New Scheme to Merge Exchanges, Commissaries

In spite of congressional action last year to retain separate military exchange and commissary systems, the Congressional Budget Office has surfaced the idea again of merging the systems. Under one option the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the Navy Exchange Command, and the Marine Corps Exchange system would be merged, and under another the exchanges and the commissaries would be combined. The second would eliminate $900 million in subsidies and reduce service families’ savings over off-base prices from 30 percent to 20 percent. To compensate, a tax-free grocery allowance of $500 per year would go to active duty members, thus committing drilling reservists and retirees to unequal access. A fuzzy area is service allocation of morale, welfare and recreation funding. The Navy and Marines have objected to merger in the past, and retiree organizations are bound to reject the idea.