In the midst of the current shutdown struggle, the Department of Defense announced new changes to its administration and the military community at large. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel revealed in a statement that Ash Carter is resigning from his post as Deputy Secretary of Defense, effective Dec. 4.
According to the Pentagon, Hagel met with Carter the morning of Oct. 10 to approve his resignation. The defense secretary thanked Carter for his service, which began at the start of the Obama administration as the undersecretary of defense for acquisition technology and logistics, increasing the agency's buying power and fortifying its protection on growing security issues, such as cyber attacks.
"His compassion, love, and determination to overcome any and all bureaucratic obstacles earned him abiding respect and appreciation," Hagel said in his statement. "I am confident that the Department, and the country, will continue to benefit from Ash Carter's service in the months and years ahead."
As deputy secretary of defense, Carter most recently led the investigation of the Washington Naval Yard shooting in September. Before joining the Defense Department, he worked in academia, overseeing the International and Global Affairs faculty at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
President Obama recently signed legislation granting death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers killed during combat, bringing some relief to the military community. The bill passed the House of Representatives in an unanimous vote earlier in the week, MSNBC reported.
The legislation came after news spread that the federal shutdown left military families without death gratuity benefits – a tax-exempt $100,000 cash payment wired to the surviving families within 36 hours of a soldier's death while on active-duty or during training. The payment acts as transitional benefits for military families, covering the cost of transportation, funeral services and other financial needs.
Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing medical care for servicemembers and veterans, donated its own funds to the 26 families of fallen soldiers that were unable to receive the death gratuity benefits because of the shutdown. However, the Defense Department announced in a statement that it will reimburse the organization once the shutdown ends.
While many members of the military community, including Iraq War veteran Rep. Tammy Duckworth, expressed their appreciation of the law, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a press conference that the legislation was nonessential, according to the news source.
If the federal shutdown is not resolved by the end of the month, wounded veterans might not receive their benefits come Nov. 1, according to NBC News. These benefits include compensation checks rewarded to more than 5 million former servicemembers, many of whom were wounded in combat.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, a congressional oversight committee, during a hearing Oct. 9 that the compensation checks were in danger, the news source reported. Shinseki added that the ongoing shutdown might jeopardize more than 400,000 disabled veterans and roughly 360,000 surviving military spouses and their children, leaving them without the payments they need to live. The 500,000 veterans going to college on the G.I. Bill will also have their tuition assistance frozen.
"I don't want to be alarmist, but I want to speak for the veterans who are looking in on this [hearing]," Shinseki said during his testimony. "Not only do we have a large number of beneficiaries that are looking for those checks, I have veterans myself that I employ – a third, over 100,000 veterans. A number of them are going to be subject to furlough."
However, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., question the VA's handling of the federal shutdown during the hearing, citing the spending of $1 million on TV ads to promote the agency and several discrepancies in the VA's announcements of its proposed contingency plans, according to the news outlet.
After news broke that the federal shutdown halted the issuance of military death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers, outrage spread throughout the nation and all the way to the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to USA Today, the House drafted a bill earlier this week to restore the death benefits despite the ongoing shutdown. The measure passed unanimously Oct. 9 and is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate. However, the future of the death benefits still remains in the balance.
At Dover Air Force Base Tuesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a speech that expressed his disappointment in the federal government, the news source reported.
"I am offended, outraged and embarrassed that the government shutdown had prevented the Department of Defense from fulfilling this sacred responsibility in a timely manner," Hagel told the gathered crowd.
The Pentagon announced in a release last week that the death benefits, along with numerous other military programs and benefits, would be frozen until the government shutdown is resolved. Although the death benefits have yet to be restored, military families might be able to receive the $100,000 payments thanks to the nonprofit Fisher House Foundation, which donated funds to help cover the remittance, according to the news outlet.
The University of Southern California's Sol Price School of Public Policy held a conference this week to highlight the pertinent issues affecting servicemembers who are returning from war and attempting to enter into the workforce. According to the Daily Trojan, veteran homelessness, high unemployment rates and were among the topics discussed.
In his opening speech, Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and current USC professor Gen. David Petraeus emphasized that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan need the nation's support, the news source reported.
"The post-9/11 veterans have come to be deservedly recognized as the new greatest generation," Petraeus said. "While our country continues to provide support for our veterans and their families, we can and we should do more, and I know that those here share that conviction."
President and co-founder of Team Rubicon Jacob Wood, who is also a former Marine, was a keynote speaker at the event, along with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Garcetti focused on Angeleno veterans and how the city's VA office is not doing enough to assist them with their benefits. The mayor told the audience that veterans in Los Angeles wait an average 377 days for a response from the VA office.
He also suggested that USC students can become more involved in aiding veterans by reaching out through hotlines and other resources.
Military families already struggling with recent setbacks caused by the ongoing government shutdown have just been hit with another hard reality.
The Department of Defense announced in a recent statement that it currently lacks the funding to issue the $100,000 "death gratuity" benefits to the families of fallen soldiers.
"All of the leaders noted that despite the recall of most civilians and the resumption of many activities, critical programs and benefits remain halted," the Pentagon said in the statement. "For example… the department does not have the authority to pay death gratuities for the survivors of service members killed in action."
According to The Washington Times, the families of at least five fallen servicemembers killed in Afghanistan last weekend were denied these transitional survivor benefits. The "death gratuity" benefits, which are cash payments typically wired to the families, ensure that the families can pay for funeral services, fly to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware – where the coffins are delivered – and cover other costs until the official survivor benefits are enacted. None of these benefits are available during the shutdown. However, the Pentagon maintains that survivor benefits and military life insurance will be paid to military families.
Although the Pentagon said that its officials were working to remedy the recent suspensions of death benefits and other military programs, the statement revealed that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel remained concerned for active-duty troops and their families during this period of uncertainty.
As the federal shutdown continues, thousands of veterans might find it harder to gain their promised military benefits as Department of Veterans Affairs offices throughout the nation begin to falter.
More furloughs on the horizon
Nearly 7,000 of the 21,000 Veterans Business Administration employees have been furloughed this week, leading to the closure of regional VA offices, the Army Times reported.
Congress passed a last-minute bill Sept. 30 that ensured active-duty troops and civilian employees of the Department of Defense received their paychecks during the government shutdown. A liberal reading of the law by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel led to the recall of nearly 350,000 furloughed Pentagon workers. Unfortunately, there was no measure to spare the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is currently bracing for the worst as it closes its doors to veterans this week.
According to the news source, the federal furloughs mean that VA offices around the nation will be unable to receive walk-ins or take phone calls from veterans asking for status updates on their benefits, including veterans life insurance, pension payments and disability claims. However, most toll-free phone services – except for the G.I. Bill Center – will remain open.
While a majority of Veterans Business Administration workers are still employed, the suspension of the regional VA offices might have a large impact on former servicemembers, since most veterans rely on their local offices for assistance.
Increase in backlogs
The ongoing federal furloughs have also hindered the progress of the disability claims backlog, which was decreasing before the shutdown began due to mandatory overtime. According to the news source, the VA currently has 725,165 pending benefits claims. More than 400,000 of those claims have extended past the 125-day processing goal set by the VA.
Beginning last May, the VA ordered mandatory overtime for claims processors in 56 regional offices throughout the nation in order to reduce the disability claims backlog and completely eliminate it by 2015, according to a statement released by the agency.
VA officials said that it has reduced the backlog by 30 percent, processing roughly 100,000 disability claims per month. However, the progress might be reversed due to the cancelling of the overtime during the federal shutdown.
Military towns around the nation have been bracing for the worst since the federal government shutdown left commissaries at all U.S. military installations closed and thousands of active-duty servicemembers, veterans and civilian defense department workers unsure about their military benefits.
Many of these towns depend on the military bases they house. For instance, Fayetteville, N.C., is home to Fort Bragg, and with 57,000 servicemembers, thousands of veterans and more than 200 defense contractors, it's one of the most populated military installations in the nation. More than 7,000 civilian workers were furloughed at the large southern base Oct. 1, and the shutdown combined with the earlier sequester and other defense reductions have left the town faltering financially, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The news source reported that Fort Bragg funnels $25 million into the town's economy each year, while the greater Fayetteville area relies on the base for 38 percent of its gross domestic product. Street sweeping, maintenance repairs and other functions have also ceased at the base, according to the news source.
Although the town has been protected from the recession, many business owners told the news outlet that they were finally feeling the effects of an economic downturn.
"It'll definitely hurt us," local business owner Jose Valentin told the news outlet. "And the longer it goes on, the worse it's going to get."
Most of the 400,000 furloughed civilian employees of the Department of Defense were summoned back to work this week by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, according to a written announcement released by the DOD.
Half of the Pentagon's civilian workforce was suspended Oct. 1 despite a last-minute measure drafted by Congress that allowed both civilians and active-duty servicemembers to receive their paychecks on time during the government shutdown, the Associated Press reported.
According to the news source, Hagel, along with Defense Department lawyers, took a liberal interpretation of the newly passed military pay law – an action he promised he would take just days after the shutdown began.
The Defense Department also consulted the Department of Justice about the law, Hagel said in the DOD statement. While the DOJ legal counsel decided that the law does not allow a "blanket recall" of all the Pentagon's civilian employees, there was still good news to be had for suspended defense department workers.
"Attorneys concluded that the law does allow the Department of Defense to eliminate furloughs for employees whose responsibilities contribute to the morale, well-being, capabilities and readiness of service members," Hagel said.
Under Secretary of Defense Robert F. Hale told CNN that about 90 percent of the Pentagon's furloughed civilian staff will be returning to work. Overall, 800,000 federal workers were furloughed last Tuesday, the news outlet reported.
Although Congress passed a last-minute measure Sept. 30 to fund servicemembers and civilian Department of Defense employees working during the government shutdown, the Pentagon has yet to tell which employees will receive their military paychecks, according to Stars and Stripes.
Signed by President Obama just hours before the shutdown began, the Military Pay Law ensures that active-duty troops would receive their paychecks during the shutdown instead of having them suspended due to the lack of government funding. The law also applies to the nearly 400,000 defense department civilians that were not furloughed.
In a statement released by the DoD earlier in the week, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel claimed that supervisors would provide their employees with the proper information. However, defense officials were still finalizing guidelines on how to implement the law, leaving many workers unsure about their financial situations, the news source reported.
Employees of the Defense Department of Defense Education Activity told the news outlet via email that they were still unsure if they would receive their paychecks.
"[We were told] that our pay will be delayed. We have been given no further information," one employee wrote. "I think it is important that our community understands that currently, teachers are still teaching their children with no idea when a paycheck will come."
Officials from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service also told the news source that the agency was waiting for a final word from the defense department before processing paychecks.