• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairwoman Susan Davis Opening Statement Full Committee Mark-Up of FY09 NDAA (H.R. 5658)

May 14, 2008

"Mr. Chairman, Congressman Hunter, I am pleased to bring forward for consideration, the military personnel mark. I want to thank my ranking member, Mr. McHugh, for his contributions in putting together this mark.

"The mark before the committee continues our efforts to enhance and improve the quality of life for our service members and their families. Our service members and their families are being tested and challenged as the conflicts in Middle East continue for its sixth year.

"As you may know, each year has been extremely challenging for the subcommittee to meet all the worthwhile and important programs that require support-this year was certainly no exception.

"The subcommittee's greatest challenge was finding $1.2 billion in discretionary savings to prohibit the TRICARE health and pharmacy fee increase proposed in the President's budget. The subcommittee was also required to find $345 million in direct spending as well. Just to put it in perspective, when the subcommittee prohibited the fee increase in 2007, it had to only find $186 million in direct spending. This year, we needed to find nearly double that amount.

"I am pleased to inform the committee that we were successful in finding the offsets necessary to prohibit the fee increases for the pharmacy benefit 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, each year it is becoming extremely difficult to find the necessary direct funding to prohibit these increases in the future. 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. We must 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 also contains numerous initiatives that improve the quality of life for military members and their families.

"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, and extends the prohibition of further conversions.

"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 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 Service 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 penalizing the individual's career.

"The reserve components have been sharing the brunt of six years of war, and have moved from a strategic force to an integral and vital part of the operational force. As a result, the reserve components are being asked to do more, particularly in the Army. As such, we felt is important that we 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.

"As I had pledged in the subcommittee markup, we continued to work to find to the mandatory offset so that we could include the TRICARE for Life population. I want to inform my colleagues that we worked in a bipartisan manner to include this population.

"I appreciate the contributions of all the members in developing our mark. The committee can be proud of the military personnel mark that is before us, and I want to thank Mr. McHugh for his support.

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