Senate votes to give military health care to Guard, Reserves

The Senate opted Thursday to extend military health care to all participating members of the National Guard and Reserve, setting the stage for a major debate with House members when the $441.6 billion fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill heads to conference committee.

The amendment, sponsored by Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., passed by voice vote and garnered the support of Armed Services Chairman Warner and ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich.

The successful vote was in stark contrast to the House, where Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., stripped similar language from the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill after it passed the committee with the support of six Republicans.

During floor debate on the amendment, senators fired warning shots at their House colleagues.

"To my friends in the House, I appreciate all you have done to help the troops, but we are going to fight over this," Graham said. "This is not going away."

Warner said he will help shepherd the amendment through conference negotiations later this year.

"In conference, I will be there and each of you will be by our side," he said. "And I hope you can walk out of that conference some day with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction."

House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee Chairman John McHugh, R-N.Y., said Thursday he has "no philosophical objection" to extending National Guard and Reserve healthcare eligibility, but is concerned that the costs would eat into other accounts.

"It's a zero-sum game," said McHugh, who opposed an amendment proposed by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., during the committee's markup in May.

Hunter argued then that the language should not be included in the bill because of its high cost as projected by CBO, which estimated the price tag for the additional coverage could be as much as $4.6 billion through FY10.

Taylor unsuccessfully appealed to the House Rules Committee to bring the amendment to the floor for debate.

Like Taylor's language, the Graham-Clinton amendment would open the military's Tricare healthcare system to all drilling Guardsmen, reservists and their families for a fee. Active-duty troops and reserve-component soldiers called to active duty do not pay a premium for their Tricare coverage.

The amendment would cost the Defense Department an estimated $3.8 billion over the next five years, Graham said. "There is all kinds of waste in the Pentagon that would more than pay for this," he added.

Between 20 percent and 25 percent of Guardsmen and reservists do not have access to civilian health care -- a statistic that supporters say has long-term negative impacts on part-time soldiers' readiness. One in five reserve-component troops called to active duty is turned away because of health concerns, Clinton said.

Last year, Congress temporarily extended Tricare to the National Guard and Reserve on a temporary basis. Each 90 days of active-duty service bought these so-called "weekend warriors" and their families a year of Tricare eligibility. Graham said that earlier measure was a "very good start."

At presstime, the Senate still was debating the legislation, with votes expected to go well into the night. Senators are expected to consider the authorization bill for several days, in the hopes of wrapping it up before the August recess.

However, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., plans to file for cloture on the defense authorization bill as early as Thursday, but then switch to gun liability or estate tax legislation. But Frist has said he still hopes to complete the defense bill by recess.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said repeatedly Thursday he opposes interrupting defense authorization floor debate, which might push a vote until after the August recess. But Warner said he believes the interruption would be brief.

"There may be matters which require the attention of the Senate, at which time we do not do anything except put it aside for a brief period of time and then bring it up again," Warner said.

The Senate also passed, 78-19, an amendment offered by Foreign Relations Chairman Lugar that would eliminate barriers to the Nunn-Lugar nuclear non-proliferation program by dropping restrictions that complicate or delay weapons-dismantlement work.