12.20.05
$441.5 billion defense bill includes benefits changes

Congressional negotiators have approved several
landmark changes in military benefits, particularly for members of the
National Guard and reserve. The 2006 defense authorization bill
approved Dec. 16 by House and Senate negotiators includes:

• A precedent-setting plan opening the military’s Tricare health plan to
any drilling member of the National Guard or reserve who agrees to continue in uniform.
• Income replacement pay of up to $3,000 for
reservists mobilized for 18 months or longer who make less money on active duty than as civilians.
• A change allowing reservists mobilized for more than 30 days to receive full Basic Allowance for
Housing, which means an average increase of $400 a month.

The compromise bill also includes extensions of more than 20 pays and bonuses that are due to expire Dec. 31; creates a $2,500 bonus for
transferring from one service to another; and increases the maximum payment possible for assignment incentive pay and hardship duty pay.

Lawmakers were putting final touches on the bill Friday and hope to get it to President Bush for his signature by Christmas.

Final approval of the bill, which has been held up since July, became possible after Bush decided to embrace a proposal by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., clarifying U.S. policy on treatment of detainees in the war on terrorism so that inhumane treatment, abuse and humiliation are barred.

The White House had threatened to veto the defense bill over McCain’s provision, but overwhelming votes of support for the measure in both the House and Senate led administration officials to drop objections. The $441.5 billion defense bill, which carries an additional $50 billion in war-related supplemental spending, includes authorization to increase active-duty strength by 10,000 soldiers and 1,000 Marines as part of a package of personnel-related provisions aimed at reducing the burden of deployments and encouraging enlistment and re-enlistment.

Among the pay-related provisions is a decision, which would apply retroactively,
to provide a $100,000 death gratuity to survivors of all service members who die on active duty, not just those who die in combat or combat-related training. The new eligibility would be retroactive to Oct. 7, 2001, with back payments due to families who received as little as $12,000 because last year the Pentagon proposed, and Congress
endorsed, a policy that paid more for combat deaths than noncombat deaths. For service members who incur wounds, injuries or illnesses incurred in a combat zone or in a combat operation, negotiators also agreed to create a new $430 monthly payment that would be provided for
the entire time spent recovering in a military hospital.

For military retirees who are rated 100-percent disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs for non-combat injuries and have unemployability as a
factor in their rating, the bill promises a modest change — by 2009, they will be allowed to concurrently receive their full retired pay and
veterans’ disability compensation. Current law would have made them wait until 2014 to receive full payment of both.