Remember, an enlisted member can serve as long as 30 years. Because we want to keep leaders in critical skills and they must lead those who are receiving these, sometimes lucrative, bonuses, it would help morale to provide some type of re-enlistment bonus to all who re-enlist.
✦ Pay Hazardous Duty Incentive Pay (HDIP) to military firefighters. Regardless of service, there is no military job inherently more hazardous than firefighters. Civilian firefighters who serve side-by-side with military firefighters already have this risk factored into their federal civilian wage scale. Military firefighters get no such additional compensation to recognize their extraordinary risk. At a cost of about $9 million per year to cover the military firefighters (those whose AFSA, MOS, or NEC is primarily as a firefighter) for all services, this would be an equitable, relatively inexpensive addition to those entitled to receive HDIP.
EDUCATION BENEFITS
✦ Provide an enrollment opportunity for those who turned down the Veterans Educational Assistance Program (VEAP) to enroll in the Montgomery G.I. Bill. Over 100,000 currently serving military members (35,000 in the Air Force alone) turned down the VEAP program when it was offered to them. VEAP was a relatively poor, insufficient, poorly counseled educational program which preceded the Montgomery G.I. Bill (MGIB). In contrast, the MGIB is a much more realistic, more-beneficial program that would help these members in their transition back into civilian life after their time in the military. Unfortunately, many of those who turned down the VEAP program are now leaving service with no transitional education program. The CBO has set the worst-case cost for this offering at $143 million over a five-year period. We believe that these members, many of whom brought us through conflicts including the Wars in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, worldwide peacekeeping missions, conflicts not publically reported, and the worldwide war on terrorism deserve an opportunity to enroll in the MGIB.
✦ Increase the value of the MGIB to cover the costs of tuition, books, and fees at an average 4-year college or university. Despite the extremely commendable, recent increases in the MGIB which will bring the value up to $985 per month for 36 months by October 1 of this year, more needs to be done. If this nation is going to have a program that sincerely intends to satisfy the purpose of the program, it certainly should mirror civilian industry by providing a comprehensive educational program and not an insufficient one. According to the “College Report,” an annual evaluative report published by the education “industry,” average monthly educational costs are approximately $1,400 at this time. This figure reflects the cost of books, tuition, and fees at the average college or university for a commuter student. Of course, that average cost will increase in the future due to inflation. We ask that you fully fund the already-authorized increase, but look toward further increases in the program. Payment for full books, tuition, and fees for a four-year degree with annual indexing to maintain the value of the benefit, at least, ought to be provided for those who make the military a career.
✦ Ensure that all MGIB enrollees have the same program with the same benefits. Due to changes and additions to the law, only some MGIB enrollees may transfer a portion of their benefit to family members. Similarly, only some MGIB enrollees may pay more into the program to increase the value of their program. We urge this committee to exert its influence to standardize the MGIB so that this becomes an equal opportunity benefit.
✦ Allow members to enroll in the MGIB at any time during their first enlistment. Regrettably, military members are given only one opportunity to enroll in the MGIB. That opportunity occurs very quickly during Basic Military Training when most would least appreciate the opportunity and can least afford it. Additionally, they must “pay” to have this educational benefit; to enroll in the MGIB they must agree to give up $100 per month for the first 12 months of their career. Many military members are surprised by this $1,200 fee and view it as an insincere military benefit offering because of the one-time irrevocable decision--when they are least prepared to take advantage of it. As long as the $1,200 payroll reduction for each MGIB enrollee is part of the program, we should provide young military members an opportunity to enroll at any time during their first enlistment.
✦ Provide military members and their families in-state tuition rates at federally supported state universities. Military members are moved to stations around the world at the pleasure of the government. Yet, they are treated as visitors wherever they go. Fairness would dictate that, for the purposes of the cost of higher education, they be treated as residents so that they can have in-state rates at federally supported colleges and universities in the state where they are assigned. We would ask this committee to exert the necessary influence to require federally supported institution to consider military members assigned in their state as “residents,” for the purposes of tuition levels.
✦ Ensure full Impact Aid funding. We ask this committee to closely scrutinize the funding levels for Impact Aid as presented in the Administration’s FY 2004 Budget Plan which has submitted levels that underfund needed Impact Aid by approximately $127 million. This is a nine percent reduction from FY 2002 levels. 15 million students in 1,331 school districts nationwide benefit from this program. Funding is used for a variety of expenses, including teacher salaries, text books, computers, after-school programs, tutoring, advanced placement classes, and special enrichment programs. This money is to compensate local school districts for the impact of military bases in their communities. Local schools primarily are funded through property taxes. However, those who reside on a military reservation do not pay into the property tax base. This becomes a burden on local schools if military dependent children attend local, off-base schools. We ask this committee to ensure that sufficient Impact Aid is provided so that the children of military members are not put at risk, or that the military member be required to pay tuition.
HEALTH CARE
✦ Improve the dependant and retiree dental plans. We often hear that the dependent dental insurance plan is a very, poor one. Additionally, retirees complain that the retiree dental plan is overpriced, provides inadequate coverage, and is not worth the investment. This is important because military retirees were led to believe they would have free/low cost, comprehensive, lifetime military dental care. We urge this committee to appropriate additional funding to improve the quality and adequacy of these two essential dental plans.
✦ Increase provider reimbursement rates to ensure quality providers in the TRICARE system. Perhaps the greatest challenge this committee faces toward keeping the military health care system viable is retaining health care providers in the TRICARE networks. This challenge goes hand-in-hand with that which is faced by Medicare. If we do not allow doctors to charge a fair price for services performed, they will not want to participate in our program. If they do not participate, the program will fail. We urge this committee to consider increasing the CHAMPUS Maximum Allowable Charge to higher levels to ensure quality providers stay in the system.
✦ Provide for a waiver of the Medicare Part B late enrollment penalty to facilitate TRICARE For Life participation. When Congress wisely created the TRICARE for Life (TFL) program, it significantly enhanced the quality of the lives of thousands upon thousands of military retirees, families, and survivors. It, in effect, eliminated the need for Medicare-eligible military retirees, family members, and survivors, to carry a Medicare supplement policy. One requirement for participation in TFL is that the member be enrolled in Medicare Part B. While the basic Part B enrollment cost is not onerous, many military retirees residing near bases declined Part B (some for many years). In order for these retirees, family members, and survivors who did not enroll in Part B when they were first eligible to participate in TFL, they must pay a substantial penalty in order to enroll in Part B. We urge this committee for a one-time enrollment period where those eligible for TFL who are not enrolled in Medicare Part B may do so without penalty.
✦ Upgrade the dental benefit programs for active duty, Guard, and Reserve members, retirees, and their families, especially in localities where inadequate facilities and/or insufficient providers are available. While this committee has no control over the number of providers in a particular locality, it can enhance the programs to promote participation. This can be done by ensuring that providers are treated fairly in terms of reimbursement for the care they provide and by getting military beneficiaries to (i.e., providing travel reimbursement to) caregiver locations when dental care (especially specialized care) is needed.
✦ Make all TRICARE enrollment fees and co-payments, TRICARE For Life Medicare Part B payments, and military dental plan enrollment fees and premium payments tax exempt (pre-tax dollars). In those cases where the military member, retiree, family member, or survivor has to pay co-payments for medical care, the exemption of the amount they must pay would be a great benefit enhancement. This would be particularly true for those who are older and on fixed incomes.
✦ Provide Guard and Reserve members and their families with a comprehensive TRICARE benefit. This is critical to ensure the deployability of the member, and it is important that his/her family is protected when the military member is away from home serving his/her nation. We owe these patriots a comprehensive program.
GUARD AND RESERVE ISSUES
✦ Provide full payment of lodging costs to a lodging facility for the duration of a mobilization order when a Guardsman or Reservist is called to active duty by section 12301, 12302, or 12304 of Title 10. This adjustment is needed because the payment of lodging per diem is not authorized for members on Temporary Duty (TDY) during periods of leave or a return to the Place from Which Called (or Ordered) to Active Duty (PLEAD). When per diem is not paid, the reservist who departs the area, however briefly, has to check out of lodging or pay lodging expenses out-of-pocket. For example, we are penalizing them if they want to briefly return home to address the concerns of the families from which they have been separated by the mobilization. This has an extremely negative financial impact, particularly for lower-ranking members. It also could have an impact on the retention of mobilized members following demobilization. Additionally, it is extremely disruptive to lodging facility contractors with the members’ constantly checking in and out of quarters; this can cause financial problems for the facility managers who have an expectation of continuous occupancy for a finite period of time. Of special significance to this committee, there would be no/negligible cost to implementing this suggestion since all mobilization expenses are budgeted and set aside for the duration of mobilization orders.
✦ Reduce the earliest retirement age (with full annuity) for Guard and Reserve members from 60 to 55. These members are the only federal retirees who have to wait until age 60 to enjoy retirement benefits. These citizens who fight for our nation deserve to have a better retirement program. Lowering the retirement age would more adequately reward their service, and provide for upward mobility in the force (ANG and Reserve members are primarily promoted by vacancy). Keep in mind that reserve retirement is significantly lower than that provided to active duty members. Reservists accumulate points based on their service and training. They must accumulate sufficient points in a given year for it to be a “good year.” They must achieve twenty (20) “good years” to qualify for retirement. The amount of their retired pay is based on the total points they have accumulated. AFSA believes that these members ought to be able to retire upon completion of their “good years” requirements. However, considering funding limitations, the least, fair thing that should be done is to provide them federal retirement equity by letting them retire as soon as age 55. We urge this committee to do so. Since DoD has conducted and contracted studies of reserve compensation in recent years, we believe there is little to be gained by the DoD study mandated in the FY 2003 NDAA other than to delay serious consideration of the issue. We urge this committee to support the provisions in H.R. 742 and its pending Senate companion legislation. Introduced last year as S. 2250 by Sen. Jon Corzine, D-NJ, his staff tells us that he will soon reintroduce the measure.
✦ Reduce out-of-pocket expenses of those who serve. We ask this committee to restore full tax-deductibility of non-reimbursed expenses related to military training and service for Guard and Reserve members. The cost of military service for a Guardsman or Reservist should not be financial.
✦ Enhance Air Reserve Technician (ART) retirement eligibility. ARTs are both military members and civil servants. These unique patriot/citizens need unique retirement criteria recognizing their singular contribution to our military’s success. We urge this committee to provide the funding that would allow Air Reserve Technicians eligible for an unreduced retirement at age 50 with 20 years of service, or at any age with 25 years of service, if involuntarily separated.
✦ Provide full Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) to TDY Guard and Reserve members, and those activated (even if less than for 139 days). Guardsmen and Reservists are generally removed from their civilian employment when “called up.” Once deployed, their need to protect their family does not go away. Nor does their obligation to make their full house payments. This committee can greatly assist these military members by ensuring that they can continue to provide homes for their families through the provision of full BAH.
✦ Eliminate the Commissary Privilege Card (CPC) requirement and provide full, year-round commissary benefits for Guard and Reserve members. At the present time, members of the Guard and Reserve are limited to 24 visits per year in military commissaries. Allowing full, year-round access is a benefit long overdue. The CPC (a card to track commissary visits) costs millions of dollars to administer each year. These military members are critical members of this military nation’s team; it is time to treat them as such. We urge all members of Congress to provide them full, year-round commissary benefits. ✦ Expand the Soldiers and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act (SSCRA) to fully protect Guard and Reserve members who are activated. Since members of the Guard and Reserve are increasingly activated and sent away from their primary civilian occupation and their home, they must be adequately protected. Please expedite the protection of the rights of Guardsmen and Reservists by their full inclusion in the SSCRA.
MILITARY SHIPMENT PROGRAMS
✦ Improve the quality of the DoD household goods shipment program. The Military Traffic Management Command developed a test program that was extremely successful. It protected the military member’s goods, held carriers more accountable, and had extremely high satisfaction levels among military members. With that test project complete and time passing without DoD implementation of an enhanced household goods shipment program, it is time for Congress to act. Military members should not be faced with having their goods destroyed, lost, or stolen without adequate safeguards and/or compensation.
✦ Increase the household goods weight allowance for professional books, papers, and/or equipment to accommodate employment support for military spouses. Currently, only the military member is entitled to an additional shipment weight allowance for professional books, papers, and/or equipment. In recent NDAA’s DoD has been tasked by Congress to come up with ways to provide military spouses with education, training, and employment assistance. Providing spouses some consideration by giving them a shipment allowance to support their employment would be a good step forward. For example, a dependent spouse (of a military member who is being reassigned) who maintains supplies to support a job as a government-certified family in-home day care provider, should not have to sell, discard, or give away his/her supplies. Most likely they will perform the same job at the next assignment. Similarly, a spouse who is a message therapist, hairstylist, lawyer, etc., ought to be given a shipment weight allowance to make them more employable at the next military assignment location. This would be in keeping with the congressional mandate to help spouses in their employment efforts.
✦ Provide all military members being assigned to OCONUS locations the option of government-funded POV shipment or storage. Currently, DoD will only store a POV for a member if DoD reassigns that member to a location where DoD will not ship the member’s POV. AFSA believes that this shipment option should be extended to all members being stationed anywhere outside of the continental United States (CONUS). We believe that a significant part of such storage cost would be offset by DoD not having to ship the vehicle. RETIREMENT/SURVIVORS
✦ Allow military members who are also receiving VA disability compensation to fully collect their military retired pay. AFSA believes this is the right thing to do. Every member of this committee is aware of the arguments on this issue, so we will not restate them here.
✦ Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act (USFSPA) Reform (PL-97-252). The members of this association strongly urge this committee to conduct hearings on needed USFSPA changes, both to gather all inputs needed for appropriate corrective legislation and to guard against inadvertently exacerbating current inequities via well-intended, piecemeal legislative action initiated outside of this committee. A military member must serve 20 years to earn a lifetime retirement annuity. However, under the USFSPA, any and all former spouses of a military members have claim to a portion of the military member’s eventual retirement pay. Such a former spouse could have been married to the military member only for a relatively short period of time; yet he/she will have a lifetime annuity if the military member goes on to retire. Our members have clearly communicated that this anachronistic statute, specifically targeted at military members, is not needed to protect former spouses. Provisions in law that apply to all other U.S. citizens should apply to the former spouses of military members. In that sense, full repeal of the USFSPA would be the fair thing to do.
✦ Reduce or Eliminate the Age-62 SBP Reduction: Before age 62, SBP survivors receive an annuity equal to 55 percent of the retiree’s SBP-covered retirement pay. At age 62, however, the annuity is reduced to a lower percentage, down to a floor of 35 percent. For many older retirees, the amount of the reduction is related to the amount of the survivor’s Social Security benefit that is potentially attributable to the retiree’s military service. For member who attained retirement eligibility after 1985, the post-62 benefit is a flat 35 percent of covered retired pay. Although this age-62 reduction was part of the initial SBP statute, large number of members who retired in the 1970s (or who retired earlier but enrolled in the initial SBP open season) were not informed of the reduction at the time they enrolled. As such, many still are very bitter about what they view as the government changing the rules on them mid stream. Thousands of retirees signed up for the program believing that they were ensuring their spouses would receive 55 percent of their retired pay for life. They are “stunned” to find out that the survivor reduction attributed to the retiree’s Social Security-covered military earning applies even to widows whose Social Security benefit is based on their own work history. Additionally, the DoD actuary has confirmed that the 40-percent government subsidy for the SBP program, which has been cited for more than two decades as an enticement for retirees to elect SBP coverage, has declined to less than 17 percent! Clearly, this benefit has become more beneficial and less costly for the government, and more costly and less beneficial for the retirees and survivors the program was created to protect. We urge you to step in and correct some of these inequities.
✦ Accelerate the SBP provision so that enrollees aged 70 who have paid into the SBP for at least 30 years be considered “paid-up.” The paid-up SBP initiative enacted in 1998 set an implementation date of 2008. We urge this committee to change that implementation date to “this year.” As a practical matter, any SBP enrollee who retired on or after October 1, 1978, would enjoy the full benefit of the paid up provision. However, members who enrolled in SBP when it first became available in 1972 will have to continue paying premiums for up to 36 years to secure paid-up coverage–if they survive that long.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we thank you for this opportunity to present the views of the Air Force enlisted community. As you work toward your appropriations decisions, the Air Force Sergeants Association and its 136,000 members urge you to ensure sufficient funding to provide for the integrity of the entire DoD. Now, more than ever, this funding and this nation’s commitment to the members of our Armed Forces should ensure, without delay, the full benefits, entitlements and medical treatment that they have so rightfully earned. On behalf of all AFSA members, we appreciate your efforts and, as always, are ready to support you in matters of mutual concern.
