MOAA Will “Storm the Hill” April 9 Urging Support for All-Volunteer Force
Alexandria, Va. (PRWEB) March 19, 2014 -- Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) Council and Chapter Presidents from all 50 states, accompanied by members of the national board of directors and headquarters staff, plus members of MOAA’s active duty, Guard, Reserve, spouse and auxiliary advisory committees will storm Capitol Hill April 9 to visit nearly all 535 representatives and senators in support of key legislative priorities.
The stormers will meet with their legislators to discuss issues and provide information explaining why certain key military personnel issues affect the stability of the all-volunteer force and well-being of military families. Specifically, MOAA stormers are asking for legislative support to:
• Sustain military pay and benefits; avoid past poor decisions that destabilized the all-volunteer force;
• Reject disproportional TRICARE fee increases which shift costs onto beneficiaries while reducing access;
• Eliminate catastrophic sequestration cuts which threaten national security; and
• Address remaining inequities for disabled retirees, survivors and recalled guard and reserve personnel.
“What concerns MOAA and many members of Congress is that critics, including those in the Pentagon, are fixated on year 2000 baseline financial statistics for forecasting personnel future growth,” MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan said. “This causes them to think compensation and health care costs are growing at rates that are unsustainable and need to be slowed. The fact is growth rates for military personnel and health care costs have already slowed dramatically to less than 2 percent since 2011 and are about one-third of the defense budget; the same as they have been for 30 years.
“The same critics also maintain we must choose between personnel costs or training and equipment demands,” Ryan continued. “This is a false choice because a balance can be achieved. There is so much more defense leaders can do to reduce costs by tens of billions of dollars annually by reforming acquisition activities and implementing a single budget authority over military medical delivery.”
MOAA has always been a leader in presenting balanced and fair solutions to budget issues and helped negotiate a pharmacy solution that reduced costs for DoD while keeping fees low for the military and retiree community.
“We are not opposed to increases when they are fair,” Ryan said. “What we object to are disproportionate measures aimed at balancing the budget on the backs of the troops just because it is the easy thing to do.”
Additional information about MOAA’s Storming the Hill issues and related information may be found at http://youtu.be/MaxY0tZrVPQ.
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About MOAA:
Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is the nation’s largest officers association with more than 380,000 members from every branch of service, including active duty, retired, National Guard, Reserve, and former officers and their families and survivors. MOAA is a nonprofit and politically nonpartisan organization and an influential force in promoting a strong national defense. MOAA represents the interests of service members and their families in every stage of their lives and careers, and for those who are not eligible to join MOAA, Voices for America’s Troops is a nonprofit MOAA affiliate that supports a strong national defense. For more information, visit http://www.moaa.org or http://www.voicesfortroops.org/.
Members of the news media who wish to be added to our media distribution list for MOAA news releases, please contact requestnews(at)moaa(dot)org. Visit MOAA’s Multimedia & Press Room at http://www.moaa.org/media/default.htm.
MOAA Public Relations, Military Officers Association of America, +1 703-838-0546, [email protected]
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