THE “NOR‘EASTER”

LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRSKathy Spain, Legislative Affairs Officer“FY2017 DEFENSE BUDGET: LIVE HARD TO BE HARD”DO MORE WITH LESS: Disappointing, discouraging, diminishing, demoralizing. That pretty much sums up the FY2017Defense Budget for the military community. In the absolutely relentless pursuit of cuts to personnel accounts, DoD isonce again calling for a military pay raise cap, commissary funding cuts, and a plethora of higher TRICARE fees. Afterall, what’s a few more sacrifices in a lifetime of sacrifice and commitment? Live hard to be hard. Right?The budget request for fiscal year 2017—which begins Oct. 1—also announces a reduction of almost 20,000troops in the overall global active-duty force. The Pentagon estimates this additional downsizing would leave about1.28 million service members on active duty—down almost 10% since 2010. Three-fourths of the troop reduction—or15,000—would come from the Army, and the balance would come from the Navy. The size of the Air Force and theMarine Corps would remain unchanged.The drawdown from the Army’s current force strength of 475,000 would put it at 460,000 next year. Long-termplans, however, call for reducing the size of the Army to 450,000 troops. Meanwhile, demands for Army capabilitiesand capacity continue to grow as the global security environment continues to deteriorate. Currently, the Army hassoldiers deployed in over 140 countries, with at least 100,000 soldiers in the Pacific region alone.At the same time, the DoD’s budget request authorizes the deployment of 6,217 troops to Afghanistan, another3,550 troops to Iraq, and an “increased presence” in Europe. The latter is primarily a response to Russian aggressionand constitutes an effort to reassure European allies, but the actual troop numbers in an “increased presence” are stillfoggy.In terms of dollars, the proposed FY17 defense budget includes 524 billion in base spending and 59 billion forwar-fighting. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that the Pentagon plans to double the budget to fight IslamicState to 7.5 billion and quadruple the budget of the European Reassurance Initiative countering Russian aggression to 3.4 billion. While few disagree that these moves are necessary, the FY17 defense budget request does not live up tothe Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) agreed to last fall—prior to the Paris attacks by ISIS. The BBA established a minimumlevel of funding for the military based on the current operational level at that time. The consensus was that emergingthreats would require additional funding.Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, responded this way toSecretary Carter’s preview of the defense budget: “The increase in counter-ISIS investments and deterrence of Russiaare welcome and needed moves. But the President’s budget request, for example, does not add funds toaccommodate the 7.5 billion in additional funding to counter ISIS or the 3.4 billion to deter Russia. Most importantly,the budget he previewed today is not consistent with the Bipartisan Budget Act that Congress and the White Housereached last year. The Administration is now choosing to ignore the deal. The agreement provided a minimuminvestment in national security—the ‘lower ragged edge’ of what it takes to defend the country, plus an agreement thatthe rest of the OCO funding would reflect current operations and the current security environment. The President’sresponse to a security environment that is quickly degrading is to further cannibalize our military capability.”YET ANOTHER CALL TO CURTAIL MILITARY PAY: The FY17 defense budget calls for yet another year of capped payraises, but the Pentagon is spinning it as “the largest raise in four years,”—up to 1.6% from 1.3 % this year. The hardtruth is that 2017 would be the fourth straight year of capped pay raises for service members. If approved byCongress, the 1.6% raise would take effect in January 2017, and would fall 0.5% below the statutory default raise of2.1%, determined by the Employment Cost Index (ECI), a government metric that tracks the rise in private-sector pay.According to MOAA, “each of the last seven military raises have been lower than any raise during the previous 48years.”COMMISSARY BENEFIT AMBUSHED: Last year, the administration proposed a 300 million cut in the commissarybudget as a first step toward privatizing commissaries. When Congress restored the funding, the administrationagreed to preserve the benefit without reducing it. Someone must have forgotten about that little agreement, however,because the FY17 defense budget once again seeks to cut commissary funding—by 221 million.DEFENSE BUDGET TWEAKS NEW, BLENDED RETIREMENT SYSTEM: Although the Pentagon likes the sweeping newretirement system which will reduce military pensions by 20% and offer IRA-style accounts to non-career servicemembers, they say it needs a few “modifications” before it goes into effect in January of 2018. DoD proposed changesinclude the following: (1) raising the current cap on government contributions from 5% to 6%; (2) delaying the start ofgovernment matching contributions to IRA-style accounts to the fifth year of military service instead of the third year;(3) extending the government’s matching contributions to a service member’s actual retirement date instead of 26years max; and (4) removing the mandatory minimum continuation pay for all troops reaching 12 years of service andmaking it optional within the services.Page 4

FEW TRICARE FIXES BUT LOTS OF NEW FEES: While the Defense Department is asking Congress to make bigchanges in the military health care system, the FY17 budget details many specific changes itself. First, it reorganizesTRICARE Prime and TRICARE Standard into two new programs—TRICARE Select and TRICARE Choice, respectively.Second, it establishes new annual “participation fees” for all retired members and their families. If these annual feesare not paid by the retiree, medical coverage for the year would be denied. TRICARE Prime would cost 350/ 700(single/family); TRICARE Standard would cost 450/ 900 (single/family); and the TFL annual cost for a couple would bemeans-tested at between 2% and 5% of retired pay. Third, co-pays for network provider visits would change to a flatfee, but out-of-network co-pays would be 20% for active duty family members and 25% for retirees and their familymembers. In addition, Standard and Prime beneficiaries who use in-network providers would have a zero deductible,but the annual deductible for out-of-network providers would be 300/ 600 (single/family). Also, the catastrophic cap,or the maximum out-of-pocket expenses, would be raised to 1500 per year for currently serving families and to 4000for retired families. Finally, most pharmacy co-pays would double via a 10-year schedule of increases, while all flatdollar fee amounts would be allowed to increase annually based on “medical inflation”—a measure currently projectinga 6.2% increase per year.The focus of many of the fee hikes is to incentivize beneficiaries to use the less-costly military hospitals andclinics for their health care. That presents a grave concern, however, because those facilities are already unable toaccommodate current patient loads.PLEASE NOTE: Current TFL beneficiaries would be grandfathered. Means-tested enrollment fees would beapplied only to those who reach 65 on or after Jan. 1, 2017.NEVER STOP SERVING! The months ahead will be critical for the military community, and, at various points along theway, MOAA will be urging you—the grassroots—to contact your elected officials on behalf of the military community.We will need your help in urging Congress to do the right thing by our service members and their families—andultimately, for the nation.MOAA CHAPTER TRANSITION LIAISON ARTICLE - MARCH 2016Wayne L. Elliott, CWO5. USN (RET)CIVILIAN POSITION INTERVIEW MISTAKES: Looking for a job once you depart the military? Well, nailing an interviewfor a civilian position can sometimes feel like experimenting with alchemy. There are a lot of guides on how to do it,but perhaps you’re not quite sure if anything will actually work. Common interview mistakes are: (1) Showing up late.This rule should be considered ironclad; no exceptions. (2) Wanting a job; any job. Really? Some jobs you takebecause they’re fulfilling, stimulating, and lucrative. Some you take because you need to pay rent or mortgage, makevehicle payments, and buy groceries. Whenever you fall along that line, never let on to the interviewer, that you’reapplying just because you need a job. (3) Lack of preparation. Preparation is one of the biggest keys to success inlanding the job you are seeking. Check out the company on the internet. Do the research on the company and the jobyou are seeking. The more you know about the company the better prepared you will be for the interview. (4) Notengaging with the interviewer. Remember, you are talking to a person. Also, remember that you are having aconversation. Again, preparation is the key to a successful interview. Please pass this on to any Military Officer withinsix months of retiring or separating from Military Service.TRICARE Standard Newsletter AvailableA 12-page newsletter for TRICARE Standard beneficiaries is available online. The newsletter includes articles onsubmitting claims, costs, limited out-of-pocket costs under the Autism Care Demonstration, updating DEERS during alife change, a change to your pharmacy benefit, filling compound drug prescriptions, shingles and pneumococcalvaccines, clinical preventive services and vaccines, TRICARE Young Adult program premiums for 2016, the NurseAdvice Line, understanding emergency vs. urgent care, provider choice under TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra,prior authorizations, the Notice of Privacy Practices, reporting other health insurance, the Military/Veterans Crisis Line,and TRICARE benefit updates.To read this newsletter, go to: http://go.usa.gov/cPMkJ.Page 5

STAY ENGAGEDCORRESPOND WITH YOUR REPRESENTATIVESRep Ted Yoho (R), District 335 Knight Box RoadSuite 1Orange Park, FL 32065Phone: ntact/email-me)Rep Ander Crenshaw (R), District 41061 Riverside AveSuite 100Jacksonville, FL 32204Phone: 904- ct-form)Rep Corrine Brown (D), District 5101 E. Union StreetSuite 202Jacksonville, FL 32202Phone: (904) )Rep Ron DeSantis (R), District 63940 Lewis SpeedwaySuite 2104St. Augustine, FL 3208

Page 1 The “Nor’Easter” a newsletter of MOAA Northeast Florida Chapter (FL-18; published by the Northeast Florida Chapter (FL-18), which is an affiliate of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). MOAA and its affiliated chapters and councils are non-partisan. The advertisements that appear in this publication also do not reflect an endorsement by MOAA or this affiliate.