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GAO-09-688R 1 (2009-06-23)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanny0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 00& .,! = Accountability * Integrity Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 June 23, 2009 Congressional Committees Subject: Military Personnel: Reserve Component Servicemembers on Average Earn More Income while Activated Since September 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has relied heavily on the reserve component' primarily in support of ongoing contingency operations for the Global War on Terrorism, which is now known as the Overseas Contingency Operation. As of February 2009, approximately 691,000 reserve servicemembers have been activated2 in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, with many of these servicemembers being called for multiple deployments or extended for more than one year. This increased use of the reserve component servicemembers has led to questions by Congress about whether reserve component servicemembers might be experiencing a decline in earnings as a result of extended and frequent activations. Citing the nation's increased reliance on the reserve component, Congress mandated in 2002 that we review compensation programs available to reserve component servicemembers serving on active duty. In September 2003, we reported that DOD lacked sufficient information to determine the need for compensation programs and recommended that DOD obtain more complete information on the magnitude of income change, the causes of any such identified change, and the effect of income change on retention. The results of DOD's 2004 Status of Forces Survey of Reserve Component Members showed that about 51 percent of reserve component servicemembers responding to the survey reported that they had experienced a decline in earnings while activated.5 However, our 2003 report noted that survey data are questionable primarily because it is unclear what survey respondents considered as income loss or gain in determining their financial status. 'The Army Reserve, the Army National Guard, the Air Force Reserve, the Air National Guard, the Navy Reserve, and the Marine Corps Reserve constitute DOD's reserve component. 2 We use activated throughout this report to refer to serving on active duty beyond the standard 30 days of annual active duty training, whether serving voluntarily or involuntarily as part of a mobilization or other call to active duty. 3 H.R. Rep. No. 107-436, accompanying the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003, Pub. L. No. 107-314 (2002). 4 GAO, Military Personnel: DOD Needs More Data to Address Financial and Health Care Issues Affecting Reservists, GAO-03-1004 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 10, 2003). 'The survey results are a compilation of responses by servicemembers who completed the survey. Because responses are self-reported, survey results do not provide direct evidence that servicemembers have in fact lost income while activated. GAO-09-688R Reservists' Income Loss Page I

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