The Issue: Eliminate the requirement to serve 90 days of qualifying time in one fiscal year to reduce the age to collect reserve retirement pay.
Immediate Action Required: Ask your representative to sign the letter to House Armed Services Committee leadership urging them to support language in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act that would eliminate the requirement to serve 90 days of qualifying time in one fiscal year to reduce the age to collect Reserve retirement.
The fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee would modify the law regarding early retirement pay for a reserve-component member. The law reduces the retirement age by three months for every 90 days that a member spends on an overseas contingency or national emergency.
However, the law requires all 90 days to fall within one fiscal year. The Senate bill would allow that service to qualify if the 90 days falls in two consecutive fiscal years.
The House version of the bill has no such language. NGAUS supports including the Senate language, introduced by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, which is in in the bill’s final version. Final language will be determined after a joint conference of the two chambers.
Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, is asking his House colleagues to sign a letter to the leadership of the House Armed Services Committee urging them to include the Senate committee’s language in the final version of the bill.
Ask your representative to sign the letter to the HASC leadership. We are closer than ever to enacting this long-needed change in the law.
TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTION:
Use the Write to Congress feature on www.ngaus.org to email your elected representative. You can email the sample letter or edit it as you desire. Also, urge your friends and family to do this as well. For more information and background, visit www.ngaus.org. Direct any questions to Pete Duffy, the NGAUS legislative director, at 202-454-5307 or pete.duffy@ngaus.org.