No to Tricare Fee Hikes: Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Armed Services military personnel panel, will not include the Administration’s proposed Tricare fee increase for military retirees under age 65 in his subcommittee’s markup of the Fiscal 2007 defense budget request. The Pentagon proposal, says McHugh, “was meant to be a cost-saving measure, it is the wrong way to go about it.” His panel will ask for a task force to review the Pentagon suppositions about cost-savings derived from the fee increase and whether there might, instead, be efficiencies that would generate savings. Senate counterparts have indicated they, too, want an independent review.
Airmen basic rarely go on to become four-star generals, but one who did retired last week after a 42 year career that saw him rise from a lowly slick-sleeve to the head of one of the Air Force’s most important major commands.