Expect Tiny Raise, No Compensation Reform

Taken from the April 14, 2015 issue of the NGAUS Washington Report, a weekly e-newsletter of the National Guard Association of the United States

Congress has returned to the nation’s capital and work is expected to begin again on the defense bills. Military Times says service members should not expect to see recommendations from the panel on compensation included in the budget. Also, a pay raise of 1.3 percent is likely.

The House Armed Services Committee is expected to do its markup of the defense bill April 29.

The publication says House members are reluctant to address the recommendations from the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission because they don’t know how they will be received or what the results might be. The panel wants the Pentagon to significantly revamp its retirement system, among other changes.

Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee, said in a statement he is “concerned that Congress not rush that process without fully vetting both the recommendations and their second- and third-order effects.”

NGAUS has urged lawmakers to quickly pass the recommendations of the commission because they would benefit National Guard members and provide a retirement benefit to service members who leave the military before reaching the 20-year mark.

Military Times also says the Pentagon’s recommendation of a pay raise of 1.3 percent could happen as Congress attempts to keep down spending. That would be above the 1 percent raise of the last two years, but below the hike in average wages in the private sector by about 1 percentage point.