Committee agrees to cover troops' travel costs
Some 29,000 members of the armed forces stationed for long periods overseas would be compensated for money spent getting home under a bill approved Wednesday by the House Armed Services Committee.
The committee passed the measure,(S. 2057), by voice vote. It provides roughly $13 million to retroactively reimburse U.S. military service members for domestic travel expenses incurred under the Central Command Rest and Recuperation Leave Program before it was expanded to include travel within the United States.
The bill passed the Senate March 4.
"This is paying back the troops who had to pay for their own travel from these debarkation centers and their home town," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.
The Defense Department offered travel leave home to some troops serving in Iraq since September, providing transportation from Kuwait City to the United States. But once troops arrived in the United States, they were responsible for paying to get to their final destination.
Last year Congress approved $55 million for troop travel home in the fiscal year 2004 supplemental appropriations bill, but Defense Department regulations prohibited military service members from being reimbursed for costs associated with leave before Dec. 19, according to Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y.
COMMENTS
- 1. They chose the job. We do not draft any more. 2. No one ever paid for me to go home from my job. 3. The tax law does not even allow me to deduct the cost of travel to and from my work site so why pay them? This is Congress and the administration playing fast and loose with my money. Just like they did when they paid the families of 9/11 victims. If Congress wants to pay 9/11 victims and military to travel home they should do it with the millions they are giving high paid government employees because of "pay compression". Congress has no idea whose money they are giving to others! tax payer Posted March 19, 2004 6:20 AM
