Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) sent a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee urging them to restore full pay and benefits to 515 Navy officers who have participated in the Seaman to Admiral-21(STA-21) program through legislation in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“STA-21 sends a select group of enlisted sailors to college to earn their baccalaureate degree and officer commission, in exchange for a minimum of a five-year service obligation at the end of the program,” the Senators wrote. “In October 2009, Congress directed the Navy to begin excluding the years spent in the program from retirement eligibility…[but it] was only in September 2015 that the STA-21 official program site began notifying members that time spent in the program would ‘not count towards retirement, however, it will count towards pay purposes.’”
“The officers who joined STA-21 from 2010 to 2014 should receive the benefits of the program that they understood to exist when they agreed to participate,” continued the Senators. “We equally believe that we must maintain our commitments to our servicemembers, both in spirit and in action.” The Senators therefore requested that the conferees direct the Navy to restore the time STA-21 participants during that period spent in the program toward calculation of their retirement eligibility.
In addition to Senators Cortez Masto and Daines, Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) also joined the letter.
The full text of the letter can be found HERE.
BACKGROUND:
STA-21 sends a select group of enlisted sailors to college to earn their baccalaureate degree and officer commission, in exchange for a minimum of a five-year service obligation at the end of the program. Service members participating in the program remain on active duty for the duration of the program, along with the associated requirements of active duty military service. Service members have also traditionally been told through official correspondence that they would receive the full “pay, allowances, benefits and privileges” associated with their paygrade and active duty status while participating in the program.
In October 2009, Congress directed the Navy to begin excluding the years spent in the program from retirement eligibility. Congress also explicitly said that such years should be counted in calculating all other pay and benefits. Despite this change, records show that the Navy never made any official notification to service members of the policy change for at least five years. It was only in September 2015 that the STA-21 official program site began notifying members that time spent in the program would “not count towards retirement, however, it will count towards pay purposes.”
This bipartisan letter urges Congress to maintain our commitment to our men and women in uniform by allowing officers who joined the STA-21 from 2010 to 2014 to receive the benefits of the program that they understood to exist when they agreed to participate.
###