{"id":967,"date":"2009-03-17T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=967"},"modified":"2009-03-17T16:35:25","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T21:35:25","slug":"moaa-lobbies-for-military-vets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2009\/03\/17\/moaa-lobbies-for-military-vets\/","title":{"rendered":"MOAA lobbies for military vets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-966\" title=\"moaa-logo\" src=\"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/moaa-logo-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"moaa-logo\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is a dynamic lobbyist for all military retirees. Members include veterans \u2014 retired Marines, sailors, Air Force and Coast Guard personnel. MOAA is a non-profit , veteran\u2019s association dedicated to maintaining a strong national defense and to preserving the earned entitlements of members of the uniformed services and their families.\u00a0 It is vigilant in safeguarding and extending the benefits of all veterans. When MOAA speaks to Congress, they listen, and take immediate action.<\/p>\n<p>Today, with a new administration, MOAA is busy developing and implementing strategies for legislation that benefits veterans ,their families\u00a0 and \u00a0survivors, in recognition of the sacrifices made.<\/p>\n<p>MOAA\u2019s goal in 2009 is to be an effective organizational voice shaping relevant government policy and promoting earned benefits. \u00a0Under their guardianship, there will be no retreat or reduction of retired veterans benefits.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: -0.25in;\">To effectively assist veterans, the MOAA has established the following goals for 2009:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sustain defense budget to meet personnel and weapons needs<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Sustain military manpower increase<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Gain additional \u201cwounded warrior\u201d fixes<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Resist shifting health costs to beneficiaries<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Reverse Medicare-TriCare payment cuts<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Repeal SBP\/DIC offset<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Work for full concurrent receipt<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Restore military pay comparability<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Secure Guard and Reserve retirement and health upgrades<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<li>Improve military family support<!--[endif]--><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Later in their publication, another goal is added. It\u2019s one that captured my attention and will improve survivor benefits in a small but important way in a time of grief. The MOAA is legislating for final retired pay for survivors. They are suggesting that Congress enact legislation that:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u201c\u2026authorizing payment of a full month of retired pay for a service member\u2019s death. Under current law, a prorated portion is summarily recouped from the survivor. MOAA believes it\u2019s wrong to impose such unexpected and insensitive financial penalties on survivors at what is already the most traumatic time of their lives.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As the policy stands, if I die on say, July 10, my survivors would receive only a ten day pro-rated portion of my pension. Under the new plan, my survivors would receive the pension for the whole month.<\/p>\n<p>Just a reminder: in the military systems, pensions are suspended upon the demise of the retired veteran.<\/p>\n<p>Go to bed tonight grateful for the MOAA\u2019s vigilance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is a dynamic lobbyist for all military retirees. Members include veterans \u2014 retired Marines, sailors, Air Force and Coast Guard personnel. MOAA is a non-profit , veteran\u2019s association dedicated to maintaining a strong national defense and to preserving the earned entitlements of members of the uniformed services and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[198],"tags":[914,918,917,916],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-fB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":973,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}