Senator Clinton Calls for Better Support for National Guard and Reserve Members and their Families

Senator Clinton Calls for Better Support for National Guard and Reserve Members and their Families

Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today submitted recommendations to the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves on expanded support needed for National Guard and Reserve members and their families in recognition of the greater demands placed on them to meet national and homeland security objectives. Senator Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was invited by the Commission to submit recommendations.

"We need to recognize the increased role of these units, and acknowledge their ever increasing sacrifice. A failure to address these new realities and challenges will inevitably lead to recruitment and retention problems, and they could hinder the ability of the National Guard and Reserve components to meet their new, expanded missions thereby inhibiting and undermining the ability of the Armed Forces as a whole," Senator Clinton underscored.

"If the National Guard and Reserves are asked to play a more active role overseas and in homeland security deployments, then we have to provide more benefits and opportunities on par with our other active duty forces. To do otherwise is unfair to those who sacrifice so much for our country. We need to provide National Guard and reserve soldiers with better health care and health tracking, better training and equipment, and better support for military families," Senator Clinton emphasized.

The independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserves is charged by Congress to recommend any needed changes in law and policy to ensure that the Guard and Reserves are organized, trained, equipped, compensated, and supported to best meet the national security requirements of the United States. The Commission was established under the FY 2005 Department of Defense authorization bill.

The following is the text of Senator Clinton's recommendations:

Major General Arnold L. Punaro, USMC (Ret.)
Chairman
Commission on the National Guard and Reserves
Suite 650
2521 South Clark Street
Arlington, Virginia 22202

Dear General Punaro:

Thank you for the invitation to make a submission to the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves. As our nation continues to place heavy burdens on the National Guard and Reserves, the work of your commission is critical to the future of our national defense.

As you are well aware, Guard and Reserve service no longer means one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Over 380,000 National Guard and Reserve members have deployed in support of the Global War on Terrorism since the attacks on September 11. Activated units are playing critically important roles in the War on Terrorism, and subsequently their deployments are reflective of their active duty counterpart. The National Guard and Reserve members have responded magnificently to the increased demands placed upon them. They serve willingly and nobly even though, in some circumstances, they return to economic and family dislocation.

This shift in how we employ the National Guard and Reserves from a strategic to operational force requires a holistic review. We need to recognize the increased role of these units, and acknowledge their ever increasing sacrifice. A failure to address these new realities and challenges will inevitably lead to recruitment and retention problems, and they could hinder the ability of the National Guard and Reserve components to meet their new, expanded missions thereby inhibiting and undermining the ability of the Armed Forces as a whole. If the National Guard and Reserves are asked to play a more active role overseas and in homeland security deployments, then we have to provide more benefits and opportunities on par with our other active duty forces. To do otherwise is unfair to those who sacrifice so much for our country. We need to provide National Guard members and Reservists with better health care and health tracking, better training and equipment, and better support for military families.

Benefits

The importance of medical readiness of Reserve members - ensuring Reserve members are medically ready to deploy before calling them to active duty - must be addressed. Additionally, consideration should be given to health care stability for family and service member, as well as adding more relief for self-employed service members. Early in my tenure on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I was surprised to learn that the percentage of members of the reserve components of the military without health insurance coverage was 20 percent higher than the general population. Over the past few legislative cycles we have made progress in providing greater access to TRICARE, the military health insurance program, for members of the reserve component, expanding coverage based on time spent on active duty and providing greater cost-share options for certain personnel.

Since joining the Senate Armed Services Committee, I have advocated expanding access to TRICARE for members of the reserve component. In 2003, I joined Senator Lindsay Graham and several other colleagues in introducing the National Guard and Reserves Reform for the 21st Century which proposed permitting Selected Reserve members to enroll themselves and family members under the TRICARE program. Last year, Senator Graham and I secured passage of an amendment to the Department of Defense (DoD) bill that made all members of the Selected Reserve eligible to enroll in TRICARE, and created a separate category based on whether a member of the Guard or Reserves had been deployed.

This year, I co-sponsored legislation with Senator Graham and Senator Saxby Chambliss to further expand health care to members of the Guard and Reserves in this year's Authorization Act as well as lowering the retirement age for Guard members and Reservists based on years of service. Therefore, it was a significant victory when the final bill signed into law by the President included legislative language which expanded TRICARE access to all National Guard and Reserve members at a 28 percent cost share. The next challenge will be to ensure that the Department of Defense implements this expanded benefit expeditiously.

Another health care issue important to our Guard members and Reservists is the treatment that they receive when they return from combat tours overseas. Many of our service members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, including members of the Guard and Reserves, have suffered grievous injuries including Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). With Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) emerging as the "signature" injury of this war, we must be prepared to deal with the long term implications on our soldiers and veterans. We must plan for the requirements TBI will bring with it. The Fiscal Year 2007 DoD Authorization bill included most elements of an amendment I authored entitled "Heroes at Home." This amendment will assist military service members of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) with readjustment to work, the problems of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The initiative, which is supported by the National Military Family Association and the Wounded Warrior Project, also provides support to their family members.

Now we must ensure that the Department of Defense fulfills its obligations and establishes appropriate policies and procedures to meet the evolving needs of the members of the Reserves and their families when they are on active duty or back home. As a starting point, the DoD Appropriations bill included $3 million to provide initial funding for Heroes at Home. This funding will help support community-based programs that provide mental health and readjustment assistance to National Guard and Reserve members and their families, since many of these troops return to local communities scattered across the country far away from military bases and VA hospitals. The funding will also bolster community resources to more effectively support our newest generation of war heroes serving in the Guard and Reserve after deployment, in addition to their loved ones. Despite more services offered at DoD and VA facilities, service members often are reluctant to go to traditional military or veterans' mental health clinics due to stigma and concerns about confidentiality, and their family members may not be eligible. With this funding, programs offered in places like community clinics, community colleges, and family support organizations will be better equipped to help Guard and Reservists and their families with mental health problems, such as providing education to increase awareness about PTSD and other readjustment concerns and making referrals for additional care if needed. The community focus of this effort is crucial because many Guard and Reservists and their loved ones will first turn to resources in their local communities and neighborhoods for assistance with challenges like PTSD, depression, and relationship difficulties. Moving forward, we must increase funding for these critical programs.

Another issue that is important for the recruitment and retention of our reserve component is lowering the retirement age based on years of service. This year, the Senate passed an amendment, which I co-sponsored, to the Defense Authorization bill which would require that for every consecutive 90 days a member spends in an active federal status, the age at which they receive their retirement annuity would be decreased by three months. The lowest a member could collect retirement pay as a result of this provision would be age 50 but the age at which they would qualify for health care benefits would not decrease. Any Guard or Reserve member who is called or ordered to active duty or volunteers for active duty would qualify. While this provision did not survive in the House-Senate Defense Authorization bill conference report, the support that it received in the Senate demonstrates that this will continue to be an issue that resonates in future Congresses.

Equipment and Training

Our experience in Iraq, especially, demonstrates that our forces need to be trained for an environment where the threats come more from shadowy insurgents than a standing military force. Today's battlefield is without boundaries and our enemy knows no difference between active and reserve; thus we need to insure that the reserve components are being given the same quality of equipment as the active duty forces and that their training is being adjusted to take into account the new challenges that our military is facing. Unfortunately the readiness of our reserve component is suffering. In August 2006, according to Lt. General Steven Blum, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, more than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready due largely to vast equipment shortfalls that will take as much as $21 billion to correct.

We need to rebalance forces, forecast reserve components needed for deployment, mobilize those needed, and provide proper refresher training in basic skills and targeted training for the area of deployment. We must consider the re-set, re-equip plans for the reserve components to ensure they are trained, ready, and able to support potential missions. While priority necessarily goes to deploying units, reserve component units cannot afford to wait 3-5 more years - as they re-enter a deployment cycle - to have their equipment replaced. There must be a coherent plan in place to ensure reserve component units have the personnel in place, equipment on hand, and time to train for all possible future mission. According to Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, the Chief of the Army Reserve, "We have provided a lot of equipment to [the Iraqi] theater that has remained. That creates shortages on this [stateside] end... We still have deuce-and-a-half trucks... We've got to get that equipment replaced." Moreover, I have heard anecdotal stories of New York families sending their own personal equipment, bulletproof vests, night vision goggles, and even bandages, to try to help their loved ones who are stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Inadequate equipment for any of our troops, whether they are active duty, Guard or Reserve is unacceptable.

Support for Guard and Reserve Families

We also need to do a better job providing support and communication with Guard and Reserve families who may not have been prepared for extended deployments. Spouses and children of the reserves experience the same challenges, often without the supportive environment that a military post provides for active family members. It is critical that we create this same kind of network and communication so that families do not feel abandoned. Support and communication with families can play an important role in ensuring that we are able to recruit and retain members of the National Guard and Reserves.

The National Guard and Homeland Security

We need to take account of the increasingly important role of the National Guard in homeland security. Hurricane Katrina showed us how essential the National Guard is in responding to natural disasters. Similarly, since September 11th, we have asked the Guard to assist in securing our critical infrastructure. These tasks have provided the National Guard with unique challenges, and we need to take advantage of the National Guard's knowledge regarding homeland security. We need to share this knowledge with other first responders and to develop a seamless mechanism which allows the National Guard to work closely with local police and fire departments to prepare for and respond to future incidents of national concern. Much of this can be done without any change to posse comitatus, which prohibits the United States military acting as law enforcement.

While we need to be thinking of ways in which the National Guard can contribute to homeland security, we need to be sure that the pattern of Guard and Reserve deployments do not actually end up hindering our homeland security. In many communities throughout our nation, a significant number of police officers, firefighters, and EMTs, who are first responders in case of attack, are also members of the National Guard or Reserves. And in a time of large-scale activations and extended deployments, many communities are left short-handed without enough first responders to handle a major crisis. This has occurred in communities in New York, and it is likely that other states face similar crippling challenges.

Expanding the Army

Finally, one way to reduce the burden on the Guard and the Reserves is to expand the size of the Army. I have supported legislation that would expand the Army by 80,000 troops over a four year period. Given the strain that the Guard and Reserve are experiencing, we must strongly consider the need to expand the size of the Army so we can take some of the strain off the reserve components and shift capabilities of the National Guard and Reserves to better meet today's and tomorrow's needs.

Conclusion

In the last few years, our nation's reserve components have been called on to serve throughout the world and here at home. They have adapted and transformed themselves to meet these challenges in the midst of a war. They honor the spirit of American citizen-soldiers who have been serving since even before the birth of our nation and reflect the full diversity of our nation. It is our responsibility to ensure that they are given the support they need, support at a time when they are adapting and adjusting to this very demanding, changing role. If we are going to demand more from them, we must be prepared to fight for their rights on the principle that they deserve the very best from us.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my views on this important issue. I look forward to the final report from the Commission.

Sincerely yours,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=265782&&