Military Update
Bush pay-raise plan clears House committee
Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.
By Tom Philpott
President Bush's targeted pay-raise plan for the military next January cleared its tallest hurdle when the House Armed Services Committee this month accepted it over a more robust alternative backed by Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.).
Pentagon officials expect the Senate Armed Services Committee to approve the Bush plan also. It would give all officers at least a 5 percent raise in 2002 and all enlisted at least 6 percent raises. Murtha sought raises that would have lifted basic pay for all members at least 7.3 percent. Defense officials argued his raise would cost an extra $650 million next year and more than $9 billion over the next decade, reducing available dollars for other budget priorities.
Ex-spouse report
A long overdue Defense Department report to Congress on the military former-spouse protection laws has cleared the White House's Office of Management and is expected to be sent to Congress soon. The report is said to contain six major findings or recommendations for change, none of which would relax rules in a way to benefit retirees already divorced.
For example, the report recommends ending the so-called "windfall benefit" to ex-spouses. That is, awards of retired pay in divorce settlements would be based on a member's rank and years in service at time of divorce, not at time of retirement. But the change should be applied "prospectively," the report says, presumably to avoid unraveling tens of thousands of divorce settlements.
The report does propose one retroactive change to benefit ex-spouses, through relaxation of the so-called 20-20-20 rule. Under current law, ex-spouses can qualify for full military medical and base shopping privileges if they were married to a member at least 20 years, the member served at least 20 years and there was at least a 20-year overlap of the marriage and military career.
The report calls the rule too restrictive. However, it doesn't go as far as some spouses had expected by embracing a reduction in the overlap requirement from 20 years down to 15. Instead, the report says a former spouse who has at least a 15-year marriage/service overlap should be able to qualify for medical and shopping privileges by having married time after the member retired count toward the 20-year overlap requirement. In other words, the marriage still would have to have lasted at least 20 years but up to five of those years could have included time after the member's retirement.
The recommendation will disappoint ex-spouses whose marriages ended just short of 20 years. Many expected Department of Defense to propose a replacement of the 20-20-20 rule with 20-20-15.
TFL help
Military elderly eligible for the new TRICARE for Life program who have access to a computer can use a new, free online service offered by the Retired Officers Association to have information tailored specifically for them.
TRICARE for Life, which takes effect Oct. 1, will be an attractive supplement to Medicare coverage. Whether or not they belong to TROA, beneficiaries can use the TFL Personal Profile online to learn more about how TRICARE will work for them.
At the Web site beneficiaries can complete a nine-item questionnaire to create a personal summary of what TFL will offer them. Users can print out the result as a handy reference.
Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. Write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111, or send e-mail to: milupdate@aol.com.
