Obama, Congress Cut Combat Cash

Seen at Maggie's Notebook:

The government is tightening up the rules by which soldiers are paid extra for putting their lives on the line.  According to Military.com, and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (H.R. 1540-7 Sec 616) as of February 1, 2012, this new measure went into effect, and soldiers who are to receive the additional $225/mo. combat pay ‘must’ be in immediate risk of harm. The measure is very specific in its criteria for receiving the additional pay.

The rules for Hostile Fire and Imminent Danger Pay have changed. Service members will now receive imminent danger pay only for days they actually spend in hazardous areas. This change went in effect on February 1, 2012.
A member of a uniformed service may be entitled to Hostile Fire and Imminent Danger pay at the rate of $225 for any month in which he/she was entitled to basic pay and in which he/she was:

• Subject to hostile fire or explosion of hostile mines;
• On duty in an area in which he was in imminent danger of being exposed to hostile fire or explosion of hostile mines and in which, during the period he was on duty in that area, other members of the uniformed services were subject to hostile fire or explosion of hostile mines;
• Killed, injured, or wounded by hostile fire, explosion of a hostile mine, or any other hostile action; or
• On duty in a foreign area in which he was subject to the threat of physical harm or imminent danger on the basis of civil insurrection, civil war, terrorism, or wartime conditions.

My sense is that this is a relatively minor adjustment in the wording of the how combat pay is authorized, which has been granted to some soldiers briefly exposed to imminent danger.  For example, currently, a pilot who flies into a hazardous airbase in Afghanistan on one day, is entitled to combat pay for the whole month.  Under these rules he/she would be entitled to a $255/30 (or 31. except in February).  Still, I can't see that this will be an enormous source of savings for the government, and it may even cost more to administer than it saves (trust me on that if you haven't experienced government accounting).

However, the government was still able to find enough cash for $765,000 for an IHOP in an "underserved" (yuppie) area of Washington, DC.