Update: 7/24/2023: Emergency funding has led the Air Force to resume PCS moves for many after pausing them, and the budget cuts that resulted in the end of special duty pay for selected career fields may no longer be an issue for many. The Air Force announced it received emergency funding for critical programs and… Read more »
Military housing benefits are an important part of the compensation troops and their families are offered in exchange for the sacrifices made through military service. But how is this benefit eroded when those benefits require people to live in substandard, poorly maintained, and even dangerous housing? In 2023, lawmakers pressed the Department of Defense to… Read more »
Update August 16, 2023: The VA deadline to file (or submit an intent to file) for retroactive PACT Act benefits has passed. The deadline was 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, August 14, 2023. Those who filed before that deadline may qualify to have their benefits backdated to August 10, 2022, the day the PACT Act… Read more »
UPDATE 8/29/2023: TRICARE now covers several preconception and prenatal carrier screenings including some mentioned below. These are tests previously offered through the Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) demonstration program. These screenings are now part of the basic TRICARE benefit. In 2013, the Defense Health Agency introduced a pilot program to allow the DoD to provide military… Read more »
The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Trade Commission issue scam warnings occasionally, but it seems rare that such warnings would involve a specific brand. And some of these warnings aren’t aimed at consumers but rather at a company offering services to those consumers. According to an article by the Texas Tribune, that’s exactly… Read more »
The Department of Defense has placed a ‘strategic pause” on the Skillbridge program. DoD Skillbridge is a career transition assistance program for military members in their final six months of military service. Skillbridge, according to the DoD official site, “matches civilian opportunities to your job training and work experience,” but this program is more than… Read more »
Congress is trying to decide if the Department of Veterans Affairs should be allowed to prescribe medical cannabis, psychedelics, and other alternative treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The latest draft of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, approved by the House Armed Services Committee, contains language requiring the DoD to consider clinical trials for psychedelics,… Read more »
The Department of Defense has taken steps to standardize the Exceptional Family Member policy, also known as EFMP, which had previously been administered individually by the military service branches. Under the revised policy, EFMP is standardized DoD-wide to provide consistent, reliable support for what the DoD terms “exceptional family members” with special medical needs or… Read more »
Should veterans be able to use both the Montgomery GI Bill and Post-9/11 GI Bill? That’s a question the Supreme Court has agreed to take up.
In February 2023, the Department of Veterans Affairs was put on notice via Presidential executive order to address issues related to racial disparities in the VA benefits system. President Joe Biden’s executive order includes this justification for the order: “(M)embers of underserved communities — many of whom have endured generations of discrimination and disinvestment —… Read more »