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Friday, June 26, 2009

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“Our outstanding service members and their families sacrifice much and the personnel measures in this bill honor their commitment to preserve the freedoms for all Americans.” 
~ Senator Nelson on this week’s defense funding bill ~

NELSON: DEFENSE BILL SENT TO FULL SENATE ADDRESSES MILITARY SUICIDES, HEALTH CARE, OPERATION AIRLIFT AND BENCHMARKS
June 26, 2009 – Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson announced today that that the Senate Armed Services Committee has approved the National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2010 addressing key personnel concerns and his call for benchmarks to assess progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Nelson, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, applauded the bipartisan support to address issues spotlighted in hearings he held this year. Issues such as military suicides, travel for stranded soldiers, health benefits, strains on military families and aid for wounded warriors, were addressed at the hearings and Nelson worked to make sure they were taken for action by policy and legislation in the National Defense Authorization Act.

“Our hearings clearly showed gaps in health care, suicide prevention, and mental health treatment. These gaps are having repercussions on our military’s brave men and women, and their families,” said Senator Nelson. “Our outstanding service members and their families sacrifice much and the personnel measures in this bill honor their commitment to preserve the freedoms for all Americans.” 

Two particular measures introduced by Nelson earlier this year, TRICARE Gray and Operation Airlift, were included in the committee’s legislation. The budget-neutral TRICARE gray measure ensures nearly 225,226 eligible retirees nationwide have the opportunity to purchase coverage under the military’s TRICARE health care program.  Operation Airlift, Nelson’s other stand-alone legislation, arose in response to complications Nebraska service members experienced in December 2007. Forty-eight members of the 110th Medical Battalion based in Lincoln became stranded at Fort Lewis, Washington,  when training was suspended and the base was shut down for the holidays. Military rules prohibited using military funds to pay for their travel back to Nebraska until training resumed. Operation Airlift allows the Secretary of Defense to use Department of Defense funds to pay for travel if a reserve or guard member is more than 300 miles from home and is placed on leave for 5 days or more because of training suspensions or staffing issues.

“As chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee, I have worked to ensure that what we learned from the hearings and discussions with service members and their families was addressed in this bill and reflects the needs of service members and their families,” Nelson said.

For military personnel, the committee allocated $163.5 billion to fund costs of pay, allowances, bonuses, death benefits, permanent change of station moves, and health care.  The bill, among its many benefits to military members and their families, authorizes a 3.4 percent across-the-board pay raise, 0.5 percent above the budget request.  It also increased the overall size of the force.  The bill authorizes fiscal year 2010 active-duty end strengths for the Army of 547,400; the Marine Corps, 202,100; the Air Force, 331,700; and the Navy, 328,800.  The bill also authorizes the Secretary of Defense to increase the Army’s active-duty end strength by 30,000 above 2010 levels during fiscal years 2011 and 2012 if sufficient funding is requested in the budgets for those fiscal years.


To address the rising stress on the force, overall mental health wellness and access to counselors, and the rising numbers of suicides in the military, the bill:

• Requires the Secretary of Defense to develop and implement a plan by September 30, 2013 to increase the number of military and civilian behavioral health personnel, and to consider the feasibility of additional officer and enlisted specialties as behavioral health counselors.
• To begin to address the capability gaps identified in mental health care, the bill authorizes the service secretaries to add up to 25 officers each year as students at accredited schools of psychology for training leading to the degree of Doctor of Psychology in clinical psychology.
• Requires person-to-person mental health assessments at designated intervals for service members deployed in connection with contingency operations.

To address stress and impacts on military families and military communities the bill:

• Requires the Secretary of Defense to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of military deployment on dependent children of service members, and a review of the mental health care and counseling services available to military children.
• Expresses the Sense of the Senate on various aspects of State implementation of the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children and encourages all remaining states to enact the measure.
• Requires the Secretary of Defense to develop and implement a policy and program to provide broad-based community support to military children with autism and their families.
• Authorizes $30 million in impact aid, $10 million in special assistance to local education agencies affected by Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) and force relocations, and $5 million in impact aid for children with severe disabilities.

To address the care of wounded service members and healthcare of all service members and their families, the bill:

• Requires the Secretary of Defense to establish a task force to assess the effectiveness of the policies and programs to assist and support the care, management and transition of recovering wounded, ill, and injured service members.
• Authorizes travel and transportation allowances for up to three designated individuals to attend to seriously injured or wounded service members. Includes those with serious mental disorders, for the duration of their inpatient stay. Authorizes travel and transportation allowances for non-medical attendants of very seriously wounded, ill, or injured service members.
• Authorizes special compensation for designated caregivers for the time and assistance they provide to service members with combat-related catastrophic injuries or illnesses requiring assistance in everyday living.
• Authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Navy to jointly operate the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago and Great Lakes, Illinois – the first such joint operation between the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs.


To address particular concerns of the National Guard and Reserves, the bill provides the following provisions:

• Authorizes travel and transportation allowances for reserve component service members on active duty for more than 30 days to travel from a temporary duty station to their permanent duty station and back again when training at the temporary duty station is suspended for five days or more.
• Authorizes the Secretary of Defense to provide any member or former member of the armed forces up to $200 a day for each day of administrative absence that the member would have earned between January 19, 2007 and the date of implementation of the Post- Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence program, had the program been timely implemented.
• Directs the Secretary of Defense to report on the status of completion of various issues identified by wounded service members and their families and to report on the capabilities for electronic exchange of medical data between DOD and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The total funding in the defense authorization bill now headed to the full Senate is $679.8 billion, slightly below the President’s budget request of $680.2 billion for discretionary programs in the jurisdiction of the Armed Services Committee.

In addition to measures with regard to personnel, Senator Nelson continued to advocate for measures of progress for the new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Hi measure, adopted unanimously by the full committee, urges the Administration to establish measures of progress for its new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and to provide reports to Congress every six months.  It urges the Administration to provide an assessment of each measure of progress by:

1. Setting forth the measure of progress being evaluated;
2. Providing data used to evaluate the measure of progress;
3. Providing an evaluation of the performance of the particular measure of progress and;
4. Providing a comprehensive assessment of how the performance of the particular measure of progress hinders or enhances the overall progress toward achieving the U.S. strategic objectives in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“The American people and the men and women serving in Afghanistan and Pakistan deserve to have a set of objective measures for the U.S. strategy in that region, so we can ensure it is the best strategy to achieve stability and success,” said Nelson.

NELSON: OVER $191 MILLION FOR NEBRASKA SCHOOLS WILL SAVE JOBS
June 22, 2009 – Today, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson welcomed an announcement by the U.S. Department of Education that Nebraska will receive more than $191 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for schools and to stop teacher layoffs as the state deals with strains on the state budget.  The state will be eligible to apply for another $94 million in economic stimulus funds this fall.

“These funds will save Nebraska jobs that would have been on the chopping block due to fallout from the national economic downturn on state revenues,” said Senator Nelson. “Not only would layoffs and pay cuts have directly impacted hundreds of teachers, they also would have negatively impacted thousands of children in schools across the state.”

“Had Senator Nelson not stepped up to provide this relief in the economic stimulus package, there would be very little money for K-12 education in our state budget,” said Jess Wolf, President of the Nebraska State Education Association. “These funds will help protect hundreds of teachers’ jobs and educational programs across the state.”

This funding is in addition to the $67 million in education funds already received by the state.  According to the Department of Education, Nebraska received $24 million in Title I funding and nearly $40 million in IDEA funding on April 1, representing 50% of the Title I and IDEA funding available to the state.  On that same date, Nebraska also received $1.5 million in Vocational Rehab funds and $416,000 in Independent Living funds.  On April 10, Nebraska received more than $850,000 in Impact Aid funding.

According to the Department of Education, in order to receive today’s funds, Nebraska provided assurances that it will collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps and interventions in turning around underperforming schools.  The state will also report the number of jobs saved through Recovery Act funding, the amount of state and local tax increases averted, and how funds are used.

Senator Nelson played a key role in the passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill. He worked with a bipartisan group of nearly 20 Senators to better focus The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on tax cuts for the middle class and job creation for millions of Americans. Senator Nelson led the group through the initial bill line by line, dollar by dollar, to reduce spending and cut out $108 billion of inefficient or less-stimulative spending. The bipartisan group helped the improved bill win congressional approval. President Obama signed it into law February 17, 2009.
 
Senator Nelson is posting information about the release of stimulus finds on his website as it becomes available.  Visit  http://bennelson.senate.gov/feature_4.cfm for more information.

NELSON: $47.8 MILLION IN STIMULUS FUNDS FOR NEBRASKA SCHOOLS
June 26, 2009 – Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson welcomed today an announcement by the US Department of Education that $47.8 million in stimulus funding will be added to existing Title 1 funds being made available to school districts across the state for a total $115 million investment.

“These stimulus funds will help Nebraska school districts meet the needs of their students in the midst of funding problems brought on by the economic downturn,” said Nelson.  “A quality education serves as the foundation for a prosperous and successful future.  By ensuring continued funding for financially strapped schools, these stimulus funds are being put to good use.”

The funds are being made available as part of the Title I program, which provide financial assistance to local educational agencies for services that improve the teaching and learning of children at risk of not meeting challenging State academic achievement standards, especially those children who reside in areas with high concentrations of children from low-income families. 

The funds are distributed using four formulas: basic grants, concentration grants, targeted grants, and education finance incentive grants.  Each formula uses specific criteria such as the number of students, families above and below the poverty line, and number of children in foster homes to determine the amount of the funding.

The funds are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) investment, also known as the stimulus bill.

Senator Nelson played a key role in the passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill. He worked with a bipartisan group of nearly 20 Senators to better focus The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on tax cuts for the middle class and job creation for millions of Americans. Senator Nelson led the group through the initial bill line by line, dollar by dollar, to reduce spending and cut out $108 billion of inefficient or less-stimulative spending. The bipartisan group helped the improved bill win congressional approval. President Obama signed it into law February 17, 2009.
 
Senator Nelson is posting information about the release of stimulus finds on his website as it becomes available.  Visit http://bennelson.senate.gov/feature_4.cfm for more information.

NELSON: CONGRATULATIONS TO MAJ. GEN. KADAVY ON NATIONAL GUARD SELECTION
June 26, 2009 – Today, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson issued the following statement to congratulate Major General Tim Kadavy on his selection to become the Deputy Director of the Army National Guard:

“Congratulations to General Tim Kadavy on his selection as the Deputy Director of the Army National Guard.  During his time as Nebraska’s Adjutant General, General Kadavy was a pro-active leader who ensured the proud men and women of Nebraska’s National Guard received the resources and training needed for success as they shoulder unprecedented portions of the National Defense effort.

"It has been an honor to work closely with General Kadavy on a number of issues affecting our National Guard troops.  I very much look forward to continuing our work together to ensure that the National Guard has the resources it needs to continue its vital support to the defense of our nation and its allies.”

Nelson Network Nebraska is interested in reaching more Nebraskans. If you know of a fellow Nebraskan who would be interested in receiving this bulletin, please forward their name, telephone number and email address to us at press@bennelson.senate.gov

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