SENATE AUTHORIZES MILITARY PAY RAISE, ACQUISITION OF AIR FORCE MID-AIR REFUELING UNITS
7,000 in Minot and Grand Forks to get pay raise
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551
(WASHINGTON, DC) --- The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday in favor of authorizing pay raises for military personnel averaging 4.15 percent, Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad announced. The raises, part of a Defense Department authorization bill, will affect approximately 7,000 military personnel at Minot Air Force Base and Grand Forks Air Force Base, plus those in the National Guard and Reserve who have been mobilized, as well as North Dakota residents serving in the Armed Forces around the globe.
The authorization also includes 32 new Boeing KC-767 aerial refueling aircraft to be based at Grand Forks Air Force Base. In all, the Air Force will purchase 80 of the aircraft and lease 20 more. “This is a significant investment in mid-air refueling tankers, and it speaks volumes to the importance of the mission at Grand Forks,” Dorgan and Conrad said in a joint statement.
The bill authorizes an increase in special pay for service in areas that subject personnel to imminent danger or hostile fire, and boosts the family separation allowance. The bill increases imminent danger/hostile fire pay from $150 per month to a new level of $225 per month. The family separation pay level is increased from $100 per month to $250 per month. Both benefits are extended through the end of 2004.
The bill also takes significant steps toward correcting a policy preventing wounded veterans from receiving both retirement and disability pay. All 20-year military retirees who earned a Purple Heart medal or suffered a combat-related disability -- including National Guard and Reserve retirees -- will be eligible to receive concurrent retirement and disability pay starting January 1, 2004. “Men and women in the U.S. military are serving our country every day in dangerous and difficult ways,” the senators said. “They must be adequately compensated. They’ve certainly earned these pay raises. Likewise, we must remember those soldiers who are now retired. We’re pleased to see improvements in how we compensate military veterans whose bodies were damaged by their service to our nation.”
—END—