Senator Chuck Grassley released the following statement after the Department of the Army provided direction to the National Guard Bureau so they may finalize guidance for a state National Guard whose members have been impacted by a bureaucratic snafu that left thousands of service members without certain benefits they deserved. Nearly 800 members of the Iowa National Guard were caught in the middle of a delay between the announcement of the Post Deployment and Mobilization Respite Absence (PDMRA) program by the Department of Defense and the establishment of the program by the individual services.
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.
Grassley was the lead co-sponsor of a bill in the Senate to compensate U.S. service members, like many Iowa National Guard members, who were unable to take advantage of this benefit because of the bureaucratic delay. The bill was included in the Defense Department authorization bill that was signed into law in October 2009. Since the bill was signed into law, the Department of Defenseordered theDepartment of the Army to provide official direction to the National Guard Bureau, which then provides guidance to the state National Guard.
Here is Grassley’s comment on today’s action that the Department of the Army has begun the process to provide guidance to the state National Guards.
“After extensive delays, it looks like the Army is finally moving forward on long overdue compensation for hundreds of members of the Iowa National Guard who were in one of the longest serving units in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I understand the implementing guidance from the National Guard Bureau is expected at any time now, so the Iowa National Guard is already compiling the necessary information in order to make sure these brave men and women can get paid as quickly as possible. No doubt we’ll keep the heat on the Defense Department to make sure they continue to make this a priority.”