Warner Studying Impact of Cost-Cutting Proposals on Military Families

A new report released today recommends changes to military retirement funding in hopes of saving $12 billion a year, according to a report in USA Today.

They include:

• A call for retirement pay to drop from 50 percent at 20 years to 40 percent.

• Calls to modify TRICARE, the military’s health care system.

According to Governing magazine, Virginia has the second highest number of military in the country, with nearly 130,000, just behind California.

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) released the following statement on today’s release of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission Report:

“The Commission was formed to assess our military compensation policies and ensure the long term health of our military pay, benefits and retirement system. We must ensure that we responsibly balance these commitments with the ongoing need to maintain investments in new equipment, training and readiness. This report includes a number of proposals that I will review over the coming weeks, in consultation with our civilian and uniformed leadership. I also want to talk to troops and military families in Virginia to better understand the impact of these proposals, and how we can responsibly update our personnel and compensation policies.”