For Immediate Release: May 12, 2010 Contact: Josh Holly; 202.226-3988
Wilson Opening Statement for Military Personnel Subcommittee Markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011
Washington, D.C.—U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, released the following prepared remarks for the subcommittee’s markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011:
“Madame Chairwoman, the recommendations contained in your mark are the product of an open, bi-partisan process. It has been a pleasure to work with you in developing them.
“You have already provided the major highlights, but I want to also focus on some of the more important recommendations in the mark.
“I want to thank you for including in your mark a 1.9 percent basic pay raise for the military, as proposed in my bill, H.R. 4427. I know that that there is growing opposition to increasing the basic pay of the military above the by-law requirement on the assertion that military pay now exceeds that of comparable civilian jobs. That’s a false comparison and I would challenge anyone to find a civilian job that has the same set of requirements and risks as those experienced by our military personnel. For me, the assertion that personnel costs are crowding out the ability to fund other defense priorities should not be solved by asking military personnel to take less, but for a Defense budget that provides both the personnel and other requirements to fully defend this nation.
“I am also grateful that the committee was able to find a small amount of mandatory spending offsets to allow your mark to include provisions to address reserve component disability retirement issues; to allow for some early reserve to be eligible for TRICARE; and to permit wounded and injured members retained on active duty to earn credit towards early reserve retirement.
“Despite all the good things in this mark, I must raise my disappointment that we were unable to address some key issues involving mandatory spending, such as President Obama’s proposal that would have allowed military personnel retired with disabilities, the so-called Chapter 61 retirees, to receive both their full military disability retired pay and VA disability pay. Nor was it possible to eliminate the so-called Widow’s Tax that results because military survivors are required to forfeit their SBP annuity. I intend to attempt to address these issues at the Full Committee mark-up.
“Despite my reservations and concerns, this is an excellent mark and I intend to support it.”
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