Legislative Objectives

National Guard, Apr 2008 by Koper, Stephen M

For Preparation of the Fiscal Year 2009 Federal Budget

Executive Summary

This publication is much more than a list of simple objectives; it is a list of imperatives nearly 45,000 National Guard officers consider essential to completing their state and federal missions.

NGAUS members established the items contained herein through the passage of resolutions at their 129th General Conference in August 2007. We convened while approximately 60,000 Guard soldiers and airmen were engaged in operations across the nation and around the world.

The conference theme reflected the core strengths of our people: "The National Guard: Citizens, Soldiers, Patriots." The words are an adaptation of a 1928 quote from Washington National Guard Brig. Gen. James Drain: "National Guardsmen are citizens most of the time, soldiers some of the time, patriots all of the time."

We believe these words have never been truer than they are today. But dedication to community and country alone are not enough. To continue to accomplish their missions, our soldiers and airmen must receive the resources they have been denied by years of calculated Pentagon neglect based on outdated assumptions.

Illustrative of this fact is the number and breadth of items that follow. The Air Guard, for example, is saddled with a fleet of aging aircraft that need immediate modernization as well as an Air Force future-planning culture that discounts some of the nation's most experienced flight crews and maintainers.

The Army Guard faces a similar plight. It needs billions of dollars worth of equipment just to maintain its current interoperability with the active component and to be ready to respond to the type of no-notice emergencies that worry every state and local official.

There is, of course, a long-term solution to this situation: codify in law the Guard's input to major Defense Department resourcing decisions.

Our NGAUS Legislative team stands ready to help you help the Guard. We are your one-stop source for Guard information. Feel free to call or visit us anytime. In addition, our Web site (www.ngaus.org) has details on many of the imperatives that follow.

The 20 pages that follow are a condensed version of the NGAUS Legislative Objectives booklet that association officials provided to members of Congress and senior defense leaders earlier this year. The complete document is available on the NGAUS Web site at www.ngaus.org.

Joint Resolutions

Personnel and readiness support from Congress remain a critical NGAUS focus. Given the use of the National Guard as an operational force in the Global War on Terror, NGAUS seeks to reduce benefit and other quality-of-life discrepancies between the active component and the Guard.

Personnel, Benefits and Compensation

NGAUS urges Congress to:

* Reduce the age a retired Guardsman can receive military retirement pay by one year for every two years served after 20 good years.

* Procure and implement a medical-information management system to manage information on deployed Guardsmen and Reservists and provide medical support to homeland response operations.

* Establish a medical-information management system with access and integration compatibility among the Guard, the Defense Department (DoD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and civilian health care providers to ensure continuity of care.

* Establish model programs for post-deployment mental health practices.

* Establish a DoD/VA Council on post-deployment mental health.

* Establish protocols for pain management for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and war-related pain.

* Establish protocols for treatment of substance use/abuse disorders.

* Establish protocols for diagnosis of PTSD.

* Establish a National Steering Committee on PTSD education.

* Fund a national center for PTSD.

* Identify deficiencies in PTSD disability examinations.

* Establish criteria in determining medical conditions associated with PTSD.

* Authorize the VA to develop, in collaboration with local behavioral health service providers and veterans and families, a needs analysis to determine current requirements for mental health facilities and personnel to support both active and reserve-component members.

* Fund the local VA behavioral-health service providers starting in fiscal 2009 to provide necessary support for returning veterans.

* Collect data from pre- and post-deployment health assessments.

* Identify factors that decrease the likelihood of the development of chronic PTSD despite combat exposure.

* Provide all Guardsmen coverage under the TRICARE Dental Program (TDP) to include an annual dental examination at no cost to the member and full payment by the TDP of any dental treatment needed to bring the member into a Dental Class 1 or 2.

* Provide stipends for dental insurance premiums or for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses for incurred dental costs.

* Fully fund each Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Center, the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine, and the Casualty Care Research Center.