[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 8, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1399-E1400]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD TECHNICIAN RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION 
                                  ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOE COURTNEY

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 8, 2008

  Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, I am proud to introduce legislation 
today that will restore fairness for our military technicians, who work 
every day in Connecticut and across the Nation to support our National 
Guard.
  If the National Guard serves as the backbone of our military, then 
our military technicians serve as the backbone of our National Guard. 
They play a critical role in ensuring that our National Guard is ready 
to respond and deploy in support of military operations abroad by 
supporting the training, equipment repair and restoration, logistics 
and other critical functions.
  Military technicians are known as ``dual-status'' employees, through 
which they must retain membership in the Air or Army National Guard in 
their State in order to maintain full-time employment as a technician. 
Dual-status military technicians are subject to the restrictions of the 
Technician Act of 1969, 32 USC 709, and other provisions of the law 
under which they are specifically prohibited from receiving certain 
benefits and rights available to them as members of the National Guard, 
such as reenlistment bonuses and student loan repayment assistance. In 
addition, if a member of the National Guard becomes a technician within 
6 months of receiving an enlistment or reenlistment bonus, the 
Department of Defense can, and often does, require them to pay back 
those bonuses.
  The law also fails to fairly compensate technicians for the increased 
overtime hours that technicians must work to fulfill their mission by 
providing technicians compensatory time, rather than monetary 
compensation, in return for overtime work. Many technicians cannot use 
the compensatory time without impacting time-sensitive military work 
schedules and, with the military's current ``use it or lose it'' policy 
under which such time is lost if unused within 21 pay cycles, many 
technicians face the prospect of losing the time off they have earned.
  Last summer, I had the chance to visit the 1109th Aviation 
Classification and Repair Depot, AVCRAD, in Groton and see first hand 
the work they were doing to support of our National Guard. There, 
nearly 300 military technicians provide maintenance and logistics for 
aircraft and equipment for 14 States across the northeast and supports 
Connecticut's fleet of Black Hawk helicopters. During my visit, the 
leadership of the unit described how busy the facility has been over 
the past several years. They've literally been burning the midnight oil 
in trying to keep up with the demand of keeping equipment repaired and 
ready to deploy. It's an incredible operation, and one that is

[[Page E1400]]

just so important to our military serving in harm's way.
  Just recently, about 150 members of the AVCRAD--many of them military 
technicians--deployed just last week in support of Operation Iraqi 
Freedom. Yet, as these technicians deploy abroad side by side with 
their fellow guardsmen, they are not treated equally because of their 
full time employment as a military technician. At a time when we rely 
on military technicians more than ever to ensure that our Armed Forces 
are ready to serve, I strongly believe that we must do more to support, 
recruit and retain both our skilled military technicians and dedicated 
members of the National Guard. We must update outdated 30-year-old laws 
to ensure that they adequately reflect the challenges and needs of 
today's military technician.
  The bill I am introducing today, the National Guard Technician 
Recruitment and Retention Act, would restore fairness for our National 
Guard technicians. The bill ensures that no military technician is 
denied the opportunity to receive an enlistment or reenlistment bonus 
for their service in the National Guard, that they are given the 
opportunity to participate in a student loan repayment program and are 
not required to repay bonuses they receive for their service in the 
National Guard if they accept a position as a military technician. And, 
the bill will repeal the overtime prohibition against overtime pay for 
National Guard technicians and instead provide for flexibility in 
overtime compensation by allowing military technicians to chose between 
compensatory time or overtime pay at one and a half times their basic 
rate of pay--whatever suits their individual situation and needs.
  Madam Speaker, if a military technician can train, serve and deploy 
as a member of the National Guard, I do not think it is too much for 
them to ask to keep the benefits they deserve for their service in the 
National Guard. With all we ask of them today, I simply disagree with 
the notion that a member of the National Guard has to give up the 
benefits they are entitled to because they chose to serve their Nation 
as a military technician. Military technicians are the ones that keep 
the National Guard ready to serve--and it is time that we serve them.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important 
legislation.

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