3.9 Percent Military Raise

Bill OKs raise, Tuition for Families, and Freeze on Health Fees 

In 2009 defense authorization bill approved by congressional negotiators includes a 3.9 percent military raise, a new tuition assistance program for military spouses and, for the third consecutive year, a freeze on Tricare health insurance and pharmacy fees.

The House of Representatives gave final approval to the bill Sept. 24 and the Senate was poised at press time to pass the final bill so it could be sent to the White House for President Bush’s signature.  Congressional aides said the bill was modified to eliminate every item raised by the White House as potential reason to veto the measure in order to assure swift approval.

Two new leave programs are in the final bill, including 10 days of paternity leave for new military fathers and a program allowing a few service members to take an unpaid sabbatical of up to three years. That would be a pilot program to determine if granting such a break would make a military career more attractive.

Several travel benefits will increase. The maximum temporary lodging expense will rise to $290 per day from the current $180, and dual-service couples with children will become eligible for a second full family separation allowance when both husband and wife are deployed.

Two provisions important to military spouses are in the bill. First, spouses will be allowed to ship up to 500 pounds of professional books or equipment at government expense when a family makes a permanent change-of-station move. Second, the government will pay to ship two household pets when families are forced to evacuate an overseas base, an expense normally covered by pet owners.

Also included are several increases in bonuses and special pay and an important provision reauthorizing bonuses and special pay for active and reserve forces that are due to expire at the end of 2008.

The 3.9 percent pay raise is 0.5 percentage point more than the Bush administration requested, a modest increase that lawmakers intended as a sign to service members that Congress is still interested in continuing to close the gap between military and civilian pay created in the 1990s, when military raises lagged behind pay increases in the private sector.

The Jan. 1 raise in basic pay and drill pay would be 0.5 percentage points greater than last year’s increase in private-sector salaries, which would reduce the gap between military and civilian wages to 3.4 percent, according to the Military Officers Association of America.  According to MOAA’s calculations, the last time parity existed between average military and civilian pay was 1982.

In January, when lawmakers first began talking about a bigger pay raise, their intent to keep whittling the pay gap — which peaked at 13.5 percent in 1999 — may have looked like a significant increase. But rising oil prices and the recent national economic crisis have resulted in a 6 percent increase in consumer prices in the past 12 months.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee and the chief House negotiator on pay and benefits issues, said the compromise bill includes big improvements for troops and their families.

But the bill also is noteworthy for some things that it does not contain. For example, while providing a raise that outpaces private-sector wage growth, the final bill does not include a House Armed Services Committee proposal that would have set raises at 0.5 percentage point more than private-sector wage growth every year through 2013 to continue reducing the pay gap.

Negotiators also rejected two House-passed initiatives aimed at improving benefits for midgrade and senior enlisted members. One would have increased housing allowances for E-8s to a level that would theoretically allow them to rent single-family homes instead of townhouses. The other would have increased household goods weight allowances for enlisted members in paygrades E-5 and above.

Also missing is a Senate proposal to stop offsetting military survivor benefits for those also receiving veterans’ survivor benefits, and a House proposal to provide free mail privileges to troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan or hospitalized for injuries incurred in the war zones.

ORIGINAL STORY: http://www.armytimes.com/issues/stories/0-ARMYPAPER-3743163.php