Drill Weekend Talking Points for November 2016
Congressional Update
The 114th Congress has precious few days following the November 8 elections to pass any meaningful legislation. The Senate and House must agree on a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government past December 9. The results of the election will impact the details of the next CR. If Democrats win the Senate, Republicans will try to pass a longer-term CR, perhaps even through the end of the fiscal year, September 30, 2017. If Republicans retain the Senate, a short-term CR is more likely which would allow for the new President to negotiate with Congressional leaders on Federal spending in 2017.
Congress will also pass the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Of particular note, the NDAA includes legislative language asking the Department of Defense to conduct a study of Reserve Component Servicemembers traveling greater than 100 miles to report for duty. EANGUS staff are working with the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and the House Ways and Means Committee staffs to provide tax relief for Reservists traveling great distances. This will likely be a two-year effort, so more to come on actual legislative language in 2017. Secondly, it is highly likely that Congress will pass language addressing a ten-year Statute of Limitation on DOD Recovery of Amounts Owed to the Members of the Uniformed Services, Including Retired and Former Members (H.R. 4909, Section 642). This could directly impact members from California.
California Bonuses Update
Due to pressure from Congress and the President, the Department recently stopped attempts to recuperate funds from the estimated 9,700 members of the California Guard that were misappropriated funds. In fact, it is estimated that DOD cannot locate 4,000 of those individuals anyway. Combined with the legislative language almost certain to pass (Section 642 highlighted above) it is highly unlikely this story will play out too much longer since the overpayments took place over ten years ago.
This week, Stars and Stripes published an article highlighting that the National Guard Bureau announced that the bonus issue is more wide-spread, impacting as many as 23,000-32,000 Servicemembers. It is likely that all 50 states were impacted and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars were misappropriated. The EANGUS National Office staff intend to keep pressure on Congress and the Department to fix the personnel policy issues that create these snafus in the first place. Combined with the Guard’s Recruiting Assistance Program (GRAP) issues, there needs to be better metrics in place to prevent these mistakes and better oversite from Congress. EANGUS efforts to fix these types of systemic issues will undoubtedly trickle into 2017 and beyond.
2017 Advocacy Agenda
Please be on the lookout for our updated advocacy agenda. The National Office is anxiously awaiting the passage of the FY16 NDAA, so it can look toward next year’s goals. Military Healthcare reform will likely be a cornerstone issue in 2017, as Congress looks to tackle challenges facing the Reserve Component. Staff will be attending a Military Service Organization (MSO) Coalition meeting in late November to network with the Services, DOD, VA, and Congressional leaders trying to tackle rising Healthcare premiums, quality shortfalls, and access barriers. The timing meeting will set the tone leading into 2017 reform efforts.
Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday!
FiveThirtyEight Polls are an excellent resource if you are interested in any particular election