    [House Hearing, 116 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                             [H.A.S.C. No. 116-41]

                        MILITARY PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT--

                         HOW ARE THE MILITARY SERVICES

                          ADAPTING TO RECRUIT, RETAIN,

                            AND MANAGE HIGH-QUALITY

                            TALENT TO MEET THE NEEDS

                             OF A MODERN MILITARY?

                                   __________

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                       SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

                                     OF THE

                          COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

                            HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                         ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   __________

                                  HEARING HELD

                                  MAY 16, 2019

    [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                   __________

                        U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
    37-527                      WASHINGTON : 2020

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                       SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

                     JACKIE SPEIER, California, Chairwoman

    SUSAN A. DAVIS, California           TRENT KELLY, Mississippi
    RUBEN GALLEGO, Arizona               RALPH LEE ABRAHAM, Louisiana
    GILBERT RAY CISNEROS, Jr.,           LIZ CHENEY, Wyoming
        California, Vice Chair           PAUL MITCHELL, Michigan
    VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas              JACK BERGMAN, Michigan
    DEBRA A. HAALAND, New Mexico         MATT GAETZ, Florida
    LORI TRAHAN, Massachusetts
    ELAINE G. LURIA, Virginia
                    Craig Greene, Professional Staff Member
                              Dan Sennott, Counsel
                             Danielle Steitz, Clerk

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

                  STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

    Kelly, Hon. Trent, a Representative from Mississippi, Ranking
      Member, Subcommittee on Military Personnel.....................     2
    Speier, Hon. Jackie, a Representative from California,
      Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Military Personnel.................     1

                                   WITNESSES

    Burke, VADM Robert P., USN, Chief of Naval Personnel, United
      States Navy....................................................     8
    Kelly, Lt Gen Brian T., USAF, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower,
      Personnel, and Services, United States Air Force...............     9
    Rocco, LtGen Michael A., USMC, Deputy Commandant for Manpower and
      Reserve Affairs, United States Marine Corps....................    11
    Seamands, LTG Thomas C., USA, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, United
      States Army....................................................     6
    Stewart, Hon. James N., Performing the Duties of the Under
      Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Department of
      Defense........................................................     4

                                    APPENDIX

    Prepared Statements:

        Burke, VADM Robert P.........................................    71
        Kelly, Lt Gen Brian T........................................    85
        Rocco, LtGen Michael A.......................................   101
        Seamands, LTG Thomas C.......................................    57
        Speier, Hon. Jackie..........................................    41
        Stewart, Hon. James N........................................    43

    Documents Submitted for the Record:

        [There were no Documents submitted.]

    Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:

        Mr. Bergman..................................................   121
        Mrs. Davis...................................................   119
        Ms. Haaland..................................................   121
        Mr. Kelly....................................................   117
        Ms. Speier...................................................   113

    Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:

        Mr. Cisneros.................................................   128
        Ms. Speier...................................................   125

    .
                   MILITARY PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT--HOW ARE THE

                 MILITARY SERVICES ADAPTING TO RECRUIT, RETAIN,

     AND MANAGE HIGH-QUALITY TALENT TO MEET THE NEEDS OF A MODERN MILITARY?

                                  ----------

                      House of Representatives,
                           Committee on Armed Services,
                            Subcommittee on Military Personnel,
                                Washington, DC, Thursday, May 16, 2019.
        The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:28 p.m., in
    room 2212, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jackie Speier
    (chairwoman of the subcommittee) presiding.

    OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JACKIE SPEIER, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
       CALIFORNIA, CHAIRWOMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

        Ms. Speier. Good afternoon. The Military Personnel
    Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee will come to
    order. I would like to welcome everyone to this afternoon's
    hearing.
        Today we will hear from the personnel chiefs from the
    Department and the four military services to discuss what they
    are doing to improve and modernize military personnel policy to
    sustain the All-Volunteer Force.
        The military personnel policy does not just involve
    military personnel; it also involves the family. We ask service
    members and their families to make sacrifices for our Nation.
    When they bravely step up to this task, we must only ask them
    to sacrifice when it is necessary--we must only ask them to
    sacrifice when it is necessary for our national security, not
    when it is required by outdated or shortsighted personnel
    policies. Our job is to recruit and retain service members who
    will allow the U.S. military to fight and win future
    challenges. A modern personnel system is a crucial tool in that
    effort.
        I spent 5 days last month visiting five different military
    installations, talking to leadership, service members, and
    their spouses so I could learn firsthand what the issues are
    facing our service members and families. These CODELs
    [congressional delegations] will continue, and I invite my
    colleagues on the committee to join me.
        There were four major issues that stood out. One was
    location of assignment and its impact on school-age children,
    especially high school age; employment for spouses who have
    professional careers; woefully inadequate childcare slots; and
    the need for more resources for sexual assault and domestic
    violence for service members and spouses.
        The demographics of service members have changed. More of
    our talented service members have talented spouses who want
    their own careers, want to contribute to the financial success
    of the family, and are starting families early in their
    careers.
        We have a force of volunteers that deserve recruiting and
    retention policies that adapt with the times, not inflexible
    bureaucratic cultures that demand conformity without offering
    new solutions.
        Military families are now making decisions not only based
    on military members' career progression but on the whole
    family's future. A small number of Americans serve in our Armed
    Forces, and they have growing expectations. Their expectations
    are merited, and we must meet and exceed them.
        The competition for the limited talent is fierce. The
    Department and the services have a great amount of flexibility
    in determining who is qualified to serve and must continue to
    look at ways to open the aperture to gain access to talent.
        We have a responsibility to take these problems seriously
    and not chalk up our system's shortcomings to the entitled
    needs and misplaced expectations of a new generation. Personnel
    policy must be shaped to respond to those currently serving,
    not those who commissioned during the Cold War.
        It is incumbent upon leadership in DOD [Department of
    Defense] and Congress to listen to and learn from those we
    serve. And we must make greater use of modern data gathering
    and survey techniques to make human resources decisions like a
    modern corporation. I believe the services need to think
    creatively and beyond their current cultures about how to
    manage people.
        The central question for today is: How are the military
    services adapting to recruit, retain, and manage high-quality
    talent to meet the needs of our modern military? I am
    interested to hear from our witnesses on how they gather
    information on what their service members value, how does that
    translate to policy, and what are each of you doing to
    incorporate the family into policies governing the career
    management process.
        Before we introduce the first panel, let me offer Ranking
    Member Kelly an opportunity to make his opening remarks.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Speier can be found in the
    Appendix on page 41.]

         STATEMENT OF HON. TRENT KELLY, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
    MISSISSIPPI, RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. Thank you, Chairwoman Speier.
        And I wish to welcome our witnesses to today's hearing.
        I also want to congratulate Vice Admiral Burke on his
    nomination as the next Vice Chief of Naval Operations.
        We cannot overstate the central role that our service
    members play in making the United States the most lethal
    military in the world. This strategic advantage is due in large
    part to the high accession and retention standards that the
    military services have established and continue to maintain.
        However, in this extremely strong economy with a record low
    unemployment rate and a low propensity to serve among our young
    people, it is not surprising that the pool of eligible
    applicants is extremely small. Given the challenge in the
    recruiting environment, it is crucial that the services
    leverage every tool available to understand what motivates
    qualified individuals to serve in the military and stay.
        In addition, once qualified applicants are recruited into
    the military, it is essential that the services efficiently and
    effectively identify and retain the most talented of those
    service members. To that end, Congress has given significant
    additional authorities to the Defense Department to ensure that
    they have the flexibility to recruit and retain a talented,
    competitive, and lethal force.
        However, before making additional changes to personnel
    management, we need to clearly understand the problem. Our
    previous hearing on the topic with outside experts reinforced
    the premise that we need to clearly understand why service
    members are electing to get out of the military and to
    understand what would have kept them in the service.
        The Defense Department already has much of the data
    necessary to answer these questions, but I remain concerned
    that the Department is not maximizing their use of this
    information in order to make informed policy decisions.
        I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about
    the current efforts to effectively retain qualified service
    members. Specifically, what data do the services use to
    understand what motivates service members to remain in the
    service?
        In addition, I am interested to hear what additional policy
    changes the services have made to the evaluation system,
    promotion system, and assignment system to identify and retain
    talent.
        I am also interested to understand this year's end-strength
    request and what those numbers will buy us in terms of
    readiness. Will the requested end-strength increases simply
    round down existing units, or will it allow the services to
    populate additional units or platforms? I am interested to hear
    about the services' goals for end-strength increases over the
    next 5 years.
        Finally, I believe family services are directly related to
    retention. The old adage is true: You recruit the soldier, but
    you retain the family.
        I am particularly concerned about the severe shortage of
    quality military childcare. Recent statistics we have received
    from the Department reveal that there are several installations
    where the average wait time for on-installation childcare is in
    excess of 180 days. This is problematic not just for working
    families but also for spouses who are hoping to look for work.
    If they have limited access to childcare, how can they seek
    employment? This is unacceptable, and I would like to know what
    the services are doing to ensure families are receiving the
    support they need, including meaningful access to childcare.
        Once again, I want to thank our witnesses and our
    chairperson for being here today and for their decades of
    service.
        And I yield back, Chair.
        Ms. Speier. Thank you, Ranking Member Kelly.
        Each witness will have the opportunity to present his or
    her testimony, and each member will have an opportunity to
    question the witnesses for 5 minutes.
        We respectfully ask the witnesses to summarize their
    testimony in 5 minutes or less. Your written comments and
    statements will be made part of the hearing record.
        Let's welcome our panel.
        First, the Honorable James Stewart, performing the duties
    of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
    at the Department of Defense.
        Welcome.
        Lieutenant General Thomas Seamands, Deputy Chief of Staff
    for United States Army.
        Vice Admiral Robert Burke, Chief of Naval Personnel, United
    States Navy. And I, too, would like to recognize that this will
    be Admiral Burke's last opportunity to testify before our
    subcommittee in this capacity.
        Congratulations on your nomination to be Vice Chief of
    Naval Operations.
        Next, we will hear from Lieutenant General Brian Kelly,
    Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel, and Services in
    the United States Air Force.
        And finally, Lieutenant General Michael Rocco, Deputy
    Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, United States
    Marine Corps.
        With that, Secretary Stewart, you may begin with your
    opening statement.

     STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES N. STEWART, PERFORMING THE DUTIES OF
      THE UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PERSONNEL AND READINESS,
                         DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

        Mr. Stewart. Thank you, Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member
    Kelly, distinguished members of the subcommittee. I am honored
    to appear here before you today to discuss how the Department
    of Defense recruits, retains, and manages our high-quality
    talent to meet the needs of our Nation.
        The Department is committed to the effective total force
    management, leveraging Active and Reserve military forces,
    civilian personnel, and contractors. To be effective, this
    effort must be long term in scope and vision and must always be
    focused on our service members who are at the tip of the spear.
        The military services have sustained the All-Volunteer
    Force by recruiting the best and brightest from across the
    Nation. The services are on track to achieve their recruiting
    missions this year, but they continue to face an ever-changing
    recruiting environment. A robust economy, low unemployment, and
    significant competition from the civilian sector have
    highlighted and tightened today's recruiting environment.
        Today, only 29 percent of our American youth are eligible
    for military service without a waiver, and only 2 percent are
    eligible, high-quality, and propensed to serve. So the
    Department is employing new and innovative tools to attract
    this group.
        To reach a more technologically savvy generation, the
    Department is leveraging social media and other relevant
    technologies. We have launched an integrated digital marketing
    campaign targeting not only young people but those who
    influence them the most--those parents, teachers, coaches, and
    other people in their lives who play a key role in the decision
    to join the military.
        Our Joint Advertising, Market Research, and Studies
    program, or JAMRS, folks have produced several 30-second
    commercial spots that appeal to all segments of our society,
    while utilizing artificial intelligence to analyze information,
    allowing us to reach audiences when they will be most receptive
    to DOD messaging.
        The Department and military services have varied outreach
    and marketing efforts to reach the widest audience, including
    specific activities targeted to reach talented women and
    minorities, because we rely on diverse backgrounds and
    perspectives to address the complex challenges facing our
    Nation today.
        In order to manage this diverse All-Volunteer Force, we
    appreciate the officer management authorities you provided in
    the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. These
    authorities give the military services new and flexible tools
    in the management and retention of the officer corps.
        And speaking of retention, military services are each
    exhibiting strong retention in the aggregate, and they expect
    to meet or exceed retention goals this year. In fact, the Army
    and the Air Force are seeing retention rates of 90 percent or
    more, rates that have not been evidenced in decades.
        Achieving and maintaining these retention rates is only
    possible if you take care of the member and their family. We
    like to say that you recruit the member but retain the family.
    We know that a commitment to the military often entails
    sacrifices, so we are making every effort to support our
    military families in ways that recognize and relieve the
    challenges that come with the military way of life.
        Authorities you granted in the fiscal year 2018 National
    Defense Authorization Act, allowing families to occupy two sets
    of quarters in different locations while retaining the higher
    basic allowance for housing, eases the burdens and disruptions
    of PCS [permanent change of station] moves and allows for more
    stability for the members, especially those with children in
    schools or for spouses with jobs.
        Concerning spouses, we know that 24 percent of military
    spouses are unemployed or underemployed. Supporting military
    spouses in their employment leads to family readiness and
    financial stability. That is why career counseling, finding
    employment opportunities, and supporting our highly successful
    scholarship program, My Career Advancement Account, are
    important.
        Also important is occupational license portability, which
    will allow spouses to transfer professional licenses and
    credentials from State to State. The Department of Defense's
    State Liaison Office has successfully worked with the States to
    streamline license transfer processing and continues to work
    with interagency and State partners to expedite or exempt
    professional licensing requirements for military spouses.
        Quality childcare is extremely important for our military
    families as well. The Department is working hard to provide
    high-quality, affordable childcare to our service members. We
    recognize the importance and impact on family readiness and are
    committed to meeting the increased demand for childcare
    services.
        Our rollout of militarychildcare.com allows families to
    register for childcare in advance of a move or before the new
    addition of a child to a family. Constructing new and
    refurbishing existing facilities, along with streamlining human
    capital practices, will facilitate the Department's ability to
    meet our service members' childcare needs.
        Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today
    and for your dedication and support that you have given to the
    Department. I am eager to continue our work together to ensure
    that we remain the most powerful fighting force in the world
    while sustaining and empowering military families who support
    our men and women in uniform.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Stewart can be found in the
    Appendix on page 43.]
        Ms. Speier. Thank you.
        Next, we have General Seamands.

       STATEMENT OF LTG THOMAS C. SEAMANDS, USA, DEPUTY CHIEF OF
                     STAFF, G-1, UNITED STATES ARMY

        General Seamands. Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Kelly,
    distinguished members of the committee, I thank you for the
    opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the women
    and men of the United States Army.
        I have submitted a statement for the record, but I would
    like to highlight a few of the points now.
        The Army's greatest strength is our people, the
    intelligent, adaptable, professional soldiers, civilians, and
    families who sacrifice so much for our Nation. We take care of
    our people by ensuring that our personnel policies are
    relevant, compassionate, and focused on readiness. Manning is
    truly the keystone in the archway of readiness and is vital to
    our Army's ability to fight and win our Nation's wars.
        To maintain readiness and to shape the future Army, we must
    recruit diverse, resilient individuals of high character to
    fully man our formations while obtaining sustainable growth and
    maintaining quality standards.
        Further, we must recruit in a competitive market. The Army
    must also continue to retain the most qualified and talented
    soldiers, noncommissioned officers, commissioned officers, and
    civilians with the experience and skills to meet our future
    needs.
        Retention of the family is just as important as retention
    of the soldier. Thanks to you--I would like to echo the
    comments of Mr. Stewart for the work you did on the 2018 NDAA
    [National Defense Authorization Act]--we now have in place the
    authority to reimburse spouses for licensing and credentialing
    when they change stations based on their soldier's move.
        Taking care of family remains our top priority. Thanks to
    your efforts in the 2018 NDAA, we are taking steps to improve
    our quality-of-life programs across our installations. These
    areas include enhancements for our dependents' educations,
    childcare programs, hiring authorities, as well as improvements
    to family support and readiness.
        Thank you for the authorities, as well, in the 2019 NDAA
    which provided us greater flexibility in our personnel
    management. We are beginning to use the authorities granted to
    help shape the future talent base system. As such, we are
    transforming our business practices and developing innovations
    to ensure we provide a force that is optimized. We have created
    a marketplace of officers where officers and units meet, find
    optimal ways to match talent, personal and professional goals,
    while enhancing readiness.
        The Army is undertaking a comprehensive reform of our
    Officer Personnel Management System to ensure we match the
    knowledge, skills, and behaviors of each soldier and getting
    them into the right position. The Army is moving away from an
    industrial-age personnel distribution system to an information-
    age market-based model. The new system will deliberately manage
    our soldiers based on optimized placement in positions that
    capitalize on their unique talents.
        The Army remains committed to giving all soldiers who can
    meet the standards of a military occupational specialty the
    opportunity to serve. We have successfully assessed and
    transferred more than a thousand women into previously closed
    occupations of infantry, armor, and field artillery.
        Department of the Army civilians are an integral partner in
    our efforts to become more lethal, enhancing our capability and
    capacity and ensuring critical support to our soldiers and
    families. We must continue to size our civilian workforce to
    meet the current and future demands.
        The Integrated Pay and Personnel System-Army, IPPS-A, is
    modernizing and transforming our human resources processes as I
    speak to change how the Army manages our most important asset,
    our people. We recently completed a very successful test of
    IPPS-A with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. The system is
    now live in Virginia and will soon be live in DC and Maryland
    National Guard. This year, we will field the system across all
    our Army National Guard formations.
        To ensure that we are organizationally ready for combat, we
    must sustain the personnel readiness of our soldiers. The Army
    is improving personnel readiness by strengthening our soldiers,
    improving resiliency skills, and fostering a culture of trust,
    fitness, and deployability. We believe these actions will
    enhance unit readiness, cohesion, and reduce the number of
    nondeployable soldiers.
        In addition to taking care of soldiers and their families
    while they are in the Army, we are committed to ensuring their
    successful transition as they prepare for life after the
    service. Ultimately, we want soldiers to properly transition to
    productive veterans of character, integrity, and service as
    they return to their communities.
        Our Army is the most formidable ground combat force on
    Earth because of the courage and commitment of our soldiers,
    civilians, veterans, and family members who serve our Nation.
    People are the Army. These men and women who serve our Nation,
    both in uniform and out, along with their families, are our
    most important asset. For the Army to be ready, our soldiers
    and families must also be ready.
        Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Kelly, distinguished
    members of the committee, I thank you for your generous and
    unwavering support of our outstanding soldiers and civilians
    and their families.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of General Seamands can be found in
    the Appendix on page 57.]
        Ms. Speier. Thank you.
        Vice Admiral Burke.

        STATEMENT OF VADM ROBERT P. BURKE, USN, CHIEF OF NAVAL
                     PERSONNEL, UNITED STATES NAVY

        Admiral Burke. Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Kelly,
    distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the
    opportunity to be here today and update you on your Navy's
    personnel programs.
        We continue to grow the Navy's manpower commensurate with
    the force structure for the Navy the Nation needs. We are
    simultaneously working to restore full manning to our existing
    fleet. This year, we will grow the Navy by 7,500 people and
    another 5,100 next year. Our fleet wholeness continues to
    improve, as evidenced by steady progress in improving fleet
    manning and closing gaps at sea even as we are growing the Navy
    at this aggressive pace.
        We still have work to do, and our success is directly tied
    to our collective commitment to consistent and full funding.
    Finding the right people is as important as making the numbers.
    The war for talent, as you have heard already, is real, and the
    competition is increasing.
        We continue to make our overall recruiting goals, the
    highest in decades, mostly due to our recruiting transformation
    efforts, innovative use of social media, and by shifting our
    ``Forged by the Sea'' advertising campaign predominantly to the
    digital market.
        A combination of our Sailor 2025 programs, surgical use of
    retention bonuses, which have been aided by predictive
    analytics, and other policy levers resulted in 2018 showing the
    largest enlisted retention improvements in a decade. This is
    critical as it has allowed us to establish the deep bench of
    experienced journeymen we are going to need to develop that
    next generation of masters.
        Despite overall improvements in retention, we continue to
    face challenges in the usual critical areas.
        Our Sailor 2025 initiatives continue to expand and get high
    marks from our sailors. This program will be a critical force
    multiplier going forward. The underlying transparency and the
    flexibility it provides directly and positively impacts our
    sailors' ``stay Navy'' decision.
        We greatly appreciated the increased DOPMA [Defense Officer
    Personnel Management Act] flexibility provided in the fiscal
    year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, and we are
    already putting each of the new authorities to work. And we
    look forward to reporting our successes to you in the near
    future.
        But as important as the programs themselves is the manner
    in which we deliver our personnel services. It has been said
    several times already today, and it is true: You recruit the
    sailor, but you retain the family. And what we ask of our
    sailors and their families is tremendous.
        But if we do a poor job of delivering basic services to
    them, like pay and travel claim liquidation, or we pile
    additional financial stress onto an already stressful event
    like a move because of our unimaginative processes, that sends
    a signal to our sailors and families that we just don't care.
    Our customer service is clearly a key retention driver.
        So we are on a path to deliver personnel services in a
    modern, simple, one-stop-shopping mobile-device-enabled manner
    with friendly, reliable call centers available 24/7 to help
    with the complex issues. That is what our sailors expect and
    deserve. And, yes, it is IT [information technology] systems,
    to a degree, but, more importantly, it is better, smarter,
    sailor-centric processes in a culture of customer service.
        So this past September, we launched My Navy Career Center,
    delivering enhanced 24/7 personnel pay and training customer
    service, just like a modern banking or insurance call center.
    My Navy Portal is our new online, one-stop personnel shop, and
    it offers a multitude of self-service options.
        In January, we began the move to My Navy Portal Mobile,
    piloting the use of commercial cloud systems without the use
    of--allowing sailors to access these systems without the use of
    their Common Access Card. By the end of this calendar year, our
    sailors will be doing most personnel business from their
    smartphones. And even the admin associated with PCS moves, one
    of the most frustrating evolutions all of us in uniform do,
    will be an afterthought so that families can concentrate on
    what matters most.
        The other angle that we are tackling is the changing nature
    of our workforce. Sixty-seven percent of our officers and over
    half of our enlisted sailors are married, and many of them are
    dual-professional couples. We have to address that reality if
    we are going to retain the family. And we launched multiple
    efforts within our Sailor 2025 portfolio to start to get after
    that.
        We have challenges that remain, and we still have a great
    deal of work to get to where we need to be if we are going to
    be truly competitive, but we are on a good path.
        And I would like to close by saying thank you for your
    support of these efforts and for your unwavering commitment to
    the men and women of the United States Navy and their families.
    I look forward to continuing our partnership, and I look
    forward to your questions.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Admiral Burke can be found in
    the Appendix on page 71.]
        Ms. Speier. Thank you, Admiral Burke.
        Next, Lieutenant General Kelly.

    STATEMENT OF LT GEN BRIAN T. KELLY, USAF, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF
     FOR MANPOWER, PERSONNEL, AND SERVICES, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

        General Kelly. Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Kelly, and
    distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the
    opportunity to appear before you to talk about our airmen--
    Active, Guard, Reserve, and civilian. America's airmen, your
    airmen, remain always there as part of the joint team,
    providing global vigilance, reach, and power in defense of the
    Nation.
        The Air Force's top priority is to build a lethal and ready
    Air Force capable of executing the National Defense Strategy-
    assigned missions. At its core, building a lethal and ready Air
    Force is about people, making our airmen and their families our
    most important asset. We therefore thank you for focusing this
    hearing on how we manage, recruit, take care of, and retain our
    airmen and families, particularly so to meet the needs of a
    modern military.
        We greatly appreciate your support that you provided in the
    fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act for
    continued end-strength growth to 690,500 total force airmen.
    This growth is accelerating our readiness recovery and will
    provide lethal airmen to protect and defend our Nation.
        This past year, we focused the resources you provided on
    our frontline pacing units, the 204 operational squadrons
    required in the opening days of a peer fight. Prioritizing the
    resources you provided has allowed more than 90 percent of the
    lead packages to be ready to fight tonight, with 80 percent of
    the fleet pacing units fully ready by the end of fiscal year
    2020, 6 years faster than originally projected.
        The fiscal year 2020 requested growth to 700,000 total
    force airmen continues our readiness recovery, augments
    existing capacity in our space and cyber mission areas, and
    provides the initial maintenance and operational manpower
    needed for the KC-46, F-35, and B-21.
        Despite an increasingly competitive market for talent, our
    Active Duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard are all on track
    to meet our overall fiscal year 2019 recruiting goals.
        However, with an understanding of the keen competition for
    talent, the Air Force has recently established a total force
    recruiting service effort responsible for recruiting and
    coordinating efforts across all three components. As part of
    this effort, we recently assigned a one-star Reserve general
    officer as the Deputy Commander of the Air Force Recruiting
    Service.
        We have also established two focused recruiting entities,
    one whose focus is to outreach to youth to increase awareness
    around opportunities within our underrepresented diverse
    populations, and the second whose job is to specifically scout,
    recruit, and prepare airmen for special warfare career fields.
    Both entities have shown promise during this year.
        This tough recruiting market, coupled with the high
    investments we make in training, places an even greater value
    on retaining our airmen and our families. We therefore
    appreciate the Congress' support of special incentive pays,
    which are a critical component to complement our non-monetary
    retention incentives. The fiscal year 2019 budget included $1.2
    billion for special incentive pays, allowing the Air Force to
    retain highly skilled airmen.
        Our overall retention picture is positive, although we have
    acute pockets where we are particularly stressed, including
    among our aviators. The Air Force ended fiscal year 2018 with a
    total force pilot shortfall of approximately 2,000 pilots, with
    slightly more than half of that shortfall within our fighter
    inventory. We appreciate the Congress support for increasing
    the pilot annual cap and monthly incentive pay levels, which we
    believe had a mildly positive impact this past year.
        Overall, we find non-monetary programs even more important
    to retention and, therefore, remain focused on improving the
    life of and quality of service of our airmen and their
    families.
        Responding to survey data from members and spouses, we
    added flexibility into the officer assignment process by
    leveraging technology through our new Talent Marketplace
    assignment matching system. We believe the increased
    transparency and improved member input will have a positive
    retention influence.
        We are expanding the system to our enlisted force and
    testing it to identify airmen for yearlong deployments. We are
    also executing family moves in accordance with the Family
    Stability Act and are utilizing high school deferments to
    provide some relief from the burdens of frequent moves to our
    airmen and families.
        The Air Force is also committed to transforming the way we
    develop, promote, and retain our officer corps. We thank the
    Congress for the increased DOPMA authorities received this past
    year and are utilizing early promotion and constructive credit
    already to fill gaps in our inventory.
        With your help, we also increased support to airmen and
    families for resiliency. We increased funding for child and
    youth programs by $40 million, added 119 civilian childcare
    positions, increased offsets to support the 4,500 children who
    annually use off-base providers, and funded youth resilience
    camps.
        We also know spouse employment is essential to family
    retention. Earlier this week, our Assistant Secretary for
    Manpower and Reserve Affairs signed out our policy implementing
    license reimbursement associated with permanent change of
    station for our spouses. The Air Force also remains committed
    to continued work in granting reciprocal licensing between
    States and adding increased employment flexibilities for our
    overseas spouses.
        Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Kelly, and distinguished
    members of the subcommittee, thank you again for the
    opportunity to appear before you and represent our incredible
    airmen and their families. Your airmen stand ready and fully
    understand their responsibilities to the joint force and the
    Nation.
        I am honored to be here alongside my colleagues, and I look
    forward to your questions. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of General Kelly can be found in
    the Appendix on page 85.]
        Ms. Speier. Thank you, General Kelly.
        Now we will hear from General Rocco.

     STATEMENT OF LTGEN MICHAEL A. ROCCO, USMC, DEPUTY COMMANDANT
      FOR MANPOWER AND RESERVE AFFAIRS, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

        General Rocco. Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Kelly, and
    distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for this
    opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the high-
    quality Marines who make up the Corps.
        Your Marines are the foundation of the Marine Corps. They
    are smart, resilient, fit, disciplined, and able to overcome
    adversity. Recruiting and retaining these high-quality women
    and men is my number one priority.
        This year, the Corps will once again meet our recruiting
    mission, while at the same time exceeding all quality goals.
    Over 99 percent of our recruits are in the top education tier.
    This success would not be possible without adequate funding for
    advertising, and I thank you for your support in this effort.
        The Corps is also on pace to meet our retention goals this
    year. However, this is a continuous challenge because of the
    strong civilian job market. This is particularly true for
    cyber, intelligence, aviators, and many of the other critical
    high-tech occupations. To be good stewards of the money you
    provide us, we narrowly target our incentive pays and bonuses
    to these occupations. These bonuses are vital to our retention
    effort, and we appreciate your continued support for them.
        To improve recruiting and retention, we are in the midst of
    executing a new survey, an AI [artificial intelligence]-focused
    talent management line of effort. The goal of this effort is to
    utilize data to better determine and predict retention and
    performance behaviors. We believe this effort will bear fruit
    in the near future.
        The Marine Corps is an objective standards-based
    organization. We want the best Marines, female and male, and
    have refocused and refined our outreach to ensure we bring
    awareness of what it means to be a Marine to a broader
    audience. This has paid dividends. Five years ago, the Marine
    Corps was 7.3 percent female. We are now 8.8 percent. In fiscal
    year 2018, female accessions were over 10 percent of the
    population, and we are on that same trajectory this year.
    Additionally, females are represented in all previously
    restricted occupational fields. We need the best our Nation
    offers, and we are getting them.
        We appreciate the recent officer management authorities
    that you provided in the fiscal year 2019 NDAA. They seek to
    help modernize how we manage our Marines, with the goal of
    recruiting and retaining the highest quality talent.
        Increasingly, warfighting is becoming more sophisticated,
    technical, and complex. Cyber operations, information and
    electronic warfare, enhanced command and control, and
    intelligence are examples of critical skills we will need for
    the future fight.
        We are in the process of implementing lineal list
    flexibility based on merit for our officer corps for many
    promotion boards scheduled to occur in 2019. We believe that
    allowing the promotion board the discretion to reorder by merit
    will reward those high-quality officers who demonstrate
    sustained superior performance.
        The adage that we recruit the Marine but retain the family
    was never more true than today. To this end, we are focusing
    significant effort on helping our Marine spouses gain further
    education and obtain and maintain employment. We are finalizing
    our policy to provide up to $500 towards licensing and
    certification costs when a Marine spouse moves to another
    State.
        I am proud to represent the men and women of character, the
    few, the proud, who have taken up the challenge of being a
    Marine. By keeping unwavering focus on our Marines and the
    spouses and families who support them, we can continue to keep
    faith with the honor, courage, and commitment they have so
    freely given.
        I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of General Rocco can be found in
    the Appendix on page 101.]
        Ms. Speier. Thank you, General Rocco.
        First of all, let me just say how impressed I am that you
    have recognized the importance of the family in addition to the
    service member. And I think that bodes well as we attempt to
    retain service members over the long term.
        Let me start with a lightning round of questions. I am
    going to ask each of the services the same questions, if you
    could just go down the line.
        The first question I have is, what is your waiting list for
    childcare, and how long is the wait? For each of you.
        General Seamands. Madam Chairman, it varies from location
    to location. In some cases, it is, as was cited earlier, over
    100 days, in places like Hawaii where the cost of living is a
    little higher and it is harder to attract people. In some
    cases, it is a very nominal wait list, depending on, I think,
    the workforce as well as the space.
        Ms. Speier. Well, that is actually not a great answer. So I
    would like for you to give me something that is more data-
    driven. When we were at Fort Bragg and meeting with the
    spouses, that was a serious complaint, that they had to wait
    over a year in some cases. So I think we need granular data
    from each of you if you don't have it.
        Admiral Burke.
        Admiral Burke. Yes, ma'am. We have just over 8,000
    personnel on wait list right now. About 2,000 of them are in
    excess of 180 days, you know, just over 6 months there. And we
    continue to work on means to expand our capacity.
        Ms. Speier. Okay.
        General Kelly.
        General Kelly. Chairwoman, I will take the discussion, as
    you said, for more granular data to provide you, but what I
    will provide to you now is, as General Seamands said, it varies
    by bases. We have some bases with absolutely no waiting list,
    and we have some others who are upwards of 140 days.
        And those key areas would be Langley Air Force Base for
    sure, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska as two that
    come to mind and which are also problematic in that there is
    not a lot of off-base childcare available at those locations as
    well.
        Ms. Speier. Okay.
        Yes?
        General Rocco. Chairwoman Speier, for the Marine Corps, we
    have 800 gaps, just over 800 gaps in childcare. Those are
    primarily located at Camp Pendleton, Hawaii, and Quantico. The
    wait list is about, on average, for those three bases, 6
    months. At any of the other bases, we don't have a problem.
        And the issue is not about space. It is about having
    qualified workers, the licensing, the high turnover. So we have
    an area like Camp Pendleton, southern California. They come on,
    they get licensed. It takes a little bit of time to get their
    license. They get their credentials. They are paid at the rate
    that we can pay them. And then, because they are credentialed
    in such a high-income area, they find some childcare off-base
    and get paid a lot more money.
        So, again, it is Camp Pendleton, Hawaii, and Quantico, and
    it is about 800 bed spaces.
        Thank you.
        Ms. Speier. All right. Thank you.
        I am going to give a shout-out to the Navy, which seems to
    have done a great job in some of these issue areas.
        Let's start with what is called the Career Intermission
    Program. At least, that is what the Navy calls it. Do each of
    you have one of those that gives your service members up to 3
    years to take a sabbatical?
        General Seamands. Madam Chairman, the Army does have a
    program. We have about 40 people in the program--officer and
    enlisted.
        Ms. Speier. And how long?
        General Seamands. It varies. In some cases, it is a year.
    It is up to the service member in terms of how long they want
    to go. Some, it is up to 3 years. In fact, one of the members
    went off to get their law degree and took the full 3 years. So
    it varies. Another member went off to get a scuba license to be
    a scuba instructor at some point.
        So it depends on how long they want. It could be up to 3
    years. I can get you more granularity.
        Ms. Speier. Is that automatic?
        General Seamands. It is. We have approved all the requests
    that have come in for the amount of time the soldiers have
    asked.
        Ms. Speier. All right.
        And, Admiral Burke, you have one, right?
        Admiral Burke. Yes, ma'am. We have had 217 sailors use it.
    We have had right around 125, 130 or so sailors come full
    circle, complete their intermission. About 90 of those came up
    on a subsequent reenlistment. They reenlisted. A lot of sailors
    tell us they would not have stayed in or been able to reenlist
    had they not had that opportunity to take that sabbatical and
    achieve the life-work balance objectives that they were after.
        Ms. Speier. General Kelly.
        General Kelly. Yes, ma'am, we have the same program. We
    have been in year four now of that program. We have over 200
    members who have entered in that program. Some have come back
    full circle, as Admiral Burke said.
        We interviewed six of those folks who came back this last
    year. All have decided, based on their CIP [Career Intermission
    Program] experience, to stay with and made a decision to stay
    and retain with the Air Force.
        Our program is about 56 percent female and about 44 percent
    male right now.
        Ms. Speier. All right.
        General Rocco.
        General Rocco. Yes, ma'am. We have 11 people in the
    program. We have had four that completed the program, two that
    came back into the Marine Corps and two that went to an
    interservice transfer.
        Ms. Speier. Okay.
        We have a high percentage of unintended pregnancies in the
    military. The Navy has a very good program in terms of
    providing information on contraception, particularly long-term
    contraception. I am curious if the other services have a
    similar program.
        General Seamands.
        General Seamands. Chairwoman, I will take that for the
    record. I am not sure.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    on page 113.]
        Ms. Speier. Okay.
        Anything you would like to add on that, Admiral Burke?
        Admiral Burke. We start it during our life skills course--
    that is the first thing that all our sailors go to right after
    boot camp--and kind of give them an education on everything to
    do with pregnancy and parenthood and impacts on careers and
    other things like that. And then we reinforce it continually
    throughout the career points.
        I think that is about it, ma'am.
        Ms. Speier. Okay.
        General Kelly.
        General Kelly. So, Madam Chairwoman, we have programs for
    basic education at basic training and initial skills training.
    I will get you specific on how those works.
        I can tell you that we also put in place a program that
    allowed pregnant airmen to make a decision, defer a decision
    until after they had a chance to talk to mentors, talk to
    others who had been in their--understood the resources that
    were available. We did that with an eye towards retention, and
    we have seen some improvements in retention. Where we used to
    force them to make the decision prior to the delivery of the
    child, now they have up to a year after that to make the
    decision.
        Ms. Speier. All right.
        General Rocco.
        General Rocco. The education starts at boot camp. It is
    something that they can elect to attend and get educated or get
    some training and some classes at boot camp.
        Ms. Speier. All right. I encourage you all to look at the
    Navy's program, because they have a lower--much lower rate of
    unintended pregnancies.
        Finally, do any of you provide in vitro services?
        General Seamands. Madam Chair, I believe we do, but I will
    take that for the record to confirm.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    on page 113.]
        Ms. Speier. All right.
        Admiral Burke.
        Admiral Burke. I don't believe that we do.
        General Kelly. Yeah, I will take it for the record as well.
    We know of some members who have done it, but I will have to
    get back on the official stats, ma'am.
        General Rocco. And, ma'am, I would like to take that for
    the record.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    on page 116.]
        Ms. Speier. All right. Great.
        With that, I will offer my ranking member his opportunity
    to ask questions.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. Thank you, Chairwoman Speier.
        You know, I have a continued focus on our Gold Star
    families and how we best serve those survivors of our Gold
    Star--of our warriors who die in combat. And I think that is
    really important overall, because we fight best when we know
    that our family and loved ones are taken care of. So I would
    just ask that you continue to keep that in mind as we go
    forward.
        The Department of Defense has an enormous amount of data
    related to service members, their families, and their
    backgrounds. How are each of the services, real quickly,
    leveraging the information to better understand service
    members' motivations for staying in the military or leaving the
    military?
        And we will start with you, General.
        General Seamands. Ranking Member Kelly, thank you for the
    question.
        We do have a number of surveys and some data that is out
    there. I would say one of the top reasons people tend to leave
    the Active and the Reserve force is civilian opportunities on
    the outside. At least that is the survey indication we get.
    With the economy doing what it is, unemployment less than 4
    percent, there is a significant draw beyond.
        Having said that, sir, for officer retention and NCO [non-
    commissioned officer] retention, we are at record highs in
    terms of people continuing to stay.
        Admiral Burke. Sir, we do a number of surveys as well. In
    addition to the traditional exit surveys, we have developed
    career milestone surveys for the sailors that are staying in.
    That is as important as finding out why people are leaving. And
    then we have also developed command climate-oriented but very
    targetable surveys that individual commands can tailor quickly
    and do frequently that we are calling pulse surveys. So there
    are a number of survey techniques.
        But, most recently, throughout our personnel system
    transformation and as part of our ongoing Sailor 2025 efforts,
    we have developed what we are calling fleet integration teams.
    And they go out and basically hold focus groups with sailors,
    spouses, family groups.
        An example, we went out--we took a 2-month period a year
    ago, went out across the fleet to understand the pain points
    associated with PCS moves. And we came up with 16 independent
    solutions, 2 of which we are about to put into motion here very
    shortly, to significantly ease the burdens of making PCS travel
    moves. And that is how we are, you know, getting the ideas that
    fuel the Sailor 2025 programs.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. And, General, I am going to stop
    here. If you guys can provide that for the record, because I
    want to make sure--mining of the data and getting the right
    data is very, very important.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    beginning on page 117.]
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. And, General Kelly, this question
    will be for you.
        And then I will get to you, General.
        Many of the personnel reforms we have discussed in the past
    have included plans to increase permeability between the Active
    and Reserve Components. What are your views on the need for
    this, and what has been done in the Air Force?
        And, specifically, I want to talk mostly Air Force and Army
    on this, the permeability between National Guard, Reserve, and
    Active Component.
        General Kelly. Sir, as you know, our modern use in the
    military for our Reserve Components, both our National Guard
    and Reserve, is as an operational force, no longer a strategic
    force. That means the permeability and our ability to manage as
    a total force has increased tremendously over time.
        We have several programs where we allow folks to move back
    and forth. We have a program called the Voluntary Limited
    Period of Active Duty, where the Reserve and Guard members
    serve on Active Duty for up to 3 years, and we have transition
    programs.
        Where I would tell you we fall short and we could use help
    is: The ability to move easily between requires appointment
    sometimes, especially on the officer side, requires
    reappointment as you move between components. In a modern force
    that uses the Air Reserve Components in an operational fashion,
    we would like to see us get to a place where we have an
    appointment authority that allows us to move much quicker and
    much easier between those components.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. General Seamands.
        General Seamands. Representative Kelly, I would echo
    General Kelly's comments. I think the biggest improvement we
    could do is to make it much easier to transfer back. We talk a
    lot about continuum of service, and if we want to encourage
    people to go between the Active, Guard, and Reserve, we need to
    make it easier for them and their families.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. General Rocco, this is for you.
    We have repeatedly heard that there are severe shortages on
    installation childcare. In many cases, military spouses are not
    able to even look for outside employment without meaningful
    access to childcare. What can the Marine Corps do to fix this?
        Because most military spouses, either husbands or wives,
    sacrifice a career for a job. So they do a job until their
    spouse retires, and then they are able to maintain their
    career. So what are we doing to fix this, General Rocco?
        General Rocco. Representative Kelly, thank you for that
    question. So I fully agree; lack of childcare impacts unit
    readiness, whether it is on the spouse or whether it is on the
    member who has to worry about their child in an appropriate
    child development center.
        So, to that point, I would say that we need to help
    streamline the licensing process. And as I answered Chairwoman
    Speier's question about child development, our shortage is not
    in actual spaces, it is not installations. It is the actual
    folks that watch the children and the licensing and the
    requirements. So, one, the licensing requirements, I think, is
    onerous.
        Number two, I think when you get to areas--and, again,
    Hawaii, southern California, and Quantico in northern Virginia,
    those areas have child development centers outside, obviously,
    in the civilian market. So we spend a lot of time getting these
    folks licensed and get their credentials up, and then they
    immediately find some higher paying jobs out in the civilian
    market. So we need the freedom to pay the market value or the
    market rate for these folks that are in these high-priced
    areas.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. And I want the answers from you
    all if you all will do those in writing and submit those.
        [The information referred to was not available at the time
    of printing.]
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. And final question. And I want
    each of you to answer this, and do it pretty quickly and
    succinct because we have other people.
        For each of the services, what would the requested end-
    strength increases in fiscal year 2020 be used for? And what
    increases to end strength do you anticipate needing in the next
    5 years?
        And I will start with you, General.
        General Seamands. Representative Kelly, thank you very
    much. We anticipate 2 years' measured growth of quality
    accessions to grow the force, primarily initially to fill the
    formations, make sure they are ready to go, and beyond that, to
    build structure.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. Admiral.
        Admiral Burke. Yes, sir. Our end strength is all to do with
    force structure improvements. So 7,500 this year, and then it
    is a rough 5,000 increase per year out across the FYDP [Future
    Years Defense Program]. And that will take us from our present
    288 ships out to 314, which is in the fiscal year 2020 plan.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. General.
        General Kelly. Our growth for this year is 4,400 for the
    military--3,700 Active Duty, 700 in the Reserve Component.
        It is a combination of continuing to improve our readiness
    and resiliency and increasing capacity and capability, to
    include, as I mentioned in the opening statement, adding
    maintainers ahead of time and operators ahead of time,
    anticipating the force structure growth for KC-46, F-35, and B-
    21.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. General.
        General Rocco. The Marine Corps growth is modest. It is 400
    over the FYDP--100 this year and 300 through the rest of the
    FYDP. And it has to do specifically with providing special
    operations critical skill enablers; so radiomen, logisticians.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. And just one comment. You guys,
    Hawaii and the other places, we have joint bases at most of
    those things. And I can't believe that we have--you four guys
    get together, and let's jointly fix this childcare problem. It
    is not an Army problem, it is not a Navy problem, it is not a
    Marine Corps problem. Let's fix it together.
        And, with that, I yield back, Chairwoman.
        Ms. Speier. The gentleman yields back.
        Mrs. Luria, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mrs. Luria. Well, thank you.
        And thank you for being here today.
        I am going to focus in on one service and one particular
    aspect of that service. I recently reviewed the fiscal year
    2020 Navy Active Duty Aviation Commander Command Screening
    Board results, and one statistic jumped out at me. The
    selection rate for women to commander command was 3.8 percent,
    or 7 out of 146 who were selected. Another way to say that is
    that 96.2 percent of all aviators selected for command in that
    year group were men. Additionally, only one woman of color was
    selected for command.
        And then when you look at the aviation major command
    results, they were even more stark. Only 1.8 percent of those
    selected were women, and zero were women of color.
        It also doesn't appear within those selection board
    results, from what I could tell, that any VFA [strike fighter]
    or VAQ [electronic attack] selectees--so fighter aircraft
    selectees--were women.
        Admiral Burke, I was wondering if you could comment why the
    aviation command selection rate for women was and continues to
    be so low.
        Admiral Burke. Yeah. Thank you, Representative Luria, for
    that question.
        I would start by saying that our enlisted population is----
        Mrs. Luria. I just would like to focus on women and
    officers. Thank you.
        Admiral Burke. Okay. Our enlisted population is more
    racially diverse than our Nation. Our officer population, in
    general, is not. And our aviation community, in particular,
    tends to be less diverse. But----
        Mrs. Luria. Is that at accession point, at commissioning,
    or are you talking about over time?
        Admiral Burke. And as we have recruited throughout the
    years, our diversity numbers have improved across the board in
    every community.
        But what you are seeing right now, especially at the
    command and major command selection boards, are the result of
    what we were recruiting 20 or 25 years ago, depending on which
    board you were talking about----
        Mrs. Luria. No, this was year group 2005, so 14 years ago.
    And the Combat Exclusion Act was lifted in 1994. So women have,
    for much longer than that, 10 years since then, had the
    opportunity to serve their careers since the beginning of their
    career in combatant roles, much like I did in surface warfare.
        So if we are 10 years past lifting the Combat Exclusion Act
    and then those women have had the same opportunities across the
    course of their career, how are we at the point that only 3.8
    percent--this is just one community, one year group--were
    selected for commander command and 1.8 percent for major
    command?
        Admiral Burke. Again, it is law of small numbers, where--
    you know, we have to improve in this area. It is an absolutely
    critical area, because diversity obviously makes us stronger.
    It gives us better answers, better solutions.
        But here is where the issue is. You know, we look very hard
    at the promotion boards, we look very hard at what we are
    recruiting, bringing in the front door, and our efforts to do
    that, and I could talk to you about that. But the area we
    haven't done well enough on is what goes on in between those
    boards--and that is a retention factor--what is the environment
    that is driving women to leave so that they are not around to
    be able to promote to that----
        Mrs. Luria. Can I pause----
        Admiral Burke [continuing]. Command opportunity or be
    selected for it.
        Mrs. Luria. We are limited on time, so I would like to
    pause. And I would like the five of you to look across the
    table at each other.
        Admiral Burke. Same phenomenon, though. How many----
        Mrs. Luria. And----
        Admiral Burke. How many do we retain to be eligible, that
    is the point, ma'am.
        Mrs. Luria. So, you know, no one----
        Admiral Burke. We have to manage----
        Mrs. Luria [continuing]. In the role of command----
        Admiral Burke. We have to manage that talent.
        Mrs. Luria [continuing]. Maybe personnel command, has ever
    been a woman?
        So I would like to focus on that. So, in the 2004 to 2006
    year group, which is the year group in this one particular
    command screening board, there were 13.6 women assessed. So I
    agree with you that the problem is retention. And what
    percentage of officers do you plan to commission this year are
    women?
        Admiral Burke. Roughly 25 percent.
        Mrs. Luria. So 25 percent as women. So that is an
    improvement, but, you know, really, statistically, it seems to
    be quite a jump. Because if I look at the numbers between--I
    don't have the numbers here, but, basically, in 2000 it was
    14.7 percent, and in 2016 it was 18 percent. So in the course
    of 16 years, we only jumped approximately 3.3 percent.
        Admiral Burke. That is total inventory----
        Mrs. Luria. So we haven't----
        Admiral Burke. Yeah. Our accessions for the last 4 years
    have averaged at right around 25 percent women.
        Mrs. Luria. Okay. And is that reflected in all
    commissioning sources, the Naval Academy as well as ROTC
    [Reserve Officers' Training Corps] and OCS [Officer Candidate
    School]?
        Admiral Burke. It is.
        Mrs. Luria. Okay.
        So, you know, you mentioned a couple times that you have
    been given additional authorities through last year's NDAA to
    improve with retention. And are those things that you are
    specifically analyzing and focusing on with women and also
    women's input throughout their service across the career
    milestone gates as to how you can use those tools effectively?
        Admiral Burke. Absolutely. We have to create career paths
    that all, you know, candidates, women and men alike, can see
    themselves both growing professionally and personally. And they
    have to meet their life goals as well as their career goals.
    So, you know, the ability to have some life-work balance, the
    ability to start and raise a family if that is a goal, whether
    you are a man or a woman, that has to be part of the formula.
        And DOPMA, as it was before the fiscal year 2019 NDAA,
    really pressurized career paths, especially in our aviation
    community and especially in the two communities you singled out
    earlier, our TACAIR [tactical air] air communities. If you
    didn't go immediately into an aviation production job, you
    wouldn't meet the next milestone, you wouldn't meet the next
    statutory promotion opportunity.
        So the flexibilities you have given us, the opportunity to
    opt out of promotion, the opportunity to build up-and-stay
    career paths, those are very specific examples of where we are
    building those pieces in, to give places to do something
    different, achieve that life-work balance, and then come back
    and get back on the treadmill without penalty to that upward
    mobility, whether it is command or----
        Mrs. Luria. So have any of the----
        Ms. Speier. Excuse me. The gentlewoman's time has expired.
        Mrs. Luria. Thank you.
        Ms. Speier. Ms. Escobar is recognized for 5 minutes.
        Ms. Escobar. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        To all of our panelists, thank you so much for your
    service. Thank you for being here.
        General Seamands, it is good to see you again. I really
    appreciated our time together in the office yesterday and you
    answering some of my questions during our meeting.
        I wanted to follow up on something that we discussed
    regarding making sure that spouses have opportunities for
    employment in the communities where they are living in. And one
    of the things I shared with you was not just the licensing
    issue, but hopefully one of the things we look at changing is
    making sure that we standardize or we create, like, a uniform
    standard for folks so that they don't have to worry about State
    by State standards. So that is something definitely that we can
    work on.
        But I am very curious about how we can help military
    spouses who have professional careers who are less able to
    adapt to frequent moves. Are there strategies that you all have
    thought of and are putting into place for that group of
    spouses?
        General Seamands. Ma'am, thanks for the question.
        Yes, we have. One of the things we do, the Secretary and
    the Chief said we need to get away from conventional wisdom. In
    other words, you have to move on a certain rotational basis. So
    they have instructed us to tell an officer, if you are
    someplace, say, Fort Hood, your spouse is happy, your family is
    happy, and you are going off to a professional military
    education, we give you the opportunity to come back. Five years
    ago, that wouldn't have happened. And what that allows is
    stability for the family to stay in place, to build a little
    financial wealth if they live off-post, and provide stability
    for the spouse and the soldiers.
        The authority to reimburse them for their licensing, I
    think, is going to be a big, big deal.
        The Secretary is also approaching the overseas spouse,
    which is probably one of the most underemployed segments of our
    population, trying to make sure they have an opportunity for
    employment as their soldiers deploy overseas.
        Ms. Escobar. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
        Could the other service leaders weigh in, as well, if there
    are other strategies that you have seen that might be workable
    or that are in the pipeline?
        Admiral Burke. On the overseas point, ma'am, I agree with
    everything that General Seamands said, but, specifically, I
    know all three service secretaries just signed a memorandum of
    agreement to go after that specific issue.
        And, you know, it involves starting simple. There are some
    internal barriers that we can remove, like the ability to run a
    home business in on-base housing, the ability to run a business
    out of your APO [Army Post Office] or FPO [Fleet Post Office]
    mailbox, things of that nature.
        And then the corporate world can help us as well. Similar
    to the programs that we run in CONUS [continental United
    States] with OSD's [Office of the Secretary of Defense's] help,
    the Fortune 500 companies that participate with preferential
    spouse hiring for military contractors, and then actually
    provide them portable careers that tend to move base to base.
    There are some opportunities in not all but many of the
    overseas locations, so expanding that portfolio.
        That is where we are starting, but room to maneuver from
    there.
        Mr. Stewart. Ma'am, can I jump in here as far as DOD and
    what we are doing in that area?
        We have the Military Spouses Employment Partnership, which
    works with 390 partner employers out there. About 134,000 have
    been hired since 2011. So we have some programs out there that
    are helping the services.
        General Rocco. Yes, ma'am. So, for the Marine Corps--and,
    granted, we are the smallest service, so our problems pale in
    comparison to the larger services, but we have--from assignment
    policy, which I run in my building, we have monitors to
    represent every occupational field. And a Marine never gets
    orders unless they have spoken to their monitor and said, okay,
    here is what we are doing and where we are doing it.
        And we don't just move Marines to move them. We move them
    based on their promotion, there is a school, or they have a
    command. And we always take into account the spousal
    employment. We just recently had a senior officer--and if we
    can't come to an agreement, a mutual agreement, then it comes
    up to my level to see how do we adjudicate. And we recently had
    a senior officer whose spouse is a certified medical
    professional in southern California. Very limited on where she
    can practice. So we were able to find a place where he can both
    be assignable and still continue to be a Marine and not harm
    his career and provide her the ability to transition.
        So, again, it is on a personal level that we deal with
    trying to find an agreement that works both for the Marine
    Corps and the couple.
        Ms. Escobar. Thank you so much.
        And I just want to jump in--I am running out of time. I
    just want to echo the concerns by my colleague who spoke prior
    to me on diversity. And my concern also is diversity not just
    for women but for all people of color in that upper echelon. It
    is hard to recruit diverse people if they think there is no
    place for them to move upward. So I just want to echo those
    concerns.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.
        Ms. Speier. The gentlewoman yields back.
        Mr. Cisneros is recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mr. Cisneros. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you all for
    being here.
        I am actually going to touch on diversity. You know, Mr.
    Stewart, in your written testimony, you mentioned the efforts
    the services are undertaking to promote diversity and
    inclusion. But you also mentioned in your written testimony
    that there is no particular program of--no goals to recruit to
    women or minorities.
        So how can we expect these demographics to be properly
    represented, particularly in our officer corps, which are
    greatly underrepresented between, you know, women and
    minorities? If we are not setting goals, how can we expect to
    recruit to these communities and increase their population?
        Mr. Stewart. Well, sir, we certainly don't want to go ahead
    and set quotas, but we definitely want to go ahead and make
    sure that we are reflecting the Nation as a whole.
        And so particularly in the area of diversity, I know you
    had a question--and, in fact, sent a letter, which we are going
    to get back to you on--as far as what we are doing in this
    area, particularly in the military leadership area at the
    senior ranks.
        We have the Military Leadership Diversity Commission, which
    basically was in the NDAA 2009, which we are basically going
    ahead and moving out on. I have an actual office that works
    those kinds of issues, and it is the Force Resiliency Shop and
    the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. I have a Dr.
    Allison Greene-Sands, who actually is working on that very
    issue as we speak.
        Before I came over here, I made sure that we checked on the
    progress of your letter to the Secretary, and we are working
    that, and we are going to get an answer back to you, sir.
        Mr. Cisneros. Thank you. I appreciate that.
        General Kelly. Sir, if I can add in--this is General Kelly.
    If I could add in, regarding that discussion on goals, right,
    so I am with Mr. Stewart; we don't have quotas. But we have set
    goals for applicant pool goals for the United States Air Force
    Academy, for our ROTC programs.
        And I will tell you that this year, so our applicant pool
    goal--so the applicant pool goal for female applicants at the
    academy was 30 percent. We achieved that for the first time
    this year for our class of 2022. We are at 28 percent for our
    ROTC program.
        The other thing we have done is internal, is, once you get
    them in the door, how do you retain them and move them up the
    chain? For all of our key slates, key slates for jobs such as
    general officer aides, general officer executives, key front
    office jobs, every slate that we produce in those environments
    today have to have both gender and broader diversity candidates
    on each slate, and that has improved those numbers from about
    18 to 22 percent across the board.
        Mr. Cisneros. Do we have programs in the other services?
        Admiral Burke. Sir, yes, if I could add to that. We have
    similar as what Air Force said. We set targets for gender
    recruiting, for gender and other areas.
        But more importantly, what we do is focus our efforts to
    make sure that we are in the right places, that we are
    accessible to folks, that we don't intentionally alienate
    groups when we are sending the message of what the Navy can do
    for individuals or what they can do for us and that we don't
    overlook any source of talent.
        And then, once folks are in, in terms of retention, it
    really is the key. It is management of the small numbers, and
    we put a renewed focus on managing at the very junior level so
    that you have those folks available to promote up to senior
    levels.
        We have got a number of focus groups that continue to work.
    We have set a Navy-wide high-leverage outcome goal of
    eliminating unconscious bias.
        We have looked hard at our promotion systems, you know, who
    is eligible and who gets promoted. We think those are working
    right. But what is happening is who leaves in between those
    promotion boards, those command screening opportunities, and
    things like that; is our culture driving them out?
        And there are human unconscious biases that drive that, and
    this high-leverage outcome is getting at that, engineering
    processes that overcome those unconscious biases.
        And then we have an Inclusion and Diversity Impact Plan
    that goes with our culture of excellence that is going to
    reinforce this all down to the deckplates, and I am happy to
    talk with you more about that when we have more time, sir.
        General Seamands. All right. It really starts at accession,
    sir. So far, on the enlisted side, what we are doing is
    attacking 22 cities that we have not given as much attention to
    in the past, which will bring a lot more diversity to the
    force. On the officer side, sir, it starts as we bring people
    to West Point, ROTC, and OCS.
        This week, sir, the United States Military Academy will
    graduate 34 African American female cadets to become second
    lieutenants, highest number ever. It will be the highest number
    of female Hispanic officers being commissioned, and we will
    commission the 5,000th female to graduate from West Point since
    they started accepting females.
        So it starts at that point, and it requires care and
    nurturing as you go up to make sure they get the right
    assignments so you have a broad bench to pick up for flag
    officers later on.
        General Rocco. And, sir, in the Marine Corps, as I stated
    before, in 2018, we accessed over 10 percent female, and this
    year we are on the same trajectory. On every promotion board,
    there is a representative female, and there is also an officer
    of color, a diverse officer. We also--by MOS [military
    occupational specialty] so we don't--we don't help one
    particular MOS over another. And we also included unconscious
    bias training in our--all of our schools.
        Mr. Cisneros. My time has expired. Thank you very much.
        Ms. Speier. The gentleman yields back.
        Congresswoman Davis is recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mrs. Davis. Thank you. Thank you to all of you for your
    dedicated service.
        I wanted to just pick up on the what we call childcare
    issue and just thinking about what I would call child
    development educators. They don't really just watch kids. They
    educate them. And whether that--and, sir, turning to you,
    Lieutenant General Rocco, at Pendleton for, as an example,
    where you have higher pay for a number of the educators in the
    area, do you know generally what that gap is? Because you
    talked about the needs--the freedom, really, to pay higher
    salaries there. Any sense of that, what that gap is?
        General Rocco. Ma'am, I don't know what the gap is, but I
    can certainly come back to you on that and just--and I fully
    agree with you in my mischaracterization of it. I have two
    grandchildren who are on--who are being educated and being--are
    in the child development system. So I have got personal reasons
    to make sure this is done right. But we will certainly get back
    to you on the numbers as far as what that gap is.
        Mrs. Davis. Okay. Is it an authority that they are looking
    for to do that? Is that across the board that people would have
    to have authority or just in particular areas? Do we need to
    write something specific?
        General Rocco. I think it is a matter of--because of how
    they are paid--they are paid a certain salary. And that salary,
    whether you are in Camp Pendleton, Twentynine Palms, or
    wherever you may be, because it is government work, it is one
    salary. And, of course, you go to the high-income areas--where
    it may work in, say, the Midwest, it doesn't necessarily work
    in high-income areas like Hawaii or southern California and
    certainly northern Virginia where they can get a much larger
    salary to work out in the civilian market.
        Mrs. Davis. Certainly, right. I understand that. Because I
    think what happens--and I may be not necessarily fully correct
    about this--but at Pendleton and some of the other bases in San
    Diego that I am familiar with, often we do have spouses who
    develop their own businesses in their home basically. And so
    they are kind of paid outside of that system.
        General Rocco. Very well--and I am sure that is exactly--
    but just from a base--and, again, from Quantico, where I am
    stationed at, it is a very good system. They are very flexible
    in children and who they take and when they take and their
    hours.
        But it comes down to they can work in Arlington or they can
    move up further north closer to the Capital and get paid more
    money than we can pay them down at Quantico.
        Mrs. Davis. Okay. Thank you.
        Mr. Stewart. Congresswoman, can I help them out a little
    bit on that?
        Mrs. Davis. Sure.
        Mr. Stewart. Within the military community and family
    policy area within the Department of Defense, we are addressing
    salary, benefits, and other initiatives with Joint Service
    Compensation Working Group that we are currently working on
    right now.
        This is an area that has been identified, and we basically
    have the same problem with all of the services. And so this is
    at the OSD level that we are trying to help them out with that,
    ma'am.
        Mrs. Davis. All right. Thank you. And I know the standards
    are great. People are very pleased with that. But perhaps there
    are some alternatives to helping a number of women or men, for
    that matter, establishing businesses that might comply and be
    able to create some of those within the community. So that
    would be good to take a look at.
        I also wanted to just for a minute talk a little bit about
    bonuses for retention and sort of understanding whether they
    are necessarily competing with equivalent civilian salaries or
    whether there are some incentives that would be more salient,
    more critical to families that would be desirable and perhaps--
    you know, you are doing some of those--obviously the Navy is
    doing some--about career intermissions. I was really happy to
    hear you talk about that, because, you know, we worked hard on
    that trying to make people understand how important that was
    for quality of life.
        I spoke to so many women who left the service as a result
    of that. So I am glad to know that you are working on it.
        But what about that? I mean, are we trying to equate higher
    salaries and maybe not looking at other kind of bonuses, other
    kind of benefits that would be helpful?
        General Kelly. Congresswoman, I will start. So, when we
    look at our bonus structures, very rarely are we trying to
    compete 100 percent with the civilian salaries. It is really
    difficult. And I will give you the aviation example we brought
    up before. We can't compete with those folks. What we do with
    those monetary bonuses is just sort of offset the discussion
    and help tilt the equation in our favor.
        What we really focus on is those other incentives like you
    just talked--there are other quality-of-life things we can do.
    We have almost done like a sort of USAA [United Services
    Automobile Association] model, if you will, where we try to,
    person by person, find out, what is your incentive? What is
    your discussion? Is it staying longer at the place you are at?
    Is it PCSing to a certain base? Is it, you know, deciding that
    you want to stay through your child's high school years? We try
    to almost tailor person by person to work on the retention
    piece, with the monetary piece just offsetting. But we do not
    try to compete with the civil sector on that.
        Mrs. Davis. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
        And I was going to ask about the Blended Retirement Systems
    and the fact that we see a difference, really, in the higher or
    lower rates of Active Duty and Reserves, and perhaps for
    another time you would be able to kind of address that issue.
        Thank you very much.
        Ms. Speier. The gentlewoman yields back.
        Maybe you can provide that information to us for the
    record.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    beginning on page 119.]
        Ms. Speier. Next, Ms. Haaland is recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. I am sorry. We are not----
        Ms. Speier. Oh, well, we were doing it based on who came
    in, but in fairness, yes, Mr. Bergman is recognized for 5
    minutes.
        I apologize, Ms. Haaland.
        Mr. Bergman. You want me to yield the 5 to her and then get
    it back?
        Ms. Speier. No, you are fine.
        Mr. Bergman. All right. I will take 6 back, give 5.
    Government math.
        Okay. Thanks for being here, everybody. And thanks, Madam
    Chairwoman, for the chance to ask a couple of questions.
        Number one, each of the services, you have got first
    termers. What is the percentage of your first termers that you
    hope to retain for a second enlistment and then therefore
    potentially towards, you know, a career of 20? Any rough
    numbers for each service?
        I think in the Marine Corps, it used to be somewhere around
    25 percent or--somewhere between 25 to 30 percent was our first
    term?
        General Seamands. For the Army--all of the services have a
    pyramid. For the Army, it is higher than that. It is probably
    about 50 or 60 percent we would like to stay. Our retention
    rate is about 80 percent of those people who are fully
    qualified are staying, between----
        Mr. Bergman. So really when someone comes in, you hope that
    you will get a minimum of 50 to 60 percent to stay for 20?
        General Seamands. Not for 20, sir. About 20 percent will
    stay all the way to 20. But----
        Mr. Bergman. Okay.
        General Seamands [continuing]. As they go up.
        Mr. Bergman. So you build that career force, if you will,
    out of 20 percent of those who come in the door?
        General Seamands. Roughly, yes, sir.
        Mr. Bergman. Okay. Fair enough.
        Navy?
        Admiral Burke. Yeah, first term retention, so our contracts
    tend to run a little longer. So that's a 6-year contract to the
    second 6-year contract.
        When we are at a stable size, we need roughly around 55
    percent retention to that second contract. Right now, we need
    much higher than that because we are trying to balance
    accessions versus retention, because we don't want a really
    junior force manning that 355-ship Navy. We want a mix of
    experienced people. So we need in the, you know, 70 to 80
    percent region, and we are in that ballpark right now.
        Mr. Bergman. Okay.
        Air Force?
        General Kelly. Yes, sir. So, similar to the Navy, we use 6-
    year enlistments as our predominant method. And when they come
    in, we are looking for somewhere between 60 and 75 percent of
    those 6-year enlistments to take a second enlistment.
        The numbers that we are looking to get to 20 years, similar
    to the Army, we are looking for about 23 to 25 percent to get
    to 20 years on our enlisted force as they go forward.
        And what I would tell you is, right now, our enlisted, if I
    look across all of our specialties as a whole, 90 percent of
    our enlisted specialties are retaining at or above the levels
    that they were in the previous year. So we are in pretty good
    shape right now.
        Mr. Bergman. Okay. Thank you.
        We all know--you hear the numbers--roughly 70 percent of
    the age-eligible men and women who we would try to enlist
    can't. Largely obesity is a big--you know, big problem.
        What, if anything, are you as the services doing to help
    those who may walk in your recruiting center overweight to get
    them so they can successfully complete boot camp?
        Admiral Burke. I will take this one to start, if you guys
    don't mind.
        We took a holistic look at all the medical accession
    standards. And those that the Department of the Navy had
    flexibility in, we worked with our Bureau of Medicine to take a
    fresh look at through the lens of modern medicine, things like
    ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder], hearing loss
    that could be corrected with hearing aids, eczema, stuff like
    that that we used to just immediately turn----
        Mr. Bergman. I guess I really want to focus on the obesity.
        Admiral Burke. The same thing with the weight issue. So we
    started putting people in delay--in physical training [PT]
    programs.
        Mr. Bergman. Like a delayed entry program, get them into
    shape?
        Admiral Burke. And then we started running the entrance
    exam at the beginning of boot camp.
        Mr. Bergman. Okay.
        General Rocco. And, sir. I think you know in the Marine
    Corps, we have the DEP, the delayed entry program, and we just
    get them on the treadmill and PT them.
        Mr. Bergman. Really, we do that?
        But it is okay. I mean, we--because each service has a
    different mission, and we need different, you know, levels of
    capability in our service members to complete--to complete our
    mission. But we know it is a national problem of obesity. And I
    know that you all can set the standards for the entire Nation
    for what--for especially our 18- to 24-year-olds.
        I would like to, for the record, take it--you don't have to
    answer me now. But the cost per individual from the day they
    walk in the door, or let's say that you allocate--if you
    picture--or your advertising dollars in your recruiting, the
    cost per individual to get them through boot camp. And just if
    you could, you know, take that for the record, I would
    appreciate it to see what that cost is.
        And thanks, Madam Chairwoman, and I yield back.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    on page 121.]
        Ms. Speier. The gentleman yields back.
        Along the same lines, I think it would be helpful to the
    committee if each of the services could provide us with the
    reasons why those who attempt to enlist are declined the
    opportunity. It would be helpful for us over the long run.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    beginning on page 113.]
        Ms. Speier. Now, Ms. Haaland is recognized for 5 minutes.
        Ms. Haaland. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        And thank you very much, gentlemen, for being with us this
    afternoon. I appreciate your service to our country. And thank
    you so much.
        I hope I am not repeating any questions, because I came in
    a little late. But we will try.
        Maybe this question would be best answered by Lieutenant
    General Kelly.
        How do you envision we can better use our Air Guard to
    solve our current pilot shortage?
        General Kelly. Thank you for that question.
        As I mentioned earlier, but I will go again on this, is we
    use our Reserve Components as operational reserves. So when we
    deploy our forces, it is quite often almost impossible for you
    to tell whether it is an Active Duty member, a Reserve member,
    or a Guard member. They are completely interchangeable for us,
    and we utilize them in that fashion.
        We find, though, in this pilot retention problem where we
    are at, that we have shortages across all three components. And
    so, while we are able to sometimes, you know, substitute Active
    Duty shortages with the Guard, we find similar shortages in our
    full-time--particularly full-time pilots in the Guard and
    Reserve. And so the problem for us goes across all three
    components in that case.
        Ms. Haaland. Anyone else like to take that question?
        Admiral Burke. Yes, ma'am. We are able to do similar with
    everything--except for our TACAIR that deploys on aircraft
    carriers, just because of the operating model and the
    deployment cycles, the training--train as a unit, deploy as a
    unit, and remain ready as a unit to surge deploy.
        But with other types of aircraft that deploy as
    detachments, we actively integrate our Reserve Component. So
    helos, patrol aircraft, transports, so on and so on and so
    forth.
        Ms. Haaland. Thank you. Thank you.
        I was just thinking--I was recently--I gave the
    commencement speech at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic
    Institute. It is kind of a--it is a Tribal college, but it is a
    community college, in Albuquerque. And the JROTC [Junior
    Reserve Officers' Training Corps] who did the color guard, they
    were all Native girls, an all Native girl color guard, which
    you don't see often.
        I am just wondering, is--how--like what is the percentage
    of JROTC students who eventually enlist, and is like reaching
    high school students a viable way of ensuring that diversity
    and the female population has an equal chance at a career in
    the military?
        Mr. Stewart. From an OSD perspective, I will take that for
    the record, to go ahead and get back to you on those numbers. I
    will let the services talk about specifically their Junior
    ROTCs. But, overall, we will try to get back to you with that,
    ma'am.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    on page 121.]
        Ms. Haaland. Okay.
        General Seamands. Within the Army, ma'am, we own about half
    of the Department of Defense Junior ROTC programs. Great
    citizenship programs. Even if they don't come into uniform, the
    leadership they learn, the skills, the values, the discipline,
    I think pay off in life later on.
        A number of them do come in; not only to the Army, they
    come into other services as well. But we are very proud of our
    Junior ROTC programs. We think they make a big--great
    contribution to our Nation.
        Admiral Burke. I would echo General Seamands; same for the
    Navy.
        Ms. Haaland. Okay.
        General Kelly. I would echo as well, ma'am. But then I
    would also add that there are other organizations for us
    besides the Junior ROTC where we focus to try and increase our
    female accessions in effect. We look to areas like BEYA, the
    Black Engineer of the Year, societies. We have partnerships
    with the robotics, with ELeague, with GoPro, a bunch of the
    other folks, where we can do some partnerships to try and make
    sure that we increase the interest and the opportunity for them
    to know about the Air Force.
        General Rocco. Ma'am, I think it is just a wonderful
    program. And we can get back to you with the numbers, at least
    for the Marine Corps, that we get. But it is programs like that
    that encourage folks to serve.
        Ms. Haaland. Because really when I think about the
    opportunities in our Native American communities, sometimes the
    unemployment rate is as high as 50 or 60 percent, and it just
    seems that those are opportunities that we could increase in
    those areas.
        And sort of along those lines, Lieutenant General Seamands,
    with 79 percent of new recruits having a relative who served,
    what efforts are being made to appeal to new recruits outside
    of that demographic?
        General Seamands. Thank you for the question. A lot of our
    recruits come from kind of a southern smile, from the DC area
    all the way down to Florida, Georgia, into Texas. So we are
    expanding beyond that range. We have identified 22 cities, big
    cities, Pittsburgh, Seattle, other places that we may have
    neglected a little bit in the past, where we think we can reach
    into some diversity across our Nation.
        We really want our Army to look like our Nation, and we
    can't do that unless we tap into all the right places to bring
    in applicants to become soldiers.
        Ms. Haaland. Thank you so much.
        And, Madam Chair, I will yield back.
        Ms. Speier. The gentlelady yields back.
        There has been a request for a second round. So we are
    going to engage in that.
        Let me just say at the outset to all of you and to Mr.
    Stewart that one of the areas that is oftentimes overlooked is
    girls' high schools in terms of recruitment. And I think that
    would be a good area for you to pursue as well.
        Mr. Kelly.
        Mr. Kelly of Mississippi. And I am not going to take long.
    But I have a unique--we are having our first Mississippi
    National Guard armor officer who is a female was commissioned
    last weekend. And I got to meet her; very great young lady.
        But we have a policy--it is either DOD or Department of the
    Army--which requires that she be--have another female officer
    with her in order to serve, okay?
        And so we have got to be careful with policies that
    segregate, and we have got to integrate, okay? And what that
    means is, is she doesn't need to be in HHC [Headquarters and
    Headquarters Company]. What she needs is to be commanding a
    tank platoon with whoever is in that tank platoon.
        And so we have to be real careful that we--because that is
    a leadership deal. We have got to make sure we keep folks in
    line; that we treat them right. But we can't segregate for the
    purpose of integrating, because it does not work. We have got
    to make sure we give them the opportunities to perform as a
    tank platoon leader, whether they are female or male or
    anything else.
        So I just ask that we look at that, to be careful not to
    try to help and hurt by trying to help, okay?
        And, with that, I yield back, Chairwoman.
        Ms. Speier. The gentleman yields back.
        Mrs. Luria, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mrs. Luria. Well, thank you. I would like to continue along
    the line of questioning from earlier.
        So, across the country, women make up about 56 percent of
    all college attendees. And since one of the primary factors in
    receiving a commission is a degree, I was curious as to why
    currently in the Navy--and I would like to hear from the other
    services, the previous question I asked, your current
    accessions and people that you will be commissioning this year,
    why is that percentage only half of the current population?
        And, General Kelly, you might have alluded to it some as
    well when you mentioned the Air Force Academy application pool,
    you are getting about 30 percent of applicants.
        So is it a question of the number of people applying and
    presenting themselves to, you know, be members of the military
    and be commissioned as officers, or is it somewhat goals that
    are being set are capped by the academies and other
    commissioning sources?
        General Kelly. Congresswoman, thanks again for the followup
    question. I will just clarify where I was before.
        Our program has been focused on increasing our applicant
    pool goal. So we have had to go out and do targeted efforts, do
    targeted engagements to increase that applicant pool goal. So
    our initial step was to get the applicant pool goal above 30
    percent at the academy and ROTC. Once we get--our goal was
    continue to move that north, right? We would like to get that
    up to be representative of the population.
        Mrs. Luria. So, with 30 percent applicants, assuming that
    is the incoming class, what percentage acceptancewise are
    actually going to be attending the Air Force Academy this
    summer?
        General Kelly. So we believe the class of 2022 will be
    close to 30 percent applicant pool goal that we reached.
        Mrs. Luria. You said applicant pool goal. I mean, we are at
    the point now we have offered appointments. What is the actual
    class composition?
        General Kelly. We believe it will be 30 percent, which will
    be up from--in the past, it has been about 25 percent, so we
    have moved it up about 5 percent.
        Mrs. Luria. Okay.
        And, Admiral Burke, for the Naval Academy?
        Admiral Burke. I would have to get back to you on the
    applicants versus selectees. I can tell you what we graduate,
    and that is what we----
        Mrs. Luria. So you don't know the statistics for the
    incoming class?
        Admiral Burke. I don't know how many applicants we seek
    versus how many we select.
        Mrs. Luria. Right. I would like that information as a
    followup.
        Admiral Burke. I will get that for you.
        [The information referred to was not available at the time
    of printing.]
        Mrs. Luria. And, General Seamands, for West Point?
        General Seamands. Yes, ma'am, I will confirm the exact
    numbers, but it is between 23 and 25 percent.
        Mrs. Luria. Okay. Thank you.
        And I would like to go back to Admiral Burke because, you
    know, we talk about both accession, recruitment, but we also
    have talked a lot about retention and how those numbers have
    dwindled off significantly. The example I gave about one
    community screening board was at approximately the 15-year
    commission service date.
        But within the Navy overall, female officer retention is
    the lowest of all the services, yet male officer retention is
    higher than other services.
        Can you comment on that discrepancy, you know, with any of
    the programs we had the opportunity to speak about in my office
    yesterday? How are you targeting those specific programs to fix
    these problems?
        And just before you answer, I would like to comment as well
    on the fact that, you know, when we talked about issues here,
    about what are your policies and training on birth control, and
    no one was familiar with that at the table. IVF [in vitro
    fertilization] services, none of you know whether Active Duty
    military have access to IVF services? That is somewhat
    surprising because that is important to a female service member
    who has fertility issues.
        And so these are just things that I am just trying to
    elevate. These are important to female sailors. And I was a
    female commanding officer of female sailors, and these are
    things that came up over the course of my career when these
    women worked for me.
        So, to go back to my question, Admiral Burke, can you talk
    a little bit about the programs that we mentioned yesterday and
    how you plan to target those to the demographic, to increase,
    you know, both diversity and retention of women over the course
    of their career?
        Admiral Burke. Absolutely. Thank you.
        Again, we have to do better here and make it so that folks
    can see a path not only for the professional career but for the
    personal goals as well.
        So we talked about the Career Intermission Program. But the
    parental leave latitude that was given to us in fiscal year
    2017 NDAA, I believe it was, and how we are implementing that
    has been a tool.
        We talked about childcare. We have expanded the hours and
    the capacity----
        Mrs. Luria. Can we stop on that? Because we just--there was
    study in The Virginian-Pilot, our local paper--obviously
    Norfolk Naval Station, the largest naval station in the
    country--that for overnight childcare, because many Navy
    service members have to stand duty overnight, and for single
    parents or dual-military parents, where one parent is deployed,
    there are only 24 spots for overnight childcare within the
    Hampton Roads region. That seems like an unacceptable amount to
    meet the demand. And I will further carry--I know this--and I
    will follow up with Langley Air Force Base, which is also in my
    district, about the need there.
        But for the Navy, you said that you are approximately 8,000
    or so spots short for childcare. I just looked at a U.S. Naval
    Institute report that the most current reporting, as of last
    week, shows that we are at 9,298 spots short within the Navy.
    So you need to increase your childcare capacity by 24 percent.
    And that is only in places where there are childcare facilities
    that have waiting lists.
        In my district, for example, Wallops Island is a remote
    area that has a Navy facility and has no childcare facility at
    all. So every time I have a townhall on the Eastern Shore of
    Virginia--myself and Senator Warner were there a few weeks
    ago--we have service members show up and talk about the fact
    that there is absolutely no childcare available, not only on
    base, but not even within the adjacent community.
        So I am just, you know, putting this out there as far as,
    you know, identifying the scope of the need.
        Admiral Burke. Absolutely. And to your point, you know, we
    have 35,000-children capacity with our intrinsic, you know,
    Navy government sources. We are outsourcing the rest of them,
    some to certified home providers, some to, you know, community
    commercial providers.
        One thing that we have launched here, Commander of Navy
    Installations Command, for example--Mary Jackson, is leading
    this effort--is requests for information about the feasibility
    of partnering with community commercial businesses to increase
    both the facilities as well as the capacity of childcare. And
    that would be a good opportunity for a location like Wallops
    Island.
        Ms. Speier. All right. The time has expired.
        Let me just underscore what you have heard from virtually
    everyone on this panel and something I heard everywhere I went.
    It didn't matter if it was the Army, the Air Force, the
    Marines--it didn't matter. Childcare is a huge problem on every
    one of our bases. And I think what needs to happen is a
    comprehensive look at what the need is and then immediate steps
    taken to either start building the facilities or finding the
    opportunities for these families to get quality childcare.
        I will also point out that many of the childcare
    opportunities that service families have to access off base are
    more expensive, and they are only being subsidized to what the
    rate is on base, so they are doubly impacted by it.
        Mrs. Davis, do you have any further questions?
        Mrs. Davis. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        I am just going to return very quickly. I echo that as
    well, obviously. I think that we need to think out of the box
    about this. There are some options that I don't think have been
    tried. So perhaps we can take a look at those as well and
    really developing the personnel in the communities.
        I wanted to talk just a minute about the Blended Retirement
    System because we know that there is a difference. The Marine
    Corps, for example, had the highest rates among Active Duty and
    Reserves in opting in whereas the Army had the lowest rates of
    adoption.
        So just trying to understand, perhaps from Mr. Stewart and
    from the services, if detailed analyses have been performed as
    to the origin of those differences and how those findings can
    inform the retention of talent among our All-Volunteer Force.
        Mr. Stewart. So, as far as the data, ma'am, we are not
    there yet. Again, the Blended Retirement System, as you know,
    is new. But we are tracking it, and we will provide you data
    associated with it on the take rates, the reasons why, all of
    the details associated with that because we know Congress is
    very, very concerned about the Blended Retirement System.
        Mrs. Davis. Great. Anybody else want to comment?
        General Seamands. Ma'am, for the Army--on the Reserve
    Component--I don't have any survey data other than me going out
    and asking people why they did or didn't participate. On the
    Reserve side, what they told me is if they have a civilian job,
    their 401(k) is capped. In other words, they have a good
    program in the civilian world. This would not necessarily
    enhance them by going to blended retirement.
        On the Active side, two things we got back in terms of
    feedback. One was a lot of the soldiers intend to stay until 20
    years, so why would they go to 40 when they intended to stay
    for 50?
        The second issue was for those people who intended to get
    out, you can't access your blended retirement until 59-and-a-
    half without a penalty. So they were investing themselves for
    things, knowing they would get out at year 10 and want to buy a
    house, start a business and things like that, as opposed to
    having a deferred compensation package. That was the feedback
    we got.
        Admiral Burke. Yeah, for the Navy, we had a very robust,
    you know, financial education campaign around this, as did all
    of the services. But with a largely career-oriented force,
    folks looked at the numbers and realized if you hadn't been
    contributing really from day one, depending on your assumptions
    about market values and things like that, you may not be able
    to break even if you made the switch.
        So we had a relatively low number of Active Component folks
    that were in the decision window switch over. But that was the
    driving reason; it was running the numbers.
        Mrs. Davis. Okay.
        General Kelly. I would echo what my colleagues have already
    said, ma'am. And so our numbers for the Active Force were about
    29 percent and far less on the Reserve Components. But the
    Active Force, I would say a lot more career-minded folks who
    are thinking about 20 years as a career. You heard us talk
    about our retention goals being very high for an Air Force that
    is technically oriented.
        So we weren't overly surprised by the opt-in rates for
    those folks. But the discussion of 50 percent versus 40 percent
    if you were career-minded definitely came into play for those
    folks.
        General Rocco. And, ma'am, I think for the Marine Corps,
    because our numbers were so high, we are also opposite of our
    other services, where we have the largest turnover, close to 70
    percent that we don't retain after the first enlistment. So
    they looked at this as an opportunity to get vested, even for a
    few years, that they can benefit from.
        Mrs. Davis. Right. And would you just say overall that this
    was a good move, to create the opportunity?
        Mr. Stewart. Yes, ma'am, if I can. Just my impression is
    that, in the past, whenever an individual spent time with the
    services, it was ``thank you very much for your service,'' and
    as they headed out the door, they had nothing to show for it.
        Mrs. Davis. Okay.
        Mr. Stewart. So this package that we have----
        Mrs. Davis. Okay. Great. Thank you.
        And just a question about the higher retention rates, and,
    you know, we have talked about, you know, women in the services
    and whether or not, in fact, culture has something to do with
    whether or not they stay in and what their experiences have
    been that have perhaps driven them out prematurely.
        So I want--you know, I don't know if you want to comment on
    that. The other thing I would just say is it is my
    understanding, when it comes to IVF, that many of our wounded
    warriors have had the ability to get those services. And so I
    was a little surprised as well that, in fact, people in the
    Active Duty are not able to access those services. So that
    would be good to follow up on.
        Thank you very much. I believe my time is running out.
        Culture.
        Ms. Speier. Twenty-one seconds on culture.
        Mrs. Davis. Is that----
        Admiral Burke. I mentioned those high-leverage outcomes,
    and that is exactly what our focus groups are getting at. It
    is, what is it about the culture that they are either seeing or
    choosing to not see that is driving people's decisions?
        Mr. Stewart. And if I may, ma'am, just for the record, the
    Coast Guard actually did a gender diversity report that we are
    looking at in OSD. They just recently did it, and we are taking
    a look at that.
        Mrs. Davis. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all very much.
        Ms. Speier. Okay. Mrs. Davis yields back.
        All right. Gentlemen, you have, I think, gotten a good
    sense of where our issues are.
        Let me end with two more points.
        In visiting many of these bases, I found that the spouses
    were either not aware that their professional license transfer
    was available to them, and of the ones that did, they said they
    couldn't get anyone at wherever they are supposed to contact
    them in order to get it processed. So we have an issue there.
        I also think it should be increased up to $1,000. And we
    will attempt to address that in the NDAA.
        But the other thing that they said--and I think it is a
    thorny issue, and I would love to have you think about it and
    then provide us a written response to--is that when many of
    these spouses go out to get employment, they are discriminated
    against because they can detect from their resume that they are
    a military family member. And so there is a reluctance to hire
    them.
        So it is a huge problem. I don't know exactly what the
    answer is, but I would certainly appreciate your comments on
    that.
        [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
    beginning on page 114.]
        Ms. Speier. And then, finally, housing. The conditions of
    lead, mold, asbestos that hasn't been addressed is a serious
    problem.
        And then the second one is the lack of responsiveness by
    the housing management firms that we hire to accommodate, you
    know, a clogged sink, a toilet that doesn't work, and they are
    totally nonresponsive.
        And we have got to get that fixed because we are paying
    good money for them to provide those services, and the extent
    to which they are not is very problematic. And one of the
    things that we are considering is whether we need an ombudsman
    at the--each of the bases to be able to provide that kind of
    service to the families and, you know, shake the management
    firm. So those are my questions, and I want you to give some
    thought to it and get back to us.
        Okay. Mr. Kelly--okay.
        With that, we stand adjourned. Thank you.
        [Whereupon, at 4:05 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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                                A P P E N D I X

                                  May 16, 2019

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                  PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

                                  May 16, 2019

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        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

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                  WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING

                                  THE HEARING

                                  May 16, 2019

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                 RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. SPEIER

        Mr. Stewart. The Department of Defense provides robust resources
    for military spouses through the Spouse Education and Career
    Opportunities (SECO) program. These resources include access to no-cost
    certified masters-level career coaches available six days a week
    through Military OneSource. These coaches are experts at working with
    military spouses to best highlight their skill sets on resumes and
    address perceived gaps. The SECO program also provides access to the
    more than 400 companies and organizations of the Military Spouse
    Employment Partnership (MSEP) who recognize the value of military
    spouses in the workplace and are committed to recruiting, hiring,
    promoting and retaining military spouses. The SECO program is committed
    to continuing to educate companies regarding the true value of military
    spouses in the workplace.   [See page 35.]
        General Seamands. The Army follows the Defense Health Agency-
    Procedural Instruction (DHA-PI) Number 6200.02, ``Comprehensive
    Contraceptive Counseling and Access to the Full Range of Methods of
    Contraception,'' finalized 13 May 2019. This DHA-PI includes procedural
    guidance for access to comprehensive contraceptive counseling and the
    full range of contraceptive methods for pregnancy prevention, to
    include long term contraception and menstrual suppression for active
    duty Service members. Access is provided when feasible and medically
    appropriate, but at a minimum, annually during the Periodic Health
    Assessment (PHA), in support of initial officer and enlisted training,
    and during pre-deployment healthcare screenings. Currently in the Army,
    contraceptive counseling is provided at Entry into Service (i.e.
    Initial Entry Training), at pre-deployment/Soldier Readiness Processing
    Sites, and at PHA and well woman exams. The Army is piloting Walk-in
    Contraceptive Clinics at several military medical treatment facilities
    (MTFs) to include Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, NC and
    Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point, NY. In addition to
    counseling being provided at various points throughout the Soldier's
    healthcare delivery process, alternative educational routes are also
    provided such as the mobile application released in February 2019
    called Decide + Be Ready: a Birth Control Decision Aid. Army programs
    at MTFs provide varying types of long- and short-acting reversible
    contraceptive methods. Most MTFs will dispense a minimum 180-day supply
    of maintenance medications, to include oral contraceptives, and provide
    the Soldier with information on how to enroll in the TRICARE Deployment
    Prescription Program to conveniently obtain refills.   [See page 15.]
        General Seamands. Assisted Reproductive Services (ARS), such as In
    Vitro Fertilization (IVF), are available at certain Military Treatment
    Facilities (MTFs) but costs are borne by the beneficiary including
    active duty service members (ADSMs) in most circumstances. Walter Reed
    National Military Medical Center, Naval Hospital San Diego, San Antonio
    Military Medical Center, Madigan Army Medical Center, Tripler Army
    Medical Center, Womack Army Medical Center, and Wright Patterson Air
    Force base offer IVF. ARS is not covered under the TRICARE program.
    Under statutory authority ARS is available to certain categories of
    seriously ill or injured ADSMs and their lawful spouse at no-cost in
    both TRICARE and the MTFs listed above. Specifically, ADSMs with
    urogenital trauma who are unable to conceive naturally to have biologic
    children and ADSMs with a diagnosis of cancer and who will be
    undergoing gonadotoxic therapy such as radiation and/or chemotherapy.
    [See page 15.]
        General Seamands. Unfortunately, only 29 percent of America's youth
    qualify for service without a waiver. The most common reasons that
    applicants are denied the opportunity to join the Army are medical
    limitations (28 percent of the 29 percent) which includes both weight
    and mental health issues. Drug use is the next largest single
    disqualifier at 8 percent of the 29 percent. Most disqualified
    applicants are disqualified for a combination of reasons.   [See page
    28.]
        General Seamands. It is unfortunate that any employer would
    discriminate against a military spouse. In order to help spouses
    overcome this challenge, the Army published a policy for Home-Based
    Businesses (HBBs). This directive encourages senior commanders or
    delegates to approve requests for HBBs when they meet all local
    licensure and legal requirements, and to grant reciprocity for HBBs as
    spouses move from one installation to another. Additionally, the Army
    issued policy authorizing the reimbursement of state licensure and
    certification costs for a spouse if the spouse is relocating because of
    a permanent change of station (PCS) for their Soldier sponsor. To
    further assist Army spouses in finding meaningful employment, the Army
    Community Service offers an Employment Readiness Program (ERP). The ERP
    offers up to date information on available employment opportunities,
    local market and job trends, education, and volunteer opportunities.
    The ERP coordinates with installation Civilian Personnel Offices,
    community agencies, Department of Defense contractors, local employers,
    and the DOD Military Spouse Employment Partnership. The Army also
    leverages the My Career Advancement Account Scholarship to connect
    eligible military spouses with education needed for portable job
    opportunities. Lastly, the Army Family Action Plan (AFAP) recently
    furthered spouse employment opportunities. AFAP championed a change to
    OPM policy which authorizes an employee federal career tenure for three
    years of cumulative service. This is a change to the previous policy of
    consecutive service which was problematic for Army spouses.
    Additionally, with the help of Congress, the National Defense
    Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 removed the two-year PCS
    eligibility window to use noncompetitive appointment eligibility for
    military spouses. With this legislative change, a military spouse may
    now use the noncompetitive appointment any time during the duration of
    the of the Service member's assignment at a new duty station. Prior to
    this change, many spouses were not able to use this eligibility within
    the two-year window due to circumstances beyond their control.   [See
    page 35.]
        Admiral Burke. Applicants for naval service can be declined the
    opportunity to enlist if they are disqualified for one or more reasons,
    which can be broken down into four broad categories:
        1. Moral Character/Conduct: An applicant is considered ineligible
    for naval service if he or she has:
          any form of judicial restraint (bond, probation,
    imprisonment, or parole).
          been convicted of a felony. Persons convicted of felonies
    may request a waiver to permit their enlistment with the exception of
    those who have a state or federal conviction, or a finding of guilty in
    a juvenile adjudication, for a felony crime of rape, sexual abuse,
    sexual assault, incest, any other sexual offense, or when the
    disposition requires the person to register as a sex offender. Waivers
    are not automatic and approval is based on each individual case.
          been previously separated from the Military Services
    under conditions other than honorable or for the good of the Military
    Service concerned.
          exhibited antisocial behavior or other traits of
    character that may render the applicant unfit for service.
          received an unfavorable final determination by the
    Department of Defense Consolidated Adjudication Facility on a completed
    National Agency Check with Law and Credit (NACLC/Tier 3) or higher-
    level investigation during the accession process.
          been a trafficker (supplier) of illegal drugs.
          reservations about Military Service because of religious,
    moral, or ethical reasons.
          displayed behavior that is not consistent with military
    service.
          participated in any organization that espouses extremist/
    supremacist causes, attempts to create illegal discrimination or
    advocates use of force/violence against the U. S. Government.
          been convicted of a hate crime or received adverse
    adjudication resulting from a hate crime offense.
          ever tested positive for drugs on a Military Entrance
    Processing Station Drug and Alcohol Test.
        2. Medical: Navy Recruiting Command (NRC) ensures individuals
    considered for appointment, enlistment, or induction into the Navy are:
          free of contagious diseases that may endanger the health
    of other personnel.
          free of medical conditions or physical disabilities that
    may reasonably be expected to require excessive time lost from duty for
    necessary treatment or hospitalization, or may result in separation
    from the Navy for medical unfitness.
          medically capable of satisfactorily completing required
    training and initial period of contracted service.
          medically adaptable to the military environment without
    geographical area limitations.
          medically capable of performing duties without
    aggravating existing physical disabilities or medical conditions.
        NRC maintains a Medical Waivers Division focused on consideration
    of individual medical waivers.
        3. Height/Weight and Body Composition: Excess body fat and/or the
    inability to pass the Navy's physical fitness assessment can be
    detrimental to health, safety, longevity, stamina, and detract from
    good military appearance. Applicants must be at least 57 inches in
    height, not to exceed 80. Male and female applicants are screened
    against height and weight standards. When the applicant exceeds maximum
    weight for height, and their abdominal circumference exceeds 39 inches
    (for males) or 35.5 inches (for females), body fat content is then
    determined. Body fat must not exceed DOD standards of 26 percent for
    males or 36 percent for females as prescribed in DODI 1308.3, DOD
    Physical Fitness and Body Fat Programs Procedures. Physical fitness,
    not an element of body composition, is evaluated at boot camp. Recruits
    are required to pass service physical fitness requirements before
    graduating Boot Camp.
        4. Mental/Vocational Aptitude: Overall aptitude requirements for
    enlistment and induction are based on applicant scores on the Armed
    Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) derived from the Armed Services
    Vocational Aptitude Battery. Applicants must score a minimum 31 to meet
    minimum enlistment eligibility. Minimum of 50 AFQT for applicants with
    a General Educational Development certificate is required for
    enlistment purposes.   [See page 28.]
        Admiral Burke. Military spouses are skilled, diverse and motivated
    with a strong work ethic. Employers who choose not to hire military
    spouses are ignoring an incredible talent pool of potential employees.
    The Department of Defense (DOD) has programs, like the Military Spouse
    Employment Partnership, that educate potential employers on the value
    of hiring military spouses and work with partner companies to increase
    employment opportunities for military spouses and, when possible,
    maintain those opportunities as they relocate. Our Navy Family
    Employment Readiness Program works with Navy spouses to identify and
    promote portable and sustainable career and employment opportunities,
    including small business ownership and entrepreneurship. In June, as
    authorized by Congress, we will announce Navy's program to reimburse
    spouses for relicensure fees up to five hundred dollars resulting from
    a state-to-state change of duty station. There is certainly more work
    to be done. DOD's Defense State Liaison Office continues to work with
    the various State legislatures to standardize policies, allow a waiver
    or grace period for the spouses' current licenses, and enact
    legislation that would enable military spouses to transfer their
    licenses through occupational licensure compacts when they transfer to
    a new State. We would certainly appreciate any support you could lend
    to that effort.   [See page 35.]
        General Kelly. The Air Force provides a once a week, group,
    contraceptive education and access clinic to all female trainees during
    basic training in addition to individual counseling about
    contraceptives during routine individual sick call appointments. These
    one-on-one appointments educate patients on birth control methods
    tailored to their individual questions and medical needs. At Military
    Treatment Facilities, all female beneficiaries receive regular
    contraceptive education as part of routine primary and women's health
    care, including annual preventive health assessments. Additional
    information about contraceptives is provided whenever requested by the
    beneficiary tailored to their individual needs.   [See page 15.]
        General Kelly. Assisted Reproduction Services (ARS), such as In
    Vitro Fertilization (IVF) are available as certain Military Treatment
    Facilities (MTFs) but costs are borne by the beneficiary including
    active duty service members (ADSMs) in most circumstances. Walter Reed
    National Military Medical Center, Naval Hospital San Diego, San Antonio
    Military Medical Center, Madigan Army Medical Center, Tripler Army
    Medical Center, Womack Army Medical Center, and Wright Patterson Air
    Force Base offer IVF. ARS is not covered under the TRICARE program.
    Under statutory authority ARS is available to certain categories of
    seriously ill or injured ADSMs and their lawful spouse at no-cost in
    both TRICARE and the MTFs listed above. Specifically, ADSMs with
    urogenital trauma who are unable to conceive naturally to have
    biological children and ADSMs with a diagnosis of cancer and who will
    be undergoing gonadotoxic therapy such as radiation and/or
    chemotherapy.   [See page 15.]
        General Kelly. The most common reasons people are disqualified for
    service are pre-existing medical conditions, law violations, inability
    to score the minimum on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
    test and drug usage. Our Service Secretary also retains authority to
    waive any of these accession standards to be able to enlist a uniquely
    qualified and talented individual who would fill a key position within
    the force.   [See page 28.]
        General Kelly. The Air Force is highly committed to ensuring we
    maximize opportunities for spousal employment. We well know the
    challenges that AF spouses face as they move to various locations
    within the United States and abroad. We have numerous programs that
    provide military spouses an advantage in seeking employment within the
    DOD and the Federal government. Our Military Spouse Preference (MSP) is
    intended to lessen the career interruption of spouses. It has been
    recently streamlined to increase our military spouses' flexibility to
    apply for jobs that better meet their needs and personal desires for
    employment. Since the Air Force transitioned to the new process, we
    have received an increase of 4,122 applicants, resulting in 281
    military spouses being hired in the past five months. In the public
    sector, it is much more challenging as we do not have authority over
    public sector employment. However, the Air Force is deeply committed to
    helping our spouses secure employment. Our Airman and Family Readiness
    Centers offer employment assistance for spouses which includes goal
    setting, job search, resume and interview preparation, and career
    planning. Installations team with the local community on employment
    initiatives through job fair networks. We have also been reinforcing
    the ability of spouses to contribute immediately as well as removing
    barriers to employment. For example, the portability of occupational
    licenses across state lines is a challenge getting attention at the
    highest levels. The Secretary of the Air Force visited with members of
    National Governors Association, and together with other Military
    Service Secretaries signed a memorandum on 23 February 2018 to address
    licensure reciprocity for spouses. Also, as of May 2019, the Air Force
    has been reimbursing re-licensing/re-certification costs for up to $500
    for spouses of military members resulting from a Permanent Change of
    Station. As of 16 September, this new program processed 89 claims for
    over $17K in support. With regard to potential ``discrimination'' by
    employers, it is something we hear about quite often. The Air Force
    would be supportive of some type of employment statute similar to
    protections provided to our Reserve and Guard members. In this case,
    rather than a guarantee of employment which is not feasible, there
    could be statutory language broadly prohibiting employers from
    discriminating against otherwise qualified spouses simply based on
    their affiliation to the military. Of note, with respect to the unique
    issues we face overseas, the Services have stood up a tri-Service
    working group (Army, Navy and Air Force), to investigate and build
    recommendations for change toward making it easier for spouses to find
    employment overseas. This effort is ongoing. We greatly appreciate the
    previous support of Congress and the continuing interest in supporting
    our military spouses.   [See page 35.]
        General Rocco. Chairwoman Speier--thank you for the question. Navy
    Medicine is responsible for providing our Marines--and their families--
    with health care services. As such, the following information from the
    Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery is provided in response to your
    specific question on in vitro fertilization: Reproductive endocrinology
    services, or assisted reproductive technology, encompasses a wide range
    of treatments to include ovulation induction, egg retrieval, sperm
    retrieval and semen analysis, embryology, intrauterine insemination,
    freezing of sperm and eggs (cryopreservation), in vitro fertilization
    (IVF) and embryo transfer. These services, such as In Vitro
    Fertilization (IVF), are covered for seriously ill or injured active
    duty service members who have suffered urogenital trauma, or are
    seriously ill, and are unable to procreate naturally. Current TRICARE
    policy allows for up to three completed IVF cycles and no more than six
    IVF cycles being initiated. The costs of cryopreservation and storage
    of embryos is covered for up to 3 years. Service members who may be
    electively seeking reproductive endocrinology services, or who have a
    diagnosis of infertility that is not due to injury or illness, are able
    to access these services through a referral from their provider at
    several Military Treatment Facilities. Within the Navy, REI services
    are offered at Naval Medical Center San Diego and Naval Medical Center
    Portsmouth. The scope of REI services available depends upon what
    contracts are available locally with facilities that offer
    cryopreservation and storage, the availability of embryology
    laboratories, and whether a reproductive endocrinologist is assigned at
    that location. These services are available to service members as well
    as all other TRICARE eligible beneficiaries. The costs for required
    embryology laboratory services, and any other service that is not
    provided by the MTF, are borne by the beneficiary.   [See page 15.]
        General Rocco. Screening is a continual process from the initial
    meeting with a recruiter through graduation from MOS school. Screening
    compares an applicant's mental, moral, medical, and physical
    qualifications against the enlistment criteria. Areas that are screened
    include:
        a. Age: 17-28
        b. Citizenship: must be native born, naturalized, dual citizen,
    alien who is a lawful permanent resident, non-immigrant alien, other
    nationals.
        c. Education: the Commandant of the Marine Corps requires 95% of
    all enlisted applicants to have an equivalent to a traditional high
    school graduation.
        d. Drug and alcohol involvement: screened to the extent of their
    drug, alcohol, or other substance involvement.
        e. Mental aptitude: mentally tested to determine if they meet the
    aptitude standards established for enlistment and determine appropriate
    MOS assignments.
        f. Physical aptitude: required to meet specific physical standards.
        g. Moral conduct: screened to prevent enlistment of those with
    social habits that may be a threat to unit morale and cohesiveness, or
    may become serious disciplinary problems in the Marine Corps.
        h. Prior service: provide prior service Marines who possess
    critical skills in a designated MOS an opportunity to resume their
    career in the Marine Corps. Marines who have separated and wish to
    rejoin the service shall meet the same standards as initial accessions
    are required to pass.
        i. Body art (tattoos) or body ornamentation (piercings/gauges):
    must comply with established uniform regulations.   [See page 28.]
        General Rocco. The Marine Corps is working to improve and promote
    spouse employment. We not aware that spousal discrimination when
    seeking employment in communities surrounding military bases is an
    issue. Further, if this is an issue we would likely be prohibited from
    pursuing legal action to combat it as this is separate from the Marine
    Corps and not within the organization's jurisdiction.   [See page 35.]
                                     ______

                 RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. KELLY
        General Seamands. We have transformed our human capital systems and
    established strong data governance to protect personally identifiable
    information and leverage emerging big data technology to ensure we
    acquire, develop, employ, and retain the right Soldier for the right
    job at the right time over time. The Deputy Chief of Staff, G1 (G1) and
    the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs (ASA
    (M&RA)) are part of the Army Data Board and Army Analytics Board that
    determine highest payoff for data investments, translate strategic
    questions into data projects, and harmonize disparate analytics
    management efforts. The G1 and ASA (M&RA) use a combination of
    quantitative and qualitative analysis. Our G1 analysts examine enlisted
    and officer separations by category and existing exit surveys to inform
    recruiting and retention decisions. The Army Talent Management Task
    Force (TMTF) and Army Research Institute (ARI) are developing a new
    exit and retention survey to collect more detailed responses. The
    Army's Integrated Personnel and Pay System (IPPS-A), our on-line system
    to provide integrated personnel, pay, and talent management
    capabilities in a single system to all Army components incorporates
    audit trails of all transactions, encrypts data, requires electronic
    signatures, and incorporates additional military and industry-standard
    cyber protection measures. The Army Analytics Group's Person-event Data
    Environment (PDE) is an enterprise platform for integrating data across
    the human capital enterprise--linking analyst, data, and tools to solve
    human capital problems and ensure human subject protection regulations
    and privacy rules are followed and auditable. This creates a secure and
    protected space for analysts to conduct studies and to test new
    analytic tools and algorithms, to include predictive analytics to
    provide valuable insights on human capital to the Army.   [See page
    16.]
        Admiral Burke. Through the collection of data into an Authoritative
    Data Environment (ADE), Navy is establishing analytical capabilities
    that will better allow MyNavy HR to evaluate Sailor behavior, more
    accurately and efficiently assign talent, better design and account for
    compensation packages, and generate a system that affords greater
    flexibility, permeability, and Sailor choice. This capability is a
    critical element of the Navy's Sailor 2025 program, which is designed
    to modernize personnel management along with training policies and
    systems to more efficiently identify, recruit, and train talented
    people and manage the force while improving warfighting readiness. In
    addition to traditional exit surveys, we have developed career
    milestone surveys for Sailors choosing to stay Navy. Since 2014, we
    have conducted both exit and milestone surveys, both of which focus
    heavily on retention factors and primary influencers to stay or leave
    the Navy. The milestone survey is offered to enlisted sailors 18 months
    prior to their Soft End Active Obligated Service (SEAOS) and 15 months
    prior to the Mandatory Service Requirement date for officers. The exit
    survey is offered 6 months prior to SEAOS for enlisted sailors and 6
    months prior to Estimated Date of Leaving Navy for officers. The data
    for both surveys is stored in the Navy's personnel system from which we
    generate quarterly reports. Through the collection of data into an
    Authoritative Data Environment (ADE), Navy is establishing analytical
    capabilities that will better allow MyNavy HR to evaluate Sailor
    behavior, more accurately and efficiently assign talent, better design
    and account for compensation packages, and generate a system that
    affords greater flexibility, permeability, and Sailor choice. This
    capability is a critical element of the Navy's Sailor 2025 program,
    which is designed to modernize personnel management along with training
    policies and systems to more efficiently identify, recruit, and train
    talented people and manage the force while improving warfighting
    readiness. In addition to traditional exit surveys, we have developed
    career milestone surveys for Sailors choosing to stay Navy. Since 2014,
    we have conducted both exit and milestone surveys, both of which focus
    heavily on retention factors and primary influencers to stay or leave
    the Navy. The milestone survey is offered to enlisted sailors 18 months
    prior to their Soft End Active Obligated Service (SEAOS) and 15 months
    prior to the Mandatory Service Requirement date for officers. The exit
    survey is offered 6 months prior to SEAOS for enlisted sailors and 6
    months prior to Estimated Date of Leaving Navy for officers. The data
    for both surveys is stored in the Navy's personnel system from which we
    generate quarterly reports. Navy also conducts two large Navy wide
    surveys bi-annually: the Personnel and Professional Choice survey and
    the Health of Force (HoF) survey. Navy survey specialists analyze the
    data from the HoF survey and provide senior leaders with additional
    information such as retention, command climate, and satisfaction with
    Navy employment. Lastly, in addition to these four large surveys, we
    conduct many smaller pulse surveys in coordination with, and at the
    Commanding Officer's discretion. Topics focus on policy changes or
    program specific issues. Most recently, throughout our personnel system
    transformation and as part of our ongoing Sailor 2025 efforts, we
    developed fleet integration teams, which hold focus groups with
    Sailors, spouses, and family groups. As an example, last year, over a
    two month period, our fleet integration teams traveled across the fleet
    to better understand the pain points associated with PCS moves. These
    direct conversations resulted in 16 independent solutions, two of which
    we are about to put into motion (CAC-less MyPCS Mobile enabled website
    and Government Travel Charge Card (GTCC) pilot program). These are just
    two examples of how our team is evolving into an innovative, agile, and
    responsive team, providing unparalleled service to our Sailors, their
    families, and the Fleet. We will continue to apply cutting edge human
    resource management practices and technology to become a customer-
    experience driven organization that demonstrates, through action, that
    we value our Sailors and their families. Our Transformation and Sailor
    2025 efforts continue to be vital in achieving this goal. As part of
    our Transformation effort, we are collapsing and integrating as much of
    our data, economic data, and other pertinent data into our ADE. Once
    fully integrated and populated, the ADE will provide our analysts with
    a `single source of truth' data repository coupled with the latest
    accredited Machine Learning software and algorithms, enabling them to
    better inform and identify why our sailors stay or leave and who are
    the most talented.   [See page 16.]
        General Kelly. The Air Force conducts Exit and Retention surveys
    with the purpose of assessing factors influencing an Airman's decision
    to remain in the Air Force. Surveys have been conducted since 1989 and
    are governed by AFI 38-501, Air Force Survey Program. a) The Exit
    Survey is conducted on a continuous basis when members are separating
    from the military. b) The Retention Survey is conducted every two years
    with the most recent completed in 2017. The 2019 Retention Survey is
    currently underway. Retention surveys are administered to Air Force
    enlisted (E1-E9) and officers (O1-O6), and are representative of the
    Air Force Total Force (RegAF, AF Reserve, & Air National Guard).
    Questions are geared toward the member's experience throughout his/her
    Air Force career. Data is collected and analyzed to provide information
    on member's satisfaction throughout their career, which includes
    current job, assignment and location. Information is also obtained
    concerning the member's plans on staying past their current commitment,
    and intentions for staying at least until retirement eligibility. The
    AF also uses survey results to inform critical skills retention bonus
    and quality of life policies. The 2017 Retention Survey revealed that
    the Top 10 reasons (RegAF) Airmen remained in the Air Force were as
    follows:
    [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]   [See page 16.]

        General Rocco. Retaining Marines whose past service and future
    potential continues to make the Corps stronger is one of our highest
    priorities. As the Marine Corps manages our force, we work to retain
    the very best available Marines capable of fulfilling our leadership
    and operational needs. This is accomplished through a targeted
    retention campaign that includes competitive career designation process
    for officers and a thorough evaluation process for enlisted Marines,
    both of which are designed to measure, analyze, and compare our
    Marines' performance and accomplishments. Using historical data on
    retention coupled with the present manpower requirements, we calculate
    required retention goals. We utilize historical data on retention
    behavior to focus our incentive pay programs. This allows the Marine
    Corps to maintain healthy military occupational specialties and fill
    hard to retain positions, such as cyber security technicians, special
    operators, and counter intelligence specialists as well as increase the
    inventory stability of the aviation officer population. In addition, we
    are now collecting data on multiple aspects of military service that
    will shape future retention policies and programs: Surveys: The Marine
    Corps has developed a survey program designed to investigate not only
    why Marines leave but why they stay and why they join. The Exit and
    Milestone Longitudinal Survey (EMLS) consists of three specific
    surveys, (1) Entry, (2) Milestone (reenlistment, career designation,
    and promotion), and (3) Exit. Fiscal Year 2018 was the first full year
    of data collection. In approximately three years, we anticipate we will
    achieve a representative sample to make data-driven policy decisions.
    Artificial Intelligence: The Marine Corps has an Artificial
    Intelligence Line of Operation with the desired end state of accurately
    predicting attrition, performance, behaviors, and attitudes and
    consider these predictions as additive factors in not only retention
    but recruitment, talent management, and increasing lethality. Our first
    Line of Effort is underway with the Tailored Adaptive Personality
    Assessment System (TAPAS) pilot study. This initiative will inform and
    guide future Lines of Effort, thus reinforcing our efforts to retain
    the best and most qualified Marines.   [See page 16.]
                                     ______

                 RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MRS. DAVIS
        Mr. Stewart. As of April 30, 2019, over 615,000 Service members are
    enrolled in the Blended Retirement System (BRS). Of this total number,
    about 475,000 are Active Component (AC) members and about 140,000 are
    in the Reserve Component (RC). This means nearly 40 percent of the AC
    is participating in BRS, either because they opted-in or were
    automatically enrolled, while about 20 percent of the RC is
    participating in BRS (also via opt-ins or automatic enrollment). These
    numbers and percentages will continue to increase as all new entrants
    are brought in under BRS. The Department has consistently emphasized
    that opting into BRS was a personal decision to be made by each
    individual member without influence, targets, or goals. The Department
    provided significant training and made extensive resources and
    financial counseling available to both AC and RC members. This ensured
    that all Service members had access to the necessary tools to make a
    well-informed decision. The lower participation rate among RC members
    can be explained by several possibilities that may have influenced
    their opt-in decisions, but it is impossible to make a generalized
    conclusion about the individual choices made by each eligible member.
    The most significant impact was that the criteria to opt-in was much
    broader for RC members. Because RC members could have any length of
    service as long as they had fewer than the equivalent of 12 active
    years (i.e., fewer than 4,320 retirement points), many RC members,
    though technically eligible to opt-in, were actually far along in their
    careers, and in many cases, already retirement eligible under the
    legacy system. As a percentage, those for whom BRS would have been an
    attractive option was lessened by this larger pool. Also, some RC
    members may have been less inclined to opt into BRS because they
    already have defined contribution plans (i.e., 401k-style plans)
    through their civilian employers and were less incentivized by the
    potential for matching contributions and portability of the Thrift
    Savings Plan (TSP). AC members, on the other hand, did not previously
    have any option for contributing to a 401k-style retirement plan that
    offered matching contributions, so were likely more inclined to see
    this as an attractive incentive, both for its flexibility and
    portability. We know that AC and RC members tend to view retirement as
    an incentive differently. AC members tend to have more clarity about
    their personal preferences for long-term service, meaning the portable
    benefits of BRS would have been more appealing to those active members
    who are confident they will leave service prior to serving a full 20
    years. Receipt of military retired pay for RC members is often more
    distant and can be perceived less significantly as part of an
    individual's total retirement plan when compared to AC members. As
    such, RC members may have felt there was less risk from choosing to
    stay in the legacy plan even if they are not certain they ultimately
    serve for 20 years. Given these differences, it is not totally
    surprising that greater percentages of AC members than RC members made
    the decision to opt into BRS. Despite the differing opt-in rates among
    AC and RC members, we are confident that all of our members were
    educated and made informed choices based on their own personal
    situations.   [See page 26.]
        General Seamands. As of April 30, 2019, over 243,000 soldiers are
    enrolled in the Blended Retirement System (BRS). Of this total number,
    about 155,000 are Active Component (AC) soldiers and about 88,000 are
    in the Army Reserve or National Guard. This means nearly 33 percent of
    the AC is participating in BRS, either because they opted-in or were
    automatically enrolled, while about 20 percent of the Army Reserve and
    Army National Guard soldiers are participating in BRS (also via opt-ins
    or automatic enrollment). These numbers and percentages will continue
    to increase as all new entrants are brought in under BRS. BRS is a
    personal decision made by each individual member without influence,
    targets, or goals. The Army provided significant training and made
    extensive resources and financial counseling available to both AC and
    RC members. We believe all Soldiers had the necessary tools to make an
    informed decision. The slightly lower participation rate among the RC
    could be attributable to several broad reasons. For example, some RC
    members may have been less inclined to opt into BRS because they
    already have defined contribution plans (i.e., 401k plans) through
    their civilian employers and were less incentivized by the potential
    for matching contributions and portability of the Thrift Savings Plan
    (TSP). The AC members, on the other hand, did not previously have any
    option for contributing to a 401k-style retirement plan that offered
    matching contributions, so were likely more inclined to see this as an
    attractive incentive, both for its flexibility and portability.   [See
    page 26.]
        Admiral Burke. At the end of the opt-in window of December 31,
    2018, approximately 11 percent of Navy Reserve Component (RC) members
    eligible to opt-in to the Blended Retirement System (BRS) chose to
    enroll in BRS compared to approximately 31 percent of eligible Active
    Component (AC) members. This lower (RC) opt-in was fully expected for
    several reasons. BRS is more attractive to Sailors with low years of
    service. Since most RC members have prior active service, members with
    low years of service are a relatively small percentage of the RC.
    Additionally, most RC members join the reserves because they want to
    continue their naval service career, so BRS was generally less
    attractive to them. RC members are also more likely to have a defined
    contribution plan (401k) through their civilian employer and it is
    likely the Thrift Savings Plan matching contribution offered by BRS was
    less attractive. While there is some disparity in opt-in rates between
    AC and RC members, all were trained on their options and had access to
    the resources needed to make the best decision for them based on their
    personal situation.   [See page 26.]
        General Kelly. The Blended Retirement System (BRS) achieves its
    goal of providing a portable retirement benefit by reducing the legacy
    pension. Therefore, the closer a member gets to reaching 20 years of
    service, and qualifying for retired pay, the more advantageous it is
    for the member to remain in the legacy retirement system. Eligibility
    to opt-in to BRS is based on 12 years of service. For members of the
    regular component, this is a straightforward number of years. For
    members in the Reserve component (Guard and Reserve), this 12 years of
    service is based on participation points used to determine retired pay.
    The qualification threshold is based on 360 points per year times 12
    years which is 4,320. While Regular Component members must serve for 20
    years to qualify for retired pay, Reserve component members must serve
    20 ``good'' years. Minimum participation to have a ``good year'' is to
    earn 50 points. Therefore, it is mathematically possible for a member
    of the Reserve Component to be retirement eligible with 20 good years
    and 1,000 points. The result of basing eligibility on 4,320 points is
    that almost all members of the Reserve Component were eligible. We
    should expect as members get closer to reaching 20 years of service
    (good years), they will be less likely to opt-in to BRS and a large
    proportion of the eligible members in the Reserve Component had more
    than 12 good years toward retirement. Additionally, many members in the
    Reserve Component are already in the civilian workforce, so the
    portability feature of BRS is not as significant. These factors account
    for the difference in opt-in rates between the Regular and Reserve
    Components. The opt-in rates were:
        Regular Component: 29.8%
        Air Force Reserve: 11.5%
        Air National Guard: 11.5%
    [See page 26.]
        General Rocco. As of 30 April 2019, 81,417 active component and
    16,539 reserve Component Marines elected to enroll in the Blended
    Retirement System.   [See page 26.]
                                     ______

                RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. BERGMAN
        Mr. Stewart. We estimate the cost, per individual, from the day
    they walk in the door until we get them through boot camp to be around
    $34,000. This data point is a DOD average and does not include the cost
    of skill training--just recruiting and basic military training.   [See
    page 28.]
        General Seamands. The average cost in fiscal year 2018 of training
    a Regular Army (RA) recruit from the time the individual walks into a
    recruiting center until the recruit reaches their first duty station
    was $68.2K. This includes enlistment bonuses, recruit pay, recruiter
    operations and support, entrance processing costs, training operations
    and support costs. If marketing costs are included, the average cost of
    a RA recruit was $72.3K. The actual cost of a recruit varies depending
    on the Military Occupation Specialty (MOS), incentives, and bonuses.
    [See page 28.]
        Admiral Burke. The first two phases of the Force Development supply
    chain consist of talent acquisition/onboarding and initial recruit
    training. It costs the Navy on average a total of $32,795 per recruit
    from initial recruitment to Recruit Training Command's (RTC) Basic
    Military Training course graduation. In fiscal year 2018, it cost an
    average of $15,616 per recruit for talent acquisition/onboarding, which
    included Marketing and Advertising, locating and screening applicants,
    collecting documentation, transporting applicants to Recruiting
    Stations, Military Entrance Processing Stations and RTC. In fiscal year
    2018, it cost an average of $11,829 per recruit for RTC. This included
    military and civilian staff salaries, student pay, and allowances. Base
    operating support functions like facility operations and maintenance,
    force protection, vehicle operations and maintenance, and fire and
    emergency services, cost an additional $5,350 per recruit graduate.
    [See page 28.]
        General Kelly. The average cost to recruit and train an Airman
    through BMT in 2018 was $36,006.   [See page 28.]
        General Rocco. The Total Military Personnel Appropriation cost
    estimate is $9,186.00 per Marine. This estimate is based on 13 weeks of
    training for the E-1 population.
        Line Item Details:
            Base Pay = $4,206.00
              RPA = $1,195.00
              FICA = $322.00
              Clothing = $1,136.00
              Food = $696.00
              PCS = $1,356.00
            Personnel Structure (Instructors): $275
            *FY18 recruiting mission was 36,891
    [See page 28.]
                                     ______

                RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. HAALAND
        Mr. Stewart. The JROTC program is not a recruiting tool for the
    military. Although some JROTC students may enlist directly from high
    school or several years after high school, the Department of Defense
    does not track how many JROTC students enter the military. It also does
    not maintain any demographic data on JROTC participants' precisely
    because it is not a recruitment tool. The JROTC program provides a
    sense of accomplishment and teaches students valuable lessons in
    citizenship, service to the United States, and personal responsibility.
    It does not condition young people for life in the military, notably
    the participants are below the age for recruitment, but it does help
    prepare young people for the challenges each will face as they grow
    into adulthood. Enrollment in the JROTC program is voluntary and any
    high school student may participate regardless of gender, race,
    religion, and sexual orientation as long as they can meet the physical
    fitness standards and academic responsibilities.   [See page 29.]

    =======================================================================

                  QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING

                                  May 16, 2019

    =======================================================================

                       QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. SPEIER

        Ms. Speier. The FY19 NDAA included DOPMA reforms that give the
    services broader leeway and discretion in managing officers and their
    career paths. How are each of the services and DOD conceptualizing
    these reforms? How have the services and DOD begun to use the
    authorities included? What instructions and authorities have been given
    to personnel officials at which levels? What values underlie the
    application of these authorities to managing officer corps? How are the
    new authorities being used to promote diversity, diversity of
    experience, and career flexibility within the various officer corps?
        Mr. Stewart. First, on behalf of the Department and the Military
    Services, I thank Congress for implementing the most significant
    changes to DOPMA/ROPMA in a generation. In a historically competitive
    job market, our charge of commissioning and retaining our nation's top
    talent remains challenging. The seven major officer corps talent
    management authorities provided in the FY19 NDAA have all been
    implemented through DOD policies. The Military Services have already
    begun using these authorities. Several communities across the Services
    have raised or removed the upper age limitations, as authorized by
    section 501. We will continue to use this authority, in conjunction
    with the authority granted in section 502, to commission officers with
    experience at higher pay grades, particularly to offer more competitive
    rank and compensation to individuals with critical skill sets to meet
    Service needs. Additionally, the incentives authorized in sections 503
    and 504 have been met with enthusiasm, both by the Services and by
    Service members. Through standardizing the temporary promotion
    opportunity for officers, the Military Services are better able to
    quickly fill critical skill sets and provide retention incentives for
    highly talented officers. Likewise, the Services' newly authorized
    ability to reorder promotion lists based on merit has quickly proven to
    be a popular method to reward superior performance with the incentive
    of earlier promotion, without additional tax-payer burden. The
    remaining authorities granted in sections 505, 506, and 507 challenge
    the DOPMA premise of ``up or out,'' with ``up and stay,'' when
    appropriate. As highlighted in the Department's recent report to
    Congress on the alternate promotion authority, this authorization gives
    the Services incredible flexibility for targeted retention and
    promotion of talented officers. The challenge in immediate execution of
    this authority is the need to reasonably observe the effects of
    implementing the other officer management modernization changes from
    the FY19 NDAA. In aggregate, these provisions enable the Department to
    attract and retain a diversity of talent and experience to continually
    evolve the officer corps and meet the demands of our ever-changing geo-
    political landscape.
        Ms. Speier. The FY19 NDAA included DOPMA reforms that give the
    services broader leeway and discretion in managing officers and their
    career paths. How are each of the services and DOD conceptualizing
    these reforms? How have the services and DOD begun to use the
    authorities included? What instructions and authorities have been given
    to personnel officials at which levels? What values underlie the
    application of these authorities to managing officer corps? How are the
    new authorities being used to promote diversity, diversity of
    experience, and career flexibility within the various officer corps?
        General Seamands. How are each of the Services and DOD
    conceptualizing these reforms? Talent Management is a top priority for
    the Secretary and the Chief of Staff of the Army. The Army established
    a Talent Management Task Force to modernize the Officer Personnel
    System from an Industrial-Age model to an Information-Age system.
        How have the Services and DOD begun to use the authorities
    included? The Army is aggressively identifying the best use of these
    authorities. Our approach is to develop small-scale pilots to gather
    data and then implement policies that integrate lessons learned from
    these pilots. To date, the Army has already leveraged seven of the
    authorities for pilots or Army-wide policy implementation. Using the
    direct commissioning authority, the Army's Cyber Branch has
    commissioned seven officers. Four of the officers have completed
    training and are currently serving with Army Cyber units. While it has
    not yet been exercised, the Army has integrated the repeal of the 20
    Year Time-In-Service requirement by age 62 with the new direct
    commissioning policy that gives the Army greater access to civilian
    talent. For brevet promotions, the Army will pilot temporary promotions
    with the summer 2020 assignment cycle (officers who move in summer
    2020). Starting with 200 critical positions, select officers will be
    temporarily promoted to the next grade. The Army plans to implement the
    770 positions authorized in the 2019 NDAA over the next year. The Army
    will implement merit promotions with the active component O-4 promotion
    board that convenes in July 2019, and will continue this with
    subsequent promotion boards. The Army is on track to allow officers to
    opt out of promotion boards in fiscal year 2020. Once approved, this
    policy would allow officers to request to opt-out for promotion
    consideration twice per grade. If the officer's request is approved,
    the officer could not compete for promotion until the following year.
    DOD promotions policy was revised in March 2019 to specifically
    instruct members of promotion boards to ``not consider an officer's
    previous decision to opt out of a promotion board'' with prejudice.
    Next, the Army is currently identifying officers with critical skills
    matched against forecasted critical shortages for up to 40 years of
    active service. Once those officers and shortages are identified, we
    will institutionalize selective continuation boards to retain Army
    talent beyond the traditional mandatory retirement date limits to meet
    Army requirements. Lastly, an Army Directive to improve this Federal
    Recognition process is currently being staffed. Once approved, this
    would allow the Secretary of the Army to adjust the date of rank of
    Army National Guard officers who faced a delay, not attributable to the
    action (or inaction) of the officer(s) in receiving Federal recognition
    to the next higher grade. Once approved, the directive ensures timely
    Federal recognition and provides for retroactive pay due to delays in
    the system. Brevet appointments will terminate when the officer is no
    longer serving in a critical position or the officer is promoted to the
    appropriate permanent grade. While officers are in a brevet status,
    they will receive pay and allowances commensurate with the higher
    temporary rank.
        What instructions and authorities have been given to personnel
    officials at which levels? To date, the new Direct Commissioning policy
    has been approved, assigning the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, as the
    proponent for the policy and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for
    Manpower and Reserve Affairs as responsible for policy oversight. The
    directive implementing opt out of a promotion board authority is
    expected to be signed shortly, as well as several other policy change
    directives. Once approved, policy instructions will be provided on how
    to implement the policy. The Secretary of the Army is the approval
    authority for many of the new authorities due to the impact of larger
    processes such as appointments and promotions that are then confirmed
    by the Senate.
        What values underlie the application of these authorities to
    managing officer corps? Application of these authorities is guided by
    the principle that we need the right officer in the right assignment at
    the right time, over time. The flexibilities that these authorities
    provide allow us to build readiness and retain talent.
        How are the new authorities being used to promote diversity,
    diversity of experience, and career flexibility within the various
    officer corps? The Army Talent Management Task Force is working to
    modernize the Army's personnel system from a data-poor, industrial-age
    system to a data-rich, information-age system that captures an
    officer's talents--knowledge, skills, and behaviors. It is also
    creating a regimen of assessments to help each officer develop their
    talents and to help the Army better inform the selection of its future
    strategic leaders. Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army (IPPS-A)
    will be a cornerstone to successfully identify and optimize talent.
    Through the authorities granted in the 2019 NDAA, the Army is
    demonstrating value in a broader diversity and experience by creating
    this system with a granular view of talent. The Army can now offer
    increased flexibility in career paths to permit officers to develop
    this talent. The new authorities allow us to recognize that each
    officer has unique talents, qualifications, and aspirations. We have
    the flexibility to address and optimize each.
        Ms. Speier. The FY19 NDAA included DOPMA reforms that give the
    services broader leeway and discretion in managing officers and their
    career paths. How are each of the services and DOD conceptualizing
    these reforms? How have the services and DOD begun to use the
    authorities included? What instructions and authorities have been given
    to personnel officials at which levels? What values underlie the
    application of these authorities to managing officer corps? How are the
    new authorities being used to promote diversity, diversity of
    experience, and career flexibility within the various officer corps?
        Admiral Burke. How are each of the services and DOD conceptualizing
    these reforms? Our process of conceptualizing these reforms began as a
    review several years ago of the existing Defense Officer Personnel
    Management Act (DOPMA) provisions to identify modifications that permit
    greater officer management flexibility to compete for civilian talent
    and cultivate, retain and reward in-service talent. Navy's DOPMA reform
    proposals, along with those of the other Services conceptualized under
    similar processes, were vetted during working group meetings under
    Department of Defense (DOD) stewardship.
        How have the services and DOD begun to use the authorities
    included? We immediately began development of programs to implement
    officer personnel management reforms enacted in the John S. McCain
    National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, including:
          expanded constructive service credit to recruit civilian
    candidates with education, leadership, and experience credentials for
    leadership roles in cyber and engineering fields.
          expanded spot promotion opportunity for captains with
    post-command executive leadership and commanders with operational
    command executive leadership. First board scheduled to convene July 25,
    2019.
          expanded continuation to retain certain control grade
    officers with targeted skills in aviation, intelligence, acquisition
    corps, and as attaches beyond the traditional statutory limits. First
    board scheduled to convene in September 2019.
          relaxed the requirement that original appointments be
    granted only to individuals able to complete 20 years commissioned
    service by age 62.
          current execution of merit re-order promotion authority
    to incentivize top performers across all active officer communities.
    Promotions boards are authorized to recommend up to 15 percent of
    selectees for merit reorder. Merit reordered officers will be promoted
    in the first promotion increment. Additionally, we plan to exercise
    promotion deferment authority beginning with the fiscal year 2021
    promotion board cycle to afford greater flexibility for top performing
    officers whose competitiveness might otherwise suffer due to
    participation in career-broadening and education opportunities
        What instructions and authorities have been given to personnel
    officials at which levels? The following officer personnel management
    instructions issued by the Secretary of the Navy concerning promotions,
    temporary spot promotions, and continuation have been updated to
    include implementation guidance for expanded continuation, merit
    reorder and promotion deferment.
          Department of the Navy Commissioned Officer Promotion
    Program, Secretary of the Navy Instruction (SECNAVINST) 1420.3 of March
    28, 2019
          Temporary Spot Promotion of Officers, SECNAVINST 1421.3L
    of March 12, 2018
          Continuation on Active Duty of Regular Commissioned
    Officers and Reserve Officers on the Reserve Active Status List in the
    Navy and Marine Corps, SECNAVINST 1920.7C of January 22, 2019
        The following officer accession program authorizations have been
    updated and provided to our Recruiting Command and individual officer
    recruiters to implement the expanded constructive service credit
    authorizations enacted in the John S. McCain National Defense
    Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019.
          Active Component Cyber Warfare Engineer Officers
          Active Component Engineering Duty Officers
          Reserve Component Cryptologic Warfare Officers
          Reserve Component Information Professional Officers
        What values underlie the application of these authorities to
    managing officer corps? We are modernizing our personnel policies and
    programs to give Sailors more control and ownership over their careers,
    as well as allow the Navy to adapt to economic changes and
    corresponding effects on the recruiting market and retention. Our
    transformation personnel initiatives are designed to continue to
    recruit and retain the very best talent, empower commanding officers,
    increase transparency and flexibility, provide better tools to Sailors
    and leadership, and give Sailors more choices. This will allow us to
    reward and encourage superior performance with increased options and
    authorities in managing talent.
        How are the new authorities being used to promote diversity,
    diversity of experience, and career flexibility within the various
    officer corps? First, the authorities from John S. McCain National
    Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 allow Navy to find
    talent from a wide breadth of backgrounds and cast a wider net of
    talent, which inherently increases the diversity of experience. Before,
    if the Navy was looking for a senior officer with certain skill sets,
    the only option was to grow one from a 20-30 year career. Now, we are
    able to retain officers with specific skillsets and experience beyond
    statutory limits to keep required knowledge or commission an outside
    candidate with the same specific skillsets up to the paygrade of O-6
    provided they meet the education, leadership, and qualifications.
    Second, the increased flexibility in career paths we have put into
    place promotes diversity by acknowledging there are many paths to a
    successful career. The authorities put into place increase an officer's
    ability to serve while balancing their professional, educational, and
    family goals. By having a multitude of pathways to success, Navy
    increases the appeal of a career to officers with different goals,
    thereby increasing the talent pool and retention. These authorities
    allow us to fill coveted positions with the best and brightest that the
    Navy has to offer.
        Ms. Speier. The FY19 NDAA included DOPMA reforms that give the
    services broader leeway and discretion in managing officers and their
    career paths. How are each of the services and DOD conceptualizing
    these reforms? How have the services and DOD begun to use the
    authorities included? What instructions and authorities have been given
    to personnel officials at which levels? What values underlie the
    application of these authorities to managing officer corps? How are the
    new authorities being used to promote diversity, diversity of
    experience, and career flexibility within the various officer corps?
        General Kelly. The Air Force appreciates the expanded authorities
    and is focusing our execution of them to help drive deliberate
    development of our officers to meet current and future requirements
    across our diverse mission sets and functional communities. We have
    used constructive credit to recruit officers in very competitive cyber
    career fields. As part of our work in revamping our officer promotion
    process we are working to incorporate order of merit promotion
    sequencing, temporary promotions, and alternative promotion authority.
    The last two are being incorporated with our work to redefine our
    officer competitive category structure in order to provide increased
    developmental agility. The DOPMA reforms are currently being developed
    into policy for consideration and execution, understanding that each
    effort is closely linked to one another, and must not be implemented
    disparate of one another. The authorities afford the ability to
    flexibly manage when officers meet promotion eligibility windows,
    promoting the best qualified officers at the right career point along
    their unique development paths, matching the right officers to the
    right requirements at the right time in order to meet institutional
    requirements, while also fostering a more diverse officer pool. We
    think this is key in order for us to develop and deliver the right mix
    of officers we need to satisfy the diverse mission sets tasked to the
    AF as part of the National Defense Strategy.
        Ms. Speier. The FY19 NDAA included DOPMA reforms that give the
    services broader leeway and discretion in managing officers and their
    career paths. How are each of the services and DOD conceptualizing
    these reforms? How have the services and DOD begun to use the
    authorities included? What instructions and authorities have been given
    to personnel officials at which levels? What values underlie the
    application of these authorities to managing officer corps? How are the
    new authorities being used to promote diversity, diversity of
    experience, and career flexibility within the various officer corps?
        General Rocco. The Marine Corps appreciates and is leveraging the
    officer personnel management authorities granted in the Fiscal Year
    2019 National Defense Authorization Act (FY19NDAA). They seek to help
    modernize how we manage our Marines with the goal of recruiting and
    retaining the highest quality talent. Of the authorities available, the
    Marine Corps has implemented lineal list flexibility (merit-based
    promotion list reorder), is exploring opt out methods, and is in the
    final administrative stages of making the Career Intermission Program
    (CIP) permanent (anticipated completion in November of 2019). The
    Marine Corps' Fiscal Year 2021 Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel
    Promotion Boards executed merit reorder with up to 100 percent of the
    promotion list eligible for merit reorder. We anticipate that this
    authority will benefit the most competitive officers selected for
    promotion as those officers may be moved to the top of the promotion
    list. The authorities allows the Marine Corps the flexibility to design
    the ideal balance within the officer corps to respond to future
    requirements, stabilize the force, drawdown when required by Congress,
    and accurately program and budget the service military personnel
    account. Also, the Marine Corps is planning to offer a new opt out of
    consideration for promotion option for the FY2022 promotion boards.
    These policies are anticipated to positively impact officer
    continuation rates by offering individual officers career flexibility
    from the legacy up or out promotion system. The underlying goal of
    utilizing these reforms is to create career flexibilities and
    ultimately, to retain the highest quality Marines. We want to continue
    to recruit and retain the best men and women of our Nation with diverse
    experiences, advanced education, and valuable critical skills to
    increase our readiness and lethality--so that we continue to be ready
    when the Nation is least ready.
                                     ______

                      QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. CISNEROS
        Mr. Cisneros. A recent report from Mission Readiness, an
    organization of retired admirals and generals, states that 71 percent
    of young Americans aged 17-24 are not eligible for military service,
    often due to poor health and fitness or lack of education. How is the
    Department handling the decreasing pool of eligible recruits? Do the
    services need to revisit eligibility standards? What can DOD do to
    increase the pool of eligible recruits?
        Mr. Stewart. The report cited is accurate. Nearly 71 percent of
    young Americans aged 17-24 are not eligible for military service, often
    owing to poor health and fitness or lack of education. These issues
    impact more than just military recruiting and are being addressed by
    states and the federal government. In light of these and other changes,
    the Department continuously reviews the eligibility standards for
    Military Service. Adjustments to these standards are made based on
    findings in the medical community or based on the broad acceptance of
    new social norms. While these issues limit the pool of eligible youth,
    there are a sufficient number of high-quality, qualified youth that are
    eligible to serve. The challenge for the Military Services is how best
    to reach these youth and overcome misperceptions or inaccurate
    information regarding what it means to serve. Today, there are fewer
    veterans to tell their positive stories. When combined with the
    constant messaging from numerous wounded warrior veteran support
    programs, our ability to communicate positive messages about Military
    Service is even more challenging. To expand the pool of high-quality,
    qualified youth who are willing to serve, the Department and the
    Military Services must consistently share the positive message of what
    it means to serve in a way that reaches today's youth.

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