To: EANGUS Members
From: EANGUS National Office Please share the following Roll Call: Drill Weekend Talking Points with other unit members
National Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity
As of August, the House and the Senate have both completed their Draft of the National Defense Authorization Act. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is legislation that Congress passes each year to change the policies and organization of United States defense agencies and provide guidance on how military funding can be spent.
The NDAA is an annual bill that lets Congress set guidelines for defense policy. Though funding for the U.S. military must be approved through appropriations bills, Congress uses the NDAA to establish defense priorities, make organizational changes to military agencies, and provide guidance on how funding should be used.
In addition to the Department of Defense, the legislation also covers military-related programs run by other agencies, such as the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons programs and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counterintelligence activities.
A relatively rare example of bipartisanship in Congress, the NDAA has been passed for 60 straight years. That consistency has also made the bill a popular vehicle for tacking on legislation that has little to do with defense.
The Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS), on behalf of nearly 450,000 Guardsmen across the 50 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia constantly urges the 118th Congress to legislate a G.I. Bill parity for the National Guard and Reservist.
H.R. 1836 – Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act passed the House of Representatives on January 12th, 2022, during the 117th Congress. This bill aimed to eliminate most confusion over which types of duty allow the Guard and Reserve members to qualify for federal education benefits. H.R. 1836 enables all days in service, including weekend drills, annual training, and specific state active duties such as 502(f), to count toward the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Additionally, there was a Senate version of the National Guard GI Bill parity, S.2644 – the Guard, Reserve, and Active-Duty Department of Veterans Affairs Educational Assistance Parity (GRAD) Act.
The Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act and GRAD Act have come during an unprecedented time for the National Guard and Reserve Component. In the last 20 months, the National Guard and Reserves have activated more than 200,000 servicemembers for domestic missions to provide pandemic relief, combat wildfires, secure the U.S.-Mexico border, and protect the U.S. Capitol after January 6th protests. Many of these missions are ongoing, with no clear end in sight.
Unlike our Active Component peers, a day in the National Guard or Reserve does not always equal one day of service: regular weekend training days and annual training do not count toward benefits. As wars wind down, federal deployments abroad have decreased, making it much more difficult for Reserve Component Servicemembers to earn federal benefits, including the GI Bill, despite frequent rotations for missions at home and regularly scheduled training.
We must ensure these Servicemembers have the same benefit under Post 9/11 GI Bill as their active-duty counterparts. We are optimistic that the House and Senate can come to a bipartisan agreement on these two pieces of legislation and provide what will be the most consequential. Change to the post 9-11 GI Bill, specifically for the Reserve Component, since the inception of the program.
For more information on this or any other issues concerning the National Guard, don’t hesitate to contact EANGUS’s legislative and military policy director, Kevin Hollinger, at (202) 670-1826 or at kevin@eangus.org.
EANGUS strongly supports the re-introduction of S. 5142 Healthcare for Our Troops Act, introduced during the 117th Congress. This legislation would have provided Reserve Component (R.C.) servicemembers with zero-cost TRICARE insurance. Additionally, this legislation expands TRICARE eligibility to R.C. servicemembers currently working for the federal government in their civilian capacity.
S.5142 – Healthcare for Our Troops Act was introduced by Sen Tammy Baldwin (WI) and Sen Susan Collins (ME) on November 29, 2022, during the 117th Congress 2nd Session.
Servicemembers are required to meet medical deployment ability requirements. An estimated 130,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists do not have health insurance under the currently disjointed systems of third-party health contractors and Periodic Health Assessments (PHAs), significantly impacting the Reserve Component’s medical readiness. Inconsistent healthcare coverage for members of the Reserve Component makes meeting these requirements difficult to achieve.
S. 5142, Healthcare for Our Troops Act, would have ensured servicemembers meet the medical standards of a deployable force at no cost to the servicemember. This change provides the Department of Defense (DoD) with a powerful recruiting and retention tool and a significant employer incentive to retain talented individuals in gainful civilian employment.
EANGUS does not believe that dental care only will make a significant improvement in medical readiness. As a last resort effort, the Reserve components use mitigating systems to provide zero-cost dental care and improve dental readiness. They currently use mass medical events with dental providers, a dental voucher system, and send servicemembers to providers near annual training facilities at the cost of the reserve components. With all these systems currently in place, there is no reason to believe that dental insurance solely would significantly improve reserve component readiness. Furthermore, no such plan, system, or program for healthcare currently exists. Healthcare issues are often more complex, time-consuming, and expensive to correct. We believe the most significant impact would be that the enlisted, especially our junior ranking members, would have to take more time away from civilian employers to complete the required dental care currently provided during their military service time.
Under current law, National Guard and Reserve servicemembers who are federal employees in their civilian capacity are ineligible to enroll in TRS. This creates confusion in coordinating benefits for servicemembers and their families and prevents servicemembers from establishing continuity of care and treatment as they deploy or transition in or out of the federal government. S. 5142 would have struck the language that disallows servicemembers from accessing TRS simply due to working for the federal government in their civilian capacity.
Don’t hesitate to contact your representative and urge them to support the re-introduction of S. 5142 into the 118th Congress by responding to this Call-To-Action.
If you have further questions regarding the Health Care for Our Troops Act, please do not hesitate to contact Kevin Hollinger at kevin@eangus.org or contact him direct at (202) 670-1826
S. 503 was introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Feb. 16, 2023. The Senate bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev. This is the second time Feinstein and Rubio have introduced this legislation.
Companion legislation to this Senate bill was included in the last two versions of the National Defense Authorization Act introduced in the House. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., reintroduced a House version of the Space National Guard Establishment Act on May 2, 2023. The House bill was cosponsored by Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo.
S. 503 and H.R. 3048, if enacted, would allow the nearly 1,000 airmen currently performing space missions in the National Guard to continue executing these crucial missions unimpeded while providing the Space Force with combat surge capabilities and delivering space-trained personnel and capabilities to support domestic operations and natural disasters.
The Department of Defense is fielding two options regarding reserve components within the Space Force, but has proposed merging all space missions into a full- and part-time force with no Space Guard.
EANGUS Member Survey
In keeping with the EANGUS tradition of presenting its members with the most pertinent information possible, we request that all members take this short twelve-question survey. Its purpose is to provide the Committee on Retiree Affairs with the feedback needed to develop our program. We’d like to target our program to not just retirees but also to those within five years of retiring. We want to ensure that everyone has access to all the programs, information, and benefits they have earned.
Your answers will guide the future of our program. Thank you! Your feedback, please
EANGUS Healthcare Survey
EANGUS invites you to take a brief 30-second survey to provide your feedback on the importance of healthcare and your military service.
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Round-up at Walmart and Donate to the National Guard Relief Foundation!As of July 2023, the EANGUS We Care for America, National Guard ReliefFoundation is participating in the Walmart SparkGood “Round-Up” Program.Every time you shop at Walmart.com or on the Walmart App, you can make adonation to help National Guard families in need.Walmart Shoppers: Use the QR Code or this LINK and log into your alreadyestablished personal Walmart account. Then select EANGUS We Care forAmerica as your charity and start shopping! At check-out, you will begiven the option to opt in and “round-up” the final price of yourpurchase to the nearest dollar. Those extra cents you donate will bepassed on to WCFA-NGRF by Walmart on your behalf. NOTE: The Round-upprogram is not available for in-store purchases or when using “WalmartPay”.Shop. Give a little. Your donation will make a big impact on NationalGuard Families!*****https://www.walmart.com/nonprofits/fe8614dd-cb1b-4742-8db9-70b8f8aabeed/profile
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Thank you, and we look forward to your participation to capture the rich history of our EANGUS Members.
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