The Biden administration is popping out in opposition to a Home plan to offer additional pay to troopers within the Arctic and sailors aboard ships present process main development, arguing the regulation already permits for stipends in particular conditions.
The proposals for Arctic pay and sophisticated overhaul pay, accepted by the Home Armed Providers Committee final month, had been spurred by waves of suicides amongst service members in Alaska and on the plane service USS George Washington.
However in a press release launched Tuesday, the White Home mentioned it “opposes these proposed pays as a result of they’re pointless, as present regulation offers ample authority for particular obligation pays.”
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“The Administration appreciates the Committee’s concern for members assigned to tough assignments and is dedicated to working with the Congress to make sure members have entry to acceptable residing preparations throughout these prolonged durations within the shipyard,” the assertion added.
The assertion comes forward of the Home’s anticipated debate later this week on a sweeping annual protection coverage invoice often known as the the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act, or NDAA.
Included within the invoice are provisions that would offer new $200 month-to-month stipends to sailors on ships present process nuclear refueling and sophisticated overhauls and $300 month-to-month stipends to service members “assigned to carry out chilly climate operations.”
Lawmakers have mentioned they included these stipends to assist alleviate the navy’s epidemic of suicides. The additional pay is amongst a number of proposals focusing on quality-of-life points, together with ones to require the Navy to supply paid strikes to sailors assigned to ships present process a fancy overhaul, a course of that may take years, and the Pentagon to pay for airfare for service members and dependents in Alaska who should not from the state to take not less than one journey house per three-year tour.
A minimum of six sailors assigned to the George Washington have died by suicide prior to now 12 months, although sailors have advised Army.com that the ship’s commanding officer advised them that there have been 10 suicides aboard the ship between July 2021 and April 2022.
The ship has been present process a fancy overhaul on the Newport News shipyard in Virginia since 2017 and isn’t anticipated to be executed till early 2023 — longer than the standard four-year timeline for refueling a nuclear reactor and taking good care of different repairs and upgrades. Sailors have described insufferable residing situations aboard the ship whereas it has been present process development, and lawmakers have faulted the Navy for being unaware of quality-of-life issues till information of the deaths turned public.
In the meantime, in Alaska, not less than 11 troopers died by suicide final 12 months, with one other six deaths underneath investigation. That was up from seven soldier suicides in 2020 and eight in 2019.
Lawmakers and different leaders have partially blamed the socially isolating nature of labor in a distant location corresponding to Alaska, in addition to an absence of sources for the Arctic mission and lengthy wait occasions for psychological well being appointments.
The White Home’s opposition to the stipends got here in a bigger, seven-page assertion on the administration’s place on the Home’s model of the NDAA as an entire.
Typically, the White Home mentioned it “strongly helps” passage of an NDAA this 12 months. However the assertion additionally listed a number of gripes with the invoice because it stands now.
Amongst its issues, the administration “strongly opposes” so-called inflation bonuses for Protection Division civilians.
The Home model of the NDAA would give each service members and Protection Division civilians making lower than $45,000 a 2.4% bonus in 2023 to assist address inflation, which is at present above 8%. The bonuses can be on prime of 4.6% pay raises subsequent 12 months.
The White Home assertion says nothing concerning the administration’s place on inflation bonuses for troops. However for Pentagon civilians, the assertion mentioned inflation bonuses “would create important pay inequities amongst Federal civilian workers.”
The administration additionally reiterated its “robust” opposition to a Area Nationwide Guard.
As it will have final 12 months, the Home’s model of the NDAA would create a Nationwide Guard element for the Area Pressure. The White Home additionally opposed the concept final 12 months, and it finally didn’t make it into the model of the invoice signed into regulation. The Division of the Air Pressure has proposed “part-time” Guardians as an alternative of a Area Nationwide Guard, however Guard leaders have voiced issues about that concept.
In its assertion Tuesday, the White Home backed the part-time Guardian proposal.
“This assemble would guarantee uninterrupted entry to essential operational surge capability and fight depth, and function a helpful retention and recruiting instrument for each current and potential navy members,” the assertion mentioned. “The Administration seems to be ahead to working with the Congress to enact the Area Pressure’s new navy assemble and urges the Congress to not create a brand new, potential [sic] pricey paperwork with far-reaching and enduring implications.”
In the meantime, the White Home mentioned it “strongly helps” a provision that might transfer sexual harassment prosecutions exterior the chain of command, however requested for “clarifications.”
Final 12 months’s NDAA created impartial prosecutors to deal with sexual assault and another associated or severe crimes, slightly than commanders, however ignored sexual harassment from the coated crimes.
In its assertion, the White Home mentioned the impartial prosecutors ought to deal with solely sexual harassment circumstances which might be the topic of a proper criticism and substantiated after an impartial investigation. Doing so, the assertion argued, would guarantee there may be not an “unintended impact of delaying swift motion to handle sexual harassment for a complainant who needs to pursue casual reporting choices, or deter reporting by these victims who don’t want to develop into a part of prison investigation or prosecution processes.”
— Rebecca Kheel could be reached at rebecca.kheel@navy.com. Comply with her on Twitter @reporterkheel.
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