Lawmaker: Shift active-duty troops to reserves - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Lawmaker: Shift active-duty troops to reserves

A Colorado lawmaker is calling for the transfer of 100,000 active-duty Army positions into the Army National Guard and Army Reserve to reduce the defense budget by $103 billion over 10 years.

The proposal comes from a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike Coffman, an Army and Marine Corps veteran who grew up in a military family.

He made the proposals in a Friday letter to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, the bipartisan congressional panel tasked with coming up with $1.5 trillion in savings in federal programs by the end of November.

“I have served in the Army, the Army Reserve, the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps Reserve and I know from experience that we can retain our capability while reducing cost by transferring some of our units from active-duty into the reserve,” Coffman said.

He also recommends canceling an Army plan to assign soldiers to South Korea on three-year tours accompanied by their families. Shutting down that move would avoid spending billions on family-related construction projects, Coffman said.

Shifting active-duty end strength into the Guard and Reserve would save $90 billion over 10 years. The average total annual cost to have one soldier on active duty is $130,000, compared to $43,000 for a National Guardsman and $37,000 for an Army Reserve soldier, according to a statement from Coffman’s office.

Long-term savings would be even greater. Coffman said retirement benefits for Guard and Reserve retirees are about one-third of the cost for benefits of active-duty military retirees, which would “yield billions of dollars in lifetime retirement savings and would ease the burden on the currently strained military retirement system.”

Coffman recommends the Army remove troops based in Europe and South Korea to make the 100,000 reduction.

His letter to the deficit reduction committee is just his latest suggestion about cutting the budget. Earlier this year, Coffman unsuccessfully called for closing the Selective Service System, which he said is no longer needed.

He also has tried to reduce Defense Department spending on tuition assistance, an issue still open for debate as Congress works on the 2012 military budget.