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No need for better reserve pay, GAO says

A new congressional report says the Aug. 1 launch of the Post-9/11 GI Bill could be a good reason not to push for additional pay and benefits increases for National Guard and reserve members.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill, with its promise of paying full tuition plus a book allowance and living stipend, is not aimed specifically at the reserve components, but rather at people who have served extended periods on active duty since Sept. 10, 2001. That includes Guard and reserve members mobilized since the 2001 terrorist attacks who served 90 days or longer on active duty, but excludes those who were not activated or were activated for shorter periods.

In a report released July 7, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, estimates that $12.3 billion of the $78.1 billion cost between now and 2018 for the new education benefits program will be spent on benefits for reservists or for transferred benefits for reservists’ family members.

The GAO says that expense, coupled with a rise since 2001 in total compensation for National Guard and reserve members, is reason to put the brakes on proposals for other reserve benefits increases, including a decades-old effort to improve Montgomery GI Bill education benefits that eroded in comparison with active-duty benefits long before the new Post-9/11 GI Bill was even discussed.

Military and veterans groups have been pushing Congress to restore the value of the Montgomery GI Bill for drilling reservists by resetting reserve benefits to equal 47 percent of active-duty benefits. That would push the current $329 maximum payment for fulltime reserve students to about $621.

But Defense Department resistance to paying for the increases has blocked efforts to improve the reserve GI Bill.

Pay and benefits for reservists have been on the rise, the GAO says, estimating that total pay grew by 25 percent from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2007, including cash, non-cash and deferred compensation. Cash benefits increased by about 24 percent, non-cash benefits such as health care and education grew by 21 percent and deferred compensation, which includes retired pay and retiree health care, grew by 28 percent.