AFSA Division 6 -

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-019

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

March 27, 2012

1.  Key Hearings this Week.  This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans, and Related Agencies will hold two hearings on the FY 2013 Military Construction request of the military services.  Toward the latter part of the week, the House Veterans Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Disability and Memorial Affairs will hold a hearing on the following:

·         Our 2012 membership campaign is off to a sluggish start.  The good news is that we are ahead of last year’s pace which saw us recruit and retain nearly 22,000.  That resulted in some nominal growth.  Growth was only in the hundreds.  However, that is far better than the more than 5000 members we lost in 2010.

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-018

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

March 23, 2012

1.  More on Coalition Testimony Against TRICARE fee Increases.  The Kitsap Sun provides an article by journalist Tom Philpott about Wednesday’s Coalition testimony.  Yesterday, we reported that Ret. USAF Colonel Steve Strobridge, co-chair of the Military Coalition, attacked the DoD position on TRICARE fee increases.  Philpott provides more comment on  Colonel Strobridge’s Coaltion testimony:  “They blame the budget crunch but balk at changes to make the system significantly more efficient [addressing] DoD's fragmented health care systems.  But the recent review made only minimal changes, in part because a key decision criterion was how hard the change would be. So the first choice was to make retirees pay more because it was easier,’ he said. . .

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-014

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

March 17, 2012

1.  Military Coalition Testifies Against TRICARE Fee Increases.  On March 14, The Military Coalition testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Administration’s proposed fee increases for TRICARE Prime, Standard, Extra, TRICARE for Life, and the TRICARE Pharmacy programs.  This testimony spoke against any fee increases that exceed the annual military retiree COLA.  It rejected any TRICARE Standard fees, any TRICARE for Life enrollment fee, and the Administration’s attempt to “civilianize” the military pharmacy program.

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-017

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

March 22, 2012

1.  Woodson Testifies on DoD’s TRICARE Plans.  A DoD news article reports that Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, testified before the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), detailing four focuses DoD is pursuing in the area of health care.  They include:

·        Internal efficiencies to better organize the Military Health System’s decision-making and execution functions;

·        Continuation of efforts to pay private-sector health care providers appropriately;

·        Reducing illness, injury and hospitalization by emphasizing initiatives that promote health; and

·        Changing beneficiary cost-sharing in the TRICARE military health system.

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-016

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

March 21, 2012

1.  Air Force Leaders Testify on FY 2013 Budget and Future Years Defense Program. Yesterday, Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley and Chief of Staff General Norman A. Schwartz testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.  A posture statement that formed the basis of their testimony outlined what these leaders perceived as the strategic environment, how the Air Force has had to make the hard choices to realign to the new strategic guidance promulgated by the Administration/DoD, how the Air Force has had to adapt to constrained resources, and Air Force core functions.

March 1, 2012

Guantanamo Commander Defends $744,000 Soccer Field

By Jane Sutton, Reuters

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- The U.S. admiral in charge of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is defending the decision to build a $744,000 soccer field for well-behaved prisoners, and said critics misunderstood the facility's purpose and logistics.

Rear Admiral David Woods said the camp's mission was not to punish foreign captives unnecessarily, many of whom have been held there for 10 years already. He said his job is to detain them away from the battlefield under safe and humane conditions, and that providing socialization opportunities was part of that.

"It does include things that keep their mind active, like the classes that we keep and the entertainment, newspapers, books, TV that they're able to experience here," Woods told journalists visiting the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base on Wednesday night.

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-012

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

March 2, 2012

1. DoD Top Doc Carries Administration’s TRICARE Position to Hill. Dr. Jonathan Woodson, the assistant secretary of defense for Health Affairs recently testified before the House Armed Services Committee’s Personnel Subcommittee. Woodson continued the Administration message, echoing the comments of Secretary of Defense Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey. In following that theme, the “Top Doc” issued strong warnings that if the Administration’s plans are not put into effect, primarily at the expense of military retirees and their families, DoD will have to make significantly deeper cuts in force strength.

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-011

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

March 1, 2012

1. SECDEF and CJCS Testify on President’s FY 2013 Budget Request Hearing. On February 28th, the Senate Budget Committee heard testimony from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey on the President's FY 2013 budget request. As could be expected, Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey justified and defended the positions taken by the Administration in the President’s Budget plan for FY 2013.

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-010

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

February 29, 2012

1.  The Impact of Budget Cuts on Servicemembers and their Families. The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Personnel Subcommittee, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said yesterday that he is concerned about the Obama Administration’s proposed cuts to personnel and programs that support them.  An Army Times article reports that Wilson said that such cuts “exact a human cost on our families.” He added, “The budget projects reduced pay raises in future years precisely when economic conditions may present the all-volunteer force with the challenge of a robust job market.”  According to the article, Rep.

AFSA International Legislative Committee Bulletin 2012-009

CMSgt (Ret.) James E. Lokovic

Vice-Chair International Legislative Committee

Division 12 Trustee, Legislative and Retiree Affairs

jlokovic@gmail.com

February 28, 2012

1.  Members of Congress to Try to Stop or Mitigate Effects of Sequestration; SECDEF to Testify before Budget Committees. Several members of Congress, perhaps most notably Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., is very concerned about the potential impact on our nation’s defense of an additional $500 billion in cuts over the next 10 years that would result from sequestration.  This comes about because the so-called “Super Committee” failed to agree on a deficit reduction strategy, and that triggered an additional $492 billion in defense cuts starting in January 2013.