We have an Urgent Action Action today

MOAA members are some of the most engaged citizens in the country. We’ve dedicated our lives to service before self, and we know what it means to never stop serving.

I’m proud of how much we’ve accomplished this year. We’ve helped pass several important pieces of legislation to help veterans and military families. To date, MOAA members have sent over 240,000 messages to their elected officials this year. That’s more than any other military or veterans service organization on Capitol Hill.

But we need your help.

Over the next two weeks, members of Congress may leave Washington without having completed an annual defense bill. Members of the Armed Services committees were confident they could complete their work before returning to their home districts.

Some of the proposals up for debate in the defense bill are a bad deal for the military community, including:

• pay raises that fail to keep pace with the private sector;
• dramatic pharmacy fee increases;
• erosions to housing allowances; and
• continued cuts to commissaries.

These shortsighted decisions will have a long-term effect on the future of America’s military.

Fortunately, House lawmakers passed a defense bill that rejected these cost-cutting measures. But our friends in the Senate accepted them.

Some lawmakers operate under the faulty assumption that we need to cut military pay and benefits to fund readiness programs. The fact is, we need both.

We have one last chance. It’s up to you to tell lawmakers we cannot afford to erode the pay and benefits of the all-volunteer force.

(Click on   here or above or go to Here is the Process: at the end of this Email to send messages to your Legislators. GF)

Here is the Process:  If the steps below are new to some, I recommend that you review all of the steps and then you might want to copy this process by high lighting all of the steps below.  Then click on “File” at the top of your screen, select “Print“, then click on “Selection” at the next display and then hit “Print“; or print the selected portion as you usually do this kind of task.

1. Click here onhttp://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/ or copy and paste it in your browser to put you at the  “Legislative Action Center” screen.
2. Scroll downunder “Current Action Alerts” and click on Reject Military Pay and Benefits Cuts .
3. At the next screen enter your Zip code if requested and/orhit “Go!” and/or scroll down to “Take Action”  and at “Compose Message” leave ‘Email‘ checked or check ‘Printed Letter‘  to send  Printed Letters instead of sending Emails if desired .
4. If an  “Issue Area:”line appears just before the Editable Text: and doesn’t have an issue shown, click on the down arrow and select an issue; e. g., Military, Veterans Affairs, etc. (usually required on messages to our Senators)
5. Scroll down to the  “Editable text” areaand edit/modify the text of the message if desired.
6. Insert “Your Closing” (I show ‘Respectfully), and “Your Name” and fill in the rest of the mandatory {asterisked} SENDER INFORMATION. The “Phone”number is now required by some Legislators (it’s required if your Senator is from Arizona) .  Fill in the “Guest Type“, “Service“, “Rank“, “Component“, and “Status” if you want that information to show in your message (recommended).  You may be prompted to include a phone number if you try to send the message without entering your phone number. Don’t be concerned about entering a phone number. I haven’t  received return calls except on rare occasions to thank me for my interest in a particular piece of Legislation, at which time you can comment (pro or con) to the staff member on how the Senator stands on the issue.
7. Check “Remember Me” (recommended) if you don’t want to have to re-enter all of your Sender Information the next time you send a message. You can always change your information or uncheck ‘Remember Me’ anytime in the future.
8. Check ‘Yes‘ or ‘No‘ as to whether you want to have a copy of your letter sent to your Email Address (suggested at least for you initial efforts, and to see how your personal data is included in the message).
9. Hit “Send Message”
10. If Printed Letter was selected at Step 3 above, at the screen after hitting “Send Message” leave “Plain Paper Style” and “Word Processor (RTF)” checked unless you have another preference. Then left click on “Print Letter(s)” at the end of the “PRINT LETTER” screen. At the File Download” alert that appears next, click on “Open”. You can then edit and print or save the letter for editing, printing, signing and mailing.
11. For Arizona residents, because of some current problems with contacting Sen Flake by Email,you will see after hitting “Send Message” at Step 9 above, that “Printed Letter” is the most readily observable option for getting your message to him. Step 10 above tells you how to do that..

That’s it for today- Thanks for your help!