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.
The Senate passed Republicans’ sweeping tax-and-spending package July 1 in a 51-50 vote, the culmination of a 27-hour marathon legislative session. The package—often called the reconciliation bill—includes a $150 billion package of defense funds that accounts for a significant portion of the money the Air Force and Space Force want…
