MOAA LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

There are two key bills before Congress that would fix these problems -- S. 349, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and H.R. 594, sponsored by Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA).

MOAA's Legislative Update for Friday, June 27, 2003:

Issue 1: Coalition Sends Defense Bill Input to Capitol Hill.

This week, MOAA and the 34 other organizations of The Military Coalition (TMC) wrote to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees outlining TMC views on key compensation, benefits, and quality-of-life initiatives in the House and Senate versions of the FY 2004 Defense Authorization Bill.

TMC summarized its most important recommendations in a cover letter and enclosed a "side-by-side" analysis of key differences between the two bills, along with recommendations for resolving those differences in the upcoming House-Senate conference committee.

Here is a summary of the top Coalition recommendations:

Military Pay and Allowances. Support Senate proposal to provide an average pay raise of 4.15%, with equal pay raises for the NOAA Corps and U.S. Public Health Service, and codify the principle of comparability with private sector raises in permanent law.
Concurrent Receipt of Retired Pay and VA Disability Compensation. Strongly support Senate proposal to eliminate the VA disability offset to retired pay for all disabled retirees who served long enough to qualify for retirement, independent of any disability.
Military Manpower. TMC supports the House-proposed increases, and restrictions on further force reductions.
Survivor Issues. Support the Senate proposal to raise the death gratuity for survivors of members killed on active duty from $6,000 to $12,000.
TRICARE Improvements. TMC strongly supports the measures in both the House and Senate versions of the Defense bill to improve access to TRICARE Standard providers. Support the Senate proposal to allow National Guard and Reserve service members to buy into TRICARE on a cost-share basis, or offer the option of a partial subsidy of employer-sponsored premiums when the Reservist is deployed.

TMC's letter and may be found on the MOAA Web site at: http://www.moaa.org/Legislative/NDAA_Letter.pdf. Scroll to the bottom of the letter for a link to the Defense Bill "side-by-side" recommendations.

Issue 2: Signing Discharge Petition Isn't Partisan

Currently, the discharge petition on H.R. 303 has 201 signatures, 17 short of the 218 needed to move the measure to the House floor. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the House has expressed opposition to the maneuver (recognizing continuing White House opposition), and is urging its members not add their names. Thus far, only one Republican (Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado) has broken ranks and signed the discharge petition. The leadership, for its part, has responded by accusing the Democrats of playing partisan politics with the issue.

We couldn't disagree more. This is only a partisan issue if politicians choose to make it so. Rep. Mike Bilirakis's H.R. 303

has wide co-sponsorship from both parties (171 Republicans, 173 Democrats, and one Independent). It's not artisan in any way, shape or form to expect legislators of both parties to back up these words with action.

If we are to overcome that opposition, we have to remind legislators that their first duty is to their constituents, not to their party leaders. The only way we're going to move forward is to generate an avalanche of mail to Capitol Hill, and make those who say they support disabled retirees realize that they can't have it both ways.

Even if you have already done so, please take a moment to write your representative and ask him or her to sign the discharge petition. You can use the Action Alert on MOAA's Web site: http://capwiz.com/moaa/home/. You can also try to arrange a meeting with your legislator during next week's July 4th recess. The question you ask can be simple, short, and to the point. "If you support concurrent receipt, and co-sponsored H.R. 303, why don't you sign the petition?" Hotline: (1-877-762-8762) to call your Legislator's office.

Issue 3: Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) Update

The Services have received thousands of applications for the new combat-related special compensation (CRSC) for certain disabled retirees. But, the processing has been hampered by incomplete documentation, vague explanations of disabilities, and delays in obtaining disability rating codes and other documentation from the VA.

Here are some tips that can help speed the application process:

Provide what supporting documentation you have available along with your application. The Services have wide latitude in what they can consider as evidence, but they need to verify retiree submissions. If you don't document your case, expect a delay while the needed paperwork is gathered from your Service and the VA. Copies (not originals) of your VA award letter and copies of key documents from your service record and VA/military medical record sheets can help. Services will consider any evidence you can provide.
If you know it, include the 4-digit VA Diagnostic Codes (also known as VASRD-VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities), in item 13 of your CRSC application. If you don't know the code, don't guess at it. The VA is working to provide this information to the Services electronically, and hopes to have this capability soon.
Pay particular attention to Item 13 of the CRSC application. This portion of the application explains your qualifying disability. Enter the information for each VA disability condition and describe the circumstances surrounding how, when, and where it was incurred. Case officers are interested in the specific circumstances under which the disability was incurred.

The CRSC Application Form is available on the web at:

http://www.dior.whs.mil/forms/DD2860.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions by Topic, Contact Information and other Web Links are available on MOAA's web site at:

http://www.moaa.org/BenefitsInfo/crsc/crsc.asp