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Top Articles of 2015 As 2015 comes to a close, VAA would like to wish its members, partners and other industry professionals a safe and happy holiday season. As we reflect on the past year for the industry, we would like to provide the readers of VAA Dispatch a look at the most accessed articles from the year. Our regular publication will resume Tuesday, Jan. 5.
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Military Times
From Oct. 20: Stephen, a Marine Corps staff sergeant, agreed to leave service a few years ago when the Corps offered him voluntary separation pay in an effort to trim its personnel ranks. They gave him about $80,000 to leave and, at the time, it seemed like a good deal. The money helped him buy a house in Texas and get started with a job as a financial planner. But now the government wants that money back.
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Military Times
From June 16: After months of official silence, the Defense Department sent to Capitol Hill its formal recommendation for transforming military retirement benefits, a move that is likely to clear the way for major changes to become law.
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Defense One
From June 30: In an interview, Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain told National Journal that he has been waiting almost 30 years to modernize the compensation of military personnel. He considers this year's proposed changes in retirement benefits to be one of the most significant parts of the Defense bill.
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The Hill
From Aug. 5: The House approved legislation that would increase rates of benefit compensation for veterans with disabilities caused by their military service. "Many disabled veterans and their families depend on Veterans Affairs benefits to pay for their housing, their food and other necessities. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that VA benefits keep pace with the rate of inflation so that our nation's heroes are able to make ends meet," said House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller.
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McClatchyDC
From July 28: President Barack Obama signed a bill from U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan that will allow veterans nationwide to get a special, government-issued identification card.
Buchanan, a Republican who represents the Bradenton and Sarasota areas of Florida, introduced the "Veterans Identification Card Act of 2015" earlier this year so veterans wouldn't have to carry around their military service records — such as the common form known as a "DD-214" — to prove their veteran status.
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The Hill
From Sept. 29: Service members need portable benefits to take with them throughout their careers, including healthcare. In the end, conversations about cost savings in military compensation are largely treading water unless they propose military health care reform. Other areas of compensation — basic pay, commissary benefits or Basic Allowance for Housing — all enjoy near-unanimous support among military families. Reductions to each benefit were proposed by different stakeholders in this year's National Defense Authorization Act process, and each had met stone walls of resistance from Congress, advocacy groups or the military itself.
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Military.com
From March 31: Veterans' advocacy groups are clashing with each other over proposed changes to military retirement, health care and other benefits. The Military Coalition, an umbrella group of almost three dozen military, veterans and uniformed services organizations, couldn't reach an accord on the recommendations of the congressionally mandated Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. Even as TMC members debate the recommendations with lawmakers, they plan to push back against parts of the Pentagon's proposed fiscal 2016 budget. "Congress has to deal with the budget this year," said Michael Hayden TMC co-chair and director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America. "They don't have to deal with the MCRMC recommendations."
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Military Times
From May 19: The Senate Armed Services Committee has rejected the Defense Department's proposal to overhaul Tricare, likely giving military families, retirees and their families a reprieve from major changes to their health care coverage for at least another year.
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Military Times
From Oct. 6: Senate Democrats recently blocked plans for a nearly $164 billion Veterans Affairs Department budget for fiscal 2016 over objections to Republicans' overarching spending plans and a lack of progress on a compromise budget deal.
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CNN Money via WPTZ-TV
From March 17: In some fields, having military service under your belt offers a real leg up — both career wise and financially.
As new data from PayScale recently found, veterans are at least twice as likely as civilians to hold certain high paying jobs in industries like national security, technology and transportation.
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