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LEGISLATIVE UPDATES AND USAF RELATED NEWS

House NDAA Coming to the Floor!

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13) has been cleared for floor action by the House Armed Services Committee (HASC). Passed last week by a definitive 56-5 vote, the committee’s mark is expected to reach the House floor this week as H.R. 4310 steams ahead in the process of becoming Law.

Assuming the legislation gets full House approval; many obstacles still remain in the Senate. The upper chamber hasn’t started their version of the bill yet but we know several key Members are more supportive of the Pentagon’s plan for higher TRICARE fees. Others in the Senate are less inclined to tackle some of the social issues addressed in the House bill. That said, the upcoming elections will most likely play a major role in the timing of actions (or lack thereof) by Congress, and there is a very real possibility that the NDAA won’t clear Capitol Hill until the General Election is over.

Back to the HASC proposal, below are a few highlights of their version of the FY 2013 NDAA which:

• Authorizes a 1.7 percent military pay raise and extend many special pays and bonuses
• Strengthen provisions for combating and prosecuting sexual assault
• Increases from 21 to 42 the number of days of leave authorized for the primary caregiver following the adoption of a child and establishes 10 days for the non-primary caregiver for dual military couples.
• Expresses the sense of Congress that military people pre-pay large premiums for their health care in retirement through decades of service and sacrifice
• By silence on the issue, prevents DoD from raising TRICARE Prime premiums above the annual COLA or establishing new fees
• Caps future pharmacy copay increases at the percentage increase in retired pay
• Authorizes 180 days of TRICARE Reserve Select health coverage and TRICARE dental coverage for members involuntarily separated from the Selected Reserve
• Rejects the Pentagon proposal for two additional rounds of Base Reduction and Closure (BRAC) action and bars planning any closures during FY 13
• Extends certain refinancing help for qualifying service members who can’t sell their homes in conjunction with a military-ordered relocation
• Protects child custody agreements for parents on a military deployment
• Extends access to family housing for six months and commissary/exchange benefits for two years for troops who are involuntarily separated
• Provides $30 million in Impact Aid to civilian school districts with large populations of military children
• Transfers the popular Troops-to-Teachers program from Department of Education to DoD

On a related matter, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was irritated the HASC refused to adopt TRICARE fee hikes for all retired beneficiaries. During a May 10 DoD news brief Panetta told reporters, “If we’re limited in our ability to put military health care costs on a sustainable track, then Congress would be making all of this more difficult to invest in new technologies that we believe are critical to the force we need for the future.” One could easily interpret his statement to mean the secretary believes retirees should foot the bill for future DoD initiatives rather than enjoy the benefits they earnedthrough a lifetime of service to that same entity. If so, that manner of thinking is just plain wrong.

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