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This is TROA's Weekly Legislative Update for Friday, August 30, 2002.
Issue 1: Congress Returns Next Week. Armed Services Committee leaders return to Washington next week to begin ironing out differences between the House and Senate versions of the FY2003 Defense Authorization Bill including concurrent receipt of military retired pay and VA disability compensation. We need to keep the heat on legislators not to be deterred by Administration officials' veto-threat rhetoric.
Issue 2: Walking the Halls on Military Tax Relief. The TROA staff has used the August recess period to lobby Capitol Hill staff members in support of pending tax bills offering needed relief for military homeowners, survivors and Reservists.
Issue 3: DoD Releases Annual Report. The Secretary of Defense's 2002 report to Congress, released in mid-August, discusses a number of personnel initiatives DoD is pursuing under its "transformation" umbrella.
Issue 4: TROA's Legislative Survey. We need your opinions to help formulate our legislative game plan for 2003.
Issue 1: Congress Returns Next Week
Administration officials who don't want to change the penalties now imposed on disabled retirees are stepping up "anti-concurrent receipt" rhetoric, trotting out claims that changing the law will cost much more than the official estimates previously provided by Defense and Veterans Affairs, and that disabled veterans are already getting all they deserve.
In an interview with "Military Update" columnist Tom Philpott earlier this week, Dr. David Chu, the Defense Department's top personnel official, went so far as to cite disabled retirees' spousal incomes and income from any second-career retirement as reasons not to change the current disability offset to retired pay.
As if those had anything to do with what a member earned for two decades or more of arduous service in uniform. As if retired pay for these members were some form of means-tested welfare payment they didn't really earn by extended service and sacrifice for their country. That's hokum.
Here are the facts that DoD and the VA provided Congress previously: *Out of 1.9 million retirees, a little more than 500,000 currently would qualify for some relief under the Senate-proposed concurrent receipt legislation (members with a DoD or VA disability rating and 20-plus years of service).
*About 88,000 of this group who have a disability rating of 60% or higher would qualify for the House's more limited plan.
If Congress passes concurrent receipt legislation, will more people apply or seek to have their disability ratings upgraded? Of course -- and many deserve to have that done. How many will apply? No one knows. How many of those who apply will be approved by the VA? No one knows that either, but we don't believe it will be anywhere close to the huge numbers Administration opponents are trying to claim.
Meanwhile, TROA and other veterans' organizations are working to keep the pressure on to win this long-overdue legislation.
Early next month, 52 military and veterans associations will sign a letter to the President -- urging him to ignore any misguided advice to veto the defense bill over the concurrent receipt issue. This follows a similar letter already sent to the House and Senate Defense Authorization Act conferees.
Representatives from all military and veterans' organizations also are continuing to visit the offices of Senate and House defense authorization conference committee members.
You can help this effort in two ways:
1. Use TROA's Web site to send supportive messages to your legislators and the White House. Visit http://capwiz.com/TROA and click on the "Concurrent Receipt Message to Congress" link to send TROA-suggested messages to your legislators. Then return and click on the "Don't Veto Concurrent Receipt" link to send that message to the president and vice president. (If you did this one or two months ago, your legislators need another reminder now.)
2. Use TROA's toll-free hot line to Capitol Hill (1-877-762-8762) to call your legislators. Ask the operator to connect you with your legislator's office, then tell the office staffer that you expect your legislator to keep the concurrent receipt fix in the defense bill.
Issue 2. Walking the Halls on Military Tax Breaks
TROA's Deputy Director for Government Relations Col Lee Lange, USMC-Ret., teaming with representatives from the American Foreign Service and the American Bar Association, had a series of August meetings with House staff members seeking final action on two military-related tax bills, H.R. 5063 and S. 2816.
H.R. 5063, already passed by the House, would make tax-free the full $6,000 death gratuity tax paid to survivors of members killed on active duty (separate pending legislation would increase the gratuity to $12,000). It also would provide needed capital gains tax relief for military homeowners by exempting up to 5 years spent away from home on military orders from counting against the requirement to have occupied the home at least 2 of the 5 years immediately preceding sale. The Senate bill, which TROA prefers, also would include the Foreign Service (our long-time partners in this tax-relief effort), along with the death gratuity initiative and a number of other provisions -- including tax deductions for Reserve members' training-related travel and lodging expenses.
The Senate Finance Committee is expected to approve S.2816 quickly and release the bill for action by the full Senate. Then a conference committee must resolve the two bills' differences. While some issues (including cost) remain to be resolved, signs are encouraging that an agreement is within reach. When that will happen is less clear. Congress has a full agenda and is trying to recess or adjourn by October 1. But it may take longer than that to get the year's legislative work done. If a "lame duck" (post- election) session is necessary, final action may still be months away.
Issue 3: DoD Releases Annual Report
The Secretary of Defense's annual report to Congress, submitted August 15, 2002, acknowledged that too little was invested over the last decade in people, equipment and infrastructure, and outlined his approach to transforming the military. The report cites a number of planned actions to improve personnel management, including:
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Modernizing personnel rules to allow for more flexible compensation packages, improved recruiting techniques, and better training. |
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Building a comprehensive "human resource strategic plan" considering indefinite enlistments, longer assignments, fewer moves, expanded promotion windows, selective adjustment of retirement rules to allow longer service, expanded entry programs, and a seamless flow between active and reserve components. |
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Closing the "pay comparability gap" with similarly qualified contemporaries in the private sector. |
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Leveraging civilian experience of Reserve Component personnel by developing innovative approaches to attract and retain technology professionals. |
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Developing a new quality-of-life "compact" with service members focused on providing world-class health care; accelerating (to 2007) elimination of all inadequate housing; and providing better support programs for service members and their families. |
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Implementing revised "personnel tempo" guidance to control the amount of time service members are away from home. |
The Department has talked previously of these initiatives, and this report provides few new details, but it's a useful summary. TROA clearly has an interest in these initiatives and will report additional specifics as they become available.
Issue 4: TROA's Legislative Survey
TROA is working to put together our legislative agenda for 2003, and we need feedback on your views of the relative importance of various initiative.
If you
haven't already done so, you can provide your input via TROA's Web site at
http://www.TROA.org/Legislative/
InterestSurvey2002/survey.asp
We've listed a wide variety of initiatives, and there's a section for you to let us know about any issue you think we've overlooked. We'll begin examining next year's issues shortly, so the sooner we hear from you, the better. It will only take a few minutes of your time to help us develop TROA's legislative program for the year to come.
Subscription Information
To subscribe/unsubscribe or change your email address for the legislative update, please go to http://www.TROA.org/email. If you are a TROA member you will need your membership number to sign in to the site. If you are NOT a TROA member, and you have not already completed the guest form and received a customer number, please go to the Guest Form and provide the requested information on the "Sign Up" page to receive your customer number before signing in to the site. If you have created a guest record you will need to go back to the original page and sign in to the Member/Guest sign in page to complete the process.
If you have questions regarding the content (ONLY) of the update, please send an email to legis@TROA.org (subscriptions and changes will NOT be processed through this address).
Copyright © 2002, The Retired Officers Association (TROA), all rights reserved. Part or all of this message may be retransmitted for information purposes, but may not be used for any commercial purpose or in any commercial product, posted on a Web site, or used in any non-TROA publication (other than that of a TROA affiliate, or a member of The Military Coalition) without the written permission of TROA. All retransmissions, postings, and publications of this message must include this notice.
Editor
Welcome back to the Totah Chapter program. I hope everyone had a nice summer vacation. I know I did.
I received a request in the mail to support the Letters to the Front letter writing contest. The purpose of the program (contest) is to encourage folks to write letters which are sent to our soldiers and sailors throughout the world wherever they are stationed.
Apparently, the TROA chapters have been supporting the contest sponsored by General Mills and the Defense Commissary Agency since 1999. This is an excerpt from the information I received:
I would like to again thank all of the TROA chapters who have participated during the last three years. Through this contest, we have been able to send tens of thousands of letters of support to our troops stationed in remote ares such as Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia, the DMZ and now those serving Operation Enduring Freedom. Every year we receive numerious letters back from soldiers who received “Letters TO the Front, “ thanking us and all of those who participate for letting them know they are not forgotten.
Many Chapters have found that this contest is a terrific vehicle to get children involved. Some letters to school principals in their area, while others made arrangements to speak to kids about their personal experiences serving our country in the military. The value of getting school children to write letters to our troops was best expressed by a Platoon sergeant in an Infantry unit stationed along the DMZ who wrote, “ Your contest is a great idea because not only does it lift a soldier’s spirits while he is so far from home, but it gets the next generation to take an interest in the people defending their country.”
And a great selling point of the kids are the prizes they can win. Local winners get an Award of Recognition and a great looking T-shit. The local winners are automatically entered into competition for the Grand Prize. Grand Prizes in the Worldwide Contest are:
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Under 12: $3,000 scholarship award |
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Ages 12-18: $3,000 scholarship award |
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Ages 19 and above: Computer system valued at over $3,000. |
The contest begins Labor Day (9/2/2002) and runs through Veterans’ Day (11/11/2002). The letters must be between 100-200 words and should begin,
“Dear Service Member, I just want to say thanks for…”
Letters must be attached to an entry form. (The entry forms will be available at the meeting).
There are two ways your TROA Chapter can participate. You can choose to simply hand out Entry Forms to you members, school children and other members of your community and encourage them to write letters. They would send their letters directly to:
LETTERS TO THE FRONT
P.O. Box 25348
Alexandria, VA 22313
Or, you can run your own local contest. You’ll find instructions on how to be a Local Contest Coordinator on our web site (http://www.letters-from-the-front.com).
And Remember—All of the entry letters will be shipped to our Troops.
By Al Garcia
Fellow Chapter members and spouses, it's been a long hot summer and August is proving to be a scorcher. We are experiencing the atmospheric delights enjoyed by fellow retirees in Florida, Arizona, etc., don't you agree? Let's be happy that we do not have water restrictions here in Farmington.
The summer picnic was a really enjoyable experience. Heidi and I enjoyed having all of you that attended come to our place. The weather cooperated, we had a cool evening. It was great to see the Duckworths, the Kellers, the Mikitkas, Bob Frazan, Howard Lee, whom we had not seen for a while. We have some pictures that to prove you all enjoyed yourselves. Thanks for making the event a success.
Special thanks are in order to; Heidi, Steve and Eileen who were the main stay on the committee. Ann Marie McCarthy and Steve stayed with us until the very end. Our sincere appreciation to all of you that shared your favorite picnic dishes. Great food and good drinks makes the picnic stand out.
Thanks for sharing in the fund raising auction. Jack and Pam Lee were the auctioneers that brought us all into the buying spirit. Steve White will have a complete report on this matter latter on.
Lastly, I hope you all have taken time to respond to the TROA national election proxy included in the August issue of the Retired Officer's Magazine. There are several issues we need to act upon and I hope you all participated. Thanks for being involved members.
Heidi and I look forward to seeing all of you at our general membership meeting, September 20.
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Send mail to webmaster@totah-troa.org
with questions or comments about this web site.
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This
year’s Annual Summer Picnic was held on July 13th at Al and Heidi Garcia’s
home. You can see the rest of the photos on the “brag board” during the
membership meeting.
