President Obama has decided that the military does not need another high-level review of military compensation.
In a memo released Friday, Obama said he will not order the Pentagon to conduct its next Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, or QRMC, which was due to ramp up this year.
Obama said the need for such a review will be satisfied by a similar effort, the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission, or MCRMC, which Congress created in 2013. That commission is due to deliver its report to Capitol Hill by Feb. 1.
The publication of that commission's report in a few weeks could prompt Congress to take action on the controversial issue of military pay and benefits. The military's top brass say change is needed because personnel costs are soaring, which and makes it hard to find money for weapons modernization and high-tech research.
It's likely that the commission will recommend changes to the current 20-year cliff-vesting retirement system.
The commission's report would likely overshadow another QRMC, which is created by the Pentagon bureaucracy. It's a highly technical analysis of military pay and benefits that is conducted every four years to ensure the current system can support a healthy all-volunteer force.
The last one, the 11th QRMC, was published in June 2012. To meet a traditional publication date of mid-2016, the Pentagon would have to start the long bureaucratic process this year.
But Obama said a 12th QRMC is "not required."
Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.
