ADVOCACY

Our government works on the needs of the country through Congress. Once your Representatives and Senators are elected that should not be the last interaction you have with the process of governance. The U.S. Capitol Visitor Center website explains why Congress is elected, “Through legislative debate and compromise, the U.S. Congress makes laws that influence our daily lives. It holds hearings to inform the legislative process, conducts investigations to oversee the executive branch, and serves as the voice of the people and the states in the federal government.” 

The most important part of this description is that Congress “… serves as the voice of the people…” and your membership with ROA is one of the ways you can lend your voice to Congress.   ROA has:

• Educated congress and the public through the defense education forum with national security forums on policy. 
• Established the ROA law center as the definitive resource on the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), Service Members’ Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and military voting. Gained funding for the National Guard and reserve equipment appropriation. 
• Help extend Tricare to all serving reservists, reduce Tricare reserve select premiums, and created gray area retiree access for a full continuum of care. 
• Extended the thrift savings plan to reservists. 
• Gained improvements in voting procedures for absentee uniformed services and overseas voters to receive voter registration and absentee ballot applications electronically. 
• Influenced the requirement for states to have ballots printed 45 days prior to elections. Instrumental in continuation of the Reserve Forces Policy Board as an independent body supporting the reserve component. 
• Gained an extension of time reservists are eligible to use education benefits with the MGIB-SR to 14 years from date of first eligibility. 
• Led implementation of studies to determine whether benefits and entitlements have kept pace with the total force and reflect the contributions of the reserve components. 
• Pushed legislation authorizing travel reimbursements for monthly training. 
• Influenced improvements in mental health care access with person – to - person assessments related to contingency operations -- helps reserve component members who return home and aren't directly supported by military facilities. 
• Advocated expanding Tricare coverage from 90 to 180 days to reservists and their families prior to mobilization. 
• Established active duty credit that would equally lower the retirement eligibility below 60 years of age. Influenced the adoption of concurrent and proportional delivery of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to guard and reserve units 
• Identified the need to replace lost civilian income for reservists on extended or frequent mobilization beyond 18 months or more than 24 out of 60 months. 
• Improved transitional dental care for reserve component members separated from active duty. Changed survivor benefits to the same rate as active duty when the reserve component service member dies in the line of duty when performing inactive duty training. 
• Identified DoD was not complying with the law that extended space available travel to reserve component spouses which resulted in a congressionally directed report. 
• Changed lump sum retirement options to include the guard and reserve.  

As of March 2017