LEGISLATION AND MILITARY POLICY:
Ensure TRICARE exemption in the proposed National Health Care Bill
The President’s Health Care Reform proposal is based on the Senate language from last year. No TRICARE protections were included. ROA recommends writing to your elected officials to include language to add a TRICARE and Veteran health care exemption, by protecting the health care authorities in Title 10 and Title 38.
View the President's proposal (pdf)
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Contact House members
Contact Senate members

Stop Reduction in TRICARE Physician’s Fees
ROA has also been tracking a possible 21.2 percent cut in fees paid to Medicare physicians. These fees could be reduced after Feb. 28, 2010. TRICARE physicians’ fees are based on the same Medicare fee schedule. This will affect Active Duty families, serving Reservists, retirees and their families.
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Ask your elected official to stop the 21.2 percent cut in TRICARE physician fees

Hearing Schedule 2010 Begins
The Senate reconvenes Feb. 22. The House and Senate Veteran's Affairs Committees will hold hearings on the Veteran's Affairs Fiscal Year 2011 budget request as well as military construction VA appropriations for FY-11, VA benefit delivery, VA's plans to end veterans' homelessness, the relationship between medications and suicides, and structuring the VA for the 21st century. ROA will participate in a House Veteran's Affairs roundtable discussion on VA claims in March. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees will start holding hearings on the FY-11 defense budget.

Sec. Gates Requests Operation Name Change
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently requested that beginning Sept. 1 2010, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM be referred to as Operation NEW DAWN.
Read Sec. Gates' memo to the Commander, US CENTCOM 

EDUCATION:
DEF To Hold Forum on the Future of Iraqi Civil Society
March 4 at the Minuteman Memorial Building, ROA's Defense Education Forum, along with the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC), will hold a discussion titled "The Changing U.S. Role in Iraq and the Future of Iraqi Civil Society: Panel Discussion on Present Course and Future Challenges."
Learn more about this event

DEF Resource Room
Located in the Defense Education Forum's Resource Room are DEF reports, service section professional reading lists, Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports, Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports, service section leadership statements, and more.
Visit the DEF Resource Room

SERVICEMEMBERS' LAW CENTER:
New Law Reviews
No. 1009 Don’t Sign on the Dotted Line Until You Understand
No. 1011 An Instructive New USERRA Case from Ohio
No. 1012 You Only Get One Chance To Make Your Case

SLC Director CAPT Samuel Wright Comments on Vt. National Guard Discrimination Case
Vermont Public Radio recently covered the story of the U.S. Department of Labor's reopening of the cases of four Vermont National Guardsmen who allege they were discriminated against while working at Vermont's prison in Springfield. CAPT Wright provided comment on the case.
Listen to the report
Read the text of the report