No Pay, No Deployment, Iowa Reps say

Members of the Iowa National Guard who are owed up to $200 a day because of an extended deployment should get reimbursed before being deployed again, members of the Iowa congressional delegation said Thursday. A bill to ensure that nearly 20,000 National Guard members nationwide get benefits promised under a program commonly known as "respite leave" has been signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Members of the Iowa delegation will closely monitor the reimbursement of Guard members who were part of extended deployments, 1st District Rep. Bruce Braley said.

According to Iowa National Guard Maj. Mike Wunn, most of the 700plus Iowans owed respite leave reimbursement are part of 1-133rd Infantry. It was mobilized in the fall of 2005 and returned from Iraq in July 2007. It includes units in Waterloo, Dubuque, Oelwein, Iowa Falls and Charles City.

Some of those Guard members could be deployed in 2010 as part of the largest call-up of the Iowa Guard since World War II. About 3,500 Iowa Guard members have been notified of possible deployment to Afghani stan. "The worst thing if they are redeployed is that they are still waiting for those benefits," Braley, a Waterloo Democrat, said.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who pushed for the bill's passage in the Senate, said no appropriation should be necessary for soldiers to be paid. However, he and other senators pushing to include the fix in the defense authorization bill have asked for an appropriation just to be safe, a spokeswoman said.

Respite leave was designed to provide service members -- regular Army as well as Guard and Reserve -- who were deployed beyond established rotation cycles additional time to reintegrate into civilian life, as well as to help with retention of service members who had experienced long tours.

The reimbursement was approved once, but Iowans were not compensated because they "just got caught in the middle of a bureaucratic process," Wunn said.

The incident highlights the role of congressional oversight, Braley said.

"When constituents are being denied important benefits they not only deserve, but have earned with their blood, sweat and tears by protecting us on foreign soil, we have a high responsibility to stand up for them," he said.