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"Latest Update from National Headquarters"
April 16, 2021
President Releases FY2022 Budget Outline
President
Joe Biden released the FY2022 budget outline to Congress. The outline
does not have the detail of a full budget request but does give Congress
a general understanding of President Biden's budget priorities. The
president plans to ask for $715 billion in discretionary spending for
the Department of Defense for the next fiscal year, which would be a 1.6
percent increase over the current fiscal year. The Pentagon has
responded to a Military Coalition (TMC) letter that the FRA signed onto,
which urges the Pentagon not to include a new TRICARE fee increase in
the budget. The DoD response indicates that there will be no TRICARE fee
increase in the Biden Administrations request. In addition, the outline
indicates that active-duty service members will receive the full
scheduled active-duty annual pay increase. Senator James Inhofe (Okla.)
Ranking Member, Senate Armed Services Committee has recommended a 3-5
percent increase in the FY2022 Defense Budget. The House Progressive
Caucus has demanded that the Defense Budget be cut by 10 percent.
The outline indicates that spending for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will increase 8.2 percent over the current fiscal year. The outline increases funding for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) implementation, suicide prevention (75 percent increase), homelessness assistance and toxic exposure research. The outline wants the VA to hire 334 new claims processors to support claims for new Agent Orange presumptive conditions and reduce the pandemic-caused disability claims backlog. A more detailed budget is expected in May or June. The FRA will continue to monitor the legislative process to ensure adequate funding for both agencies and make sure there are no cuts in earned benefits.
Bipartisan Bill Introduced to Help Military Survivors
Senate
Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (Mont.) and Senator
John Boozman (Ark.) have introduced legislation to adjust monthly
benefits for family members and survivors of veterans who lost their
lives in service to our country.
The
"Caring for Survivors Act" (S.976) seeks to increase payments to
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) in line with the payments
made to surviving spouses of other Federal employees (55 percent). The
rate of compensation paid to survivors of service members who die in the
line of duty - or veterans who die from service-related injuries or
diseases - has been minimally adjusted since its establishment in 1993.
DIC payments currently, which are currently 43% of retiree benefits, lag
behind other programs' payments by 12 percent.
Under current law, the DIC restricts benefits for survivors if the veteran was disabled for less than ten years before his or her death. This legislation would reduce the timeframe that veterans need to be rated totally disabled from ten to five years, which will broaden the eligibility to more survivors. Members can weigh in on this issue by going to the FRA Action Center.
Legislation asks for Study of Involuntary Discharges for Women
Congresswoman
Julia Brownley (Calif.) has introduced the "Justice for Women Veterans
Act," (H.R.2385), which would require the Government Accountability
Office (GAO) to study the involuntary discharges of women from the Armed
Forces between 1951 and 1976. The study would identify any
irregularities in discharges that may have left these women without the
veterans' benefits that they earned. The study would also make
recommendations to restore those benefits.
The study is being requested because President Truman in 1951 signed Executive Order 10240, which granted the Armed Forces authority to involuntarily discharge a woman if she became pregnant, gave birth to a child, or became a parent by adoption or as a stepparent. In response, the Armed Forces systematically discharged thousands of women who became pregnant, regardless of whether the pregnancy was planned, unplanned, or the result of sexual violence. Further, the federal government did not provide separation benefits, counseling, or assistance to these women, who were involuntarily discharged. Between 1951 and 1976, thousands of women serving in uniform were summarily dismissed under this discriminatory policy. In 1976, the policy was rescinded after it was ruled as unconstitutional by a Federal court.
This bill would require the GAO to conduct a study of women who were involuntarily discharged from the Armed Forces due to pregnancy or parenthood during the period of 1951 to 1976, to identify the scope of the impact of the policy, including disproportionate impact by race and ethnicity. Members can weigh in on this issue by going to the Action Center.
Happy Birthday Navy Nurse Corps
The
U.S. Navy Nurse Corps celebrated its 113th birthday on April 13, which
was officially established by Congress in 1908. Unofficially, however,
women had been working as nurses aboard Navy ships and in Navy hospitals
for nearly 100 years. The Navy Nurse Corps was all-female until 1965.
After the establishment of the Nurse Corps, twenty women were selected
as the first members and assigned to the Naval Medical School Hospital
in Washington, D.C. In time, the nurses would come to be known as "the
Sacred Twenty" because they were the first women to formally serve as
members of the U.S. Navy.
.
New ID Card for Retirees
The
Department of Defense is abandoning the flimsy laminated paper-based ID
cards for military retirees and dependents in favor of an all-new card
system called the Next Generation Uniform Services Identification Card.
This represents the first ID update for retirees since 1993, and will be
more durable while more closely resembling the Common Access Cards, or
CACs, used by active-duty troops and DoD civilians. These new ID cards
are already in circulation. The military began issuing them to retirees,
reservists and dependent military family members on July 31, 2020 at a
few ID card facilities. "The new USID cards are enhanced with an updated
design and security features to deter counterfeiting and fraud," said
Michael Sorrento, director of the Defense Manpower Data Center. All DoD
USID card facilities were supposed to be set to offer the IDs by
December 2020, according to the DoD release. The complete transition to
new USID cards is targeted for Jan. 2026.
This transition does not affect current card expiration dates and does not change the populations who are eligible to get the current USID cards. More than 200,000 new cards have been issued as of Feb. 28, 2021.
For more information on this topic go online
.
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APRIL 02.2021
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"National Headquarters Staff Listing"
1 National Executive Director - Christopher J. Slawinski: nedfra@fra.org, ext. 101
2 Finance Officer - Phillip Reid: finance@fra.org, ext. 102
3 Accounting - Misrak A. Zeleke, Senior Accountant: misrak@fra.org, ext. 114
4 Administration - Teresa Wiener, Director: adminfra@fra.org, ext. 103
5 Call Program Rep- Amanda Boehm: amandab@fra.org,ext 112
6 Communications & Marketing - William D. Stevenson, Director: williams@fra.org, ext. 126
7 Database Manager - Sameer N Mulla: sameer@fra.org, 109
8 IT Operations - Sami A Alsamawi, Manager: IT@fra.org, ext. ?
9 Legislative Programs - John Davis, Director: john@fra.org, ext. 110
10. Social Media Coordinator - Victoria Duran, Manager: victoriad@fra.org, ext. 115
11. Member Services - Shirley Moore, Manager: shirley@fra.org, ext. 120
12. Membership-Christina Hitchcock-Director-Christina@fra.org, ext.123
13. Scholarship Administrator: scholars@fra.org
13. Member Services, fra@fra.org, (800) FRA-1924
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14. Donna Simms: DonnaS@fra.org, ext. 117
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