The President issued a pocket veto of the defense bill just after Christmas
because of an unrelated provision about lawsuits against the
current Iraq government. Lawmakers are expected to resolve this
issue and resubmit it for the President's signature within
the next few weeks. The vetoed legislation included
language sponsored by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) that lowers
the reserve retirement age below age 60 by three months for
each cumulative 90 days of active duty served on
"contingency operation" orders. The activation orders, whether
involuntary or not, must indicate a contingency operation. The
activated member need not be deployed to qualify. Reservists
could retire as early as age 50 with 10 years' qualifying
active duty service, if otherwise qualified for a reserve
retirement. The pending change, however, is prospective
only. That means only active duty service after the date the
defense bill is signed into law (hopefully, later this month)
will be credited toward reducing the retirement age. A
second concern is that reservists who qualify under the new
law to retire before age 60 would not be entitled to TRICARE
until they reach age 60.
The new retirement upgrade doesn't go far enough. But
it's at least a first-ever beachhead on this issue. Now
that Congress has explicitly recognized the obsolescence of a
retirement system built 50 years ago for a different force
and the Cold War, members of the Military Coalition (TMC)
should pursue more comprehensive reform until it's achieved.
The next step is to make the "90 days retirement credit
for 90 days active service" change retroactive to cover
active service in the post-911 era. Since then, more than
600,000 Guard and Reserve warriors have served contingency
operation active duty. More than 142,000 have served multiple
tours.
While Congress contemplates a remedy for the current
National Defense Authorization bill, Representative Joe
Wilson (R-SC) has taken a preemptive measure to address reserve
retirement pay. Wilson has introduced H.R. 4930 a bill
that would make the early reserve retirement pay language of
NDAA Section 647 retroactive to September 11, 2001. The
legislation would count any aggregate of 90 days of qualifying
service performed in any fiscal year after 911 toward
reducing the 60-year eligibility age by three months. Proposals
that would simply change the reserve retirement age from 60
to 55, including H.R. 690 (Rep. Jim Saxton, R-NJ) and S.
1243 (Sen. John Kerry, D-MA), are also still in play. But
it's more likely in the future that Congress will tie
additional service, including operational service, to any broad
plan to lower the reserve retirement age. Such proposals need
to include TRICARE eligibility. It makes no sense to
provide access to TRICARE (TRICARE Reserve Select) for Selected
Reserve families and then cut off that coverage for "gray
area" and other pre-age 60 reserve retirees. The evolution
of the reserve forces from a strategic to an operational
role means more service on active duty, more time away from
home, and diminished civilian career prospects. Now that
Congress has begun to recognize these realities, it's time for
more aggressive steps by the military community in
communicating with their legislators to improve the reserve
retirement system.
[Source: NGAUS LEGIT & MOAA Leg Up 11 Jan 08
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Topic: Reserve Retirement Age UPDATE (Read 12090 times)
