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Photo by Steve Barrett
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MILITARY
UPDATE
February 4, 2010
NEW BUDGET: PAY RAISE, HEALTH COSTS, CONCURRENT
RECEIPT
By Tom Philpott
The
Obama administration proposes to spend three percent more next year on
support programs for war-strained military families. But officials are
urging Congress to stop adding extra dollars to the military pay raise
every January and find a way to raise TRICARE fees for the first time in
15 years.
In its
fiscal 2011 budget request, the White House also is repeating its call
that Congress phase in "concurrent receipt" – the payment of military
retired pay in addition to disability compensation – for 103,000 veterans
who were forced by medical conditions to retire short of 20 years’
service.
Just
like last year, however, the administration hasn’t identified “offsets” to
other entitlements to be able to pay for expansion of concurrent receipt.
This has left Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services
Committee, “greatly disappointed.” Without help from the White House to
find funding, Skelton said, the While House proposal will again violate
“pay-as-you-go” budget rules and won’t be able to be enacted.
Here are
highlights from the budget’s release and follow-on hearings:
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