[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 79 (Tuesday, June 21, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
        AS MILITARY PAY SLIPS BEHIND, POVERTY INVADES THE RANKS

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                           HON. NEWT GINGRICH

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 21, 1994

  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I would urge all of my colleagues to 
carefully read the following article recently published in the New York 
Times. I believe that if you read this article, you will see how the 
President's cuts in the defense budget are taking a toll on the men and 
women who bravely defend and put their lives on the line every day for 
the United States.
  I believe it is unconscionable that the U.S. Government is not 
sufficiently providing for the American men and women who voluntarily 
make such great personal sacrifices every day to ensure your freedom 
and my freedom, and I strongly encourage my colleagues to actively 
oppose further cuts in America's defense budget.

                [From the New York Times, June 12, 1994]

        As Military Pay Slips Behind, Poverty Invades the Ranks

                           (By Eric Schmitt)

       Washington, June 11.--Like other airmen at Hickam Air Force 
     Base in Honolulu, 21-year-old Jason Edwards worries about 
     tensions faraway in North Korea that could erupt into 
     fighting and involve his base.
       But Airman Edwards has more immediate concerns as well. He 
     is worried about how to feed his 22-year-old wife, Beth, and 
     their two small children on his total pay and allowances of 
     $1,330-a-month. In desperation, the Edwardses last month 
     began drawing $228 a month in food stamps to get by.
       ``It's a very tight squeeze for us,'' Mrs. Edwards said. 
     ``We haven't bought any steaks since we've been here, and 
     whenever I want to cook something with ham, I substitute Spam 
     for it.''
       In a trend that has senior Pentagon officials deeply 
     troubled, an increasing number of military families are 
     turning to food stamps to make ends meet. Three-quarters of 
     America's enlisted forces earn less than $30,000 a year, and 
     the gap between civilian and military wages is growing.
       To be sure, no one ever joined the military to get rich. 
     But neither did they expect to have to go on welfare. 
     Military officials worry that a growing demand for food 
     stamps and other Government assistance may signal larger 
     personnel problems in a culture that preaches self-reliance 
     and self-discipline.
       The overall number of troops on food stamps is very small 
     and difficult to measure because the Government does not 
     track military recipients.
       About 3 percent of the 1.7 million service members qualify 
     for food stamps and 1 percent, or about 17,000 personnel, 
     receive them monthly, according to a 1992 study by the 
     Defense and Agriculture Departments. The Agriculture 
     Department manages the food stamp program.
       Nonetheless, the Defense Department said the total value of 
     food stamps redeemed at military commissaries increased to 
     $27.4 million last year from $24.5 million in 1992, including 
     retired military recipients. Food donation centers are 
     bustling at bases from Hawaii to Florida. And in Georgia's 
     Liberty County, which serves Forth Stewart, 30 percent of the 
     2,400 households receiving food stamps each month are 
     military families.
       Top military officials voice concern that Pentagon budget 
     cuts to quality-of-life issues like pay could impair both 
     morale and retention of service personnel. The Clinton 
     Administration tried to freeze military salaries this year 
     and increase them only by 1.6 percent for next year. Congress 
     instead approved a 2.2 percent increase for this year and 
     will probably approve a 2.6 percent raise for next year, but 
     neither raise will keep pace with inflation, which is about 3 
     percent. ``We cannot expect service members to lay their 
     lives on the line when back home their families have to rely 
     on food stamps to make ends meet,'' said Adm. William A. 
     Owens, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
       The vast majority of service members on food stamps are 
     sergeants or below in the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force 
     and petty officers or below in the Navy. The families usually 
     have more than two children, and the spouse does not work. 
     Very few officers qualify for food stamps.
       In a culture that promotes a fierce ethic of taking care of 
     one's own, soldiers' reluctant embrace of food stamps and 
     other financial assistance has wounded military leaders.
       ``We've always told our soldiers that we'll provide for 
     them a quality of life that's at least equal to the civilians 
     for whom they serve,'' Richard A. Kidd, the Sergeant Major of 
     the Army, the senior enlisted soldier, said in an interview. 
     ``It's getting tough to do that now.''
       For most people who join the armed forces, the lure is not 
     money but adventure, education and patriotism. The military 
     also offers good medical and commissary benefits.
       But since 1982, the gap between civilian and military wages 
     has widened to 13 percent, and is projected to be near 20 
     percent by the end of the decade. The military wages include 
     housing and other allowances.
       Meantime, the rising pace of deployments abroad is placing 
     greater strains on the shrinking number of service members 
     and their families. ``There's only so long you can ask them 
     to do more without recognizing it before people just start to 
     leave,'' said Sydney T. Hickey, associate director of 
     government relations for the National Military Family 
     Association in Alexandria, Va.
       In addition, more young people than ever are entering the 
     military with spouses and children--and added financial 
     burdens. Between 70 to 80 percent of all enlisted men and 
     women earn less than $30,000 a year, including housing and 
     food allowances, according to a study by Senator John McCain, 
     an Arizona Republican on the Armed Services Committee. Among 
     those, 45 percent of the Army and 46 percent of the Marine 
     Corps earn less than $20,000 a year. Mr. McCain coined a new 
     term for what he calls these people: ``the new military 
     poor.''
       Spec. Kimberly Southworth, a 29-year-old Army truck 
     mechanic stationed at Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii. She 
     is separated from her husband and living with her three 
     children on post. Specialist Southworth said her monthly 
     income was $1,700 but after taxes and bills, including $6 an 
     hour for babysitters, she has about $50 left over each month.
       ``I don't like having to apply for food stamps, but I don't 
     have a choice,'' said Specialist Southworth, who has received 
     $390 a month in food stamps since January 1992. ``The cost of 
     living is so high in Hawaii and the pay for my rank is so 
     low. If I didn't have food stamps, I'd be in debt up to my 
     neck.''
       At the Navy base in Norfolk, Petty Officer First Class Gary 
     Benfield and his wife, Suzanne, said they and their four 
     children--ages 5 months to 7 years--rely on another Federal 
     program for nursing mothers and children under 5, the Women, 
     Infants and Children program, for $100 a month in food 
     coupons.
       Overall, the value of W.I.C. coupons redeemed at military 
     commissaries increased to $15.2 million last year from $12.4 
     million in 1992. ``It bothers me because no employee of the 
     Federal government should qualify for Federal assistance,'' 
     Mrs. Benfield said.
       Eligibility for food stamps is based on a combination of 
     income, other financial resources and household size. Federal 
     officials say as many as 40 percent of military families on 
     food stamps live in free military housing. They qualify for 
     stamps because their incomes are not raised above the cutoff 
     by the housing and food allowances that service members 
     living off-base receive.
       Pentagon spokesmen say the issue is not strictly pay, but 
     individual family circumstances. ``We don't compensate people 
     for having nine people in their family,'' said Maj. Bill 
     Buckner, an Army spokesman.
       Military officials say they encourage service members with 
     financial problems to take advantage of food stamps, and a 
     range of other programs, from emergency loans to financial 
     planning seminars. Many families, however, balk at stepping 
     forward for what they consider a handout.
       ``We've tried to identify them, but they just don't come 
     forward,'' said Chief Master Sgt. Eddie Morgan, the senior 
     enlisted airman in the 33d Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force 
     Base in Florida. ``It's a pride thing.''
       To get around that, the senior enlisted airmen at Eglin 
     manage a fund called Operation Care that distributes $10,000 
     in yearly donations from other service members to needy 
     families, usually around the holidays. Last year, 247 
     families, some with as many as seven children, received 
     grants of $25 for each family member.
       Some branches of the military are reluctant to discuss the 
     subject at all. When asked to help contact families on food 
     stamps who would be willing to talk about their plight for 
     this article, a Marine Corps spokeswoman, Lieut. Col. Robin 
     Higgins, declined, saying, ``The commandant prefers to 
     emphasize the positive things about the quality of life in 
     the Marine Corps.'' She was referring to Gen. Carl E. Mundy 
     Jr., the Commandant of the Marine Corps.
       So painful is the perceived stigma of using food stamps 
     that some service members pay more to avoid being seen using 
     them. A highly decorated chief petty officer in Norfolk, who 
     received $200 to $400 a month in food stamps from 1982 until 
     1993, said he and his wife shopped in supermarkets rather 
     than Navy commissaries, even though commissary food prices 
     are on average about 25 percent cheaper.
       ``We didn't want to be seen by anyone we knew, so we went 
     to the community store even though it was more expensive,'' 
     said the chief petty officer, who spoke on the condition of 
     anonymity.
       Defense Department officials say that about 50 percent of 
     military spouses have full-time jobs to help pay the bills. 
     Since military personnel transfer frequently, however, 
     spouses often must start over each move and miss out on 
     promotion opportunities.
       Many service members work part-time as fast-food servers, 
     gas station attendants, grocery baggers and hotel-room 
     cleaners. A 22-year-old combat medic in an artillery unit at 
     Fort Carson, Colo., started his second job today as a 
     security guard in a city park. The medic said he needed the 
     $4.25-an-hour weekend job to supplement his $1,000 monthly 
     base pay to support his wife and their three children, a 2-
     year-old boy and year-old twin boys.
       ``When I joined the Army, I expected good benefits, decent 
     pay and job security, just like the commercials say,'' said 
     the medic, a Persian Gulf war veteran who spoke on condition 
     of anonymity. ``But it's been a lot harder than I ever 
     imagined.''
       Commanders expressed concern that working two jobs could 
     hurt military performance. ``It's something we pay attention 
     to,'' said Chief Master Sgt. Mike Burbage, the senior 
     enlisted adviser at Eglin Air Force Base. ``But it's tough to 
     tell a guy to quit a job if he needs it to feed his family.''

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