Personnel Committee Goals

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This Committee works to ensure that military compensation and benefits are aligned to the levels needed to recruit and retain personnel end strength to meet National Security strategies. Compensation must be equitably applied to the seven Uniformed Services, reflect the unique demands of service, and allow service members and their families to maintain their readiness.
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Quality Housing & Relocation Support
  • Increase oversight of privatized and government owned family housing and barracks to ensure quality housing is provided, health and safety hazards are properly addressed, abated and prevented, and utility rates are equitable.
  • Fight any arbitrary percentage decreases to the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and eliminate BAH Reserve Component/Transient (BAH RC/T), instead providing full BAH for any active duty service.
  • Increase oversight of PCS process, including financial impact on uniformed service members and families- such as delayed or insufficient reimbursements related to travel or PCS, mandatory use of the Government Travel Credit Card and advanced allowances meant to reduce financial hardship.

Education
  • Expand Tuition Assistance (TA) to support all service members regardless of component and keep the TA program in place and fully funded at 100% for all participating service members, while ensuring the funds are being utilized at high quality institutions.
  • Close the 90/10 loophole by limiting military-connected funds to schools with no more than 90% of revenue from all federal sources including VA and DoD.
  • Ensure adequate funding of Impact Aid through both the Department of Education and DoD for schools with children of uniformed service members. Oppose any proposal that would divert funds from the Impact Aid program.
  • Improve meaningful education opportunities for military spouses such as expanding access and opportunities available through MyCAA while protecting uniformed spouses from predatory institutions.
 
Family Readiness & Support Structure
  • Encourage Congress and the Services to fully fund effective, evidence-based programs and support mechanisms designed to assist service members and their families with deployment readiness, reintegration and transition.
  • Improve access to high quality and affordable childcare.
  • Advocate for continued expansion of family access to mental health counseling through programs such as Military Family Life Consultants and Military OneSource.
  • Advocate for uniformed spouse career opportunities that are accessible, effective and transferable. Ensure that legislative and executive actions support positive advancement in unemployment and underemployment rates among uniformed spouses.
  • Request a report to Congress on the Military Family Readiness Council’s recommendations to the Secretary of Defense and follow-on actions.
 
Financial Protections
  • Eliminate discrimination against uniformed service members in employment environments by ensuring enforcement of the USERRA. 
  • Maintain the integrity of the MLA and its protections of service members and their families by resisting weakening of any elements within the law.
  • Ensure the DoD definition of active duty is utilized in legislation granting free credit monitoring to active duty service members.
  • Provide enhanced protection against debt collector harassment to members of the uniformed services.
 
Compensation
  • Advocate in support of annual pay raises that are tied to the Employment Cost Index (ECI) as prescribed by law, and work with Congress to restore the nearly 3% in accumulated lawful pay raises lost between 2014 and 2016.
  • Oppose proposals that reduce the value of current compensation or undermine retention in the uniformed services.
  • Advocate for full “5% plus 1%” TSP government match originally recommended by the MCRMC in their retirement recommendation, and extension of the government match for the entire length of the service member’s career.
  • Support changing the calculation of a uniformed service member retiree’s defined benefit retirement entitlement such that any qualifying inactive duty performed for “points only” when converted to active duty days at retirement shall be calculated with a 2.5% multiplier
  • Support a requirement for uniformed services to provide financial literacy and general benefits training be provided, for both the service member and spouse, at all major “touch points,” and emphasize member responsibility for contribution necessary for maximum benefit.
  • Promote authorization of flexible spending accounts to enable uniformed families to pay health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars, similar to employment benefits in the private sector.
  • Support dislocation allowance for separating and retiring service members, especially those being separated for the convenience of the government.
  • Advocate for sufficient funding to enable TRICARE to provide quality care for currently serving military members and their families, retirees and survivors.  Also, ensure that any changes to the current TRICARE system do not increase out-of-pocket expenditures, or at least do not exceed pay increases and cost of living adjustment for eligible currently serving members and their families, retirees, and survivors.
 
Wounded Warrior
  • Ensure that any restructuring of the current disability and compensation systems does not inadvertently reduce compensation levels for disabled service members and/or their caregivers.
  • Support compensation for loss of member's quality of life (QOL), and for programs assisting in the DoD to VA transition.
  • Eliminate the distinction between combat vice non-combat disabilities when determining retirement benefits.
  • Extend BAH and housing eligibility up to one year for medically retired, severely wounded and their families.
  • Include Enhanced Disability Severance Pay in the Combat-Related Special Compensation definition, but otherwise eliminate distinction between combat vice non-combat disabilities when determining retirement benefits.
  • Urge the Department of Defense to expand the Operation Warfighter internship program to include placing wounded, ill and injured service members with nonprofit organizations and civilian industry.
  • Support concurrent receipt for Chapter 61 retirees (medically retired).

Defense Resale
  • Preserve the Commissary benefit as part of the overall pay and compensation package, including high quality products, maintained savings, access, and customer satisfaction.
  • Maintain appropriations for Military Resale programs, with proper support and vectoring of MWR dividends to ensure access to quality of life and support programs.
  • Ensure any modernization efforts of the Commissary and Exchange systems in no way degrades the earned benefit.
 
Sexual Harassment & Assault Prevention
  • Monitor the findings and recommendations of the Defense Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Sexual Assault.
  • Ensure implementation of legislation for enhanced victim protections and continue to advocate for policies which maintain protections against reprisals and retaliation.
  • Ensure expansion of the Safe to Report Program is implemented across the uniformed services. Improve administrative actions on those with substantiated investigations of sexual harassment.