Fleet
Reserve Association
Statement
of the Fleet Reserve Association
to the
House Coast Guard
and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee
on the
United States Coast Guard's
Fiscal Year 2004 Budget
Submitted by
Joseph L. Barnes
National Executive Secretary
Fleet Reserve Association
March 21, 2003
Certification of Non-receipt of
Federal Funds
Pursuant to the requirements of House Rule XI, the Fleet Reserve Association
has not received any federal grant or contract during the current fiscal year
or either of the two previous fiscal years.
INTRODUCTION
Thank you Mister Chairman and distinguished members of the Subcommittee for
the opportunity to submit the Fleet Reserve Association= s views on the FY 2004 Coast Guard budget.
The Fleet Reserve Association (FRA) is a Congressionally Chartered,
non-profit organization, representing the interests of U.S. Navy, Marine Corps,
and Coast Guard personnel with regard to pay, health care and other benefits.
With 135,000 members, the FRA is the oldest and largest Association
representing enlisted members of the Sea Services whether on active duty, in
the Reserves, or retired. In addition to its extensive legislative program, the
Association sponsors annual scholarship and patriotic essay competitions, and
recognition programs honoring the Coast Guard Enlisted Persons and Recruiters
of the Year, the Navy Sailors and Recruiters of the Year and the Marine Corps
Recruiters and Drill Instructors of the Year.
Quality of life programs are critically important to sustaining military
readiness and fighting the War on Terrorism. As it has for many years, the
United States Coast Guard serves with distinction as the fifth branch of our
Nation= s Armed Forces
and as an integral component ensuring our Nation=
s security.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of many Coast Guard personnel in the aftermath
of the 9/11/01, the American people have an increased awareness of, and
appreciation for the Coast Guard=
s multi-faceted and demanding mission. FRA believes this is long over due.
Before addressing specific issues, the Association wishes to thank Congress
for its tremendous support for pay and benefit improvements enacted during the
107th Congress. Across the board and targeted pay increases, higher housing
allowances, reform of the PCS process and increased funding for health care are
significant improvements and perceived as important recognition of the service
and sacrifice of the men and women serving in the Coast Guard, and those who’ve
served in the past.
The Association notes the significant progress toward ensuring Coast Guard
parity with all pay and benefits provided to DoD services personnel in recent years and restates
it commitment to this goal.
PAY AND BENEFIT PARITY
The Fleet Reserve Association appreciates and thanks the Administration and
Congress for continued support for the pay and entitlements of Coast Guard
personnel. These include increases in base pay, target pay raises for senior
enlisted personnel and some officer grades and annual housing allowance
increases. (BAH).
The FY2004 Budget supports an average military pay raise of 4.1% with pay
levels ranging from 2% for E-1s to 6.25% for E-9s. The majority of members will
receive an increase of 3.7% and out of pocket housing costs will be reduced
from 7.5% to 3.5% in keeping with a multi-year plan to reduce the average out
of pocket expense to zero by 2006.
The Budget also fully funds all pay and entitlements for Coast Guard
personnel and reflects continuing strong support for benefit parity with the
Department of Defense.
The Association is extremely disappointed that the Administration is
proposing to cap the pay of NOAA and USPHS officers at 2% for FY 2004. FRA
strongly objects to this disparate treatment of these members of the uniformed
services and urges you to intercede in their behalf with colleagues on the
appropriate oversight committees to halt this plan and ensure pay comparability
for these personnel.
RECRUITING AND END STRENGTH
The Coast Guard is in a period of large personnel and mission growth. The
service continues to balance mission requirements against workforce strength
and asset availability to ensure a safe operational tempo is maintained and
missions are completed.
FRA strongly supports recently authorized increased end strengths and
appreciates the adequate funding for same in the FY 2004 Budget. This is
especially important given its broad and demanding mission requirements related
to its key position in the new Department of Homeland Security. The budget
authorizes 1,788 military and 188 civilian positions and includes funding for
six Maritime Safety and Security Teams, 53 Sea Marshalls,
two Port Security Units, and new Coast Guard Stations in Boston and Washington,
D.C. Adequate funding is also included for the Search and Rescue (SAR) Program
and to allow the stations to meet readiness requirements with watch standers
maintaining a maximum 68-hour workweek.
Recruiting, training and deploying a workforce with the skills and
experience required to carry out the Coast Guard’s many missions is a
formidable challenge. The overall experience level of the workforce decreased
since 9/11/01 and during this large growth period it will require a few years
to come back to the levels before that date.
Enlisted workforce retention is the best it has been since 1994 having increased
by 2.1% since FY2000. This significantly helped increase the overall strength
and experience of the workforce. Increased opportunities for advancement,
improved sea pay and selected reenlistment bonuses contributed to these high
rates.
The Coast Guard also met its active duty recruiting goal in FY2002 and is on
target to meet it again in FY2003. Consequently, the service actually had to
slow recruiting for enlisted members this year due to the higher than expected
retention levels.
Reserve recruiting fell slightly short of the FY2002 goal but is on target
to meet it for FY2003. The FY 2004 budget includes funding to fully train,
support and sustain the Coast Guard’s Selected Reserve Force as an integral
part of Team Coast Guard with growth to 10,000 personnel (up from 9,000 in FY
2003). FRA strongly supports this increase because adequate training is
essential to ensuring military readiness. Reservists maintain qualifications
and important skill sets to support contingency operations as well as augment
the active component.
The Coast Guard training system is operating effectively at maximum level in
order to process the growing number of trainees. Additional contract
instructors have been hired at the training centers and temporary classrooms
accommodate day and night classes to increase capacity and efficiency.
The Administration’s FY2004 Budget fully supports all recruiting initiatives
and incentives. This robust recruiting system coupled with Coast Guard
enlistment bonuses has ensured a steady flow of recruits entering the service.
The Coast Guard also opened new recruiting offices to target diversity rich
communities.
HEALTH CARE
FRA continues to work with Congress and DoD to ensure full funding of the Defense Health
Budget to meet readiness needs and deliver services, through both the direct
care and purchased care systems, for all uniformed services beneficiaries,
regardless of age, status and location. The Association strongly supports TRICARE
improvements recently enacted for active duty, Reserve and retired personnel
and their families.
Oversight of the Defense Health Budget is essential to avoid a return to the
chronic under funding of recent years that led to execution shortfalls, shortchanging
of the direct care system, and reliance on annual emergency supplemental
funding requests. Even though supplemental appropriations were not needed last
year, FRA is concerned that the current funding level only maintains the status
quo. Addressing TRICARE provider shortfalls will require additional funding.
Active duty members are automatically enrolled in TRICARE Prime. Reservists
activated for 30 days or more are entitled to the same healthcare benefit as
active duty personnel and their family members are entitled to TRICARE Extra
and Standard on the first day of the military sponsor’s active duty if orders
are for more than 30 days. Coast Guard retirees may access care through Coast
Guard Healthcare System on a space available basis if they are not enrolled in
TRICARE Prime or TRICARE Senior (in which case they are automatically enrolled
in TRICARE Extra or Standard).
Access to care is the number one concern expressed by our membership and
this is especially challenging for Coast Guard personnel assigned to duty in
areas not served by military treatment facilities (MTFs).
Some beneficiaries report that there are providers not willing to accept new
TRICARE Standard patients. Areas most affected by this are:
In areas away from MTFs, access can be especially
challenging. Providers do not like to take TRICARE patients mainly due to the
low reimbursement rates. In the locations where TRICARE Prime is present, a
trend is developing whereby providers are leaving the network. This not only
affects active duty service members and their dependents but retirees and their
dependents.
The message sent by The TRICARE Management Activity "selling" the
three TRICARE options (Prime, Extra or Standard) only applies to those
fortunate to live near an MTF that has an established network. These members
have choices. If assigned to a high cost or remote/semi-remote area where Prime
is not available, the only option is Standard. In addition, it is unfair for
Coast Guard personnel to have to absorb the higher costs associated with health
and dental care, including orthodontics in assignment areas. In reality there
is no uniform benefit at this time since the three TRICARE options are not
available to all beneficiaries nationwide.
FRA also believes further distinction must be made between TRICARE Standard
and Prime in evaluation of the TRICARE program. Our members report increased
problems and dissatisfaction with the Standard benefit.
The President’s FY2004 budget seeks to repeal a protection for beneficiaries
that Congress recently enacted into law. A persistent problem with TRICARE
Standard has been that beneficiaries who need certain kinds of care must check
with a local military facility before getting the care in the private sector.
TRICARE Standard will pay the claim for civilian care in such instances only if
the local military facility issues a non-availability statement (NAS)
indicating the care can’t be provided at the military facility.
FRA is also concerned about a flaw in the provider reimbursement
formula which contributes to this situation. The Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid (CMS) cut the Medicare fees by 5.4% in the past two years. This
reduction coupled with providers’ increasing overhead expenses and rapidly
rising medical liability costs, seriously jeopardize
providers’ willingness to participate in TRICARE and Medicare. Provider groups
say that TRICARE is the lowest paying program they deal with, and often results
in the most administrative problems.
HOUSING
FRA is concerned about Coast Guard housing challenges that include adequate
appropriations for new construction and/or maintenance. While the objective is
to ensure that all members have access to quality housing, whether for single
personnel or personnel with families, the Commandant’s people-oriented
direction acknowledges the importance of quality of life, and the important role
of housing in obtaining and retaining a productive workforce.
During recent testimony presented to this distinguished Subcommittee, Master
Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Frank Welch, stated that Coast Guard
personnel and their families "continue to face a lack of affordable and
adequate housing in many of our assignment areas."
The following locations are deemed Critical Housing Areas (CHAs) for Coast Guard personnel.
In the absence of adequate government owned housing, the Coast Guard offers
accompanied members several choices including seeking rental partnership
agreements with landlords (where possible) and/or establishing Coast Guard
Leased Housing.
This situation is exacerbated by assignment areas that are typically in or
near remote, high-cost resort areas along our coasts. Areas where no government
owned housing is available include
While housing allowances have increased, the availability of quality,
affordable housing within a reasonable distance to work remains a challenge –
especially for junior enlisted personnel. In
certain areas, hyper increases in utility costs may also financially impact
accompanied members residing on the economy and paying their own utilities.
This has occurred for personnel in
Housing privatization initiatives are helping ease this challenge for the DoD Services and the Coast Guard’s authority to participate
in these ventures was recently renewed, with passage of the Port and Maritime
Security Act (U.S. Coast Guard Authorization) last year.
CHILD CARE
Having available and accessible childcare is a very important quality of
life issue for Coast Guard personnel and their families and the
Administration’s FY2004 Budget supports an expansion of this service.
While comparing Coast Guard childcare parity with the Department of Defense
is difficult – the childcare needs of Coast Guard personnel and their families
are no different than for DoD
services personnel. Approximately 640 children are in Coast Guard childcare
facilities and FRA believes that this program should be adequately funded to
ensure parity.
EDUCATION BENEFITS
FRA strongly supports increased funding for education benefits. For FY 2003,
tuition assistance is paid at 100% up to $250 per semester hour with an annual
cap of $4,500 for Coast Guard personnel. This puts the service on a par with
the Department of Defense.
With regard to the MGIB program, participants may receive a full-time
student rate of $985/month or more, depending on whether they contribute to an
increased benefit program. Recent enhancements are positive steps to improving
this program, however FRA believes MGIB benefits should be benchmarked to the
average cost of a four-year public college education.
In addition, FRA believes active duty career service members who entered
service during the Veterans Education Assistance Program (VEAP) era (1977 –
1985) and declined to take VEAP should have an opportunity to enroll in the
MGIB. There are about 115,000 armed forces personnel in this situation. Many
actually were discouraged from signing up for VEAP as it was acknowledged to be
a woefully inferior program compared to the Vietnam-era GI Bill and the
subsequent MGIB that began on 1 July 1985. As the backbone of today’s force,
these senior leaders are critical to the success of ongoing and pending
operations. As they complete their careers, they should be afforded at least
one opportunity to say "yes" or "no" to veterans’ education
benefits under the MGIB.
The Coast Guard adjusts discretionary funding to best address its particular
needs.
The President’s FY2004 budget supports the Coast Guard to be fully
competitive with DoD
education benefits.
CONCLUSION
The Association again appreciates the opportunity to present its
recommendations on the Coast Guard’s FY 2004 Budget and is grateful to this
Distinguished Subcommittee for its great work in support of the men and women
serving in our Nation’s fifth Armed Force.
The broad range of services and support provided by the Coast Guard are not
fully understood and recognized by the American public. FRA is working to
broaden awareness of the incredible work done by Coast Guard men and women in
support of the service’s many missions and our national security. Hopefully the
service’s well deserved prominence within the new Department of Homeland
Security will help increase recognition of the Coast Guard’s tremendous service
to our great Nation.