[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 69 (Tuesday, May 15, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H2695-H2698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PROGRAM GUIDANCE MODIFICATION RELATING TO POST-
DEPLOYMENT/MOBILIZATION RESPITE ABSENCE ADMINISTRATIVE ABSENCE DAYS
Mr. KLINE. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 4045) to modify the Department of Defense Program Guidance
relating to the award of Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence
administrative absence days to members of the reserve components to
exempt any member whose qualified mobilization commenced before October
1, 2011, and continued on or after that date, from the changes to the
program guidance that took effect on that date, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4045
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
[[Page H2696]]
SECTION 1. TREATMENT OF PROGRAM GUIDANCE RELATING TO THE
AWARD OF POST-DEPLOYMENT/MOBILIZATION RESPITE
ABSENCE ADMINISTRATIVE ABSENCE DAYS TO MEMBERS
AND FORMER MEMBERS OF THE RESERVE COMPONENTS
UNDER DOD INSTRUCTION 1327.06.
(a) Discretion of the Secretary of Defense.--The Secretary
of Defense may determine that the changes made by the
Secretary to the Program Guidance relating to the award of
Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence program
administrative absence days or other benefits described in
subsection (b) to members and former members of the reserve
components under DOD Instruction 1327.06 effective as of
October 1, 2011, shall not apply to a member of a reserve
component, or former member of a reserve component, whose
qualified mobilization (as described in such program
guidance) commenced before October 1, 2011, and continued on
or after that date until the date the mobilization is
terminated.
(b) Authorized Benefits.--Under regulations prescribed by
the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary concerned may provide
a member or former member of the Armed Forces described in
subsection (a) with one of the following benefits:
(1) In the case of an individual who is a former member of
the Armed Forces at the time of the provision of benefits
under this section, payment of an amount not to exceed $200
for each day the individual would have qualified for a day of
administrative absence had the changes made to the Program
Guidance described in subsection (a) not applied to the
individual, as authorized by such subsection.
(2) In the case of a member of the Armed Forces on active
duty at the time of the provision of benefits under this
section, either one day of administrative absence or payment
of an amount not to exceed $200, as selected by the member,
for each day the member would have qualified for a day of
administrative absence had the changes made to the Program
Guidance described in subsection (a) not applied to the
member, as authorized by such subsection.
(3) In the case of a member of the Armed Forces serving in
the Selected Reserve, Inactive National Guard, or Individual
Ready Reserve at the time of the provision of benefits under
this section, either one day of administrative absence to be
retained for future use or payment of an amount not to exceed
$200, as selected by the member, for each day the member
would have qualified for a day of administrative absence had
the changes made to the Program Guidance described in
subsection (a) not applied to the member, as authorized by
such subsection.
(c) Exclusion of Certain Former Members.--An individual who
is a former member of the Armed Forces is not eligible under
this section for the benefits specified in subsection (b)(1)
if the individual was discharged or released from the Armed
Forces under other than honorable conditions.
(d) Form of Payment.--The payments authorized by subsection
(b) may be paid in a lump sum or installments, at the
election of the Secretary concerned.
(e) Relation to Other Pay and Leave.--The benefits provided
to a member or former member of the Armed Forces under this
section are in addition to any other pay, absence, or leave
provided by law.
(f) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence
program'' means the program of the Secretary concerned to
provide days of administrative absence not chargeable against
available leave to certain deployed or mobilized members of
the Armed Forces in order to assist such members in
reintegrating into civilian life after deployment or
mobilization.
(2) The term ``Secretary concerned'' has the meaning given
that term in section 101(5) of title 37, United States Code.
(g) Commencement and Duration of Authority.--
(1) Commencement.--The authority to provide days of
administrative absence under paragraphs (2) and (3) of
subsection (b) begins on the date of the enactment of this
Act and the authority to make cash payments under such
subsection begins, subject to subsection (h), on October 1,
2012.
(2) Expiration.--The authority to provide benefits under
this section expires on October 1, 2014.
(3) Effect of expiration.--The expiration date specified in
paragraph (2) shall not affect the use, after that date, of
any day of administrative absence provided to a member of the
Armed Forces under subsection (b) before that date or the
payment, after that date, of any payment selected by a member
or former member of the Armed Forces under such subsection
before that date.
(h) Cash Payments Subject to Availability of
Appropriations.--No cash payment may be made under subsection
(b) unless the funds to be used to make the payments are
available pursuant to an appropriations Act enacted after the
date of enactment of this Act.
(i) Funding Offset.--The Secretary of Defense shall
transfer $4,000,000 from the unobligated balances of the
Pentagon Reservation Maintenance Revolving Fund established
under section 2674(e) of title 10, United States Code, to the
Miscellaneous Receipts Fund of the United States Treasury.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Roby). Pursuant to the rule, the
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline) and the gentlewoman from Guam (Ms.
Bordallo) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
General Leave
Mr. KLINE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Minnesota?
There was no objection.
Mr. KLINE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today in support of the bill, H.R. 4045, legislation that
would ensure members of the National Guard and Reserve--including
members of Minnesota's famed Red Bulls--receive the benefits they have
earned.
Simply put, this legislation ensures that promises made are promises
kept. The bill will grandfather the Minnesota National Guard and more
than 49,000 other servicemembers around the country who mobilized and
deployed under the Pentagon's original Post-Deployment/Mobilization
Respite Absence program policy, providing them the benefits they were
promised prior to deployment.
Since September 11, 2011, members of the Reserve component have been
uniquely affected by long deployments, leaving their families and
careers to answer their Nation's call. In January of 2007, the
Department of Defense instituted the PDMRA program to allow
servicemembers the opportunity to spend more time with their families
and readjust after multiple deployments in excess of 12 to 24 months. I
would ask my colleagues to reflect on that number, 12 to 24 months.
That is 1 to 2 years away from their families and their homes, putting
their own lives on hold to protect and defend our families and our
Nation.
Madam Speaker, last year, after more than 2,000 Minnesota soldiers
were deployed, the Pentagon changed the PDMRA program, significantly
reducing the leave available to the Red Bulls and many others across
the Nation. With little notice, many soldiers and their families were
forced to cope with unexpected financial challenges, less time at home
with loved ones, and an increased urgency to find employment.
H.R. 4045, as amended, provides the Pentagon the authority to
grandfather members of the National Guard and Reserve whose
mobilization and deployment commenced before the Pentagon's PDMRA
reduction policy took effect in October of last year. The legislation
does three things:
First, for servicemembers still on active duty, the bill provides DOD
the authority to immediately restore their PDMRA leave days lost and
gives them the option of selling their leave in lieu of taking the
PDMRA day if they determine that that is in their best interest;
Second, for servicemembers still in the service but off active duty,
the bill provides DOD the authority to award a leave payment in lieu of
the days they would have received for their service during the change;
and
Finally, the former servicemembers who have left the military
altogether but were affected during the PDMRA policy change, the bill
provides DOD the authority to reward a leave payment in lieu of the
PDMRA days they would have received for there service during the
change.
In short, we're making these soldiers whole again and keeping our
promises. The legislation is critical to ensuring our sons and
daughters in uniform receive the benefits they were promised and have
rightfully earned.
Sergeant Matthew Hite recently returned home to Minnesota after his
third deployment with the Minnesota National Guard. While he's been in
Kuwait the past 11 months, his 7-year-old son, Charles, has learned to
play T-ball. Sergeant Hite wasn't there to see Charles get his first
hit or make his first catch. ``It's frustrating'' Sergeant Hite told
the Star Tribune, ``frustrating that the time we thought we had to
spend with family is being taken away.''
Every day, members of the reserve component are stepping off planes,
beginning the process of reintegration, and returning to their civilian
lives.
[[Page H2697]]
Every day, units are receiving their final orders specifying an end
date to their mobilization. I am hopeful that this commonsense effort
to do right by our men and women in uniform will become law.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4045, and I reserve the balance
of my time.
Ms. BORDALLO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise in strong support of this bill, and I thank the gentleman from
Minnesota (Mr. Kline) for bringing this measure to the floor. I also
appreciate his continued leadership on pre- and post-deployment issues
for the National Guard. The bill will correct an injustice for our
National Guardsmen and reservists who have been putting their lives on
the line to defend our Nation.
The fiscal year 2013 Defense authorization bill includes a provision
that also addresses this problem; but, regardless, this sends a clear
message to the Department of Defense that we want to fix this problem,
and quickly. The bill gives DOD the clear authority they need to make
the necessary changes and to do so before the Defense authorization
bill is likely to be completed.
The bill is widely supported by outside groups, including the
Military Officers Association of America, the National Guard
Association of the United States, and the Enlisted Association of the
National Guard of the United States, to name just a few.
However, while I support the bill, I must raise the concern that this
bill bypassed the normal committee process, and the minority was not
included in the decision to bring this measure to the floor, which
violates our tradition of bipartisanship. Still, in the interest of
protecting our men and women in uniform, I stand in support of the
bill, and I urge all of my colleagues to support it as well.
I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1920
Mr. KLINE. Madam Speaker, I am very happy to yield 3 minutes to my
friend and colleague, a naval officer, another helicopter pilot, and a
member of the Minnesota delegation, Mr. Cravaack.
Mr. CRAVAACK. I thank Chairman Kline for the recognition.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of a critically important bill
which I am a cosponsor of, offered by a fellow member of the Minnesota
delegation, Chairman John Kline.
The Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence program is an
important program that allows servicemembers the opportunity to
readjust after deployments and spend more time with their families.
This earned leave further provides returning servicemembers with more
time and a less stressful environment in which to seek employment in a
time where a job search is becoming increasingly more difficult. These
earned benefits will help combat the high stress experienced by those
who have returned home from prolonged deployments.
The Minnesota National Guard and tens of thousands of other guardsmen
and reservists who have been deployed to the Middle East and were
impacted by the PDMRA change were charged with the promise to defend
our country. They have more than lived up to their end of the bargain
to keep their promise. Now it is time for the Department of Defense to
live up to its end of the deal and provide these individuals with the
full benefits they were promised at the time of their mobilization
deployment.
As Chairman Kline addresses in his support for this bill, some of the
servicemembers affected by this policy change have performed multiple
deployments in excess of 12 to 24 months since the beginning of the
Iraq war. That is 1 to 2 full years that these servicemembers have been
away from their families, halfway across the world in a combat
environment. Some of the same servicemembers--specifically, the 2005
2007 Iraq deploying servicemembers--could stand to lose up to 24 days
under the changes in the PDMRA policy.
I do not think it is too much to ask that those who were promised 24
days of leave for up to 2 years of deployed service to receive that
leave. Therefore, it is imperative that we respect and honor the
promises made to these individual families who have sacrificed so much
in defense of our Nation.
Recently, I have had the great privilege of welcoming the Minnesota
National Guard Red Bulls home from their deployment in Iraq and Kuwait.
When I attended their deployment ceremony last year in Pince City,
Minnesota, one of the commanding officers in the brigade, Lieutenant
Colonel Eddie Frizell said to the families, ``I'll bring them all
home.'' True to his word, the first thing Lieutenant Colonel Frizell
said in a hand salute to Major General Rick Nash, the adjutant general
of the Minnesota National Guard, when his feet touched the ground in
Minnesota was, ``I brought them all home, sir.''
Madam Speaker, it is now time to bring them all the way home. I urge
my colleagues to support the troops and support H.R. 4045, which will
protect the promises made to our National Guard and Reserve, including
members of the Minnesota's Red Bulls, by ensuring these servicemembers
receive the benefits they were promised and highly deserve.
Ms. BORDALLO. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to
the gentlelady from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum).
Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R.
4045. This bill will ensure that all the servicemembers returning from
overseas, including the Minnesota National Guard's Red Bulls, will
receive the full benefits they were promised.
Last year, after more than 2,000 of Minnesota's brave soldiers had
already been mobilized for war, the Department of Defense reduced the
amount of leave that the servicemembers would receive.
For the Pentagon to apply this change to soldiers already deployed is
simply unacceptable. Our men and women in uniform must be able to count
on the benefits their Nation promised them when they left home.
H.R. 4045 will correct this serious error by exempting
servicemembers, like the Red Bulls, who had already deployed before the
Pentagon's policy shift.
Passage of this bill is a victory for the entire Minnesota
delegation, which worked so hard on it. I especially want to thank Mr.
Kline for his perseverance on this issue and for getting it to the
floor today. Thank you very much, Mr. Kline.
But, as I said, I applaud all my colleagues for coming together on
behalf of the Minnesota Red Bulls and all of the servicemembers and
their families. America's men and women in uniform dedicate their lives
to defending our Nation and its values, and we are grateful for their
outstanding service.
As a daughter of a World War II disabled veteran of the Army Air
Corps and as a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military
Affairs, it is a special honor to work on behalf of those who have
served our country and to make sure that they receive every benefit
that they've earned.
As the Red Bulls return to Minnesota from another deployment, they
know they can count on their entire Minnesota congressional delegation
to have their back.
I urge my colleagues to support this critical legislation.
Mr. KLINE. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to another
member of the Minnesota delegation, Mr. Paulsen.
Mr. PAULSEN. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I also rise in strong support of H.R. 4045.
Madam Speaker, the promises that we make to our young men and women
and those who serve and have volunteered to put our Nation's uniform on
should always, always be kept. And this important legislation does
exactly that by assuring that nearly 50,000--tens of thousands
servicemembers will receive the benefits that they, in fact, were
promised.
In October of last year, the Department of Defense significantly
changed the amount of earned time and leave time for our troops and
began providing less time off for servicemembers after a long
deployment. But in that process, they failed to take into account those
reservists who were already deployed, including the 2,000 members of
the Minnesota National Guard.
[[Page H2698]]
Madam Speaker, if we don't pass this legislation, members of the
National Guard and the Reserve, including members of Minnesota's famed
Red Bulls, will stand to lose approximately 27 days of leave that they
were promised. They've already earned that leave.
Let's do the right thing. This is simple. This is straightforward. We
need to keep the promises out there for our service men and women.
I want to applaud Chairman Kline. I want to applaud all the members
of the Minnesota delegation for working together on something so
critical and important and for sending a bipartisan message that we
will stand behind our promises to our troops and our men and women in
uniform.
Ms. BORDALLO. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to
the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz).
Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. I thank the gentlelady from Guam who, as
always, is an absolute stalwart supporter of our military forces and
has a long tradition, coming from Guam, in defense of this Nation.
Also, a special thank you to Colonel Kline, my colleague from
Minnesota, for his unwavering support of our veterans and for bringing
this forward and trying to correct this injustice.
You've heard it today, Madam Speaker, about a change in policy. And
while a stroke of the pen at the Pentagon may not seem like that much,
it impacts our veterans and their families. These are folks that have
deployed, in many cases, three times. For example, the Red Bulls from
Minnesota: once for 9 months, once for 22 months, and once for a year.
We came up, as a Nation, to make the determination that these folks
should have a little bit of time of leave when they come back, readjust
with their families, see children they maybe have never celebrated a
birthday with, and then try to go back and get into the job market.
As a Nation, these are our best and brightest. These are our future
leaders. We want them getting readjusted. We want them back into the
job market. And by the Pentagon changing this midstream, it's not so
much the financial or the monetary insult; it's the insult to what
these folks went through. When they went, they were promised a benefit.
When they came back, we had cut it in half.
We hear a lot about a 99 and a 1 percent. There is a 99 and a 1
percent in this country--1 percent who are serving in uniform and have
served overseas, 99 percent of us who have benefited from that
sacrifice.
So I commend the delegation. I commend this House. If there is an
issue that binds this Nation together, it's the absolute unwavering
support of those who are willing to lay down their lives and sacrifice
time with their families to serve each and every one of us. The least
we can do is make sure that the benefits that were promised, that were
guaranteed, are delivered upon. It's the right thing to do. It's the
right thing for the country. It binds us together.
And I want to thank all of the folks here who made this possible. I
urge my colleagues to support this piece of legislation.
{time} 1930
Ms. BORDALLO. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz),
especially for his assistance with the Reserve Component Caucus.
I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of
my time.
Mr. KLINE. I have no further requests for time, and I'm going to
close by thanking Members on both sides of the aisle. You've heard from
members of the Minnesota delegation here tonight, my good friends, the
Democrats Mr. Walz and Ms. McCollum, Mr. Cravaack, and Mr. Paulsen.
This legislation affects members of the Guard and Reserve all over the
country.
I'm especially pleased that my friend and fellow committee member and
fellow traveler, Ms. Bordallo, was managing the debate on the other
side of the aisle. She and I have traveled to some fairly remote
corners of Iraq and Afghanistan and places like that over the years,
and I must say I've never been anywhere where our Nation was at
conflict and where we had men and women serving in uniform that we
didn't come across somebody from the Guam National Guard. So I really
want to thank her for her support on this legislation and the support
of men and women in uniform everywhere. I know from the reaction I see
from those soldiers that when they see Ms. Bordallo, there is great
affection and respect there--both ways.
Again, I want to thank all who weighed in on this. It was clearly an
injustice. It needed to be fixed, and this is one of those times when
we've come together as Democrats and Republicans working together. We
have Senators, Republicans and Democrats, in the Senate working the
other body to move this through. Speed counts here. Every day that this
is delayed, another soldier loses the opportunity to take advantage of
this paid leave.
With that, Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this
legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 4045, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________