Staff activities - Legislative Update - lobbying efforts of Reserve Officers Association - Brief Article

Meanwhile, the staff, particularly the executive director, has been busy visiting House and Senate members and their staffs, discussing issues as various as tax incentives, Reserve component equipment needs, military construction requirements, and the future of Reserve force structure in light of ongoing OSD and congressionally mandated reviews of RC roles, missions, compensation, and duty statuses.

The staff has also been engaged in dealing with an increasing tendency within OSD to "streamline" operations and the decision process ostensibly to achieve increased efficiency. Unfortunately, the actual effect of these transformational changes would reduce the ability of the Reserve chiefs as well as other uniformed leaders to do their congressionally mandated jobs.

As the co-chair of the Military Coalition's Guard and Reserve Committee, ROA has been busy developing the committee's annual legislative agenda and crafting testimony. ROA is also cosponsoring, with the House Reserve Components Caucus and the Enlisted Association of the National Guard and the National Guard Association, the annual House Reserve Components Caucus Breakfast. This event gives the Reserve chiefs and their staffs the opportunity to meet with members of the caucus to discuss readiness and equipment issues and policy needs. We expect this years breakfast to be attended by more than 100 members of Congress, the Reserve and DoD communities, and representatives of industry. The speaker will be the Hon. Paul McHale, a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, former congressman from Pennsylvania, co-chair of the House Guard and Reserve Caucus, and ROA Minuteman of the Year who was recently confirmed as the first assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Security.

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