Saving While Serving

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TSP officials are looking to expand their education and outreach to the military in coming years and hope those efforts will lead to higher participation in the military services.

There are 600,297 participants from the uniformed services, out of 3.88 million people who have accounts with the TSP.

Debate on Military Pay Raise

Even though Congress appears committed to providing military personnel with a 3.9 percent pay raise next year, the Office of Management and Budget is on record in opposition. The OMB maintains that President Bush's proposal for a 3.4 percent raise will keep military pay competitive with private-sector wage growth.

The OMB said the administration "strongly opposes" the higher proposed raise, saying it will cost taxpayers $293 million more in fiscal 2009 than the president's proposal and an additional $8.3 billion through 2014.

A recent Defense Department study showed that the military benefit package -- basic pay, cash allowances, free health care, pensions and tax breaks -- "provides a good quality of life for service members and their families," the OMB said in a May 22 statement.

According to the Pentagon study, when those elements are combined, military officers and enlisted personnel are compensated as well or better than 80 percent of their counterparts are in the private sector of similar ages and educations.

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.

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