April 8th, 2012 
admin 
April 6, 2012
1. Proposed TRICARE Fee Increases Draw Congressional Fire. As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his subordinates worked the Hill to try to garner support for the President’s plan to greatly increase the cost of TRICARE for “working age military retirees,” an article in Politico quotes two members of the United States Senate as having voiced opposition to the proposed increases. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., a member of the Senate Armed Services and Budget committees recently said of military retirees and their families, “It’s wrong to ask them to sacrifice more when Washington has not had the political courage to look at the big picture on the budget or the courage to address the big drivers of our debt. . . Our military has done a lot.
They’ve sacrificed. . . And for us to target them first, I think, is the wrong thing to do.” Senator Jim Webb, D-Va., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Personnel Subcommittee, added, “All of this boils down to what a soldier or Marine or sailor or someone in the Air Force can see about what happened to the people who went before them, how they were treated after they left the uniform. . . No Marine is ever left behind, and I feel just as strongly about the commitment that we have made to lifetime medical care for the people who have served.” Webb is a highly decorated Marine who was secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration. Meanwhile, both SASC Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and SASC Ranking Member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have voiced support for the TRICARE fee increases proposed by the Administration. To read more, go to: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74846.html#ixzz1rCbj3GGs
2. Air Force Ready if BRAC Round is approved by Congress. An article in The Hill newspaper reports that the Air Force is already considering shuttering some bases due to reduced infrastructure. The article said, “If DOD decides to begin a new round of base closures to save department dollars over the next decade, the Air Force should be ready. . . Along with consolidating the number of future Air Force bases to house the [F-35] Joint Strike Fighter, service leaders are looking to shutter the Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, [Air Force Secretary Michael] Donley told reporters during Tuesday’s breakfast in Washington. Drawing down service infrastructure goes hand in hand with a plan to cut Air Force personnel by 10,000 over the next five years, Donley said. ‘The sight picture here is as the Air Force gets smaller, we are confident we have excess infrastructure’ to spare, he said. . . Shrinking the number of Air Force installations is one of many avenues Donley and other service leaders are exploring in an overall effort to cut costs in response to the budget pressure facing the Pentagon.” To read more, go to: http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/air-force/220133-air-force-ready-if-brac-becomes-reality
3. VA Sees Shortfall of Mental Health Specialists. An article in USA Today reports, “As thousands of additional veterans seek mental health care every month, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is short of psychiatrists, with 20 percent vacancy rates in much of the country served by VA hospitals, according to department data. . . The vacancies occur at a time when the number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is increasing by about 10,000 every three months, what experts say is the cumulative effect of a decade of war, VA data show. . . More than 230,000 servicemembers have suffered traumatic brain injuries ranging from mild to severe since 2000, according to Pentagon data. ‘Last year, VA testified that it has the resources to handle the influx of veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war,’ says Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. ‘Now we learn from them there is a shortage. …VA needs to quickly figure out what the problem is.’” You can read more on this at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-04-04/military-veteran-mental-health-psychiatrists/54009974/1
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