Since 12-09-05
NMFA Government & You E-News
07Dec2005
Since 12-09-05
From: Waspscpo@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 4:11 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: NMFA Government & You E-News
December 6, 2005
http://www.nmfa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Government_and_You_ENews_20051206&JServSessionIdr004=5rywwdbdk1.app7a#66
Topics in this Week’s News Include:
1. DoD Clarifies Rules Regarding Gifts to Servicemembers
2. Improved Centers Ease Deployed Servicemembers’ Chance to Phone Home
3. Local American Legion Post Helps Minnesota Guard Members Go Home for Holidays
4. The New Reserves: “Strategic in Peace, Operational in War”
5. New York Plans Housing Initiative to Support Fort Drum
6. Retiree Tax Statements to Be Mailed in December
7. DoD Launching
Electronic Health Record
8. Coming Home: The Impact of PTSD
on Servicemembers and Families
9. NMFA
Comments on USFSPA to DACOWITS
Here’s the News!
1. DoD
Clarifies Rules Regarding Gifts to Servicemembers:
As
the traditional gift-giving season gets under way, many Americans, including
corporations and service groups, want to show their gratitude to American
servicemembers, especially those who are deployed, in combat zones, or have been
wounded. The Department of Defense recently provided a reminder on how this
“outpouring from the public of goodwill, compassion and recognition for the
sacrifices of servicemembers” can be done legally.
The clarification is necessary, stated DoD officials because of recent
misunderstandings reported in the media about what can and cannot be donated to
servicemembers.The families of deceased DoD personnel, assuming they are not
federal employees themselves, are not bound by these rules.Federal gift-giving
rules apply to all servicemembers and their families.
There is no distinction between wounded or nonwounded. In general, military
personnel and their family members may accept unsolicited gifts as long as they
are not offered because of their official position or from a "prohibited
source." A prohibited source is any person or group that seeks official action
from the employee's agency; does or seeks to do business with his or her agency;
conducts activities regulated by his or her agency; or has interests that may be
substantially affected by the individual employee's official duties.
Federal rules define a gift as any gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment,
hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value. It also
includes services such as training, transportation, local travel, lodging and
meals. Ethics officials point out that since the rules involve many exemptions
and exceptions, military personnel should consult their local judge advocates,
legal counsel, or ethics officials before accepting gifts.
For example, troops may accept coffee, doughnuts, and other food and
refreshments offered other than as part of a meal. They may accept greeting
cards, plaques, certificates and trophies and other items with little intrinsic
value. They also may accept awards and prizes in contests open to the public.
Servicemembers may receive discounts from commercial companies if the discount
is offered to all government or military personnel.
Two of the nation's largest home-improvement retailers, Home Depot and Lowe's,
for example, recently recognized Veterans Day by offering discounts for all
active-duty military, reservists, retirees and their families. They also may
accept items provided as "bulk gifts" to the military, such as 100,000 pairs of
sunglasses. A Service branch or appropriate commander can accept items and then
re-distribute them as part of authorized morale, welfare, and recreation
activity or patient support service.
Another exception—commonly known as the $20 rule—applies when gifts (other than
cash) from a single source have a market value of $20 or less. However, an
employee may not accept over $50 in gifts from the same source in a single
year.DoD personnel may not solicit gifts, even for others, unless the
solicitation is part of an official fundraising program, such as the Combined
Federal Campaign. Servicemembers may, however, advise groups, or individuals
seeking to assist servicemembers, of their needs.
Websites run by charitable organizations offer troops the opportunity to request
specific items to match them with donations. For example, deployed troops in
Iraq have identified the need for, and received, air conditioners, boots, DVD
players and other items.DoD has issued guidance, available at
www.defenselink.mil/dodgc/defense_ethics/dod_oge/gifts_to_servicemembers.doc,
to assist ethics counselors and commanders in understanding the rules.
DoD officials say that gifts of money to aid military personnel, including
deployed or wounded servicemembers and their families, should be made to private
relief organizations that provide assistance to affected personnel. These
include the Armed Forces Relief Trust (http://www.afrtrust.org/),
Army Emergency Relief Society (http://www.aerhq.org/),
Navy/Marine Corps Relief Society (http://www.nmcrs.org/),
Air Force Aid Society (http://www.afas.org/),
and Coast Guard Mutual Assistance (http://www.cgmahq.org/).
Gifts of commissary or exchange gift certificates can also be made through
several organizations. Information about these programs can be found at
http://www.commissaries.com/ and
http://www.aafes.com/. (source:
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=21205)
2. Improved Centers Ease Deployed Servicemembers’ Chance to Phone Home:
The
Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) partners with AT&T to deliver call
centers designed with specific military requirements in mind to give deployed
troops affordable, reliable and dependable communications. Six air conditioned
AT&T phone centers in Iraq recently underwent a major renovation to make them
even more comfortable for troops to connect from the front lines to the home
front. The upgrades included metallic floor and wall covering for added
durability as well as revisions to the trailers themselves to better withstand
movement around the country. There are currently 48 phone centers in Iraq with
more than 1,200 telephones. Each phone center contains 12, 24, or 48 phones. In
Iraq alone, total phone minute usage average was 324 minutes per phone per day
for the month of October, with the total minute usage in Iraq reaching 11.6
million minutes.
Any American, even non-authorized exchange customers, can also help troops make
a phone call at any of the 70 phone centers in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and
Kyrgystan through AAFES’ “Help Our Troops Call Home” initiative. This troop
support effort makes it easy to send a Military Exchange Global Prepaid Phone
Card to U.S. servicemembers around the world. More than 74,000 Military Exchange
Global Prepaid Phone Cards have been distributed to deployed troops serving in
Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom since the Department of Defense approved
AAFES’ implementation of the phone card campaign in April 2004. For information
on how to donate phone cards to servicemembers, go to
http://www.aafes.com/ and click on the link
for “Help our troops call home."
3. Local American Legion Post Helps Minnesota Guard Members Go Home for
Holidays:
Friends and family members of Minnesota National Guard members training at Camp
Shelby in Mississippi were made merry by the news that their soldiers will be
given 15-day leaves for Christmas. While pleased their servicemembers would not
have to remain at the Camp even as most activities on the post closed down for
the holidays, families were disappointed to learn their soldiers would have to
find, and pay for, their own way home.
Thanks to “Project Homecoming,” sponsored by the Mankato (MN) American Legion
Post 11 and the donations of concerned state residents, soldiers and families
may get some help in paying the bus fare home for the holidays. Approximately
2,600 Minnesota Guard troops have been training at Camp Shelby since September,
preparing for a Middle East deployment early next year. For many, this trip home
will be their last before they leave. Originally, the Project Homecoming plan
was to get soldiers from units in only the few communities closest to Mankato
home. But the effort has taken off and now involves soldiers across the state.
Organizers say they have raised about $12,000, with about $30,000 more promised.
The group had hoped to raise $80,000 but now would like to double that by this
week. Several Minnesota bus charter companies have agreed to pick up the
soldiers and drive them home at discount rates. Organizers thought they would
charter flights at first but backed off because of costs.
The soldiers will begin the 16-hour trip around midnight on December 21 and
arrive in southern Minnesota sometime on the afternoon of December 22. The buses
will drop them off in towns close to their homes. For information about Project
Homecoming and how to donate, go to:
http://www.noblescountyreview.net/default.asp?storyid=24320&secid=101.
4. The
New Reserves: “Strategic in Peace, Operational in War:
” The
first ever joint conference sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Reserve Affairs and the Reserve Forces Policy Board was held
November 29 and 30 in McLean, Virginia. Military leaders from across the
Services and components, association representatives, and other interested
parties listened as speakers such as Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr., Vice
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Honorable Thomas Hall, Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs; and the Honorable Francis Harvey,
Secretary of the Army, spoke about the integration of the reserve component (RC)
into the Total Force and the sustainability of using the RC at such a high
optempo.
Several panels presented the findings of studies on recruitment and retention of
the RC and what motivates the reserve component servicemembers to serve. Of
special interest to NMFA was the panel presentation by Dr. Laura Castaneda of
the Rand Corporation as she discussed her work with Dr. Margaret Harrell on
understanding Guard and Reserve families. She explored several topics they are
researching, to include defining family readiness and discovering just how these
families are coping with multiple deployments. She also cited NMFA as a resource
in their studies. A report on the entire conference will be available within the
next few months.
5. New
York Plans Housing Initiative to Support Fort Drum:
New
York Governor George E. Pataki recently announced $9 million in new state
funding to support the development of affordable housing in the Fort Drum
region. The funding, which will be administered by the Development Authority of
the North Country, will help support infrastructure improvements such as sewer,
water, utilities and roads to spur the development of 800-900 new single and
multi-family affordable housing units in the region.
The $9 million in new funds will generate a total of $90 million, or 10-to-1
ratio, in private sector investment in the housing units. Of the planned first
200 hundred units, 100 will be in Watertown, with 50 units located in both
Carthage and Evans Mills. Governor Pataki acknowledged the important role played
by Fort Drum in the Nation’s defense and in the economy of local communities and
added: “Most importantly, we’re supporting those who are serving in defense of
our country and their families…Our combined efforts make clear our commitment to
the expansion of Fort Drum and for efforts to provide quality affordable housing
for military and working families in the region.”
The need for additional affordable housing in the Fort Drum area increased as
the 3rd Brigade began its arrival at Fort Drum in 2004. The influx of new
soldiers has put significant pressure on the housing market in surrounding
communities, for both the soldiers and their families as well as for North
Country residents. This expansion of the 3rd Brigade’s forces will be completed
by July of 2006, a total of 6,000 soldiers, increasing the size of the force
located at Fort Drum by more than 50 percent. (Source:
http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/05/1205051.htm)
6. Retiree Tax
Statements to Be Mailed in December:
Retired and annuitant account (RAS) statements and 1099-R tax statements will be
mailed throughout the latter half of December. Hoping to eliminate problems
encountered last year, DFAS officials remind pay recipients that the account
statement and tax form will be mailed in the same envelope. Last year, many
individuals failed to notice and then complained to DFAS that they had not
gotten the 1099 when the problem was one of misplacement.
While the exact mailing schedule is unknown, DFAS will provide completed
statements and forms to the printing and mailing contractor by December 14,
2005, for incremental mailings. For retirees, the RAS will reflect changes due
to the cost-of-living increase, the Veterans Administration (VA) legislative
increase and changes to the Federal Income Tax Withholding rates. Due to the VA
legislative increase, recipients of Combat Related Special Compensation (CRSC)
will also receive an increase to their CRSC amount.
This amount will affect the December 2005 entitlement scheduled for the payment
on January 3, 2006 and will be reflected on the CRSC pay statement available to
retirees on the myPay website (https://mypay.dfas.mil/mypay.aspx).
Retirees who do not have a myPay account will not receive a CRSC pay statement.
Also, during December, retired members entitled to receive either CRSC or
Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) will be provided with an
election form as part of the annual open season. During the open season,
affected retirees will have the opportunity to elect to receive either CRDP or
CRSC for the next year. In order for the entitlement to change, the form must be
received and processed by January 31, 2006.
Based on the election, the change will take effect on the payment dated February
1, 2006. In addition, as a result of the phased in CRDP, the amount retirees
will receive for CRDP will increase effective January 2006 and will be reflected
in the payment dated February1, 2006.
The Annuitant Account Statement will reflect changes due to the cost-of-living
increase, changes to the VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) amounts
and changes to Federal Income Tax Withholding rates. (Source: Air Force Retiree
News, Release No. 12-02-05)
7. DoD Launching
Electronic Health Record:
The
Department of Defense recently launched its global electronic health record
system called AHLTA (Note: The term AHLTA is not an acronym, it is just the name
of the program:
http://www.ha.osd.mil/AHLTA/). AHLTA is the largest, most significant
electronic health record (EHR) system of its kind, with the potential to serve
more than nine million servicemembers, retirees and their families worldwide.
When fully implemented, approximately 60,000 military healthcare professionals
at DoD medical facilities in the United States, and 11 other countries will use
this electronic health record system. Beneficiaries’ health records will be
available around the clock and around the world, available to military
healthcare providers, yet protected from loss and unauthorized access. Full
deployment of the system in DoD’s 800 clinics and 70 hospitals is scheduled to
be complete by December 2006.
The longer term vision, expected to be achieved in the next two to three years,
is a continuously updated digital medical record from the point of injury or
care on the battlefield to military clinics and hospitals in the United States,
all completely transferable electronically to the Veterans Health
Administration. (Source:
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/nr20051121-5122.html)
8. Coming Home:
The
Impact of PTSD on Servicemembers and Families: Representative Lane Evans (D-IL,
17th), the Ranking Member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is convening
a Congressional briefing and panel discussion to highlight both the pivotal role
families play in encouraging a servicemember or veteran to seek treatment for
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and how PTSD can affect military
families.
The briefing will be held on Thursday, December 8 at 10:00 a.m. in room 334 of
the Cannon House Office Building.Panelists include:
In
her presentation, Joyce Raezer will be including information from the recent
NMFA Cycles of Deployment survey relating to military families use of and need
for counseling and other mental health support services.
Homecomings for military service personnel and their families bring elation and
relief. For many families, however, their loved ones may return fighting another
kind of war, one that includes experiencing and suffering from very serious and
complex mental health issues.
For these veterans and their families, the veteran has not truly made the
journey home. The Nation commits a serious disservice to veterans and their
families if it only focuses on the veteran with PTSD and does not address the
needs of the family as a whole.
9. NMFA Comments On USFSPA
to DACOWITS:
NMFA
provided comments concerning the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act
(USFSPA) in a public forum before the Defense Department Advisory Committee on
Women in the Services (DACOWITS) on Monday, December 5. Kathleen Moakler, Deputy
Director of Government Relations, discussed NMFA’s belief that the most glaring
problem regarding FSPA has consistently been the confusion about what the law
actually says regarding the division of military retired pay by state courts
versus what servicemembers, spouses, and lawyers think the law says. NMFA stated
that several recommendations proposed in the 2001 DoD review of the USFSPA be
implemented.
These changes require legislation and include:
For
the complete statement, visit
http://www.nmfa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=testimonies. For more
information on benefits for former spouses of servicemembers and military
retirees, go to:
http://www.nmfa.org/site/DocServer/Former_Spouse_Benefits_11-05.pdf?docID=3581.
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)