Senate Armed Service Committee takes on Mental Health

SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
Defense Directives Have Wide Scope
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 20, 2008; Page A11

From experiments with hybrid vehicles to huge bonuses for psychologists to personal finance lessons, the Senate Armed Services Committee's recommended spending blueprint for fiscal 2009 illustrates how Defense Department funds go for lots more than weapons.

Few corners of government are untouched by the 560-page report, released last week, which represents the committee's recommendations on the defense authorization bill now working its way through both houses.

The Senate panel noted, for example, that a task force of the Defense Science Board reported in February that the Pentagon "systematically underestimates" the cost of fuel for weapons and the benefits that could arise from requiring fuel efficiency in vehicles.

One step being taken, the committee said, is that "designs for the manned ground combat vehicles of the Army's Future Combat System will use hybrid electric drives." The panel itself added $6 million to the advanced technology budget for combat vehicles to develop military hybrid engines and $10 million for an advanced military vehicle battery development and testing initiative.

The committee also recommended that the Defense Department pay bonuses of as much as $400,000 to psychologists who make active-duty commitments of at least four years to various branches of the military. The proposal is based on a report by the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health, which found that "38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of Marines report psychological problems" and that "the number of active-duty psychologists is insufficient and likely to decrease further" without action by the Pentagon.
"We need to ensure that we have adequate numbers of uniformed mental health providers who can train and deploy with our troops and be there when they are needed," Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told the Senate committee in March. "And we must give our service members the tools they need to be able to cope with the stress of combat and the experiences that many of them face each and every day."

W. Patrick Lang, a retired Army colonel who specializes in military matters, said the recommendations for increased spending on personnel, including the recruitment of more psychologists, result because the Pentagon "feels completely responsible for everything that happens in your life, even when you go home or retire." He likened military service to joining a religious order.
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