On February 12, 2008, Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) introduced legislation (S 2623) to allow the Secretary of Defense to use Department of Defense (DoD) funds to pay for travel if a Reserve servicemember is placed on leave because of training suspensions or staffing issues. The language would apply to situations where a Reservist is more than 300 miles from home and has been placed on leave for more than 96 hours. The bill is in response to an incident which took place last Christmas when a group of Nebraska National Guard Soldiers were temporarily stranded in Washington State after training exercises were suspended. The Soldiers eventually made it home thanks to donations from members of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce.
On February 15, 2008, Senators Frank Lautenberg, Chuck Hagel, John Kerry, and Blanche Linclon introduced legislation (S 604) titled "Military Health Care Protection Act" which would prohibit the Department of Defense from increasing the out of pocket costs of health care for military members, retirees and families by more than the same percent increase in base pay/retired pay received by said persons.
On February 25, 2008, Rep. Gus Bilirakis introduced (HR 5481), a bill to provide a minimum 3.9 percent increase in basic pay and drill pay for reservists. The bill was referred to the House Armed Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over military pay and benefits. The Bush administration is asking for a 3.4 percent pay increase for the military, an amount that equals the average private-sector pay increase last year. Bilirakis said in a statement, “It is critical for the continued growth and morale of our armed forces that we work toward improving the existing military and private sector pay gap. While I applaud the administration’s efforts to boost military pay, I believe we can and should do better.”
Sen. Jim Webb has re-introduced (S 22), his controversial plan to establish a wartime GI Bill for service men and women who have served on active duty since September 11, 2001. The bill would permit activated Guard and Reserve servicemembers to accrue up to 36 months of GI Bill benefits in increments of at least 3 months.
On February 28, 2008, Sen. Richard Burr, the Ranking Member on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, introduced "America's Wounded Warrior Act," (S 2674), to overhaul DoD's disability retirement system and modernize the VA's disability compensation program. These reforms are an upshot from last year's Dole/Shalala Commission recommendations. The bill would reform the military disability retirement system and streamline the transition of disabled servicemembers from DoD to the VA. Basically, it would simplify the claims process by eliminating the need for duplicative DoD/VA ratings and disability examinations.
On March 13, 2008, Senator Debbie Stabenow introduced legislation (S 2785) titled "Save Medicare Act of 2008" which would prevent the reduction in approved payment amounts for Medicare patients scheduled to take place on July 1, 2008. This is important because Tricare benefits are based on Medicare rates. Note that reductions in Medicare rates to physicians makes it more difficult to find physicians willing to accept Medicare/Tricare patients.
On April 2, 2008, Representatives Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and John Boozman introduced legislation (HR 5684) to amend title 38, United States Code, which would make certain improvements in the basic educational assistance program administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.