Red Bulls to get overtime pay in March
GOP Rep. John Kline says the overtime pay for the Red Bulls will be delivered between March 15th and March 19th. You can read the release from Kline's office here:
WASHINGTON - Minnesota Congressman John Kline today welcomed news from the Office of the Secretary of Defense that long overdue bonus pay will be received by members of the Minnesota National Guard by March 19. The announcement follows Kline's Feb. 3 questioning of Defense Secretary Robert Gates regarding when the 2,500 Minnesota soldiers whose deployments to Iraq were extended involuntarily would receive their long overdue bonus pay.
"I am pleased to see decisive action to rectify this unacceptable situation," said Kline, a 25-year veteran of the Marine Corps, and a member of the House Armed Services Committee. "Our brave men and women in uniform can finally have confidence that they will receive the benefits they have earned."
According to the announcement by OSD, the majority of soldiers still in service will receive their pay via electronic remittance on March 15-19. The majority of those who have already left the service will receive a check issued during the same period.
For two years Congressman Kline has joined Minnesota Congressional delegation colleagues in bipartisan, bicameral efforts asking the Department of Defense to expedite bureaucratic delays. In October, the national defense bill was signed into law with a provision supported by Congressman Kline to authorize funding for the PDMRA benefits and fix the bureaucratic glitch.
Earlier this month, Kline pressed Sec. Gates for answers regarding when the Minnesota National Guard soldiers will receive their overdue pay. "None of them have received a dime, not a single dime. My question is when can these soldiers expect to receive these payments," Kline asked during the hearing. "I will tell you this is a gigantic issue in Minnesota. They've been deployed multiple times. Some of them are just now coming back, the Red Bulls from Iraq. Right now some of them are expected to be deployed in 2011 and they've been told now for years that they have this money coming to them and nothing is there.
"It is outrageous that some of our Minnesota troops have been forced to wait so long to receive their benefits."
In his fourth term in Congress, Kline is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee.
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