From Military.com:
“Advocates
Renew Push for Stipend to Feed Low-Income Military Families”
A provision in the
House's fiscal 2021 defense policy bill would give some service members an
additional allowance to cover the cost of food and other basic needs -- a
stipend advocacy groups say is needed to relieve financial and psychological
strain on young military families. But to become law, the measure must be
agreed to by the Senate, where it faces the same challenges it endured last
year before it was dropped, including a fiscally conservative Republican-led
negotiating body and reluctant White House.
Still,
advocates and House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said Wednesday they
are more optimistic about passage of the measure, which would give an
additional monthly allowance to service members whose gross household income
does not exceed 130% of the federal poverty guidelines. Among the reasons for
their hope: a tweak to the proposal that would take the application process out
of the chain of command and make it incumbent on the Defense Finance and
Accounting System to notify troops of their eligibility and require service
members to furnish information on any spouse employment to receive the stipend.
Service members also could opt out of the effort.
Advocacy groups
concede there is little data on the extent of food insecurity among military
families, but say they know troops often rely on food banks located near their
duty stations. "The Pentagon says that, when you compare the pay and
benefits counterparts in the private sector, it's more than fair. But the fact
that we have food pantries that are serving military families across the
country says otherwise," said Josh Protas, vice president for public
policy at MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. The proposed stipend would be
equal to 130% of the federal poverty guidelines minus the service member's
gross income (not counting any allowances) divided by 12. For an E-4 with
several years in the military, a spouse and two children, this would equate to
roughly $250 extra a month.
For Bianca
Strzalkowski, that funding would have gone far to help feed her family of five,
including husband Ron, a now-retired Marine gunnery sergeant, and three boys.
As newlyweds at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Bianca earned a substantial
income, and the couple "built their lives on the budget of two
incomes." But after receiving orders to Yuma, Arizona, she struggled to
find a commensurate job that would cover the cost of child care. "We
quickly spiraled into a sad, and what I would [call] shameful, time as he was a
sergeant in the Marine Corps," she said. They turned to the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program
and a food bank, where they received recently expired food from grocery stores.
They occasionally ate military-issued Meals, Ready to Eat, she said. "While
he was deployed to places like Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, we
were unsure truly how we were going to make ends meet, pay our bills and feed
our family on a continuous basis," Strzalkowski said. She added that she
only just now is speaking about her experience because her husband retired in
2018. "The external message [in the military] is, you should seek help,
but there is an unspoken code in the military to not talk out loud," she
said. Protas said that one in eight military families faces food insecurity,
compared with one in 10 families in the general U.S. population.
A 2016
Government Accountability Office report found that more than 23,000 active-duty
troops used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), once known as
food stamps, in 2013. "One of the challenges has been that there is a lack
of data on the issue. There hasn't been a lot of official data gathered by
DoD," Protas said. "DoD has been reluctant to gather this data or has
been asking the wrong questions. For example, in the Quadrennial Review of
Military Compensation, they're just looking at how many military families
actually participate in SNAP. But they're not asking how many struggle and
can't get the help they need." Last year, Office of Budget and Management
officials objected to the measure when it was included in the House version of
the defense bill, saying that service members "receive appropriate
compensation" and "most junior enlisted members receive pay that is
between the 95th and 99th percentiles relative to their private-sector
peers." Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., and Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said the
issue is more important than ever, given the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic on
military families. "This is something we have the power to change. We have
already enacted many programs during COVID that have helped prevent Americans
from going hungry," Davis said. "This is all about kids, and military
kids should not have barriers to access food." Young agreed. "We have
people serving in the military who are not getting fed," he said.
"Our job is to make sure they have food on their tables so they can do
their duty and their mission. As an ex-military person, I was never hungry
because I was by myself. But these people with a family, the members of the
family, they need the food." The process for negotiating the House and
Senate versions of the defense bill has yet to begin, with neither chamber
naming the members who will serve on the conference committee. The measures are
expected to come up after the November election. The conference already is
expected to be contentious, as both versions contain provisions to rename
military bases that honor Confederate officers. President Donald Trump has said
he would veto any bill that contained such a measure.
^ As a Military
Brat I know that there are Military Families that can not afford food or other
basic things. The US Government (Congress and the President) and the US Military
(the Pentagon and all the Military Branches) need to come together to help the Soldiers,
Sailors and their families that are struggling. ^
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