[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 1, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4647-S4648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE CALENDAR

  Mr. TALENT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of the following calendar items 
en bloc: Calendar No. 54 and Calendar No. 55.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bills by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 711) to amend title 37, United States Code, to 
     alleviate delay in the payment of the Selected Reserve 
     reenlistment bonus to members of Selected Reserve who are 
     mobilized.
       A bill (S. 712) to amend title 10, United States Code, to 
     provide Survivor Benefit Plan annuities for surviving spouses 
     of Reserves not eligible for retirement who die from a cause 
     incurred or aggravated while on inactive-duty training.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bills.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I rise to talk about two bills--S. 711 and 
S. 712. I am honored to cosponsor these bills with Senators Lindsey 
Graham, Chambliss, and Allen. There may be others that also wish to 
cosponsor these bills to support our service men and women.
  S. 711 simply authorizes a Selective Re-enlistment Bonus, SRB, for 
National Guard and Reserve service members who would be eligible for 
SRB if they were in a nonmobilized or drilling status. However, when 
they are mobilized under a Presidential select Reserve callup and they 
re-enlist during that period, National guardsmen and reservists are 
prohibited from receiving SRB payments until after they get off active 
duty or mobilization status sometimes 1 to 2 years later.
  S. 712 authorizes Survivor Benefit Plan, SBP, benefits to survivors 
of National Guard and Reserve service members who die while performing 
inactive duty training or weekend drills.
  This legislation provides equity with active duty service members and 
is consistent with Defense Department regulations when National 
guardsmen and reservists are mobilized under a Presidential select 
Reserve callup.
  However, since January there have been 13 Reserve Component deaths 
during weekend military training while their units were preparing for 
Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom where families of 
National guardsmen and reservists did not receive the survivor benefit 
payments.
  Furthermore, this legislation would cover those Reserve Component 
personnel who were serving in a drill status in the Pentagon during the 
attacks on the United States on 9/11.
  This bill has the support of the Military Coalition, a consortium of 
nationally prominent uniformed services and veterans organizations 
representing more than 5.5 million members, the National Guard, and the 
Senate Armed Services Committee.
  The roles and missions of the Reserve components has changed over the 
past several years, as the active duty force has evolved from the 
downsizing of our military forces during the last decade. I suspect 
that more changes will come as our national military strategy continues 
to evolve.
  Instead, we have a military force that continues to rely more on the 
Reserve Components--men and women in the National Guard and Reserves--
to go to war and to perform other critical military tasks abroad and at 
home. Many combat, combat support and other support missions are being 
carried on the backs of our active and Reserve Component forces--
soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.
  For example, in March 2001, the Army National Guard 29th Infantry 
Division took command of the American peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. 
The significance of this deployment was enormous, considering that more 
than 75 percent of the 4,000 U.S. Army soldiers on the ground were Army 
Reserve and Guard soldiers from 17 states--not just headquarters' 
staff, but operational units as well.
  More recently, in October 2002, Fighter/Attack Squadron 201's 
commanding officer received the call to mobilize that many Reserve 
Component commanding officers have recently received. With few 
exceptions over 100 Navy reservists mobilized with their 12 F/A-18 
Hornet A-plus jets, and began work-ups with Carrier Air Wing 8 in 
Nevada and full day and night carrier qualifications at sea. The impact 
of this accomplishment cannot be overstated. It was the first time 
since the Korean War that an entire Naval Air Reserve Squadron has 
deployed aboard an aircraft carrier, and this time VFA-201's base was 
not Fort Worth, Texas but the flight deck of the USS Theodore 
Roosevelt, CVN-71.
  The reports from the field are outstanding. VFA-201, like hundreds of 
other aviators during the first night of ``shock and awe,'' flew their 
Hornets downtown to Baghdad. The pilots and their maintenance crews 
hailed from Texas, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Georgia, Florida, 
Nevada, Utah and Colorado. They are citizen soldiers. Thirteen of 
eighteen VFA-201 pilots are airline pilots who took a temporary leave 
of absence from their airline jobs.
  They were similar to active duty sailors, yet they were different. 
Because they were reservists, every aviator has cruise experience, over 
1,000 flight hours, and many have over 1,000 or 2,000 hours in the F/A-
18. VFA-201's squadron aviators provided leadership to the air wing in 
strike planning, flight execution and carrier operations. Their day and 
night time boarding rates and landing grades have exceeded all other 
Carrier Air Wing 8's squadrons.
  While these are only two of the deployments that have taken place in 
recent years, they highlight the ever-increasing role of reservists in 
defending America's security interests around the world, and mark a 
radical departure from the past.
  The figures are quite staggering when considered in total.
  Today, nearly 60,000 reservists and National Guardsmen, including 
volunteers, are deployed under three Presidential callup orders for 
Bosnia, Kosovo, and Southwest Asia. For Operations Noble Eagle, 
Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom over 275,000 men and women from the 
National Guard and the Reserves have been mobilized.
  During each of the past 5 years, Reserve and National Guard service 
members have performed between 12 and 13.5 million duty days in support 
of the active force. These numbers are a direct contrast to 1990, when 
1 million duty days were performed at a time when there were 25 percent 
more reservists.
  Reservists also currently make up more than half of the airlift crews 
and 85 percent of the sealift personnel that are needed to move troops 
and equipment in either wartime or peacetime operations. In addition, 
reserve medical and construction battalions and other specialists are 
critical to a wide range of operations.
  National Guard and Reserve service members are performing many vital 
tasks: from direct involvement in military operations to liberate Iraq 
in the air, on the ground, and on the sea; to guarding nuclear power 
plants in the United States; to providing support to the War on 
Terrorism through guarding, interrogating, and providing medical 
service to al-Qaida detainees; to rebuilding schools in hurricane-
stricken Honduras and fighting fires in our western states; from 
overseeing civil affairs in Bosnia, to augmenting aircraft carriers 
short on active duty sailors with critical skilled enlisted ratings 
during at-sea exercises as well as periods of deployment.
  I believe that the civilian and uniformed leadership of our Armed 
Forces and the Congress must recognize this involvement, and at a 
minimum provide equality in benefits for Reserve Component service 
members when they put on the uniform and perform their weekend drills 
or other critical training evolutions. Reservists, on duty, who 
resemble their active duty counterparts during training evolutions and 
are deployed at times around the world, should be treated equally when 
the administration and Congress provide for quality of life benefits.

[[Page S4648]]

  I hope that all my colleagues will support these bills as a small 
expression of support and willingness to provide not just equality in 
quality of life benefits for our National guardsmen and reservists but 
support to all our men and women--our treasure--who are sacrificing so 
much for our nation, our freedoms and the freedom of the Iraqi people.
  Mr. TALENT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bills be 
read a third time and passed, en bloc; that the motions to reconsider 
be laid upon the table, en bloc; and that any statements relating to 
the bills be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bills (S. 711 and S. 712) were read the third time and passed, as 
follows:

                                 S. 711

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. PAYMENT OF SELECTED RESERVE REENLISTMENT BONUS TO 
                   MEMBERS OF SELECTED RESERVE WHO ARE MOBILIZED.

       Section 308b of title 37, United States Code, is amended--
       (1) by redesignating subsections (d), (e), and (f) as 
     subsections (e), (f), and (g), respectively; and
       (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new 
     subsection (d):
       ``(d) Payment to Mobilized Members.--In the case of a 
     member entitled to a bonus under this section who is called 
     or ordered to active duty, any amount of such bonus that is 
     payable to the member during the period of active duty of the 
     member shall be paid the member during that period of active 
     duty, notwithstanding the service of the member on active 
     duty pursuant to such call or order to active duty.''.

                                 S. 712

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SURVIVOR BENEFIT PLAN ANNUITIES FOR SURVIVING 
                   SPOUSES OF RESERVES NOT ELIGIBLE FOR RETIREMENT 
                   WHO DIE FROM A CAUSE INCURRED OR AGGRAVATED 
                   WHILE ON INACTIVE-DUTY TRAINING.

       (a) Surviving Spouse Annuity.--Paragraph (1) of section 
     1448(f) of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read 
     as follows:
       ``(1) Surviving spouse annuity.--The Secretary concerned 
     shall pay an annuity under this subchapter to the surviving 
     spouse of--
       ``(A) a person who is eligible to provide a reserve-
     component annuity and who dies--
       ``(i) before being notified under section 12731(d) of this 
     title that he has completed the years of service required for 
     eligibility for reserve-component retired pay; or
       ``(ii) during the 90-day period beginning on the date he 
     receives notification under section 12731(d) of this title 
     that he has completed the years of service required for 
     eligibility for reserve-component retired pay if he had not 
     made an election under subsection (a)(2)(B) to participate in 
     the Plan; or
       ``(B) a member of a reserve component not described in 
     subparagraph (A) who dies from an injury or illness incurred 
     or aggravated in line of duty during inactive-duty 
     training.''.
       (b) Conforming Amendment.--The heading for subsection (f) 
     of section 1448 of such title is amended by inserting ``or 
     Before'' after ``Dying When''.
       (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     shall take effect as of September 10, 2001, and shall apply 
     with respect to performance of inactive-duty training (as 
     defined in section 101(d) of title 10, United States Code) on 
     or after that date.

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