Archive for October, 2009
Military Pay Raise, Better Health Care and Support for Troops: President Signs Defense Bill Supported by Nye
Washington, DC – As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-02) worked hard to pass a 2010 Defense Authorization bill including strong support for military personnel and families. On Wednesday afternoon, Nye was at the White House when President Obama signed that bill into law.
“I’m proud that we were able to give our troops a much-deserved pay increase and to expand support for military families back home,” said Congressman Glenn Nye. “This is a bipartisan bill that will fund our forces in harm’s way and ensure that they have the tools they need to complete their missions and come home safely.”
Congressman Nye is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Before entering Congress, Nye volunteered to work overseas with the State Department alongside American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nye Focuses on Creating Jobs, Helping Veterans
Virginia Beach, VA – Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-02) took time Monday morning to help a small business give back to the community and support local veterans. Nye visited DOMA Technologies, a veteran-owned small business in Virginia Beach, to take part in the “First Annual Charity Challenge.”
“The unemployment rate for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is 22% higher than the rest of the nation, but businesses like DOMA are an outstanding example of how veteran-owned small businesses can create jobs and grow our local economy,” said Congressman Glenn Nye. “We need to give more veterans the tools they need to launch their own businesses, and we must continue cutting taxes for small businesses so they can do what they do best: create jobs.”
The “First Annual Charity Challenge” was sponsored by DOMA Technologies as part of an open house to bring local, veteran-owned businesses together to make charitable donations to organizations across Hampton Roads including the Naval Special Warfare Foundation, the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, and the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia.
Webb Voices Concerns Over Army Testing of Body Armor, Calls for Independent Evaluation of Results
Armor Should Not to be Fielded Until Additional Testing is Completed and Assessed
Washington, DC – Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) today wrote Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to express his concerns over the findings of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Oct. 16, 2009, citing deviations in testing protocols used in the U.S. Army’s testing of body armor conducted last year under a contract solicitation issued in 2007.
Senator Webb and then-Senator Hillary Clinton, both members of the Senate Committee on Armed Services in 2007, requested the GAO investigation in May 2007 in light of their concerns about the effectiveness and reliability of body armor being issued to service members. “I greatly appreciate the audit team’s demonstrated commitment over the past two years,” wrote Senator Webb. “Our men and women in uniform deserve to have the highest degree of confidence that the body armor they are issued meets or exceeds the military’s requirements for ballistic protection.”
Wounded Soldiers Return to Iraq, Seeking Solace
FORWARD OPERATING BASE NORMANDY, Iraq — Soldiers have often returned to old battlefields, to honor fallen comrades and to exorcise persistent demons. British soldiers go back to the Falklands. Normandy cemeteries are on many V.F.W. and American Legion itineraries. Vietnam veterans can even get package tours now to the places where they were stationed.
Now, Americans wounded in the Iraq war are being ferried back to the scenes where they were maimed to help achieve psychological closure, the first time such visits have been tried while a war is still in progress.
The seven-day program, called Operation Proper Exit, has been kept quiet previously, partly because returning to a combat zone is considered a delicate experiment. For the eight wounded men who returned to Iraq this week, including five amputees and one blinded soldier, the hope is that returning to places many of them left while unconscious or in agony might reassure them that their losses have been worth it.
Secretary Napolitano’s Inaugural Meeting with the DHS Veterans Outreach Steering Committee
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today held her inaugural meeting with the DHS Veterans Outreach Steering Committee to discuss the Department’s ongoing commitment to engaging the unique skills of veterans through employment, contracting opportunities and collaboration on key DHS initiatives such as Citizen Corps and other preparedness programs.
Secretary Napolitano announced the DHS Veterans Outreach Steering Committee in August to advise the Department on efforts to develop a structured and integrated approach to engaging the nation’s veteran community. The Committee is comprised of representatives from across DHS and will meet regularly throughout the year.
During the meeting, Secretary Napolitano outlined her major objectives for these efforts, including increased veteran employment opportunities; enhanced veteran contracting opportunities; and improved communication and collaboration between DHS and the veteran community.
Bill Benefiting Federal Employees Passes House & Awaits Obama’s Signature
Bill Changes FERS Sick Leave & Redeposit, CSRS Annuity Calculations, Ends NSPS for DoD Workers, Changes for Military Service Members and Families
WASHINGTON – Calling it a “long-overdue major victory for our dedicated federal employees, retirees, military personnel and their families,” Congressman Gerry Connolly cheered final passage of the defense authorization bill in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday. The bill now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.
Connolly said the massive defense bill contains a number of positive changes in laws affecting federal employees’ sick leave, annuity calculations, redeposit provisions for employees returning to the federal workforce, and stronger whistleblower protections. The legislation also eliminates the National Security Personnel System for Department of Defense employees and provides a number of improvements in health care and housing programs for military service members and their families.
Connolly, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce that championed many of the new improvements in federal employee benefits and passed them in early March, praised the cooperative efforts of Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns, Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Lynch, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Congressmen Jim Moran and Chris Van Hollen to get the federal employee provisions included in the bill.
“This is a case of try and try again until you succeed,” Connolly said. “We added these provisions for federal employees and retirees into the tobacco reform bill passed by the House, only to see them stripped out by the Senate. So we added them again, this time to the defense authorization bill passed by the House, and the Senate removed them again. However, this time the House was able to prevail on these issues and keep them in the final bill. It is a significant victory that will provide long-overdue benefits for our federal workforce, our retirees, and our military.”
Connolly said the provisions in the bill benefiting federal employees and retirees also make important changes to the federal retirement system that will enhance the retirement systems efficiency and effectiveness as a recruiting and management tool at a time when the government needs to be attracting the best and the brightest to the federal workforce.
Connolly said the legislation includes the following provisions:
Federal employees and retirees:
· FERS Sick Leave – Allows employees covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) to receive credit for unused sick leave toward their retirement annuity, as is currently the case for employees covered by the older Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). This provision also reduces the incentive for employees to use excess sick leave as they approach retirement. OPM estimates the current “use it or lose it” system results in $68 million in lost productivity each year.
· FERS Redeposit – This provision, sponsored by Connolly, allows returning federal employees, who previously left federal service, to repay a deposit to the civil service trust fund, with interest, in order to be able to combine their past and new federal service for future annuity service.
· CSRS Part-time Service – Allows CSRS workers to phase-down to part-time status at the end of their careers without reducing their final pensions.
· NSPS – Terminates the Department of Defense’s pay-for-performance personnel system, universally-hated by DoD employees, and restore employees to the federal General Schedule (GS) pay system.
· Ensures that these provisions are PAYGO neutral, resulting in approximately $258 million in deficit reduction over 10 years.
Military service members and families:
· Provides a 3.4 percent military pay raise
· Expands TRICARE health coverage for reserve component members and their families for 180 days prior to mobilization
· Prohibits fee increases on TRICARE inpatient care for one year
· Provides $2.2 billion for family housing programs
· Adds $276 million to support the Housing Assistance Program that helps service members forced to sell their homes at a significant loss
· Provides travel and transportation for three designated persons, including non-family members, to visit hospitalized service members
· Enables seriously injured service members to use a non-medical attendant for help with daily living or during travel for medical treatment
· Provides $30 million for Impact Aid funding, with an additional $14 million for BRAC-affected areas like Northern Virginia and an additional $5 million for military children with severe disabilities
· Establishes an internship pilot program within federal agencies for military spouses and directs DOD to establish an undergraduate nurse training program to help alleviate the shortage of military nurses
Connolly said the legislation contains many other provisions affecting national defense issue.
Connolly Supports House Passage of Much-Needed Veterans Legislation
Bills Provide Investments to Improve VA Medical Care & Help Deployed Military with Home Ownership
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives passed two important bills Wednesday to help veterans and service members, including legislation cosponsored by Congressman Gerry Connolly to ensure reliable and timely funding to better anticipate and meet the demand for high quality medical care for our veterans.
“With more and more veterans and service members returning from war suffering from increasingly complex medical conditions, it is imperative that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has the appropriate and predictable funding to pay for the treatment they need,” Connolly said. “I was proud to cosponsor this legislation that allows advance funding for VA medical programs. This will make sure that any delays in Congress’ passage of veterans’ appropriations bills never hinder veterans’ medical care.”
Connolly said the bill, H.R. 1016, authorizes Congress to approve funding for VA medical care one year in advance and also requires the President to request those funds one year early. “We owe no less to the dedicated men and women who have fought for our nation and our freedom.” Connolly noted that last year was the first time in 12 years that Congress has enacted the veterans’ appropriations bill on time. This year, he said, the House passed the veterans’ appropriations, but the Senate has not completed action.
The bill that passed the House Wednesday was endorsed by a number of veterans’ groups including the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, the Blinded Veterans Association, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and the Jewish War Veterans.
Most of those veterans’ organizations also supported the second House-passed bill supported by Connolly on Wednesday. The Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act, H.R. 3590, makes several changes to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to ensure that service members can take full advantage of federal homebuyer incentives.
Connolly said the bill extends the first-time homebuyer tax credit for one year, until December 1, 2010, so service members stationed overseas for 90 days or more can take advantage of the credit when they return to the states. It also protects service members from having to repay the credit if they are ordered to deploy to a different location and are forced to sell their house within three years of buying it, and ensures that military personnel selling their homes are eligible for certain tax-exemptions under the Defense Housing Assistance Program.
“On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. I want to make sure that we, as a nation, make the same pledge when they return home – that we will leave no veteran behind,” Connolly said.