HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

193

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

URGING members of Hawaii's congressional delegation to support H.R. 208, the National Guardsmen and Reservists Parity for Patriots Act, and S. 644, the National Guard and Reserve Retired Pay Equity Act of 2009.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, when the Reserve and National Guard Retirement Pay System was established in 1948, members of the National Guard and Active Reserve were presumed to have full-time civilian careers subject to extended military service only in the unlikely event of a national mobilization; and

 

WHEREAS, this retirement system was intended to supplement a normal civilian career promotion and retirement program; and

 

     WHEREAS, Since September 11, 2001, approximately seven hundred thousand members of the National Guard and Active Reserve have been activated for military duty, including nearly two hundred thousand who have been deployed for duty more than once; and

 

     WHEREAS, reserve mission increases and a smaller force structure mean that guard members and reservists are devoting a far greater share of their civilian working lives to military service than originally envisioned by the creators of the and National Guard Retirement Pay System; and  

 

WHEREAS, many of these service members now are being mobi­lized one year out of every three, and this dramatically changes the working and income situations for these guard members and reservists and their employers and families; and

 

     WHEREAS, frequent activations remove guard members and reservists from their civilian careers, often costing them promotions and some­times their jobs, which directly reduces their civilian retirement pay; and

 

WHEREAS, the government has an obligation to help offset these service-imposed losses by updating the reserve retirement system to reflect reali­ties of today's service in the National Guard or Reserve; and

 

     WHEREAS, The National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 took a first step by reducing the reserve retirement age from age sixty by three months for every ninety days of active duty performed since January 28, 2008; however, it provided no credit for the hundreds of thousands of service members who were called up for duty between September 11, 2001, and January 28, 2005, during the height of deployments to missions in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

 

     WHEREAS, H.R. 208, the National Guardsmen and Reservists Parity for Patriots Act, and S. 644, the National Guard and Reserve Retired Pay Equity Act of 2009, would make the 2008 change retroactive to September 11, 2001; now therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2010, that the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation are urged to support H.R. 208, the National Guardsmen and Reservists Parity for Patriots Act, and S. 644, the National Guard and Reserve Retired Pay Equity Act of 2009, which would include service after September 11, 2001, as service qualifying for the determination of a reduced eligibility age for receipt of non-regular service retired pay for members of the National Guard and Active Reserve; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

National Guard and Reserve; Retirement