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Legislative and Personal
Affairs Update for July 2010
Compiled by Col Jim Eubanks
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY – HERE ARE SOME RECENT ARTICLES
THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO THOSE IN THE MILITARY COMMUNITY
"Doctor Fix"
I think most everyone in the Military Community knows
that the Congress passed a law several years ago to phase in percentage
reductions in the reimbursement rate to doctors treating Medicare patients.
Of course since TRICARE reimbursement rates are tied to Medicare rates, these
reductions would also affect TRICARE patients. Each year when the
reduction was scheduled to go into effect, the Congress would delay it and the
percentage for that year would be added to all the preceding years in a
cumulative fashion. In 2010 the percentage had grown to 21%. Doctors made
it clear that if their reimbursement rates were cut to that extent they would
have to refuse to see Medicare or TRICARE patients.
After much back and forth between the House and the
Senate and between Democrats and Republicans, no correction was made before the
June 1, 2010 deadline and the 21% cut went into effect. Medicare could not
hold up processing claims more than 10 days, so those claims paid after June 10th
reflected the cut. TRICARE had a little more leeway since it only makes changes
after Medicare does. TRICARE, therefore, continued to hold claims to see if
Congress would finally act to fix the situation.
After thousands of messages from their constituents,
including over 17,000 from MOAA members, Congress finally acted with the Senate
passing a separate House Bill (HR 3962) by unanimous consent on June 18th,
and the House passed it on June 24th by a vote of 417 yeas and only 1
nay cast by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif. 7). The President signed the bill
into law on June 25th. The law was made retroactive to June 1,
2010, so all those claims paid by Medicare will have to be redone to undo the
21% reduction.
And after all these machinations, all the Congress did
was kick the can down the calendar to December 1, 2010. If they don’t come up
with a permanent fix before then, the whole mess will have to be revisited
again. (JME)
Legislators Urge $100 Billion
Cut in Military People Programs
Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA), Ron Paul (R-TX), and Walter
Jones (R-NC) as well as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) released a copy of their letter to
the National Commission of Fiscal Responsibility and Reform requesting serious
consideration of major cuts in defense spending. They expressed "an ongoing
commitment to strong national defense," but said the ever-growing national debt
requires a reduction in defense spending over the next 10 years.
Specifically, their letter endorses the
recommendations of the Sustainable Defense Task Force, a group of
analysts and scholars seeking to reduce military spending in procurement,
research and development, personnel, operations and maintenance, and
infrastructure. The Task Force proposes a series of measures that could possibly
save $960 billion between 2011 and 2020.
That task force proposed reducing personnel costs by
more than $100 billion during that period by cutting 200,000 military personnel,
yielding a peacetime active duty end strength of approximately 1.3 million,
recalculating military compensation to curtail pay raises, and imposing
substantial increases in military health care fees.
It is absolutely appalling that, in the midst of a
decade-long, two-front war - when we are demanding far greater sacrifices from
military people and families than we have in generations - any panel of
so-called "experts" can conclude that the force is too big and that military
people don’t deserve their current compensation package. [Source: MOAA
June 18,2010] .
[Ed. Note]: The above, in my opinion,
especially applies to Barney Franks, who, together with Senator Chris Dodd,
bears a heavy responsibility for the economic disaster caused by their pushing
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the banking industry to make housing loans to people
who could not afford them. Millions of these mortgages were packaged into
derivative investments which were sold to investors world-wide. When the
mortgages couldn’t be paid, the derivative assets became "toxic" and nearly
brought down the entire western world economy, requiring massive taxpayer
bailouts in numerous countries. And now Franks has the unmitigated gall to offer
his financial opinion on military matters about which he knows nothing. We
don’t see him offering any suggestions about curtailing the pay, benefits and
perks of members of Congress. That’s where austerity needs to begin. ( JME.)
Senate Version of National Defense Authorization Act
of 2011 (NDAA-11)
We reported earlier on some of the provisions of the
House version of NDAA-11 which the House has already passed. Now the
Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has completed drafting its version of the
NDAA-11, and sent it to the floor of the Senate for consideration.
The SASC version includes a provision that would take
the first step toward repealing DoD's "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy. But
the biggest shock was that the Senate endorsed the Pentagon-proposed 1.4%
military pay raise rather than the 1.9% raise endorsed by MOAA and The Military
Coalition and approved in the House-passed defense bill. Armed Services Chairman
Carl Levin (D-MI) said the Committee is still considering an additional targeted
pay raise for certain grades in lieu of a larger across-the-board increase.
MOAA supports the 1.9% raise endorsed by the House.
When the country is asking our troops and their families for the greatest
sacrifices in more than a half-century, a 1.4% raise (the smallest in nearly 50
years) sends the wrong message.
Other important initiatives in the proposed Senate
bill include:
 | Continued TRICARE coverage for sons and daughters of military
beneficiaries until age 26 if they have no employer coverage (to match
provisions in the new health care reform bill) |
| A monthly stipend for caregivers of wounded warriors still on active
duty, to match the stipend authorized by the VA for caregivers of disabled
veterans |
| Prohibition of administrative separation based on medical conditions
deemed by an evaluation board as not rendering the member unfit for duty
|
| Authority for expedited security clearance background investigations for
wounded warriors and spouses seeking employment with DoD or DoD contractors
|
| $45 million in aid to civilian schools serving significant numbers of
military children |
| Travel and transportation allowances for servicemembers and up to three
designees per member to attend Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program events
|
| Authority to commission W-1s (the only officers currently ineligible for
commissions) |
| Prohibition of any inpatient TRICARE copay increase through FY2011 |
| Requirements for improved and consistent pre- and post-deployment
cognitive assessments and a DoD report on cognitive rehabilitation therapy
for troops suffering from traumatic brain injury |
| Requirement for a DoD plan to "enhance quality, efficiency, and savings
within the military health care system" |
| Requirements for an advisory panel on community support for military
families with special-needs children and a report on DoD programs and child
care for such children |
| Temporary authority to permit voluntary retirement of prior-enlisted
officers with 8 years of officer service (vs. the normal 10) |
| Authority for services to pay replacement value for goods damaged during
PCS moves if reimbursement isn’t available from the carrier |
| Requirement for report on service members' out-of-pocket PCS expenses,
including overseas shipment of personal vehicles |
| Requirement for a GAO review of DoD housing surveys and housing
allowance standards |
We expect further developments and possible amendments
as the bill is considered by the full Senate. Then, of course, the final version
approved by the Senate will have to be reconciled with the version already
passed by the House. [Source: MOAA June 4, 2010 ]
VA Presumptive VN Vet Diseases Update:
We previously reported that ischemic heart disease,
Parkinson's disease and B-Cell leukemia would be added to the list of
presumptive illnesses from exposure to Agent Orange. Now, however,
Senator Jim Webb, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has added
language to the 2010 War Supplemental Bill that froze the payment of funds for
the new illnesses that the VA had decided last October would be added. Although
Senate VA Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka had agreed to the addition, it was
with reluctance because the decision will add $13.6 billion to VA compensation
claims in a single year. The cost of the decision has the two Senators worried
about the impact it could have on other VA services. Webb, who is a decorated
Vietnam combat veteran, expressed in a letter sent to Shinseki in early June his
concern that the 1991 Agent Orange Act, under whose authority Shinseki acted,
was designed to cover "relatively rare conditions" and that he is afraid the new
ruling has the effect of expanding presumption to common diseases of aging. A
spokesman for Akaka said new hearings on the issue could be rescheduled for late
summer or fall. However, in order for Congress to block the VA’s new regulation,
both the House and Senate would have to pass blocking resolutions, something
that may not happen. [Source: TREA Washington Update 18 Jun 2010 ]
===============================
Sen. Webb (D-VA) says he will use a Senate Veterans
Affairs Committee hearing (rescheduled now for 23 SEP) to have Shinseki explain
his decision to compensate Vietnam veterans, and many surviving spouses, for the
three additional ailments. VA projects that the decision will qualify a few
hundred thousand more veterans for service-connected disability compensation.
Those veterans, it now appears, will have to wait at least a few more months
before claims can be paid. And there is at least some doubt now they will be
paid. That will depend on whether Webb and enough of his colleagues are
dissatisfied with the science behind Shinseki's decision. In an interview in his
Capitol Hill office 23 JUN, Webb said he was surprised to find among line items
in an emergency wartime supplemental bill (H.R.4899) a few weeks ago $13.4
billion attributed to "veterans." He asked staff to find out what it would fund.
"It came back this was the Agent Orange law," Webb said.
Webb, a highly-decorated
Marine from combat service in Vietnam, said this deepened his skepticism over
the soundness of that law and how it has been used. "When the law was passed
there were two areas that raised questions for me," Webb explained. "One was the
presumption of exposure for anyone who had been in Vietnam; 2.7
million people had an automatic presumption of exposure. And then the notion
that the VA administrator, now the secretary of veterans' affairs, has
discretion based on scientific evidence to decide a service-connection to
various illnesses. It's very broad." Webb amended H.R.4899 so claims can't be
paid on the three newly-named Agent Orange illnesses until 60 days after a final
rule is published. "This is an area where we have a responsibility to pump for
more [information] to tell us specifically how they made the connection. The
only appropriate way to do that is say, ‘Let's fence the money for 60 days and
get some clarification here.’ Everyone up here wants to help veterans --
no one more than I do. But a lot of people have asked about this. They want to
make sure we're really, (a) following the law and, (b) taking care of people who
are service connected. I don't want to be the one person out here doing this. I
know Chairman Akaka has joined me in his concerns. The main thing is let's have
Secretary Shinseki come forward and explain the causality." Webb said VA
wouldn't publish a final regulation until after the 23 SEP hearing. It was later
learned the hearing might fall within the 60-day period, an indication VA
officials plan to publish a final rule before the hearing. That would narrow
Webb's window to try to block compensation payments if he and colleagues decide
such action is justified. [Source: Military.com Tom Philpott article 17 Jun 2010
]
Scam Warning.
U.S. Strategic Command officials are joining leading
security software vendors in warning soldiers serving in the U.S. Armed Forces
to be on high alert for a new phishing scam that targets customers at a pair of
credit unions catering to servicemen and their families. Gen. Kevin P. Chilton,
the STRATCOM commander, is warning soldiers and their families that bogus Web
sites imitating both USAA and the Navy Federal Credit Union have successfully
stolen the personal and banking data of an unknown number of customers. Symantec
officials said the phishing sites ask customers to fill in a form with their
sensitive data to unlock what the corrupt Web page claims is a login error
created by too many failed login attempts. This information includes social
security numbers, credit card information, birth dates and mothers' maiden
names. Earlier this month, the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) released a
study that found that one phishing gang known as the "Avalanche" syndicate was
responsible for more that two-thirds of the 126,000-plus phishing scams it
unearthed in the last six months of 2009. Facebook has become a particularly
attractive target for malware cons because scam artists are often successful at
using social networking friends and acquaintances to lure people into divulging
personal information online. Symantec said this latest attack comes from Web
sites hosted on servers in Taiwan and variants of this particular phishing URL
have been used to spoof other online brands, as well. [Source: Vetjobs Veteran
Eagle – July 1, 2010]
Origins of the Challenge Coin in USA
Like many aspects of military tradition, the origins of the challenge coin are a
matter of much debate with little supporting evidence. While many organizations
and services claim to have been the originators of the challenge coin, the most
commonly held view is that the tradition began in the United States Army Air
Service (a forerunner of the current United States Air Force). Air warfare was a
new phenomenon during World War I. When the army created flying squadrons they
were manned with volunteer pilots from every walk of civilian life. While some
of the early pilots came from working class or rural backgrounds, many were
wealthy college students who withdrew from classes in the middle of the year,
drawn by the adventure and romance of the new form of warfare.
As the legend goes, one such student, a wealthy lieutenant, ordered small,
solid-bronze medallions (or coins) struck, which he then presented to the other
pilots in his squadron as mementos of their service together. The coin was
gold-plated, bore the squadron’s insignia, and was quite valuable. One of the
pilots in the squadron, who had never owned anything like the coin, placed it in
a leather pouch he wore around his neck for safekeeping. A short while later,
this pilot’s aircraft was heavily damaged by ground fire (other sources claim it
was an aerial dogfight), forcing him to land behind enemy lines and allowing him
to be captured by the Germans. The Germans confiscated the personal belongings
from his pockets, but they didn’t catch the leather pouch around his neck. On
his way to a permanent prisoner of war facility, he was held overnight in a
small German-held French village near the front. During the night, the town was
bombarded by the British, creating enough confusion to allow the pilot to
escape. The pilot avoided German patrols by donning civilian attire, but all of
his identification had been confiscated so he had no way to prove his identity.
With great difficulty, he crept across no-man’s land and made contact with a
French patrol. Unfortunately for him, the French had been on the lookout for
German saboteurs dressed as civilians. The French mistook the American pilot for
a German saboteur and immediately prepared to execute him. Desperate to prove
his allegiance and without any identification, the pilot pulled out the coin
from his leather pouch and showed it to his French captors. One of the Frenchmen
recognized the unit insignia on the coin and delayed the execution long enough
to confirm the pilot's identity.
Once the pilot safely returned to his squadron, it became a tradition for all
members to carry their coin at all times. To ensure compliance, the pilots would
challenge each other to produce the coin. If the challenged couldn’t produce the
coin, he was required to buy a drink of choice for the challenger; if the
challenged could produce the coin, the challenger would purchase the drink. This
tradition spread to other military units in all branches of service and even to
non military organizations. Today, challenge coins are given to members upon
joining an organization, as an award to improve morale, and sold to commemorate
special occasions or as fundraisers. Every Airman receives the Airman's coin
upon graduation from Basic Military Training for the United States Air Force.
Some collectors now buy challenge coins for their numismatic value.
[Source: Vetjobs Veteran Eagle – July 1, 2010]
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