WASHINGTON
–
Legislation that would ensure that U.S. service members receive all of the pay earned while serving in combat was included in the Defense Department authorization bill that passed the Senate late last night. Senator Chuck Grassley was the lead co-sponsor of the bill included in the Defense Department authorization bill. The bill was introduced in the Senate on March 10 by Grassley and Senator Ron Wyden, along with Senators Amy Klobuchar, Tom Harkin, Ben Nelson, Pat Roberts and Bob Menendez.
The
National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal 2010
authorizes funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programs of the Department of Energy.
The
bill must now be reconciled with legislation passed by the House of Representatives. The House passed bill includes a similar provision.
The legislation that would impact the Iowa National Guard included in the major authorization bill would
retroactively pay soldiers for leave earned under the Post Deployment and Mobilization Respite Absence (PDMRA).
More than 20,000 service members have not received their earned leave due to a delay between the announcement of the leave program by the Department of Defense and the establishment of the program by the individual services. The provision included in the Defense Authorization bill would reimburse soldiers who were left out during that period.
"These Iowa National Guard members have gone long enough without the pay they rightly deserve. They were called to duty time and time again and served our country with distinction as part of one of the longest serving units in Operation Iraqi Freedom," Grassley said. "To be cut out of earned benefits because of a bureaucratic snafu, is not doing these patriots right."
PDMRA leave was designed to provide service members who were deployed beyond established rotation cycles to Iraq and Afghanistan (and in specific instances to Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kyrgyzstan) additional time to reintegrate back into civilian life, as well as to help with retention of service members who had experienced long tours.
The delay in implementation varied from service to service. The Department of the Army didn't issue its corresponding policy for implementing PDMRA until more than six months after the Defense Department's January 19, 2007 issuance date. During this gap, thousands of soldiers from the National Guard and Army Reserve alone separated from the service, and did not receive proper compensation for their PDMRA leave.
Under the bill, the Department of Defense's personnel office would have the legal authority to pay a $200 per day benefit retroactively.