FRA's 2012 Legislative Agenda
FRA will fight to
preserve and enhance benefits and quality-of-life programs for active,
Reserve, retired, and veterans of the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard and
their families and survivors. FRA’s legislative agenda is
listed below:
Expand Health Care Options
Health
Care Reform Monitor health care reform and ensure
that TRICARE and VA health care programs are not adversely impacted by
unanticipated consequences during implementation.
Oppose
Excessive TRICARE Enrollment Fee Increases - The Defense Department must sufficiently
investigate and implement other options to make TRICARE more
cost-efficient as alternatives to shifting costs to TRICARE
beneficiaries and oppose any indexing of future TRICARE fee increases
beyond COLA increases.
Support Adequate Funding for the Defense Health
Program - Ensure adequate funding for the
Defense Health Program in order to meet readiness needs, fully fund
TRICARE and improve access and awareness of benefits for all
beneficiaries, regardless of age, status or location, including
Reservists participating in TRICARE Reserve Select,
TRICARE Retired Reserve and Individual Ready Reserve
personnel.
DOD/VA Health Care Resource
Sharing – Ensure
adequate funding for Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of
Veterans Affairs (DVA) health care resource sharing in delivering
seamless, cost effective, quality services to personnel wounded while
participating in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi
Freedom (OIF), and other veterans and their families.
Expand Health Care Options for Retirees Under Age
65 - Expand health care alternatives including
TRICARE Standard, TRICARE Prime Remote and the Federal Employee Health
Benefit Program (FEHBP) as options for military retirees under age 65
who do not have access to military treatment facilities.
Pharmaceutical Drug Benefit –
Monitor the pharmacy benefit and ensure that the pharmacies
maintain a broad uniform formulary. FRA supports efforts to
reduce prescription costs through "federal pricing" and other pricing
discount programs, and will encourage increased utilization of home
delivery prescriptions to limit co-pays for beneficiaries and
reduce costs as alternatives to higher fees and co-payments.
Allow
Military Retirees to Pay for Healthcare with Pretax
Dollars – Secure authorization for military retirees to pay health insurance premiums
on a pretax basis and to allow for a tax deduction for TRICARE
supplemental insurance premiums.
Protect Personnel Programs
Active Duty Pay - Secure additional annual
active duty pay increases that are at least equal to the Employment Cost
Index (ECI).
Defense
Budget – Advocate for a
Defense (DoD) Budget that is at least five (5) precent of the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) to ensure adequate funding for both personnel and
weapons programs.
Military Retail System - Oppose
privatization and ensure adequate funding for the Defense Commissary
Agency (DeCA) to preserve the value of the current benefit and access
for all patrons and oppose consolidation of military exchanges based on
results of costly recent studies on this concept and opposition from the
services.
End Strengths - Track end strength
levels to ensure there are an adequate personnel available to meet the
demands of OIF, OEF and other operational requirements.
BAH – Reform enlisted housing
standards by allowing E-7s and above to reside in separated homes, track
the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) to ensure it is
commensurate with actual housing costs, ensure adequate housing
inventory and that housing privatization
programs are beneficial to service members and their
families.
PCS Reform - Track the Permanent
Change of Station (PCS) process, ensure adequate funding of the
Transition and Relocation Assistance Programs, and authorization
of increased PCS mileage rates and higher household goods weight
limits for senior enlisted personnel. Also advocate for shipment of a
second privately-owned vehicle for accompanied overseas
assignments.
Coast Guard Parity - Ensure parity with DoD of
pay and benefits for Coast Guard personnel with adequate funding for
same within the U.S. Coast Guard budget.
Impact Aid Program - Ensure that the
Department of Education has adequate funding to reimburse local school
districts for educating military children and that the DoD budget
includes sufficient supplemental funds to provide support for highly
impacted school districts.
Reservists'
Out-of-Pocket Expenses – Allow full
tax-deductibility of non-reimbursable expenses related to military
training and weekend drill.
Sea
Services Recruiters – Work to ensure
that recruiters have unrestricted access to secondary schools,
colleges and universities on the same basis as private sector
employers.
Veterans' Issues
Improve
Department of Veterans' Affairs
Funding – Support
initiatives to help ensure timely and full funding for the VA, with
special attention for VA health care to ensure access and care for all
beneficiaries.
Agent
Orange Disability Claims
– Seek to reverse the VA’s policy that
prevents “blue water” military retirees and veterans from
claiming disability benefits for diseases associated with exposure to
Agent Orange.
Oppose
Access Fees – Oppose
establishing a tiered enrollment fee structure for veterans in Priority
Groups 7 and 8 within the VA Health Care System.
Improve
VA Claim Processing – Work
to eliminate backlog of claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs and
support reform of the antiquated Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)
paper claims system.
Education Enhancements - Ensure full and
timely implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill and work to improve other
education benefit programs for veterans and survivors of disabled
or deceased veterans who died of a service-connected disability, were
killed on active duty or while on drill status.
Reserve
Retirees' Veteran Status – Seek full veteran
status for Reservists with 20 years or more of service, who do not
otherwise qualify for full veteran's benefits under current
law.
Safeguard Retiree Benefits
Protect
Military Retired or Retainer Pay - Fight efforts to reduce
military retired or retainer pay and ensure equitable cost-of-living
adjustments (COLAs) for all military retirees commensurate with their
service and sacrifices, oppose efforts to civilianize the military
retirement system, and advocate for rounding up to the next dollar for
retired pay and other benefits.
Concurrent
Receipt - Support legislation authorizing the immediate
concurrent receipt of full military retired pay and veterans’
disability compensation for all disabled retirees.
Reserve
Retirement Age – Support extension of authority for
early retirement (90 days active duty = 3 months reduction) for all
Reservists who have served since 9/11/01, and the elimination of fiscal
year-specific rules associated with the same.
USFSPA - Encourage
the introduction and enactment of legislation to eliminate inequities in
the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act
(USFSPA).
Retention of Final Month’s Retired
Pay – Support
legislation authorizing the retention of the full final month’s
retired pay by the surviving spouse (or other designated survivor) for
the month in which the member was alive for at least 24
hours.
SBP/DIC
Offset - Support legislation to repeal the
Survivors Benefit Plan/Dependency Indemnity Compensation (SBP/DIC)
offset for surviving spouses of personnel who die of service-connected
causes.
Paid-Up
SBP at Age 67 – Work to
change the minimum age for paid-up SBP from 70 to 67, which will allow
those who joined the military at age 17, 18 or 19 and served 20 years to
only be required to pay SBP premiums for 30 years.
Retirees'
TSP Contributions - Work to authorize military retirees
the option of continuing to contribute to their Thrift Savings Plan
(TSP) as they did when they were on active duty.
Base Closures - Support retention of
military treatment and other facilities at BRAC sites that are
patronized by sizeable retiree and Reserve populations and closely
monitor the impact of closures and realignments.
Miscellaneous
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