Congress has given the president the authority to issue executive orders designating and terminating areas as combat zones. Since 1950, U.S. presidents have designated combat zones in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf area, the Kosovo area, and Afghanistan. U.S. presidents terminated combat zone designations for Korea in 1955 and Vietnam in 1996. See appendix II for information on the current combat zones. In addition, Congress has established qualified hazardous duty areas where servicemembers serving in such areas receive the same tax treatment as members serving in presidentially designated combat zones. Congress has specified in this legislation, however, that a servicemember on duty in a qualified hazardous duty area is only entitled to combat zone tax relief benefits if that member would also be entitled to hostile fire or imminent danger pay. Congress has designated seven qualified hazardous duty areas since 1995 (see app. II). DOD is responsible for prescribing regulations for imminent danger pay and for certifying locations where military service is in direct support of combat zone operations. Servicemembers who perform duty in certain foreign areas may be eligible for imminent danger pay as well as income tax relief, in the form of combat zone tax relief benefits, as summarized in table 1. See appendixes I, II, and III for information about the locations designated for imminent danger pay or combat zone tax relief benefits. The Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) in coordination with the director of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service is responsible for maintaining and updating the Financial Management Regulation, Volume 7A, that provides financial management policy and procedures for DOD, including imminent danger pay and combat zone tax relief benefits. In DOD’s imminent danger pay guidance, the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) requires unified combatant commanders to continually appraise the conditions within areas designated for imminent danger pay to ensure that the designation is warranted, and to forward written recommendations, at least annually, to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, who evaluates these designations to determine whether conditions in these areas continue to present the threat of physical harm or imminent danger from civil war, civil insurrection, terrorism, or wartime conditions. The Chairman forwards area designations that he recommends for approval to the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) with support for these recommendations. The Secretary of Defense has delegated the responsibility for designating imminent danger pay areas and certifying military service as in direct support of combat zone operations to the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) who is responsible for DOD personnel policy, including oversight of military compensation, and as such, serves as the focal point for imminent danger pay. DOD’s imminent danger pay guidance requires the unified combatant commanders to continuously appraise conditions within designated areas to ensure that these areas continue to present the threat of physical harm or imminent danger from civil insurrection, civil war, terrorism, or wartime conditions, and to submit their recommendations to continue or terminate area designations, at least annually, to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, for review. At any time, unified combatant commanders may recommend that additional areas be designated for imminent danger pay or that existing area designations be terminated. The Chairman, in turn, evaluates designation recommendations and, if the Chairman recommends them for approval, forwards the unified combatant commander’s recommendations to the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness). In practice, however, officials in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) have assumed responsibility for initiating and directly managing these reviews. DOD’s processes for reviewing existing imminent danger pay areas and combat zones can be improved. While combatant commanders have taken the initiative periodically to make recommendations to designate or terminate imminent danger pay areas, DOD has not conducted annual reviews of existing imminent danger pay areas in accordance with its guidance to ensure that conditions in these areas continue to warrant such designations. Also, DOD has not updated its guidance to reflect that the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) has assumed responsibility for initiating and managing annual reviews. In addition, DOD also has not incorporated factors contained in questionnaires completed by combatant commanders that the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) uses to evaluate when conditions in foreign areas pose the threat of physical harm or imminent danger to servicemembers performing duty in designated locations. By conducting annual reviews of existing designations in accordance with its guidance, DOD could strengthen its oversight of imminent danger pay designations to ensure that conditions in designated areas continue to pose the threat of physical harm or imminent danger to servicemembers and that these areas should continue to be designated. Furthermore, updating DOD’s guidance to include the current processes and factors used for reviewing and designating imminent danger pay areas would clarify responsibilities and establish standard criteria for use in meeting the program’s objectives. Imminent danger pay was first authorized in October 1983. Between 1992—when DOD revised its guidance to require annual reviews, as opposed to semiannual reviews, of imminent danger pay area designations—and 2006, the number of designated areas increased from 34 to 54 areas. (See appendix I for a list of areas currently designated for imminent danger pay). While DOD guidance requires the combatant commanders to continuously appraise conditions in designated areas and to forward recommendations to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, to continue or terminate these designations at least annually, in practice, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense has assumed responsibility for initiating and managing these reviews. The combatant commanders have not forwarded their recommendations on existing designations to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, at least annually, nor has the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) requested the combatant commanders to do so. Between 1992 and 2006, the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) requested the unified combatant commanders to conduct six reviews of designated imminent danger pay areas. Reviews were conducted in 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, and 2002; the 2006 review is ongoing, and officials in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) expect to complete it by October. In the absence of annual reviews, the combatant commanders have taken the initiative to periodically recommend the designation or termination of imminent danger pay areas. According to DOD officials, the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) deferred several reviews because of anticipated policy revisions and concerns about creating additional work for combatant commanders while they are engaged in ongoing operations. For instance, DOD deferred the 1998 review pending the anticipated revision of its imminent danger pay guidance to incorporate criteria for determining whether conditions in designated areas continue to pose the threat of physical harm or imminent danger from civil war, civil insurrection, terrorism, or wartime conditions to servicemembers. However, this revision did not occur. The department initiated the ongoing 2006 review shortly after we began our review. According to officials from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), the department deferred reviews between 2002 and 2006 because it did not want to create additional work for combatant commanders during ongoing operations, and department officials also believe that conditions in most designated areas had not changed sufficiently since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the start of the Global War on Terrorism to result in termination of designated areas. Although DOD guidance calls for the combatant commanders to forward recommendations to continue or to terminate imminent danger pay areas at least annually, this has occurred at longer intervals ranging from 2 to 5 years. As a result of combatant commander’s recommendations as well as annual reviews of imminent danger pay areas conducted by the combatant commanders at the request of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), the department has terminated area designations where conditions no longer pose the threat of physical harm or imminent danger from civil war, civil insurrection, terrorism, or wartime conditions. For instance, as a result of the 1993 review, DOD terminated imminent danger pay designation for areas including Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Gulfs of Oman and Aden as well as the Arabian Sea because the department determined that conditions no longer posed the threat of physical harm or imminent danger toward servicemembers. The department has also denied requests from unified combatant commanders to designate new areas for imminent danger pay when there is not sufficient information to demonstrate that conditions pose a threat of physical harm or imminent danger to servicemembers on duty in the location, based on criteria used in a questionnaire and accompanying threat assessments. By conducting annual reviews of existing designations in accordance with its guidance, DOD could strengthen its oversight of imminent danger pay designations to ensure that conditions in designated areas continue to pose the threat of physical harm or imminent danger to servicemembers and that these areas should continue to be designated. DOD has not updated its imminent danger pay guidance to (1) reflect the responsibility of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) for initiating and managing annual reviews of imminent danger pay areas or (2) to incorporate factors that DOD uses to evaluate and define when servicemembers face imminent danger. Updating guidance to include the current processes and factors used for reviewing and designating imminent danger pay areas would clarify responsibilities and establish standard criteria for use in meeting the objectives of the imminent danger pay program. First, while DOD’s imminent danger pay area guidance requires the unified combatant commanders and Joint Chiefs of Staff to conduct reviews of areas designated for imminent danger pay at least annually, in practice, the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) has directly managed these reviews since the mid-1990s. However, as previously discussed, the combatant commanders have not forwarded recommendations on existing designations to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, on an annual basis in accordance with DOD’s guidance and the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) has not requested them to do so on an annual basis.