Braley has led efforts ensuring thousands of troops will finally receive benefits
Washington, DC - Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) announced today that the Iowa National Guard will have a timeline by Friday detailing a plan of action to release long-overdue "Respite Leave" benefits to members. Braley has been leading efforts to fix this back pay problem and ensure that thousands of troops nationwide receive proper compensation. His Guaranteed Benefits for Our Troops Act (HR 1222) was signed into law in October as part of the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act and enables the Pentagon to release the promised benefits.
"I'm happy to announce that thousands of troops are one step closer to receiving the benefits they were promised and deserve," Braley said. "This is a problem I've been fighting to fix for more than two years now, and the Army's plan of action is a long-awaited step forward. Thousands of troops who bravely served our country deserve the compensation they earned, and I'll continue working on this issue until every affected soldier has a check in their hands."
Under Braley's fix, hundreds of Iowa National Guard members will be provided benefits they were promised under the Department of Defense's Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence (PDMRA) program, commonly known as "Respite Leave."
Due to a delay between the announcement of the PDMRA program by the Department of Defense and the implementation of the program by the individual services, thousands of soldiers from the Army National Guard - including almost 800 members of the Iowa National Guard - have not received proper Respite Leave compensation. Over 22,000 Army National Guard members across the country were affected by this problem.
Braley first introduced the Guaranteed Benefits for Our Troops Act in July 2008. It allows the Pentagon to retroactively grant up to $200 per day to affected troops.
The Department of the Army's memo is attached.
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