According to reports, the Senate may take up the NDAA as early as next week!  Many thanks to CMSgt (Ret) Jim  Lokovic from Division #12 for sahring this information with our Division! 

September 14, 2010

 1.  Defense Authorization Bill to be Addressed Next Week.   The Senate began business yesterday; the House will get back to work today.  Multiple sources have reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to take up the FY 2011 National Defense Authorization Act next week.  According to sources, Sen. Reid informed Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of these plans yesterday afternoon.   While the bill normally takes a couple weeks of Senate debate, the majority party could limit or block debate through legislative maneuvers.  The most controversial issues are ending the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing military clinics to perform abortions (not at government expense), and funding for a controversial alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.  Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Minority Member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has vowed to stop progress of the legislation if open debate and the possibility of removing the first two are not allowed by the majority leadership.  His only tool is the filibuster which can be stopped if the majority party can come up with 60 votes (“cloture” requires three-fifths of the total number of senators) which would, at this time, require at least one minority party defection. 

2.  Prudential “Alliance Accounts.”  In the August 30 “Bulletin,” we detailed how Prudential Insurance Company of America has come under scrutiny for its use of Alliance Accounts to settle SGLI/VGLI claims when a servicemember or veteran dies.  In fact, the practice has generated a lawsuit against Prudential.  The plaintiffs allege that Prudential was putting the funds, after servicemembers die, into “personal interest-bearing accounts” (it calls “Alliance Accounts”), but then paying family members a very low interest rate while raking in the majority of the interest into its own coffers.  Prudential has been administering life insurance plans for service members since 1965, when Congress created Service Members’ Group Life Insurance and later a similar program for veterans.  When a servicemember or veteran dies, beneficiaries can receive up to $400,000 in benefits.  Federal law requires Prudential to pay out either in a lump sum or in 36 monthly installments.  If a deceased servicemember’s family wants to collect the lump sum, the Alliance Account is set up for them.  Until they actually withdraw money, it sits in Prudential’s general account.  Prudential spokesman, Bob DeFillippo, said that the Alliance Account services have become the “industry standard,” providing a safe, reliable method for the survivors of deceased military members and veterans to keep their money in these challenging economic times.  To clarify the options available to the surviving family members, the VA has announced it will revamp claims materials and spell out clearly that beneficiaries can choose to receive a lump sum check in the mail.  The Alliance Accounts will be used if families fail to specify another option, the officials said.  To read a VA statement on the matter, go to:  http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1956

3. Veteran-owned Businesses Directory.  A Web site that provides a free, comprehensive, user-friendly directory of businesses owned by military veterans, active duty military, reservists, and service disabled veterans of the United States Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard, and National Guard is available at:   http://www.veteranownedbusiness.com/

  4.  New Senate Bill filed during Recess.  During the August recess, Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, filed S. 3765 which would “improve Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance and Veterans’ Group Life Insurance and modify the provision of compensation and pension to surviving spouses of veterans in months of the death of the veterans.”  The entire bill and its summary can be viewed at http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s.03765:

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