The Army is extending the tour of service for soldiers with upcoming separation dates by 45 days as a result of the federal government shutdown, an official confirmed on Wednesday.
“Soldiers scheduled to transition out of the Army with separation dates during the government shutdown will be extended by 45 days to ensure proper transition,” Army spokesman Maj. Travis Shaw said in a statement.
It is unclear exactly how many soldiers are being extended.
The Army needs to extend soldiers due to the Antideficiency Act, a federal law that prevents the federal government from obligating or spending money during such funding lapses, Shaw said.
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“Failure to extend personnel may result in losing access to base, housing, benefits, pay, reimbursement for travel, and household goods shipment,” Shaw said. “As an Army priority, the extension is for the soldier’s and their family’s health and welfare.”
The Army’s announcement comes after a document began circulating on social media on Tuesday that purportedly showed that soldiers would be extended as a result of the shutdown. After the document was shared to the Army WTF! Moments’ Facebook page, it prompted comparisons online to stop loss, a policy under which service members are involuntarily retained on active duty beyond the end of their contract.
Between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2009, an estimated 185,000 service members were involuntarily retained in the military through stop loss, according to the Army.
The ongoing government shutdown began on Oct. 1 after Congress failed to pass a spending bill to keep the federal government operating. No end to the impasse appears to be in sight.
Army civilians and contractors who are affected by the shutdown oversee much of the administrative process dealing with soldiers’ separations, said Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.
“The Antideficiency Act prevents the federal government from incurring additional costs during the shutdown — which would include using furloughed federal employees or new fiscal year contracts to those running soldier out processing,” Kuzminski told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
When asked if the Army’s decision to extend soldiers was similar to stop loss, Kuzminski said there are differences between the two types of actions.
“While the impact may be felt similarly to stop-loss for the individual soldier — they aren’t able to separate — the underlying legal rationale is very different from stop-loss based in [Title 10 of the U.S. Code, Section 12305],” Kuzminski said. “The president has the authority to enact stop-loss during a national emergency (a time of war) to meet requirements, and is based on retaining those from either specific career fields necessary to the national interest or retaining specific units for an active national security requirement.”
