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Family advocate leads personnel panel

A San Diego lawmaker who is a strong advocate for military women and families is taking control of the House panel responsible for military personnel policy.

Rep. Susan Davis, a four-term Democrat, takes over the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee as a result of an unusual midsession shuffling sparked by the departure from Congress of Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass.

The House of Representatives already has passed its version of the 2008 defense authorization bill, with Davis now expected to be the chief negotiator in meetings with the Senate to write a compromise defense bill.

Davis said that shouldn’t be difficult. She supports key provisions of the bill, including two that have raised strong objections from the Bush administration — bigger military pay raises and a ban on Tricare fee increases.

Over administration opposition, the House bill sets military pay raises for the next five years at a half-percentage point above average annual private-sector raises, beginning with a 3.5 percent all-ranks pay increase Jan. 1. The bill also rejects an administration request to increase enrollment fees and co-pays for Tricare health insurance.

In both cases, Davis said, she sees looking out for military benefits as an essential part of fighting the current wars, and eroding benefits would make recruiting and retention tougher.

“We need them to be secure in the fact that the benefits are there,” she said.

Davis declined to say she would never support an increase in Tricare fees, but made clear she is far from convinced that is necessary now.

“We are not at the point, I don’t think, where we need to make major compromises in that area yet, especially if we want to send a message that we value service and we want people to stay in the military,” she said.

While she did not have specific recommendations for improving recruiting and retention, Davis said she “certainly would not do anything that would lower their pay. ... I don’t think that is a good message to send.”

Davis has some of her own priorities for personnel, to include a complete overhaul of the military’s mental health system, which she said has served Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans and their families poorly.

“There are short-term fixes and there are long-term ones,” she said. “You have to work on both at the same time. We cannot wait two or three years.”

She wants the government to dramatically improve diagnosis and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems, and she wants more emphasis focused on the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder for military women.

She said she plans to pay extra attention to issues affecting military women, including sexual assault and harassment in the ranks, which she said have not gotten enough attention.

On other issues, a Davis-sponsored bill involving college loans for mobilized National Guard and reserve members was approved June 20 by the House Education and Labor Committee. Her proposal, included as an amendment to a larger bill, would give returning service members a 13-month deferment on repaying student loans.

Under current law, reservists must start repaying student loans as soon as they demobilize, unless they immediately return to college. Davis said some returning war veterans want and deserve a break before returning to school, which her legislation — supported by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America — would allow.

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