Troops are set to get more money reimbursed for out-of-pocket gasoline costs when they move or transfer to a new duty station beginning in July.
The change will mean the mileage rate for permanent change of station, or PCS, travel during the busiest summer months will increase from 18 cents to 22 cents per mile, and the rate for temporary duty, or TDY, travel will jump from about 59 cents to 63 cents for the second half of this year, according to the new rates first announced by the Coast Guard.
Surging pump prices in recent months pushed the national average for a gallon of regular gas to more than $5 on Monday — the highest recorded in over two decades, according to the AAA, prompting the IRS to bump up its benchmark standard mileage expense rate. That standard is used by the General Services Administration to set rates for the military and the rest of the federal government.
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“While an increase of [4 cents] per mile may not seem like a lot, it is greater than the typical adjustment, and is the largest single increase in mileage rates since 2011,” D. Mischell Navarro, the acting assistant commandant for human resources at the Coast Guard, wrote in a memo to the service.
The upward spiral has been caused by a sudden increase in demand following the COVID-19 pandemic, when oil companies held back production and used up reserves. It has also been…
