News Conference - Defense Department Authorization Bill Amendments Regarding Members of the Guard and Reserve

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: NEWS CONFERENCE WITH SENATE MINORITY LEADER TOM DASCHLE (D-SD); SENATOR BILL NELSON (D-FL); SENATOR PATTY MURRAY (D-WA)

SUBJECT: DEFENSE DEPARTMENT AUTHORIZATION BILL AMENDMENTS REGARDING MEMBERS OF THE GUARD AND RESERVE

LOCATION: SENATE RADIO/TV GALLERY, WASHINGTON, D.C.

BODY:
SEN. DASCHLE: We know there's a lot going on this morning, so thank you for joining us for this press conference involving our interest in providing additional assistance to the extraordinary members of the Guard and Reserve who are serving their country so ably today.

As you know, there's been a shift in the paradigm involving active-duty personnel over the course of the last 10 years. Ever since the end of the Cold War, we have shifted away from the reliance solely on active duty to an integrated military where we have turned increasingly to our Guard and Reservists to fill the void and to provide the services that we have traditionally called upon in active- duty personnel alone.

Today, 40 percent of those fighting in Iraq are members of the Guard and Reserves. Forty percent have now been integrated and are performing in the most remarkable way, professionally, competently, putting their lives on the line, leaving their families, leaving their businesses, leaving their places of employment in order to live up to the expectations of this country as they perform their duties in Iraq and other places around the world.

What we find to be remarkable is that this country has not reciprocated. While our Guard and Reserves have given 110 percent, the response on the part of government so far in support of our Guard and Reserves has been less than half that. We do not provide anywhere close to the benefits and the support and the kind of network that is so required to ensure that these families are kept whole and are given the kinds of support required if they're going to do their job well.

My colleagues and I have worked over the last couple of years to urge the government to change its policy to provide the kind of safety net, the kind of support in a myriad of different ways to recognize that this shift in our national paradigm be recognized and dealt with.

I have offered one slice of that change, to provide health insurance to every member of the Guard and Reserves. For $40 a month as individuals, $150 a month as families, members of the Guard and Reserves-under our amendment, the one offered by Lindsey Graham and myself, every member of the Guard and Reserves today would have access to health insurance for themselves and their families.

This is not what we have in the active-duty military. In the active-duty they get it for nothing. In the Guard and Reserves they're going to be required to pay for the insurance coverage that they are provided. But we think that is at least a step in the right direction, and acknowledges the responsibility the government has to provide assistance in many of the fundamental aspects of life and families today. And there could be no more fundamental role of government than to ensure, at least for our fighting men and women, they have health insurance.

But there are a number of other very, very critical levels of support and additional efforts that can be made to make these families whole, to provide them with the assistance they need to do their job as well as they are doing it for us. My colleagues are here to address it. I want to give great credit to both of them, Patty Murray and Bill Nelson, for the extraordinary leadership they have offered in making this a priority not for our caucus alone, but for the United States Senate. This legislation should pass, and there's no better time to pass it than as we consider the Defense authorization bill this week.

So with that, let me turn to my colleagues, and then we will answer your questions. First, Patty Murray.

SEN. MURRAY: Thank you very much, Senator Daschle, for your tremendous leadership on this issue and the understanding you have for so many Guard and Reserve families today who are really, really struggling. And I'm honored to be also joined with Senator Nelson as we honor all of our Guard and Reserve troops who are sacrificing for us overseas, and we want to also honor their spouses and their children who are sacrificing so much for those of us here at home.

Today we are asking more and more of our troops, but we are providing them with less and less support. We are here today to change that. Over the past few months I have been meeting with a number of members of our Guard and Reserve and their families, and they have told me about the challenges that they are facing during these very long deployments overseas, and I promised to help them. I've been proud to work with my colleagues who are here today as well as a number of others to develop plans to help our local soldiers and their families.

As we know all too well, our Guard and Reserve are seeing their tours extended, and that is placing tremendous burdens on their families, who are left here at home. The latest figures from the Pentagon show that more than 165,000 Guard and reservists are currently serving on active duty. Nearly 4,000 members of the Washington State National Guard have been activated in the past 15 months, including 3,200 members of the Guard's 81st Armor Brigade that is now serving in Iraq.

Our soldiers have told me that they are very worried about how their families are going to manage while they're overseas. Many of them are concerned that they will have to go overseas before they can help their spouse find affordable child care. With the amendment that we'll be offering on the DOD bill, we will have an opportunity to ensure that the non-working spouses suddenly finding themself in need of a job to help pay the bills won't incur prohibitive child-care costs.

Many of these families are also concerned about the loss of income between their spouse's civilian salary and then their active duty salary. The amendment that we're going to offer will ensure that have pay equity for federal employees who are called to duty, and it will provide tax credits to employers to encourage their support of activated Guards and Reserves.

Many soldiers have also told us they are concerned that they will have to begin repaying student loans while their loved one is overseas in Iraq. And I've heard from Guard members who are worried because they had to leave college to go to Iraq for as much as up to a year. Our amendment is going to make sure that they can return to school without penalty and that their student loans are deferred while they are on extended deployment.

Many of our soldiers are also very deeply concerned that their children will have to go to a doctor who accepts TriCare and that that type of change, especially when one parent is overseas, is particularly frightening for any young child. And while we're working to provide access to TriCare for all members of the Guard and Reserves and their families, we all know that TriCare only works if you live in a community that has TriCare available. Guard and reservists who are mobilized for extended periods need the option to maintain private health-care plans, and I've been very proud to support Senator Daschle on his efforts to make sure that our soldiers and their families have health care.

Soldiers have also expressed concerns about the inability of their spouses to take time away from their jobs when they're trying to put together all of a sudden a single household and prepare for the transition as their spouse goes overseas. That's why the amendment we're offering extends Family and Medical Leave Act to military families during extended deployments.

We also need to extend and update the G.I. Bill benefits for Guard and Reserves to help keep better pace with the rising cost of education that we are all facing.

And finally, we need to reduce the age for Guard and reservists to receive retirement pay.

I am extremely concerned that we are burning up our Guard and Reserve units by placing a tremendous strain on their families and on their finances. These brave men and women need the same kind of support that our regular services have when they're called away from their families and their jobs for extended deployments.

Making these kinds of commitments that we will be offering in this amendment on the DOD bill will show our Guard and Reserve soldiers that they can serve our country overseas, even on long deployments, and know that their families will be financially secure and they will be able to get child care and health care. We should do no less.

I hope that the Senate seizes on this opportunity to do everything we can to lessen the burden on Americans who are already sacrificing so much for our security.

And again, I thank my colleagues for their tremendous support and work on these-and we will hear from Senator Nelson on his efforts.

SEN. NELSON: As I started to hear the reaching out, the pleas, the cries from the families of the Florida National Guard; as it became apparent, even though they were into Iraq before the war started in clandestine operations-and after the very swift and very successful military action that we had, then it became obvious for the long haul that we didn't have enough troops, and the six-month rotation was not going to be a reality; indeed, the 12-month rotation was not going to be a reality.

So the families were reaching out to me and what I found was that the National Guard Family Assistance centers really became a point of contact and great security and comfort to the families as their loved ones were being extended overseas, because it was there that they could get financial counseling, that they could get emotional counseling, that there was a point of contact to bring different Guard members' families together.

And lo and behold, I found that there was not actually money appropriated for the 400 family assistance centers around the country for the National Guard; that they would take a little here and take a little there. And so in last year's appropriations bill, I put in successfully an amendment of $10 million nationwide for family assistance centers, especially in these times that our military is relying so much on the National Guard.

Well, do you know today that that $10 million as part of the appropriations bill has never been obligated by the Department of Defense? And so we're going to bring it up again and we're going to keep hammering it.

We owe this to these Guard members and their families to at least provide that if we're going to call increasingly on the National Guard as the national force structure, particularly in long occupations. And if you think it's going to be short, just look at the experience of Bosnia. We're in our ninth year in Bosnia. By the way, in Bosnia it's almost all National Guard troops that are still being stationed there. So this is the least we can do for the families.

SEN. DASCHLE: Any questions?

Q You've mentioned extended deployments. Is there a cut-off? Does this go beyond the 12 months deployment that this would kick in, then, or whether they're activated -- (off mike)?

SEN. MURRAY: Well, it depends on what provision. There's a number of provisions in our overall bill, and we have a number of members of our caucus who will be offering portions of this bill separately as well.

But what we are facing today are Guard and Reserve families who are seeing very long deployments. And their spouses, their children who are left behind are really struggling financially, with health care, with child care, with students who can't get back into college or face a penalty when they get back in college. So depending on the part of the bill, it could depend on that. But for the most part, this will apply to all Guard and Reserve members who are deployed.

SEN. DASCHLE: Just to clarify, the TriCare amendment would be made available to every member of the Guard and Reserves immediately, regardless of circumstance, regardless of whether they're in Iraq or elsewhere. If they're serving their country, they'd be eligible for this benefit.

Yes.

Q What are the costs of all these changes? And would there have to be cuts in other programs to pay for this?

SEN. DASCHLE: Well, the overall cost of the TriCare amendment is just a fraction-I think it's one-tenth of 1 percent of the entire DOD budget. But I'm sure that if you add all these together, it would be hardly a figure that the Pentagon would be able to consider prohibitive.

We haven't done an analysis of the aggregate cost. If I had to guess, it wouldn't be more than 2 percent of the entire federal budget. But we will provide a more specific analysis of each of these amendments and provisions as they are presented on the floor.

Yes.

Q The Department of Defense has opposed some of these things, opposed it very strongly. That's what happened to TriCare last year. They have been very clear in opposing the increases in retirement benefits. How do you overcome that kind of opposition -- (off mike)?

SEN. DASCHLE: Well, with persistence. You have to be persistent. They have ultimately supported many things they have opposed in the past, and I think it's critical that, regardless of DOD opposition, that they know we're not going to go away. We're not going to go away until these provisions are enacted into law.

I can't imagine how they can say that we ought to treat National Guard and reservists differently than active-duty personnel when they're required to perform exactly the same responsibilities. That to me is just an inconsistency that DOD cannot rationalize or explain. I think it's critical that we be consistent and provide the benefits, provide the opportunities for our Guard and reservists.

I'll tell you what happens if they will not. We're going to have a real problem with retention and recruitment down the road. More and more members of the Guard and Reserves are going to say, look, this isn't worth it. I can't sustain financially the sacrifice that I have to make because I have a family to feed, I have a job to perform, I have responsibilities in my private life that can't go on without being attended. And if I'm not going to get any help from the government, then I have to tell you, as much as I would like to serve my country, I just can't afford to do so. I think the Guard and Reserves have a right to say to the DOD, if you want the manpower requirements met that you expect of us and of the country, then you're going to have the make the investment that these specific provisions require.

Q What's the schedule for -- (off mike)? What's the schedule for getting any of these amendments, or how do things look on the floor right now, and -- (off mike)?

SEN. DASCHLE: Well, some of us are concerned about our ability to continue to work through this bill with all the diversions. We want to support bioterrorism and most of us will vote for it. We understand the need to bring up a budget resolution. But with each of these diversions, you have less and less of a real possibility that this legislation will be completed anytime soon.

In order to finish a bill, you have to stay on a bill. I've said that before and I'll continue to share that advice with anybody who may want to listen. You got to stay on the bill. You've got to take up these amendments. You've got to finish the work. And the sooner we do that, the sooner that we'll have an opportunity to take up these issues in particular.

Q Do you have some Republican support for the Kennedy amendment on exit strategy, the exit strategy amendment? Is there some crossing-some support on the other side of the aisle for that?

SEN. DASCHLE: I don't know yet whether Senator Kennedy has persuaded some of our Republican colleagues. They ought to be supportive of it, but I don't know at this point whether the-are you talking about the reporting amendment, the requirement that he wants to offer this --

Q Yeah, the exit strategy amendment.

SEN. DASCHLE: Okay. Well, he would call it the reporting requirement amendment. And I think at this point it's unclear what kind of support there is on the other side.

Q Senator Daschle, did the DOD call your office this morning to let you know they found another disc of images of prisoner abuse? And do you have any idea as to whether they will be up here any time soon?

SEN. DASCHLE: No, they haven't notified my office, to my knowledge. And in keeping with past practice, I guess I shouldn't expect it.

Thank you all very much.