Iowa congressmen push Defense Department for National Guard back pay

By James Q. Lynch 

The Gazette

Approximately 750 Iowa National Guard members still owed benefits for a tour of Iraq that ended in 2007 have been deployed again, according to Iowa congressmen who are pressing the Defense Department to accelerate their back pay.

U.S. Reps. Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack, Leonard Boswell, Tom Lathan and Steve King, and Sens. Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin said Friday they are among approximately three dozen members of Congress expected to sign a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates expressing “serious concern” with the delay in Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence (PDMRA) benefits for 22,000 Guard members nationwide.

In the letter, the members of Congress encourage the department to provide the benefits – as much as $200 a day -- as soon as possible. It's unacceptable, they say, that troops waiting more than two years for their benefits are being redeployed to combat zones.

Most of the 750 Iowans owed respite leave reimbursement belong to the 1-133rd Infantry. It was deployed for 22 months, including approximately 16 month in Iraq ending in July 2007. It includes units in Waterloo, Dubuque, Oelwein, Iowa Falls and Charles City.

The “respite leave” benefit was designed to provide service members – regular Army as well as Guard and Reserve – who were deployed beyond established rotation cycles additional time to reintegrate into civilian life, as well as to help with retention of service members who had experienced long tours.

The Army deployment model calls for Guard members being at home five years between deployments, according to Lt. Col. Gregory Hapgood of the Iowa Army National Guard. In the case of the Iowa Guard, many members are already being deployed again, he said.

PDMRA was established in January 2007, but because of a delay in implementation by the individual services, many soldiers have not received their benefits, according to a draft of the letter.

The Defense Department believed it lacked the legal authority to provide benefits retroactively. So Congress included language in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by the president in October, to provide the DOD with the legal authority pay the benefits retroactively.

Seeing no action, Loebsack asked Secretary Gates for a status update during a House Armed Services Committee meeting earlier this week. Braley has been involved in drafting the letter to Gates and finding colleagues on both sides of the aisle to sign it.

Congressional staffers have been diplomatic in comments about the delay in back pay, but refer to it as a “terrible situation” and have promised their bosses will be “a burr under (the Defense Department's) saddle.”

In the meantime, Guardsmen have quietly expressed frustration, especially since learning they are likely to be deployed later this year. However, they have declined to speak publicly.

The Defense Department has acknowledged to congressional staffers the compensation is justified. Funds for the back pay “will come from currently available Military Personnel Appropriations,” according to a memo from Deputy Under Secretary of Defense William Carr. However, his memo gave no indication when the payments would be made.