Democrat Congresswoman to Colleagues: ‘Man Up’ and Strip Military Benefits
By Brendan McGarry. A U.S. congresswoman implored her colleagues to “man up” and accept the recommendations from a blue-ribbon panel to overhaul military benefits.
Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, praised the recent work of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. The panel called for offering troops 401(k)-like retirement plans and military families a choice of commercial health insurance plans in lieu of Tricare, among other proposals.
“We’ve just now have got to inject a little guts into all of us to do the right thing,” she said Wednesday during a hearing of the committee’s military personnel subcommittee, which received testimony from commission members.
The hearing was the latest in what will be a series of debates on Capitol Hill over the future of military compensation. Members of the congressionally mandated panel have said their 15 recommendations were designed to give troops, military families and retirees more benefits choices while saving the Pentagon an estimated $12 billion a year in personnel costs by 2040. (Read more about the congresswoman telling colleagues to strip military benefits HERE)
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Wounded Warrior Abused by Doctor and Social Worker
By Richard Sisk. A soldier currently at the Fort Carson, Colo., Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) suffered mistreatment by a doctor and a social worker for several months last year, an Army investigation concluded.
The soldier was mistreated at the Embedded Behavioral Health clinic while he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment before he joined Fort Carson’s WTU.
The fact-finding investigation under Article 15-6 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice found that the two heath care providers engaged in “problematic encounters” with the soldier between February and May of 2014, the Army said.
At a roundtable session with Pentagon reporters Friday, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho said that the doctor and the social worker “showed a lack of dignity and respect to one soldier” and had been disciplined. (Read more from this story HERE)
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