Saturday, July 28, 2007

Congress Mulling Changes In Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act ("SCRA")

Stars and Stripes reports:

  • "The SCRA gives broad financial and legal protections to active-duty troops and their families. The legislation was originally written in 1940 but revised in 2003 to put greater emphasis on Guardsmen and reservists who found themselves serving in overseas operations. ... Lawmakers are considering more than a dozen changes to the bill, covering issues such as preventing child custody changes while troops are deployed and allowing troops to suspend their cell phone accounts while they’re overseas."
One change being considered is to impose a delay on a foreclosure of a servicemember’s home until at minimum one year after they return from combat, much longer than the current 90-day wait under the act. For more, see Congress eyes changes to troop protection act (Legal, financial rights of deployed servicemembers being reviewed).

Go here for other posts on the Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act. For financial assistance for Pennsylvania families of deployed servicemembers, see Center gets additional funding to help military families.