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Statement of Chairwoman Susan Davis Military Personnel Subcommittee Mark-Up H.R. 5658, National Defense Authorization Act for FY2009

May 7, 2008

"This morning we will be marking up the military personnel subcommittee portion of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009.

"The mark before you continues the subcommittee's efforts to enhance and improve the quality of life for our service members and their families, as our country has remained engaged in six years of war.

"Each year it has been extremely challenging for the subcommittee to meet all the worthwhile and important programs that need our support-and this year was certainly no exception. The subcommittee's greatest challenge was to find the funding to offset the President's budget proposal which assumed nearly $1.2 billion in savings for TRICARE health and pharmacy fee increases.

"As you know, prohibiting the TRICARE pharmacy fee increase also came with a $345 million direct spending bill as well. We are working with our leadership to find the necessary offsets to once again prohibit the fee increases for pharmacy to protect our military beneficiaries from being forced to pay higher cost shares proposed in the President's budget.

"While we prohibit a fee increase this year, it is unclear that we will be able to continue to sustain prohibitions on health care fees in the future, we will need to work together to find a fair and equitable solution that protects our beneficiaries and ensures the financial viability of the military health care system for the future.

"The mark, however, contains numerous initiatives that improve the quality of life for military members and their families. I appreciate the support from Mr. McHugh, the ranking member, in working together on this mark.

"Let me highlight some of the issues that we addressed in this mark:

"The committee was pleased that the President's budget included an increase in end strength for the Army and the Marine Corps, but was disappointed that the budget included the continuation of the military to civilian conversions within the medical community. As a result, the committee restored 1,473 military positions within the Navy and the Air Force to ensure that the Services follow the law.

"The committee also provides a 3.9 percent pay raise, which is one-half of one percent above both the President's budget request and private sector raises as measured by the Employment Cost Index (ECI). This is the tenth consecutive year of pay raises above ECI and this raise will further reduce the gap between military and private sector raises from 3.4 percent to 2.9 percent from a high of 13.5 percent during fiscal year 1999.

"The committee was able to prohibit TRICARE health and pharmacy fee increases for another year. The committee remains concerned that the Department continues to put forward proposals that places the focus solely on military retirees and fails to address other cost drivers within the system.

"The mark established a tuition assistance program for eligible military spouses to develop careers that are portable as they move with their service member from base to base. The committee hopes that this program will encourage military spouses to seek careers that could also benefit our Armed Forces, such as psychologists, nurses, mental health providers, and case managers.

"We also authorize a career intermission pilot program that would allow those who are seeking a military career time off from active duty for a period of several years in order to pursue other life achievements. The Navy found that a number of female junior officers were leaving the Services for family reasons; while they wanted to make the Navy a career, the current system does not easily accommodate a break in service. This pilot program will allow us to test the concept of allowing individuals to temporarily leave service and return without hurting an individual's career.

"For the last six years, the reserve components have been sharing the brunt of six years of war. They have moved from a strategic force to an integral and vital part of the operational force. As a result, more is being asked of the reserve components, particularly in the Army. While we would have liked to have done more, we were able to increase the full-time manning for the Army National Guard to 30,450 and the Army Reserve to 16,320.

"We also included in the mark provisions that deal with preventive health care to improve medical readiness of the force and the health status of our beneficiaries. Preventive health care is important to the long term health of our beneficiary population, and may reduce the amount of care required, which is preferable to the President's proposal to reduce the care available to beneficiaries or discourage use of the military health care system.

"Unfortunately, in order to take this vital step forward, we had to exclude the TRICARE for Life population, as we were simply unable to find the direct spending to include them in the mark. We hope that we will be able to find the direct spending to expand these initiatives to our TRICARE for Life population and will work toward including this important population.

"I appreciate the contributions of all the members of this subcommittee, and committee, in developing our mark. While we could not accommodate all the requests that were brought before our subcommittee, we were able to accommodate a decent number of them. This is a good mark and I appreciate the support of the ranking member, Mr. McHugh.

"Mr. McHugh, are there any comments that you would like to make?"