According to a new report from Politico, Donald Trump and his administration are set to recall members of the National Guard who are currently assisting various states across the nation with their coronavirus response just one day before many of the individuals become eligible for additional benefits from the federal government in connection to their work for COVID-19.
The report says that the members of the National Guard are facing a “hard stop … just one day shy of many members becoming eligible for key federal benefits, according to a senior FEMA official.”
Politico obtained a call from the 12th of May that stated, “The official also acknowledged during the call that the June 24 deadline means that thousands of members who first deployed in late March will find themselves with only 89 days of duty credit, one short of the 90-day threshold for qualifying for early retirement and education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill.”
The official that was in on the call also allegedly went on to state that carrying out the order will require a “delicate messaging strategy,” in an effort to keep complaints to a minimum.
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“We would greatly benefit from unified messaging regarding the conclusion of their services prior to hitting the 90-day mark and the retirement benefit implications associated with it,” the official said.
“Top National Guard and other federal officials on the call did not dispute the June 24 cutoff or raise the possibility of an extension. In a statement, FEMA acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s current order for the federal government to fund the troops expires on June 24. But a National Guard spokesperson said a decision to extend the deployments could still be made in the coming weeks,” the Politico report goes on.
One spokesperson said, “We’re not there yet on the determination. Nobody can say where we’ll need to be more than a month down the road.”
Politico reports that upwards of 40,000 members of the National Guard are involved in the coronavirus response in 44 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia.
The report notes that “[t]ens of thousands of them have been working full-time since early March on a wide range of sensitive and dangerous tasks, such as decontaminating nursing homes and setting up field hospitals, along with performing tests for the virus. They’ve provided a crucial backup for understaffed and underfunded state public health agencies trying to contain the pandemic.”
The cost comes in at around $9 million per month, per 1,000 troops.
The National Guard Association along with several state officials feel certain that Trump purposely timed the orders to cut off deployment at 89 days with the specific intent of ensuring that extra benefits would be denied to the troops.
The date of the recall coming out of the Trump administration was not lost on retired Brigadier General J. Roy Robinson, president of the National Guard Association, who stated, “It seemed kind of weird to me. It’s a Wednesday. And it also coincides with 89 days of deployment for any soldiers who went on federal status at the beginning. I was getting all kind of calls about it and I said, ‘It’s probably just a coincidence.’ But in the back of my mind, I know better. They’re screwing the National Guard members out of the status they should have.”
Donald Trump has spent a good portion of his campaigning days as well as his presidency preaching of the support he supposedly has for this nation’s military. However, when it comes down to it, I want it to be clear that he’s more than willing to screw the folks in uniform just the same as the regular Joes.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
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