[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 30 (Thursday, February 25, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2002-S2003]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SOLDIERS', SAILORS', AIRMEN'S, AND MARINES' BILL OF RIGHTS ACT OF 1999

  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of S. 4, 
The Soldiers', Sailors', Airmen's, and Marines' (SSAM) Bill of Rights 
Act of 1999. This bill addresses critical personnel and retention 
issues in our nation's armed forces and hopefully will arrest the 
accelerating decline in military readiness. I commend the distinguished 
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner, and 
the Committee as a whole for reporting this legislation.
  I have been concerned for quite some time with declining defense 
budgets and increased deployments overseas. Those who defend the United 
States often are the first casualties of budget cuts here at home, even 
as they have been deployed overseas more frequently than ever before. 
Declining morale in our armed forces and diminished military readiness 
are national security legacies this Administration is leaving, legacies 
I hope the Senate will begin reversing with the passage of S. 4.
  Our military is hemorrhaging due to poor morale, plentiful private 
sector opportunities in a robust economy, and burdensome deployment 
schedules. The pay and benefit provisions in S. 4 will be critical to 
arrest declining morale and diminished readiness. As General Hugh 
Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, stated before the Senate Armed 
Services Committee last September, ``. . . we must act soon to send a 
clear signal to the backbone of our military, our mid-grade 
commissioned and noncommissioned officers, that their leadership and 
this Congress recognize the value of their service and their sacrifices 
and that we have not lost sight of our commitment to the success of the 
all-volunteer force.''
  Mr. President, the Administration has taken too long to address the 
morale and retention problems undermining the readiness of our armed 
forces. Senior Pentagon officials downplayed evidence of growing 
personnel and readiness problems for months, but finally began 
addressing these issues squarely before the Senate Armed Services 
Committee last September. General Shelton stated that ``. . . our 
forces are showing increasing signs of serious wear. Anecdotal 
initially, and now measurable, evidence indicates that our readiness is 
fraying and that the long-term health of the total force is in 
jeopardy.''
  A cursory survey of declining defense budgets and increased 
operations around the world certainly provides the factual background 
to support General Shelton's statement. For many leaving the forces 
today, military compensation and benefits simply do not justify 
extended deployments away from home.
  Our military is doing more with less. Defense spending has declined 
in real terms by 27 percent since 1990. Military procurement spending 
has declined by a staggering 54 percent during that same time period. 
In the midst of this dramatic downsizing, the pace of operations abroad 
has risen dramatically. In the 1990s, operational missions increased 
300 percent while the force structure for the Army and Air Force

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was reduced by 45 percent each, the Navy by approximately 40 percent, 
and the Marines by over 10 percent. President Reagan deployed U.S. 
forces 17 times during his eight year term. During his four-year term, 
President Bush deployed U.S. forces 14 times. During the six year 
tenure of President Clinton, however, the U.S. armed forces have been 
deployed over 46 times. Contingency operations during this 
Administration have exacted a heavy cost (in real terms): $8.1 billion 
in Bosnia; $1.1 billion in Haiti; $6.1 billion in Iraq.
  Diminished resources, inadequate benefits, and increased deployments 
are taking a serious toll on the health of our armed forces. Our Air 
Force pilots defeat Iraq's forces soundly on the battlefield, but 
Saddam is winning a war of attrition when it comes to pilot retention. 
The Air Force has experienced a 14 percent decline in readiness since 
1996 and ended 1998 with a 700 pilot shortfall that could grow to 2,000 
pilots by 2002. Air Force second-term reenlistment rates have dropped 
13% in the last 5 years.
  The Navy was 7,000 recruits short in 1998 and reports diminished 
deployed readiness due to personnel shortages, such as a 9% shortfall 
in junior Surface Warfare Officers. The non-deployed readiness of 
carrier air wings is at its lowest level in a decade.
  Retention rates for critical personnel in all services is suffering. 
Declines in retention of critical personnel since 1995 are very 
troubling: Air Force enlisted aircrew with 7 years service declined 
from 83 to 55 percent; Air Force AWAC personnel with 5-8 years service 
declined from 56 to 35 percent; Army aircraft armament personnel with 8 
years service declined from 72 to 47 percent; Army chemical operations 
specialists with 5-8 years service declined from 69 to 51 percent; 
Marine aircraft avionics technicians with 9-12 years service declined 
from 76 to 63 percent; and Navy electronic technicians with 9-12 years 
service declined from 77 to 63 percent.
  The Soldiers', Sailors', Airmen's, and Marines' (SSAM) Bill of Rights 
Act of 1999 addresses these problems on several fronts. The legislation 
contains important provisions to address immediate needs and 
establishes longer-term mechanisms to improve retention of military 
personnel. The bill provides for an across the board pay increase of 
4.8 percent. The pay table is reformed to benefit critical mid-career 
personnel the most. Retirement system reform gives military personnel 
with 15 years of service the option of remaining in the Redux 
retirement plan and taking a $30,000 cash bonus or returning to a pre-
Redux system with retirement at 50 percent of base pay and no COLA 
caps.
  Retirement opportunities also are enhanced by allowing military 
personnel to contribute 5 percent of their base pay tax-free to a 
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). A special retention initiative is also 
provided where the Secretary of Defense can choose to offer 5 percent 
matching TSP contributions to critical personnel for six years in 
return for a six year commitment. Finally, there is a special 
subsistence allowance to address the intolerable condition of 12,000 
military personnel on food stamps. In the U.S. military, the finest 
fighting force in the world, there should never be families who are so 
poorly provided for as to need food stamps. The monthly subsistence 
allowance in this legislation, in addition to other pay reforms, will 
help end this disgraceful treatment of thousands of military personnel.
  The need for this legislation cannot be more obvious. Our troops 
maintain a constant presence in the Persian Gulf, East Asia, and 
Europe. Now in Bosnia two years past the original deadline, American 
soldiers could face yet another prolonged nation-building exercise in 
Kosovo if this Administration has its way. These troops have been asked 
to achieve more missions with fewer resources and less manpower, and 
the signs of fraying readiness and declining morale are mounting.
  In addressing current readiness and funding problems, Administration 
officials repeatedly have said personnel issues were their first 
priority. General Shelton testified last September: ``. . . if I had to 
choose the area of greatest concern to me, I would say that we need to 
put additional dollars into taking care of our most important resource, 
the uniformed members of the armed forces.''
  General Shelton is right to place the highest priority on our 
military personnel. The defense of this country, in the final analysis, 
is essentially a personnel issue. Admiral Chester Nimitz stated in 
1950: ``Our armaments must be adequate to the needs, but our faith is 
not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves.'' General 
Shelton seems to concur with that statement when he says: ``The best 
tanks, the best planes, the best ships in the world are not what makes 
our military the superb force that it is today . . . Advanced 
technology and modern weapons are important . . . But even the finest 
high-tech equipment will never be the determining factor on the 
battlefield. The most critical factor for both current and future 
readiness are our men and women . . . in uniform today.''
  Our military personnel are our greatest resource, and our failure to 
take care of them our greatest oversight. No soldier should have to 
worry about feeding his family as he defends his country. No military 
family should be repeatedly divided by constant deployments.
  We entrust our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines with the 
responsibility given to our nation as a whole: the defense of liberty. 
How we provide for those men and women in uniform reflects on how 
seriously we take that mission, on how seriously we safeguard the 
blessings of liberty. I urge passage of this legislation to improve 
much-needed benefits for those who defend the United States and the 
cause of freedom abroad.

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