{"id":1288,"date":"2024-01-19T00:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T00:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/?p=1288"},"modified":"2024-04-14T23:22:33","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T23:22:33","slug":"senator-murkowski-expresses-anger-over-lack-of-arctic-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2024\/01\/19\/senator-murkowski-expresses-anger-over-lack-of-arctic-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Murkowski expresses anger over lack of special \u201carctic pay\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite congressional approval, some soldiers in Alaska still don\u2019t receive incentive pay set up by Alaska delegation<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While an \u201carctic pay\u201d incentive was added to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023, the Dept. of Defense has not enacted the incentive for all members of the military that serve in Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s cold, dark and far away from the rest of the country. Adding to the difficulties of living in Alaska is the financial stress faced by families moving to the 49th state. But, Alaska\u2019s senators worked to ease that burden and implement a bit of a bright side for soldiers stationed in the far north. As part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA, a special \u201carctic pay\u201d incentive was passed to help soldiers stationed in the frigid north. However, the Dept. of Defense has yet to see full implementation with only the Army having a broad pay-out program and only specific Air Force members receiving extra income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis bill that Senator Murkowski and I were working on… was moving forward and we made some good progress on getting all kinds of enhancements for service members in Alaska,\u201d said Senator Dan Sullivan, Alaska\u2019s junior senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An arctic pay incentive was just one of the enhancements included in the bill. The incentive was meant to help pay for the extra expenses incurred by service members and their families in the last frontier which often requires them to incur unique expenses such as plug in car battery warmers and specialized winter gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re talking about here is recognizing that when you are living and working in an arctic environment, you need different stuff,\u201d said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska\u2019s senior senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being passed by congress, the arctic pay incentive has not been enacted by the Pentagon. This is partly due to existing compensation for soldiers in Alaska, but the benefits aren\u2019t equal. \u201cThe Army has put this in place to their credit,\u201d Murkowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the Army stationed in Alaska receive a one-time payment between $1,000 and $4,000 to help pay for needed purchases as they transition to the arctic environment they face in Alaska. The Air Force however has not implemented a branch wide incentive for Alaska\u2019s soldiers. \u201cI am justifiably upset at [the] Air Force, who I think has basically thumbed their nose at a very clear directive,\u201d said Murkowski. She also said she thinks the Air Force is doing a disservice to their members by not including a broad scope program like the Army. But, some airmen are eligible for what they call hardship pay. Yet, most do not receive the $150 monthly benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaska\u2019s senior senator also said the incentive is about more than finances and soldiers. \u201cThis is recognizing the stress that living in an arctic environment adds to families,\u201d said Murkowski. \u201cIt can be challenging particularly in the winter if you\u2019re not from Alaska,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the seemingly endless winter darkness to distance from family and friends, the stress can add up. \u201cWhen we look at those triggers that bring about mental depression, that bring about suicide or suicidal ideation, so much of it comes back to financial stressors,\u201d Murkowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many service members remain without the already approved arctic pay, senators Sullivan and Murkowski said they plan to keep working on aiding military members in Alaska. \u201cThere\u2019s more work to do there\u2019s no doubt about it,\u201d said Sullivan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite congressional approval, some soldiers in Alaska still don\u2019t receive incentive pay set up by Alaska delegation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-habitat"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1668,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions\/1668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}