Another less than brilliant idea from the Office of Management and Budget

Another less than brilliant idea from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Since 02-09-03

Date: 2/9/2003 8:45:48 AM

Subject: Fwd Msg of BGEN Bob Clements, USAF, ret

http://www.coausphs.org/

Another less than brilliant idea from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

NEWS from COA
Commissioned Officers Association
of the U.S. Public Health Service
8201 Corporate Dr., #560, Landover, MD 20785

For immediate release For information:
February 5, 2003 Jerry Farrell
301.731.9080

President's Budget Segregates Uniformed Services

The Public Health Serviced Commissioned Officers Association (COA) deplores the injustice established by the 2004 President's Budget. For the first time in recent memory, the President's Budget proposes segregating the seven uniformed services when establishing 2004 pay raise rates.

OMB has arbitrarily determined that the functions of the PHS and NOAA Commissioned Corps, while classified as "military" for pay and benefit obligations, should be somehow distinct from the five military uniformed services because PHS and NOAA "work is predominantly civilian in nature." The result of this inherently contradictory proposition is that PHS and NOAA officers will be considered apart from their uniformed comrades and denied parity in setting pay rates for 2004. These officers will be grouped with federal civilians, which they are not.

The OMB proposal in the President's Budget is a shortsighted attempt to demonstrate fiscal responsibility while ignoring the long term implications and costs of creating a redundant military pay scale, according to Jerry Farrell, COA Executive Director. Farrell went on to comment that "This is a breach of faith with all uniformed service members, what the Administration can do to NOAA and PHS today, they can do to the Coast Guard tomorrow."

The OMB proposal is tough to explain to the 800 or so PHS officers who deployed in the fall of 2001 in response to the opening salvos of a new war; who worked alongside their military comrades on Capitol Hill following the anthrax attacks; to those who serve with the U.S. Coast Guard and train alongside their military comrades for biological warfare defense. It might also come as a surprise to PHS officers who deployed to fill military medical billets during the 1990 Gulf War, or who are right now being identified to fill those same billets in the event of another war with Iraq. Being in a "predominantly civilian" assignment
might also be a revelation to PHS officers who have served as Assistant Secretaries of Defense (Health Affairs), or to the PHS admiral who currently runs TRICARE, the DoD health care system serving all uniformed services family members and retirees.

Imagine the shock to those now retired PHS officers who were militarized during World War II and Korea when they learn their service was "civilian."

The fact is that PHS and NOAA officers wear the same uniforms and swear the same oath as their military comrades. They adhere to the same professional standards and are available to deploy 24/7 - and often do in response to a wide variety of naturally occurring as well as man-made disasters. The only real difference is that the "arms" of the PHS and NOAA officers are not weapons of destruction, but rather scientific and medical weapons to be used in the fight against disease
and disaster. To claim that the work of PHS officers is civilian is to claim that the work of all military health professionals is civilian. OMB is slicing their baloney too thinly.

Farrell said the issue will be resolved in Congress where he is confident the OMB proposal will not stand.

The COA is the professional association comprised of active duty, reserve and retired members of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.