Energetic-duty navy girls and civilian Protection Division workers now might be reimbursed for transport breast milk whereas on official journey, in response to a current change to the Joint Journey Rules.
DoD officers introduced April 14 that nursing moms could also be reimbursed as much as $1,000 as a journey lodging throughout non permanent responsibility of greater than three days.
As of April 7 — the date the coverage was accredited — lined bills will embrace industrial transport charges, extra baggage, storage baggage or containers, chilly transport packages, refrigeration and transport, in response to a memo from Joel Ridenour, chief of the Pentagon’s Per Diem, Journey and Transportation Committee.
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In accordance with the Division of the Air Power, the profit was pushed by the service’s Girls’s Initiative Crew, which noticed the out-of-pocket expense as a barrier for lactating mothers who relocate or go on non permanent responsibility inside a yr after childbirth.
In accordance with Air Power Maj. Samantha Sliney, the staff’s co-lead, the group has been working for greater than two years to acquire the profit.
“This transformation is a big step and nice profit for lactating uniformed service members and DoD civilian workers,” Sliney mentioned in an Air Power information launch. “Members might be supplied the required help to proceed undertaking the mission whereas assembly the calls for of parenthood.”
The Coast Guard — the one armed service exterior the Division of Protection — has been providing the profit since June 2019 below a reimbursement program supported by Coast Guard Mutual Help, a nonprofit group that gives monetary help and emergency aid to the service’s members and their households.
The Coast Guard’s program pays as much as $750 a yr per family for transport and is out there to active-duty personnel; Public Well being Service officers and Navy chaplains detailed to the Coast Guard; reserve members on active-duty standing; spouses on enterprise journey; and Coast Guard civilian workers.
Below that program, Coast Guard personnel should be away from dwelling on non permanent responsibility, deployment, touring on official enterprise or have an excused absence to be eligible for reimbursement.
Of their launch, Air Power officers famous that their Girls’s Initiative Crew additionally labored to make sure that items had devoted areas in workplaces to make sure that moms can pump breast milk in personal, and supervisors are to ensure that personnel get 15 to half-hour each three to 4 hours to pump breast milk, as much as a yr after childbirth.
“Mother and father expertise a myriad of points when returning to work after giving start to incorporate the fragile steadiness between offering vitamin for his or her youngster whereas answering the calls for of their job,” Sliney mentioned within the press launch. “This essential change permits all Division of Protection service members and civilian workers to serve to their full potential throughout all phases of life.”
The change is scheduled to look within the Joint Journey Rules on Could 1. Affected service members and workers can file for reimbursement below the class of journey lodging for a particular want.
— Patricia Kime might be reached at Patricia.Kime@Army.com. Comply with her on Twitter at @patriciakime.
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