Skip to main content
Top of the Page

Legislative and Advocacy Goals for 118th Congress

CAPT (Ret.) Alan Echt, Legislative Affairs Committee Chair


  

  • Advocate for improvements to TRICARE Dental and Pharmacy Issues.
    • Service members across the services have seen drastic changes to their dental and pharmacy benefits with changes in coverage providers. Some officers have lost the ability to use their long-time pharmacy or dentist and are having trouble finding new or comparable care. COA will advocate with other services to DHA to ensure any TRICARE coverage provider is covering care at as many providers as possible, especially in rural areas where USPHS officers have difficulty finding care under normal circumstances.
  • DD214 for officers who retired or were discharged prior to October 2021.
    • For officers who are discharged after October 1, 2021, they will be issued the DD214 upon leaving service. This was a big win for COA and USPHS officers. We will continue to work towards providing the opportunity for officers who were retired or discharged before October 2021 to receive a DD214 upon request.
  • National Park Service Park Passes.
    • Continued advocacy to include USPHS Officers the Military Pass program.
  • Parental Leave.
    • The 2022 NDAA extended non-chargeable parental leave to 12 weeks for the armed forces. This will be fully implemented by January 1st, 2023. USPHS was not included in this law. We will advocate for USPHS to receive 12 weeks of parental leave, just like the other uniformed services.
  • Ready Reserve Inclusion into GI Bill Benefits.
    • The Department of Veterans Affairs offers two versions of the GI Bill – the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill – to active-duty service members across the uniformed services. Armed Forces reservists, when activated, are also eligible to accumulate GI Bill benefits. USPHS Ready Reserve is not eligible for this benefit. COA will advocate for parity with the other reserve components.
  • Ready Reserve inclusion in TRICARE Benefits.
    • Unlike USPHS, other uniformed services’ reserve components are eligible for TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS), a version of TRICARE afforded to reservists for a small premium. COA will work to ensure USPHS Ready Reserve is afforded the benefits that other services are provided.

 

Coalition Goals:

COA is a member of The Military Coalition (TMC), a 35-member organization of military and veterans service organizations (MSOs/VSOs), which aims to best represent the 5.5 million currently serving active-duty, reserve, and veterans of the (8) uniformed services. TMC is supportive of COA’s efforts and has included some of COA’s goals within TMC’s legislative goals.

 

Other Goals:

  • Amending the Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C Chapter 28, to allow family members of USPHS officers to take leave under the Act to care for active duty and veteran USPHS officers.
    • The Family and Medical Leave Act permits the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a covered servicemember to take servicemember family leave to care for the servicemember. We would like Congress to amend the definition of covered servicemember and make other changes to the FMLA to allow your family members to care for you in case you need it.
  •  Seeking a legislative solution to ensure that USPHS officers are paid during government shutdowns.
    • In the unfortunate event of a government shutdown, active duty USPHS offers have sometimes had to wait to be paid until the government resumes operations, creating a hardship for junior officers. We will work with lawmakers to look for a way to keep that from happening during future shutdowns.
  • Amending veterans’ preference in federal hiring in 5 U.S.C. to include veterans of the USPHS
    • Veterans of the Armed Forces can claim preference in hiring when seeking post-service careers as civil servants with the federal government. We think it is time to include USPHS veterans in some of those sections of Title 5. However, note that the term preference eligible does not include a retired servicemember unless the individual is a disabled veteran, or the individual retired below the grade of O-4. COA is not seeking to change that provision.

Back to Top