Senate Approves Leahy Proposal
To Expand Guard And Reserve Benefits

…$1 Billion Commitment By Senate Clears Major Hurdle For Guard And Reserves

[WASHINGTON (Wed., March 10) – Less than a year after Senator Patrick Leahy and a bipartisan coalition of senators expanded healthcare benefits in what the National Guard Association called “…the most significant victory the Guard and Reserves have had in Congress since the passage of the Montgomery GI Bill...” the Senate Wednesday set aside $5 billion over the next five years to expand Guard and Reserve healthcare benefits further. The measure was offered by Leahy and Sens. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and others as an amendment to the 2005 federal budget.  Leahy, along with Daschle and Graham, proposed Wednesday that the Senate set aside $1 billion annually for the next five years to fully fund Guard and Reserve healthcare benefits and to provide for the expansion of certain benefits. Leahy’s prepared statement read on the Senate Floor follows.]

_________________________________________________

Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy On The Daschle-Graham-Leahy Amendment

Mr. President, I am glad to join my colleagues Senator Daschle of South Dakota and Senator Graham of South Carolina to introduce this critical budget amendment on the readiness of our National Guard and Reserves.  This amendment will allocate resources in the country’s long-term budget to implement a comprehensive health insurance program for the 800,000 citizen-soldiers who serve in the National Guard and Reserves.

Last year, the Senate recognized that 20 percent of the nation’s military reserve -- over 150,000 citizens waiting to answer the call-to-duty -- did not possess health insurance.  During a vote here on the Senate floor, 85 senators collectively agreed that this was unwise, and more importantly, unconscionable that citizen-soldiers ready to fight for their country would arrive for service in less-than perfect health because they were uninsured.  As a response to this clear problem, we passed a stop-gap health insurance program that allowed reservists to receive fully-reimbursed health insurance through TRICARE as soon as they received their orders and maintain that insurance after they had been deactivated.

The centerpiece of the program passed in Congress last year was a provision to allow drilling members of the Guard and Reserve to buy into the TRICARE program on a cost-share basis if they were between jobs or did not have access to health insurance through their employers.  This program guarantees that every member of the Guard and Reserve is covered either through TRICARE or a civilian program.  However, the final defense bill last year authorized the program only through the end of this calendar year.   This amendment would expand funding for this program for the next five years.

More troubling, critical portions of our original proposal, embodied in S. 852, the Comprehensive Guard and Reserve Health Benefits Act, dropped out during the final negotiations.  Missing in the final package was eligibility for employed members of the Guard and Reserve to sign up for the cost-share TRICARE program.  This took away health insurance options for our reservists and a necessary mechanism to make the mobilization process easier by eliminating the need for reservists to switch back-and-forth between health insurance plans when they are activated.

The final compromise also shortchanged families of activated reservists who wanted to maintain their civilian health insurance while their loved ones were activated.  That provision would have substantially reduced some of the intense disturbances these long separations create.  We crafted this provision to have only marginal costs compared to the size of the benefit for Guard members, Reservists and their families.

This amendment will help fund the full program set forth in S. 852: early health insurance, TRICARE access for all, reimbursements to families for keeping civilian health insurance, and maintaining full TRICARE after deployment.  It truly is a comprehensive package.  It is, I want to note, the exact same legislation that received an overwhelming 85 to 10 favorable vote during our debate on the defense bill.

The Department of Defense has slow-rolled implementation of the program turned into law last year.  They are still not opening up the cost-share program to eligible service-members.  Passing this amendment this year on the budget resolution sends a signal to DoD that they need to move ahead more aggressively.  But, more importantly, this amendment assures the 130,000 men and women in the Guard and Reserve serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, or at home, and the entire Guard and Reserve force, that we are going to take significant steps to ensure that they are ready to meet the challenges ahead.  We are not going to let our Guard down.

I urge the adoption of the amendment.   

                                                                  # # # # #