Gates, Army working out stop-loss payments - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Gates, Army working out stop-loss payments

The snail’s-pace development of a plan to pay a monthly allowance of up to $500 for soldiers affected by stop-loss orders has not escaped Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has now taken a personal interest in getting the payments to 13,000 eligible soldiers.

Gates and Army leaders are negotiating final details for a proposal that could be announced within weeks to provide a congressionally approved payment that is expected to apply to 7,300 active-duty soldiers, 4,430 National Guardsmen and 1,452 Army Reserve members, according to testimony Tuesday before the House Armed Services military personnel panel.

Word on negotiations between Gates and Army leaders came from Dr. Curtis Gilroy, the Defense Department’s director of accession policy, who was the senior Pentagon witness at a hearing that was meant to focus on recruiting and retention programs.

Gilroy would not provide details or predict when, exactly, a final decision on the stop-loss payments would be announced.

However, Pentagon sources — speaking on the condition of anonymity — said the final stop-loss allowance policy may disappoint many people.

It is possible that monthly payments will be less than the $500 maximum approved by Congress, and it is also possible that payments will apply only to those affected by stop-loss after the policy is announced, and will not be retroactive to Oct. 1, as Congress envisioned.

The question of retroactivity revolves around an opinion by the Defense Department general counsel that although Congress authorized the new stop-loss allowance to be effective when the 2009 defense funding bill was signed into law last fall, payments begin only when a Defense Department policy is approved by congressional committees, which was a requirement in the law.

The Army’s personnel chief, Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, who provided the numbers of people affected by stop-loss orders, would not answer questions at the hearing about details of the proposal allowance.

However, Rochelle did say his service is trying to bring an end to involuntary extensions, although he would not predict when that might happen.

The Army is “committed to work our way out of stop-loss,” he said. “We don’t like it. We would be off it today if demand permitted.”

Gates also is trying to end the use of stop-loss, Gilroy said, noting that a series of meetings has been held over the past two weeks to discuss options.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said stop-loss has proven so unpopular and such a drain on service members and their families that he is pushing for a full review of the law that allows involuntary extensions, to determine whether authority to hold people beyond their separation dates should require congressional approval.

Jones’ interest in the legal underpinning of stop-loss orders is the result of a visit he had with a soldier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — whom Jones did not identify — who lost both legs in an attack in Iraq that occurred during the sixth week of a seven-week extension of duty under stop-loss orders.

Jones said the soldier wanted to know why Congress had no say in a decision to extend his service.

Stop-loss orders may be legal because the services can extend active service without notice, but the practice still comes as a shock for many people, Jones said.

“Truthfully, I think it caught a lot of soldiers and families off guard,” he said, calling the policy “essentially a draft” that should be reviewed by Congress before it is used.