Events & Activities
- "Storming The Hill" Report
REPORT FROM THE HILL
The MOAA Storming of the Hill took place on April 2nd. On this day, the Texas Congressional Districts were divided into three teams, who fanned out to see each of the Representatives or their staffs. The Teams were made up of LTC Virginia Alloway, Texas MOAA Board member; Colonel Mark Seglem, Texas MOAA Board member and Major Jim Cunningham, TCC President.
This year MOAA had three primary issues that it wanted us to present to the Congress and ask for their support on. These were: Barring Disproportional Military Health Fee Increases; Eliminating Financial Penalties for Military Caused Disabilities and Deaths (which included Full Concurrent Receipt and the SBP-DIC Offset for Widows); and a 3.9% pay increase for the military. There are many peripheral issues associated with some of these and they were discussed, when appropriate or time allowed.
At present, we have a rather dismal amount of support from our Senator's on these issues. Only Kay Bailey Hutchison is supporting S.935 The Military Retiree Survivor Act (SBP). For all other issues, neither she nor Sen. Cornyn are co-sponsors of relevant bills to take care of these issues.
Our Texas Representatives as a whole seem to either have a good idea as to the issues and where MOAA stands on them or they have staffers that do. In many cases, we were greeted with prior knowledge from the Congressmen or their staffs as to what MOAA was advocating so it made our task rather easy in talking about the issues. We do have, however, many Congress people who have not stepped forward to lend their support by co-sponsoring some of these important bills that support our aims. I will leave it to each of you to contact your local Congress person and encourage them to do so. Following is a chart showing support for each issue:
a/o April 27, 2008 |
HR1589 SBP-DIC Offset |
HR.1927 Military Retiree Survivor |
HR303 Full Concurrent Receipt |
HR 333 Disabled Veteran Tax Termination Act |
Rep Louie Gohmert |
YES |
YES |
NO |
NO |
Rep Ted Poe R-2 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Sam Johnson R-3 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Ralph M. Hall R-4 |
NO |
NO |
YES |
NO |
Rep Jeb Hensharling |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Joe Barton R-6 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep John A. Culberson R-7 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Kevin P. Brady R-8 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Al Green D-9 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
YES |
Rep Michael McCall R-10 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Mike Conaway R-11 |
YES |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Kay Granger R-12 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Mac Thornberry R-13 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Ron Paul R-14 |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Rep Reuben Hinajosa D-15 |
NO |
YES |
NO |
NO |
Rep Silvestre Reyes D-16 |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Rep Chet Edwards D-17 |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Rep Sheila Jackson Lee D-18 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
MP |
Rep Randy Neugebauer R-19 |
NO |
NO |
No |
No |
Rep Charles Gonzales D-20 |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Rep Lamar Smith R-21 |
NO |
NO |
No |
NO |
Rep Nicholas Lampson D-22 |
NO |
YES |
No |
NO |
Rep Ciro Rodriguez D-23 |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Rep Kenny Marchant R-24 |
NO |
NO |
YES |
NO |
Rep Lloyd Doggett D-25 |
NO |
YES |
NO |
NO |
Rep Michael C. Burgess R-26 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep Solomon P. Ortiz D-27 |
NO |
YES |
YES |
NO |
Rep Henry Cuellar D-28 |
NO |
No |
YES |
YES |
Rep Gene Green D-29 |
NO |
YES |
NO |
YES |
Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson D-30 |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
Rep John R. Carter R-31 |
YES |
NO |
YES |
NO |
Rep Pete Sessions R-32 |
NO |
NO |
YES |
NO |
a/o April 27, 2008 |
HR 579 Military Retirees Health Care Protection Act |
HR 5481 Military Pay Raise |
Rep Louie Gohmert |
NO |
YES |
Rep Ted Poe R-2 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Sam Johnson R-3 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Ralph M. Hall R-4 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Jeb Hensharling |
NO |
NO |
Rep Joe Barton R-6 |
NO |
NO |
Rep John A. Culberson R-7 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Kevin P. Brady R-8 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Al Green D-9 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Michael McCall R-10 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Mike Conaway R-11 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Kay Granger R-12 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Mac Thornberry R-13 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Ron Paul R-14 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Reuben Hinajosa D-15 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Silvestre Reyes D-16 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Chet Edwards D-17 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Sheila Jackson Lee D-18 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Randy Neugebauer R-19 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Charles Gonzales D-20 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Lamar Smith R-21 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Nicholas Lampson D-22 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Ciro Rodriguez D-23 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Kenny Marchant R-24 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Lloyd Doggett D-25 |
NO |
NO |
Rep Michael C. Burgess R-26 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Solomon P. Ortiz D-27 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Henry Cuellar D-28 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Gene Green D-29 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson D-30 |
YES |
NO |
Rep John R. Carter R-31 |
YES |
NO |
Rep Pete Sessions R-32 |
NO |
NO |
In some cases, it seemed that some of our Representatives simply had not heard about some of these bills or were waiting until some other issues fell out about them. It is incumbent on us, however, as Military people and constituents of these Representatives to encourage them to support them! I would note, that the Military Pay Raise bill probably will be rolled up into the Defense Authorization Bill of 2009, so it may not be as important, other than to show support of the pay raise.
It is a bit disturbing to me that though he has made a great show of being at military events and venues of late, in "support" of the Military, I came away from a personal meeting with Senator Cornyn feeling that there was no real support for the issues outlined by MOAA and that there might not be any in the future unless it was advantageous politically. I would encourage you and your friends to "educate" both of the Senator's, especially the incumbent one, as to the importance of these issues to you and yours and keep the pressure on them to support them.
Attached are reports from the other two teams who met with the Congressmen and/or their staffs. One from LtCol Virginia Alloway and the other from CDR Mark Seglem, both of whom are Board of Directors members representing Texas. First from Lt Col Alloway:
Storming the Hill Report - Texas Team No. 6
Ginny Alloway & Katherine Nigro
On April 2, 2008, Ginny Alloway and Katherine Nigro met with eight Texas legislative staff members and one Congressman, Louis Gohmert.
We covered the three legislative issues in length. Most of the legislative staff was very familiar with MOAA, and in fact several had attended MOAA briefings.
Congressman Gohmert had his own take on TRICARE Fees. Besides Medicare coverage, give each TRICARE recipient $3,000 and let them buy their own secondary coverage. From all indication, he will not co-sponsor this bill. However, on the Military Pay raise, he was very supportive.
None of the legislative aides had pertinent questions since they had previously attended MOAA briefings.
Leaving the building, I met Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, my congressman, on the street. We discussed the issues for about 15 minutes. Being on the Veterans Committee, he is most receptive to military issues.
I did write thanking each of the Congress and received a reply from Congressman, Judge Ted Poe asking we keep him informed on all military issues.
From CDR Seglem:
Storming the Hill Report - Texas Team No. 7
Mark Seglem & Jeannine Curtin
On April 2, 2008, Mark Seglem and Jeannine Curtin met with eleven Texas legislative staff members and one Congressman, Judge John R. Carter.
We covered three main legislative priorities with each person we met. We discussed the elimination of the financial penalties associated with military-caused disabilities and deaths, how to bar disproportional military health fee increases and tried to garner support for a 3.9% military pay raise for 2008.
Most of the legislative representatives we met with were very familiar with MOAA, along with the key issues we presented them. Most were willing to support the bills we presented (at least we received a verbal commitment or nod of approval).
Three of the people who asked for additional information included:
Tony Samp, the legislative assistant for Congressman Nick Lampson (22nd District/Texas) wanted to know the number of military (retirees and active duty officers) who lived in the 22nd district. We provided Tony with the number of current MOAA members in this district.
In addition, Angela Manuela Manso, Sr. Policy Advisor for Congressman Charles A. Gonzalez (20th District/Texas) asked a number of great analytical questions on our issues. She asked for a graph containing the number of retired officers (who now work in corporate America) who use TRICARE vs. their own corporate medical insurance. Unfortunately, we do not have access to the number of retirees working in second careers and we are discovering that more civilian employers are cutting back on health benefits. Therefore, retired officers rely on TRICARE benefits they earned during their 20-30+ years of military service.
Jeremiah Rigsby, the Sr. Legislative Asst. to Congressman Henry Cuellar (28th District/Texas) had just been selected to work on military issues for the Congressman. Jeremiah was extremely receptive to receiving military information, since he hadn’t been approached by any other military organization. We shared with Jeremiah the fact that Military Officer magazine is sent to Congressma'’s Cuellar's office on a monthly basis. We also told him that he could receive a weekly e-mail alert, Legislative Update, which is sent out to 130,000 subscribers every Friday and it's chock full of congressional actions on military benefits.
All in all we had a superb day meeting with the various Texas legislative staff members and Congressman Carter.
If you have any questions regarding this report, please direct them to me so that I can either answer them or research an answer for you.
Sincerely,
James Cunningham
President
Texas Council of Chapters
210-416-0502