To: EANGUS Members
From: EANGUS National Office Please share the following Roll Call: Drill Weekend Talking Points with other unit members
Protecting the All-Volunteer Force
Protecting the U.S. military and all-volunteer force is essential for national security and Americans’ well-being. It is necessary for the mission of the National Guard, which has had over 380,000 activations since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, to be made extremely clear. EANGUS members assembled this August for our 52nd National Conference in Rochester, MN, when they voted on resolutions and Legislative positions. Because of our members’ voices, the EANGUS Legislative Team knows that protecting the All-Volunteer force is critical to the success of the National Guard.
Below, you will see some of the areas the EANGUS Legislative Team will focus on to help protect the U.S. military all-volunteer force:
- Legislation making military service more attractive to potential recruits. This could include increasing pay, educational benefits, and better healthcare and housing.
- Legislation making it easier for people to join the military. This could include lowering the minimum age requirement or increasing the maximum age, waiving specific physical fitness standards, and making it easier for people with criminal records to participate with a focus on non-violent crimes as juveniles.
- Policies that help Improve the military’s image. This could be done by highlighting the positive aspects of military service, such as education, travel, and leadership development opportunities.
- Address the concerns of potential recruits. This includes addressing concerns about the length of deployments, the risk of injury or death, and the impact of military service on family life.
- Make military service more accessible to people from all backgrounds. This could include increasing outreach to minority communities and providing more financial assistance to help people cover the costs of military service.
By taking these steps, we can help ensure that the U.S. military’s volunteer force remains strong and effective in the coming years.
EANGUS’s recent conference also helped identify multiple areas our members felt needed to be addressed within government policies that could be studied and improved.
- Reform the Selective Service System. The Selective Service System is the federal agency responsible for registering men and women for the draft in the event of a national emergency. The system is currently outdated and inefficient, and it would need to be reformed to be effective in the event of a draft.
- Invest in military recruitment and retention. The military spends billions of dollars yearly on recruitment and retention, but whether these efforts are always practical is unclear. The military must invest in research and development to find new and innovative ways to attract and retain quality recruits.
- Improve the military’s transition programs. When service members leave the military, they often face challenges in finding civilian jobs and adjusting to civilian life. The military must improve its transition programs to help service members transition smoothly to civilian life.
Investing in the All-Voluntary force is necessary to move our Enlisted National Guard force into the future. By taking steps to make military service more attractive and accessible, we can help to ensure that the all-volunteer force remains strong and effective for many years to come. EANGUS is now and has always been focused on the Quality of Life for our Enlisted Force. We will remain diligent and focused on policies and legislation that will help improve our position as a modern fighting force and the nation’s premier domestic aid providers.
If you have any questions or suggestions about today’s Enlisted National Guard, please do not hesitate to contact Kevin Hollinger, the EANGUS Legislative Director, at (202) 670-1826 or email 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.
Upcoming EANGUS Events
EANGUS Legislative Quarterly Summit (LQS)
15-16 November 2023
Homewood Suites by Hilton Washington DC Capitol-Navy Yard
50 M St SE | Washington, DC | 20003
EANGUS Resources
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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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