In Jefferson City, Support for Military Families is McCaskill’s Focus
Image by Senator McCaskill
Support for America’s military families was the focus today of a discussion led by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, as she continued her Security & Defense Tour across Missouri.
“Our men and women in uniform are who we have to thank for the freedoms we enjoy—and it’s oftentimes their families that give them the strength and support when they’re deployed overseas, and when they come back home,” said McCaskill, daughter of a World War II veteran. “Traveling around our state this week, it’s reminded me that when it comes to keeping our state and our communities safe and secure, I learn more hearing directly from the men and women here on the ground than I do the four-star generals who I meet with in the Senate—and I’ve learned a lot from these families about what we’re doing right, and what we can do better.”
McCaskill is a champion in the Senate for military families. In recent national defense bills, McCaskill secured authorization for TRICARE beneficiaries to seek care from non-military contracted health care providers if they cannot get an appointment within wait time goals. This provision also requires public reporting of wait times at military treatment facilities, a practice pioneered at Fort Leonard Wood but not currently available at all facilities. McCaskill was also successful in including provisions in previous defense bills to require TRICARE—health insurance provided to members of the military and their families—to cover breastfeeding equipment, such as breast pumps, along with support and counseling, as required by most private health plans under the Affordable Care Act.
McCaskill has also been a leader in the Senate in addressing the needs of National Guardsmen and women. While the Active Duty Army has a mental health provider-to-Soldier ratio of 1-to-333, the National Guard has a ratio of 1-to-2,000. To address this disparity in accessibility of care, McCaskill successfully attached an amendment in this year’s national defense bill authorizing an additional .5 million in resources to provide sufficient funding to ensure Guardsmen and women have access to adequate mental health treatment.
And in the nation’s largest education overhaul since 2001, McCaskill was able to include legislation to support military spouses by letting teachers transfer credentials across state lines, and a plan to improve health education with a focus on safe relationships and consent.
McCaskill is using her events this week to call for an “honest defense budget our men and women in uniform deserve.”
McCaskill has consistently called on Republican leaders in Congress to properly budget for military operations. Federal budget caps are set to force a further reduction in the U.S. military’s force size. In order to avoid drastic cuts, McCaskill has pushed for the budget caps to be addressed, and to secure investments in both defense and security needs at home. Instead, Republican leaders in the U.S. House have decided to pump resources into the Pentagon’s off-the-books war budget, known as the “Overseas Contingency Operations” fund. McCaskill has likened that move to a dishonest “slush fund” since that fund does not have to be off-set or paid-for, and cannot be used by military leaders to maintain force size. Under the plan proposed by the House of Representatives, the Department of Defense is slated to run out of war funding halfway through the 2017 fiscal year.
