ROA and the Marine Corps Reserve Association (MCRA) brought Reserve Component members from the Air Force Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve and the U.S. Public Health Service Ready Reserve Corps to Capitol Hill on Monday, September 14, for a joint-force Advocacy Day focused on the issues that matter most to their services and their families.
The day opened with welcoming remarks from Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general and a congressional leader on Duty Status Reform. Rep. Bergman set the tone for the day, emphasizing the value of Reservists speaking directly to lawmakers about how policy decisions play out in their units, their civilian careers and their homes.
Each service then had a representative brief attendees on its talking points: Lt. Col. Kristin Montville for the Air Force Reserve, Capt. Erin Evans for the Public Health Service and Lt. Col. Joe Mason for the Marine Corps Reserve.
Bringing Service Priorities to the Hill
Nearly 50 attendees from ROA, MCRA, the Air Force Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve and the PHS Ready Reserve Corps took part in close to 60 congressional meetings across the Capitol complex, where ROA and MCRA presented their priorities to members and staff and Reservists shared their service and experiences.
Air Force Reserve
- ROA presented six position papers on Air Force Reserve priorities, while Airmen shared their service, their missions and how current law and policy affect them.
- On equipment, ROA urged enforcement of the Air Force’s concurrent and proportional fielding standard. The Air Force Reserve now flies the oldest fleet in the service, averaging 39 years of age and 88.5% legacy aircraft, and disproportionate divestment has cut its share of the fighter force from 9.6% to 3%. Airmen described what it means to maintain, fly and deploy with that fleet.
- Paired with that, ROA asked for not less than $155 million in National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account funding for the Air Force Reserve, with $176 million as the stated requirement, sustained across years and preserved as a distinct account.
- Airmen’s firsthand accounts of moving between duty statuses, and the pay and benefit gaps that come with each transition, framed ROA’s ask for the Duty Status Reform Act (H.R. 6976 / S. 4801), which would consolidate more than 30 duty statuses into four categories so that identical service yields identical pay and benefits.
- ROA also asked Congress to raise from 50 to 75 the number of Air Reserve Technicians who may serve above the unit level, a cost-neutral change that expands senior leader development, and to strike the Jan. 1, 2030, delay on TRICARE Reserve Select eligibility for technicians and other federally employed Reservists through the Servicemember Healthcare Freedom Act. Technicians explained what paying two to four times more for federal employee health coverage means for their families.
- Finally, ROA asked for a Department-wide study of Reserve Component dental care, as Airmen spoke to how dental readiness, and the $1,500 annual benefit cap, affects their ability to deploy.
Marine Corps Reserve
- ROA and MCRA focused their Marine Corps Reserve asks on equipment and readiness.
- The Marine Corps Reserve’s share of NGREA has fallen from a historical range of 5% to 15% to an average of 1.68% since FY 2016, or about $465 per reservist, the lowest of any Reserve Component and roughly one-sixth of the Air National Guard’s per-capita level. Over the same period, fleet-wide equipment readiness has fallen to 71.4% against a 90% requirement, with the AAV7A1 amphibious assault vehicle, the foundational platform for any Indo-Pacific scenario, at 61%.
- Marines described their units’ missions and what training and deploying with aging equipment looks like in practice, grounding ROA and MCRA’s asks to restore the Marine Corps Reserve to at least 5% of total NGREA and to modernize the 10 U.S.C. 12304b authority used to order Reservists to active duty for preplanned missions in support of the combatant commands.
PHS Ready Reserve Corps
- ROA’s Public Health Service asks centered on a gap left when Congress reestablished the Ready Reserve in 2020: many of the statutes governing Reserve Component structure, authorities and benefits did not follow it.
- ROA asked Congress to provide dedicated funding to sustain and grow the Corps while preserving the partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security; to codify the Ready Reserve structure in statute; to align dual compensation and military leave authorities for officers who are also federal civilian employees; and to extend TRICARE Reserve benefits and GI Bill eligibility to qualifying officers.
- Ready Reserve officers shared their public health missions, from disaster response to border health operations, and how the absence of those authorities affects their service and their civilian careers.
- Sen. Tammy Duckworth is expected to soon reintroduce the Public Health Service Ready Reserve Parity Act, the most significant benefits parity package for the Ready Reserve Corps, which the senator and ROA developed together in the previous Congress.
- The Corps is currently funded through a DHS budget line under a memorandum of understanding between HHS and DHS, an arrangement made possible in part by ROA’s efforts to restore rescinded funding for the Corps at its PHS Advocacy Day two years ago.
Two Principal Meetings
The day featured two principal meetings. Rep. Bergman generously gave more of his time beyond his welcoming remarks, meeting with attendees for a deeper conversation on Duty Status Reform and the Reserve Component priorities the group brought to the Hill.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, a physician and Army veteran, met with attendees on public health priorities, engaging with PHS Ready Reserve Corps officers on recruiting, retention and readiness. Following the meeting, she took a photo with the group and the seal.
Recognizing the Team
An event of this scale takes a team. ROA thanks its new interns, Ben Crump and Jackson Kealey, who supported every stage of the day, from scheduling to logistics. Here, in their own words, is what the experience meant to them:
Advocacy Day was an incredible opportunity to meet with congressional offices and advocate for change on behalf of the Reserve Components, and I believe our voices made a lasting impact. Being part of the team that planned and executed the day gave me a firsthand look at everything it takes to bring an event like this together, from scheduling nearly 60 meetings to preparing attendees for the Hill, and it’s an experience I’ll carry with me throughout my career. I’m grateful to ROA for making this day possible, and to my team, whose support and personal stories grounded our message in real-world experience.
— Ben Crump, ROA Policy Intern
Advocacy Day was an awesome experience. Meeting with congressional offices to discuss the issues directly affecting the Reserve Components made the work both valuable and rewarding. Working behind the scenes on the execution team showed me how much coordination goes into a day like this and seeing it all come together on the Hill was one of the greatest highlights of my internship so far. I’m grateful to ROA for hosting this event and to everyone I had the chance to work alongside that day.
— Jackson Kealey, ROA Policy Intern
ROA also recognizes former interns Peter Donlon and Jake Fales, who returned to volunteer and lead teams of attendees through their Hill meetings.
ROA extends its thanks to MCRA for its partnership in planning and executing the day. ROA was also proud to teach MCRA a long-held ROA tradition started by Susan Lukas: cutting mini bagels for advocacy-focused events. This year’s bagel cutting took place close to 9 p.m. the night before, following a strategy session of several hours at the Army Navy Club. Joint efforts like this one, down to the mini bagels, demonstrate what the Reserve Component community can accomplish when its organizations work as one.
Access and Results
Advocacy Day was a significant success, both in opening the legislative process to the Reservists who live with its outcomes and in the substance of what attendees heard.
Attendees gained firsthand experience engaging members and staff, many for the first time, and offices were receptive to the information they presented. Just as important, the meetings yielded valuable intelligence on ROA’s legislative priorities.
For example, some offices signaled hesitancy to fund the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account further, and several shared concerns about NGREA’s prospective inclusion in the President’s Budget Request (PBR).
Regardless, ROA continues to believe NGREA funding should be enhanced, and will carry that case forward through the appropriations process.
Offices were also receptive to Duty Status Reform, ROA’s top NDAA priority. And ROA and MCRA are working together on the Marine Corps Reserve’s priority of modernizing 12304b.
“Nearly 60 meetings in a single day is a testament to what happens when Reservists tell their own stories to the people who write the laws that govern their service,” said Matthew Schwartzman, ROA’s Director of Legislation and Military Policy. “Our attendees did more than make the rounds. They came back with real insight into where our priorities stand, and they built relationships that will carry us through conference and the appropriations cycle. None of this happens without our partners. We are grateful to the Air Force Reserve, the Public Health Service Ready Reserve Corps, the Department of Homeland Security, the Marine Corps Reserve and MCRA for standing with us, and to the members and staff on the Hill who opened their doors and gave our Reservists their time.”
Looking Ahead
ROA sees its joint-force Advocacy Day as an important means of aligning its value proposition with VISION29.
The event also marked the successful deployment of a brand-new mobile portal, built in house, which gave every attendee information on all the day’s meetings in one place: a paperless guide that fit in their pocket. The prototype proved a successful steppingstone as ROA takes its next steps in building out its ROAD (Reserve Outreach and Advocacy Delegation) platform.
Thank You
ROA and MCRA thank the following offices for meeting with Advocacy Day attendees:
Senate: Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Sen. Jim Banks, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Sen. Chris Coons, Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Josh Hawley, Sen. Mazie Hirono, Sen. John Hoeven, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Sen. Tim Kaine, Sen. Angus King, Sen. Roger Marshall, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Eric Schmitt.
House: Rep. Robert Aderholt, Rep. Pete Aguilar, Rep. Rick Allen, Rep. Don Bacon, Rep. Troy Balderson, Rep. Jack Bergman, Rep. Buddy Carter, Rep. Andrew Clyde, Rep. Mike Collins, Rep. Jason Crow, Rep. Scott DesJarlais, Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, Rep. Sarah Elfreth, Rep. Russ Fulcher, Rep. John Garamendi, Rep. Craig Goldman, Rep. Lance Gooden, Rep. Morgan Griffith, Rep. Steven Horsford, Rep. Ronny Jackson, Rep. Trent Kelly, Rep. Jen Kiggans, Rep. Morgan Luttrell, Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Sarah McBride, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Rep. Seth Moulton, Rep. Scott Peters, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. Hal Rogers, Rep. Mike Rogers, Rep. Pat Ryan, Rep. Austin Scott, Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Elise Stefanik, Rep. Marilyn Strickland, Rep. Shri Thanedar, Rep. Mike Turner, Rep. James Walkinshaw and Rep. Daniel Webster.
For more information, contact Matthew Schwartzman, Director, Legislation and Military Policy, at mschwartzman@roa.org.