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How the hell is this not already law?
Efforts to Protect Military Pay Stalled
September 23, 2011 • Terry Howell
Con*gress*man Fights His Party to Pro*tect Mil*i*tary Pay
With the threat of another gov*ern*ment shut*down loom*ing, the topic of mil*i*tary pay is once again mak*ing the news. Thank*fully, the last two times the issue came up, a shut*down was avoided and mil*i*tary servicemember’s pay was unaf*fected. How*ever, the real issue is the threat con*tin*ues to cause undue stress on mil*i*tary ser*vice*mem*bers and their fam*i*lies.
Ear*lier this year Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) intro*duced the “Ensur*ing Pay for Our Mil*i*tary Act of 2011” to make sure that pay for mil*i*tary mem*bers is never used as a bar*gain*ing chip. His bill cur*rently has 203 co-sponsors rep*re*sent*ing mem*bers from both par*ties. How*ever, his bill has been lan*guish*ing in the Armed Ser*vices Com*mit*tee and Trans*porta*tion and Infra*struc*ture Com*mit*tee.
“The mil*i*tary ought to be off the table. They should not be one of the poker chips to try to vote for a bill they oth*er*wise wouldn’t vote for,” Gohmert said.
In an attempt to force it to a vote, Gohmert has cir*cu*lated a dis*charge peti*tion which requires 218 sig*na*tures. This is highly unusual and a polit*i*cally risky move for a mem*ber of the major*ity party. Gohmert said he’s will*ing to risk future appointed posi*tions in the con*fer*ence in order to get a vote on the bill.
Gohmert’s bill would take lever*age — the equiv*a*lent of polit*i*cal black*mail — away from both par*ties and the admin*is*tra*tion, which is why it is cur*rently not get*ting to the house floor for a vote.
Read more: http://militaryadvantage.military.co...#ixzz1Z6bHVI3Y
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