Letter to Carl Levin and John McCain, Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Ike Skelton and Duncan Hunter, Chair and Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Re: Include PDMRA Benefits in Defense Authorization

Letter

Grassley, Colleagues Push to Have Defense Authorization Conferees Include

Senator Chuck Grassley, along with several members of the House and Senate, recently sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to request inclusion of the language that would fix a problem in the distribution of leave time under Post Deployment and Mobilization Respite Absence. Approximately 850 members of the Iowa National Guard did not receive their earned leave due to a delay between the announcement of the leave program by the Department of Defense and the establishment of the program by the individual services. The language would reimburse soldiers who were left out during that period.

"Iowa National Guard soldiers have been called on again and again to serve their country. It's only right that they receive all the benefits they deserve," Grassley said. "It's only appropriate that this technical, non-controversial fix be included in the final bill."

The Post Deployment and Mobilization Respite Absence leave was designed to provide service members who were deployed for longer rotation cycles to Iraq and Afghanistan (and in specific instances to Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kyrgyzstan) additional time to reintegrate back into civilian life. It also was intended to help with retention of service members who had experienced long tours.

The delay in implementation of the policy varied between the different branches of the Armed Services. The Army didn't issue its corresponding policy for implementing the policy until more than six months after the Defense Department's January 19, 2007 issuance date. During this gap, thousands of soldiers from the National Guard and Army Reserve alone separated from the service, and did not receive proper compensation for their leave.

Under the proposed language, the Department of Defense's personnel office would have the legal authority to retroactively pay a $200 per day benefit.

Here's a copy of the text of the letter.

September 19, 2008

The Honorable Carl Levin
Chairman
Senate Armed Services Committee
228 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable John McCain
Ranking Member
Senate Armed Services Committee
228 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Ike Skelton
Chairman
House Armed Services Committee
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Duncan Hunter
Ranking Member
House Armed Services Committee
2340 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Levin, Chairman Skelton, Ranking Member McCain, and Ranking Member Hunter,

As you work in conference committee to resolve differences in the House and Senate-passed versions of the Fiscal Year 2009 National Defense Authorization Act (NOAA), we respectfully request that you include language to ensure that members of the Armed Services are provided with the Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence (PDMRA) benefits they deserve. This is an important issue which is currently affecting over 20,000 troops nationwide, including many of our constituents. Given the short amount of time remaining in the 110th Congress, we believe that addressing this crucial issue in the NOAA may be the best chance of resolving this matter this year for these deserving troops.

As you may know, the Department of Defense (DOD) established the PDMRA program in January 2007 to provide benefits to service members who are deployed beyond established DOD rotation cycles to Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, many months after returning home, thousands of these troops have not received their earned benefits due to a delay between the announcement of the new PDRMA program and the establishment of the program by the individual military services.

It is our understanding that the DOD would like to pay these service members the benefits they have earned, but lacks the legal authority to pay these benefits retroactively.

We believe that it is unacceptable that these troops are being forced to wait to receive their benefits because of bureaucratic glitches and delays at the Pentagon. We also believe that it is crucial to resolve this issue for these troops as soon as possible.

That is why we have introduced legislation in the Senate (S. 3310) and the House (H.R. 6723) to require the DOD to retroactively provide this benefit for affected troops. Unfortunately, an amendment with identical language that was offered to the Senate NOAA was not allowed to be included when an agreement could not be reached on a manager's package.

As you proceed in conference negotiations, we ask that you please work to include language in the final NOAA which will ensure that all affected troops are provided with PDMRA benefits in a timely manner.

Thank you for your work on the behalf of our men and women in uniform, and for your attention to this important matter. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any assistance to you on this issue.

Sincerely,

Ron Wyden
Chuck Grassley
Tom Harkin
Norm Coleman
Leonard Boswell
Dave Loebsack
Betty McCollum
Steve King
Jim Oberstar
Bruce Braley
Amy Klobuchar
Pat Roberts
Robert Menendez
Tom Latham
Tim Walz
John Kline
Michele Bachmann

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