DoD seeks 3 percent pay hike in fiscal 2008 - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

DoD seeks 3 percent pay hike in fiscal 2008

The newly proposed budget unveiled by the Pentagon Feb. 5 contains a 3 percent, across-the-board pay increase for service members, money to hire new recruiters to grow the Army and Marine Corps, and funding for major weapons platforms, airplanes and ships.

Projected 2008 pay charts

* 2008 basic pay

* 2008 Basic Pay: Extended Table

* 2008 Drill Pay

* 2008 Drill Pay - Extended Table

The $481 billion budget President Bush submitted to Congress, which represents a more than 11 percent increase over last year’s budget, is accompanied by a separate request to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That proposal represents the biggest “supplemental” budget request ever at $93 billion. That request is expected to cover the wars, the cost of operations for combat, and funding to repair or buy equipment after six years of battlefield wear and tear. Also contained in the budget documents is a “global war on terror” request that will help replenish equipment.

The overall budget’s request for a 3 percent pay raise, which defense budget documents point out represents a total increase in military pay of 32 percent since 2001, would take effect Jan. 1, 2008. An average O-3 would see his pay increase by about $1,657, and the average E-6 would see an increase of $1,099, according to those documents.

President Bush’s defense budget includes $130 billion for the Army, $119 billion for the Navy, $21 billion for the Marine Corps, $137 billion for the Air Force and $75 billion for other defense-related activities and programs. This year, analysts expect a re-emergence of the kind of service rivalries that existed years ago as each of the services scrap for a bigger piece of the budgetary pie. Many believe that the Army and Marine Corps, which have shouldered the brunt of the cost of the wars and will continue to expand, will need more money — at the expense of the Air Force and Navy.

The defense budget also includes $15 billion for housing allowances — a 4 percent increase over last year — that defense officials said is sufficient to continue covering 100 percent of average housing rental costs for all service members.

Of the seven major spending categories in the defense budget — to include military personnel, operations and maintenance, procurement and military construction — the category that pays for construction and renovation of military family housing is the only one that would receive a cut in funding in fiscal 2008. Last year’s family housing budget was around $4 billion; the fiscal 2008 budget proposes $2.9 billion for that category — a $1.1 billion cut. That is mainly because the Pentagon needs to spend fewer taxpayer dollars on family housing now because of its efforts to leverage private developers to build, renovate and manage housing.

The ’08 budget also provides nearly $39 billion for the Defense Department’s Tricare health care system for service members and their families, and an increase of about $1.9 billion over the current budget to help pay for quality-of-life improvements at military bases and installations.

The request seeks funds for the first phase of a dramatic increase in the size of the Army and Marine Corps — $1.7 billion that would help pay for all the new recruiters needed to round up about 5,000 new recruits for the Corps, and 7,000 new Army recruits during fiscal 2008.

Other highlights of the budget include money to buy all the materiel and other equipment defense officials say they need. For example, the request contains $3.7 billion for the Army’s Future Combat System, as well as money for unmanned aerial vehicles, manned and unmanned ground vehicles, non-line of site launch systems, battlefield command and communications systems.

The budget also includes $14 billion for shipbuilding, an increase of about $3.2 billion over this year. The ’08 budget includes money for one aircraft carrier, one Virginia-class submarine, one amphibious assault ship, one logistics ship and three littoral combat ships, or LCSs. The budget would also fund the continued construction of the two lead destroyers of the DDG-1000 class and LHA(R) amphibious assault ship. The Army also gets one joint high speed vessel (JHSV).

For aircraft, the budget seeks $27 billion to buy 20 F-22As; 18 EA-18Gs; 24 F/A-18s; 26 MV-22 Ospreys, unmanned aerial vehicles, and the continued development and procurement of 12 F-35 joint strike fighters.

Defense Department Comptroller Tina Jonas and Vice Adm. Steve Stanley, director of force structure, resources and assessment for the Joint Staff, will conduct a briefing at 2 p.m. Monday at the Pentagon to discuss the fiscal 2008 defense budget request.

Congressional hearings on the budget begin this week, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace scheduled to testify before both the House and Senate armed services committees.