[Senate Hearing 116-148, Part 6]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




                                                 S. Hrg. 116-148, Pt. 6

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION FOR APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 
               2021 AND THE FUTURE YEARS DEFENSE PROGRAM

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

                                HEARING

                               before the

                      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                     ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                                   ON

                                S. 4049

     TO AUTHORIZE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021 FOR MILITARY 
ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, FOR MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, AND 
   FOR DEFENSE ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, TO PRESCRIBE 
   MILITARY PERSONNEL STRENGTHS FOR SUCH FISCAL YEAR, AND FOR OTHER 
                                PURPOSES

                               ----------                              

                                 PART 6

                               PERSONNEL

                               ----------                              

                             MARCH 11, 2020





                 [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]





         Printed for the use of the Committee on Armed Services













DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION FOR APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 
      2021 AND THE FUTURE YEARS DEFENSE PROGRAM--Part 6  PERSONNEL













                                                 S. Hrg. 116-148, Pt. 6

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION FOR APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 
               2021 AND THE FUTURE YEARS DEFENSE PROGRAM

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

                                HEARING

                               before the

                      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                     ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                                   ON

                                S. 4049

     TO AUTHORIZE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021 FOR MILITARY 
ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, FOR MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, AND 
   FOR DEFENSE ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, TO PRESCRIBE 
   MILITARY PERSONNEL STRENGTHS FOR SUCH FISCAL YEAR, AND FOR OTHER 
                                PURPOSES

                               __________

                                 PART 6

                               PERSONNEL

                               __________

                             MARCH 11, 2020

                               __________





         Printed for the use of the Committee on Armed Services
         





                 [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]






                 Available via: http://www.govinfo.gov

                               ______
                                 

                 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

56-189 PDF                WASHINGTON : 2024












                      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

                   JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, Chairman

ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi	     JACK REED, Rhode Island
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska		     JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
TOM COTTON, Arkansas		     KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, New York
MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota	     RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
JONI ERNST, Iowa		     MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
THOM TILLIS, North Carolina	     TIM KAINE, Virginia
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska		     ANGUS S. KING, Jr., Maine
DAVID PERDUE, Georgia		     MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico
KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota	     ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts
MARTHA McSALLY, Arizona		     GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
RICK SCOTT, Florida		     JOE MANCHIN, West Virginia
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee	     TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri                DOUG JONES, Alabama
                                     
                                     
                 John Bonsell, Staff Director
           Elizabeth L. King, Minority Staff Director

                            ____________


                       Subcommittee on Personnel

                THOM TILLIS, North Carolina, Chairman

MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota	     KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, New York
MARTHA McSALLY, Arizona		     ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts
RICK SCOTT, Florida                  TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
                                     
                                     

                                (ii)

  









                           C O N T E N T S

                            ____________


                           March 11, 2020

                                                                   Page

Personnel Programs in the Department of Defense..................     1

                           Members Statements

Statement of Senator Thom Tillis.................................     1

Statement of Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand.......................     2

                           Witness Statements

McCaffery, Hon. Thomas P., Assistant Secretary of Defense for         3
  Health Affairs; Accompanied by: Virginia S. Penrod, Acting 
  Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve 
  Affairs; Thomas A. Constable, Acting Assistant Secretary of 
  Defense for Readiness; and Dr. Elizabeth P. Van Winkle, 
  Executive Director, Office of Force Resiliency.

Wardynski, Hon. E. Casey, Assistant Secretary of the Army for        21
  Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Accompanied by Lieutenant General 
  Thomas C. Seamands, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, United States 
  Army.

Slavonic, Hon. Gregory J., Assistant Secretary of the Navy for       30
  Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Accompanied by: Vice Admiral John 
  B. Nowell, Jr., USN, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for 
  Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education, N-1; and 
  Lieutenant General Michael A. Rocco, USMC, Deputy Commander for 
  Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

Fedrigo, John A., Performing the Duties of the Assistant             47
  Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; 
  Accompanied by Lieutenant General Brian T. Kelly, USAF, Deputy 
  Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services.

                                Appendix

Prepared Statement by The Military Coalition (TMC)...............    65

                                 (iii)











 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION FOR APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 
               2021 AND THE FUTURE YEARS DEFENSE PROGRAM

                              ----------                              


                       WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020

                      United States Senate,
                         Subcommittee on Personnel,
                               Committee on Armed Services,
                                                    Washington, DC.

            PERSONNEL PROGRAMS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:34 p.m. in 
room SD-106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Thom 
Tillis (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.
    Subcommittee Members present: Senators Tillis, McSally, 
Scott, and Gillibrand.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR THOM TILLIS

    Senator Tillis. The hearing will come to order.
    The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel meets 
this afternoon to receive testimony on the personnel programs 
of the Department of Defense (DOD).
    We are fortunate today to have witnesses from the Office of 
the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness 
(P&R), the Services' Assistant Secretaries for Manpower and 
Reserve Affairs, and the Services' personnel chiefs to discuss 
the Department's program.
    On panel one, we will hear from the Honorable Thomas 
McCaffery, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; 
Ms. Virginia Penrod, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for 
Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Mr. Thomas Constable, Acting 
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness; and Elizabeth Van 
Winkle, Executive Director of the Office of Force Resiliency. 
Welcome to you all.
    I will introduce the second panel in transition.
    The topics we will discuss today are vital to the health 
and effectiveness of our All-Volunteer Force. As our Nation 
faces a very complex global security environment, DOD's 
military personnel programs and policies must be agile and 
adaptable, always capable of responding to uncertain threats we 
face. Those programs and policies must increasingly appeal to 
the Nation's best and brightest young people, provide greater 
stability and flexibility to servicemembers in their 
professional and personal lives, and provide compensation 
commensurate with the level of responsibility inherent to a 
military career.
    I hope the P&R team will discuss the Department's efforts 
to prevent sexual assault and harassment, reduce servicemember 
and family suicides, combat domestic violence and child abuse, 
and assure beneficiaries have access to high quality medical 
care either in military hospitals and clinics or in the TRICARE 
provider network.
    Finally, I look forward to hearing from the Services about 
their efforts to improve recruitment and retention of military 
personnel, to improve military personnel and family readiness, 
to improve military housing, to enhance childcare services, and 
to improve employment opportunities for military spouses.
    I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today. I 
look forward to your testimony.
    Ranking Member Gillibrand?

           STATEMENT OF SENATOR KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND

    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Senator Tillis. I want to 
join with you today in welcoming our witnesses as we begin the 
subcommittee's review of the Department's fiscal year 2021 
budget request.
    The Administration's budget submission begins this process, 
but it is not the end of it, which is good because I find the 
Administration's budget request for military and civilian 
personnel programs of the Department of Defense to be lacking.
    While the budget request rightfully provides for a fully 
funded pay raise for military servicemembers of 3 percent, it 
only provides a 1 percent pay increase for civilian personnel, 
far below the rate of inflation.
    Moreover, the Administration's Budget, once again, calls 
for cuts to Federal employee retirement benefits and health 
care.
    While this latter issue is not within the subcommittee's 
jurisdiction to change, it does have a sobering impact on the 
Department's professional civilian workforce, their morale, and 
the ability of the Department to recruit and retain highly 
qualified, highly talented individuals for Federal service. As 
the National Defense Strategy (NDS) states, ``in order to 
achieve its many missions, the Department requires a motivated, 
diverse, and highly skilled civilian workforce.'' I agree, but 
the Administration's budget request does not support that aim.
    I am equally disappointed in the Administration's plan to 
reduce funding for our military children in Department of 
Defense Education Activity (DODEA) schools not by cutting 
overhead but by cutting teachers and teachers' aides, 172 of 
them, in the 2021-2022 school year. The Defense-wide review 
calls for cutting, ``lower priority,'' programs like DODEA to 
pay for, ``higher priority,'' items in the National Defense 
Strategy even as the Department itself diverts funds from NDS 
priorities to fund such things as the border wall. The 
Administration prioritizes DOD funding for a border wall over 
the education of military children.
    Further, I am deeply concerned about the impact of 
Secretary Esper's recent changes to priority placed on the 
process for DOD-run childcare development centers, which will 
allow military members to displace civilian employees who 
already have children in the system even mid-year. While I 
appreciate that we should give priority to Active Duty military 
members, taking childcare away from civilian employees mid-year 
does not seem to strike the right balance of access versus 
stability. Our solution to the shortage of childcare within DOD 
should be solved without sacrificing the needs and stability of 
students. We must increase the capacity within the system 
dramatically in order to really be able to address the issue.
    On a positive note, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working 
with you this year as we examine the recommendations of the 
National Commission on Military National and Public Service, 
which will release its report in a couple weeks, as we look for 
ways to celebrate and incentivize service of all types in the 
Nation, including military service. As we have heard all too 
often in the past and probably will hear again this year and 
here again today, the portion of the Nation's youth both 
eligible and willing to serve continues to be far too low, 
resulting in military Services competing against each other for 
the same small pool of qualified applicants and competing 
against the rest of the Government for talented civilian 
employees. I hope to hear today from our witnesses how we can 
better incentivize service to the Nation in all forms and 
increase the pool of qualified applicants for military service.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you, Senator Gillibrand.
    Secretary McCaffery, I think you have an opening statement 
and then we will move to questions.

 STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS P. McCAFFERY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF 
DEFENSE FOR HEALTH AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY: VIRGINIA S. PENROD, 
ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR MANPOWER AND RESERVE 
  AFFAIRS; THOMAS A. CONSTABLE, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF 
    DEFENSE FOR READINESS; AND DR. ELIZABETH P. VAN WINKLE, 
         EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF FORCE RESILIENCY

    Secretary McCaffery. I do. Chairman Tillis and Ranking 
Member Gillibrand, thank you for the opportunity to appear 
before you today. It is our distinct privilege to represent the 
total force, men and women, military and civilian, who serve 
our Nation in the Armed Forces in the Department of Defense.
    We are grateful for Congress' strong support for the fiscal 
year 2020 National Defense Authorization and Defense 
Appropriation Acts. This important legislation supports vital 
investments in our military's readiness and modernization, 
enabled the creation of the Space Force, and provided our 
servicemembers with the largest pay increase in a decade. Your 
continued support is vital to ensuring our soldiers, sailors, 
airmen, marines, civilians, and members of our newest service, 
the Space Force, have the tools, resources, and support to 
carry out their missions.
    Secretary of Defense Esper reaffirmed that the 2018 
National Defense Strategy is our road map to address the 
reemergence of long-term strategic competition from near-peer 
competitors, such as China and Russia.
    In implementing the strategy, the Office of the Under 
Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness is 
consistently focused on lethality, partnerships, and reform.
    We also are emphasizing Secretary Esper's renewed focus on 
taking care of our people and our families.
    Readiness and lethality begin with our most valued asset, 
our people, who are inextricably linked to readiness. To attain 
and sustain readiness against the spectrum of threats, the 
Department needs to recruit and retain the best people America 
has to offer.
    The Department understands we are facing a competitive job 
market and recruiting from a digital generation. With 
technology changing modern warfare, we are actively pursuing 
innovative recruiting and retention measures to attract and 
keep technologically inclined and savvy individuals. The 
Department's talent management enterprise must also keep pace 
with 21st century developments. Rather than using outdated 
models where personnel are treated like interchangeable parts 
from a bygone era, the Department is ushering in a new age of 
talent management that recognizes the unique talents that 
servicemembers bring to the fight.
    With regard to partnerships, persuasive authority is 
oftentimes as powerful as any weapon in our arsenal, and 
building coalitions and partnerships through personal 
engagements is at the forefront of our efforts. Increasing 
partner nation access to U.S. PME [professional military 
education] programs is one strategic arena that greatly 
contributes to establishing mutually beneficial relationships, 
developing enduring personal connections with future leaders, 
and exposing participants to American values. We are ensuring 
rigorous vetting for partner nation participants much like we 
do for the U.S. recruits with whom they train. Expanding 
participation for our PME programs ensures we are capturing the 
best military minds in the U.S. and around the world.
    We are also executing Department-wide reforms to ensure 
more effective and efficient processes that optimize the 
operation of our enterprise and free up resources for the 
warfighter.
    Currently we are undertaking the most significant changes 
to the military health system in decades. The overarching 
direction of this reform is to increase the readiness of our 
force, better integrate health care delivery throughout the 
Department, and ensure all beneficiaries have continued access 
to high quality medical care. The reform includes consolidation 
of the administration and management of our military hospitals 
and clinics under the Defense Health Agency, the continued 
implementation and standardization of enterprise-wide 
activities in support of global medical actions, and the 
restructuring of the Department's medical personnel end 
strength. We understand that there are a lot of moving parts 
with this transformation. However, one guiding principle that 
is foundational is ensuring all beneficiaries continue to have 
access to high quality health care while reforms are being 
implemented.
    The Department is also fully committed to strengthening and 
promoting the resiliency and readiness of the total force. 
Among our top priorities are to stop the crime of sexual 
assault and prevent suicides, which are devastating tragedies. 
We are committed to increasing awareness and prevention of 
domestic violence and ensuring prompt reporting and response 
for child abuse and neglect.
    The Department also understands that issues such as 
military spouse employment and access to quality childcare are 
quality-of-life issues that allow our servicemembers to remain 
mission-focused and incentivizes retention during their 
military careers.
    Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before this 
committee. With continued collaboration with and support from 
Congress, we will do all we can to ensure our people have the 
resources, the education and training, and the full range of 
support needed to accomplish their missions.
    My colleagues and I look forward to responding to your 
questions.
    [The joint prepared statement of Mr. McCaffery, Ms. Penrod, 
Mr. Constable, and Dr. Van Winkle follows:]

    Joint Prepared Statement by The Honorable Thomas McCaffery, Ms. 
  Virginia Penrod, Mr. Thomas Constable, and Dr. Elizabeth Van Winkle
                              introduction
    Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, distinguished Members 
of the Personnel Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear 
before you today. I am joined by my team of personnel and readiness 
experts, and it is our distinct privilege to represent the Total Force 
men and women, military and civilian, who serve our Nation in the Armed 
Forces and Department of Defense.
    We are grateful for Congress' strong support you provided in the 
fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization and Defense 
Appropriations Acts. This important legislation supports vital 
investments in our military's readiness and modernization, enabled the 
creation of the Space Force, and provided our servicemembers with the 
largest pay increase in a decade. Your continued support is vital to 
ensuring our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, civilians, and members 
of our newest service, the Space Force, have the tools, resources, and 
support to carry out their missions. Our people are the backbone of our 
Nation's security; they protect and defend our Nation and our American 
way of life.
    Secretary of Defense Mark Esper reaffirmed the 2018 National 
Defense Strategy (NDS) will remain our keystone to successfully 
compete, deter, and, if necessary, fight and win across the spectrum of 
conflict against near-peer rivals, as well as rogue nations and violent 
extremist organizations. We are now engaged in great power competition 
with an emerging China and revanchist Russia, powers that pose an 
existential threat to the United States and challenge American 
interests across the globe. Every domain is now contested--land, sea, 
air, space, and cyberspace--and our great power rivals continuously 
seek to find and exploit vulnerabilities and disrupt our institutions 
and their capabilities. The NDS reorients the Department for great 
power competition and peer conflict.
    In implementing the strategy, the Office of the Under Secretary of 
Defense for Personnel and Readiness is laser-focused on supporting the 
warfighter and enabling the military departments through the NDS' three 
lines of effort:
      Restore readiness and build a more lethal force
      Strengthen alliances, deepen interoperability, and 
attract new partners
      Reform the Department for greater performance and 
accountability
    Secretary Esper articulates an additional priority line of effort--
taking care of our people and their families--to ensure they have the 
resources they need to succeed, and the quality of life they deserve.
          restoring readiness and building a more lethal force
    Readiness and lethality begin with our most valued asset, our 
people, who are inextricably linked to readiness. Therefore, to attain 
and sustain readiness against the spectrum of threats, the Department 
requires the best people America has to offer.
Readiness
    Readiness recovery continues to be challenged by current 
operational commitments, juxtaposed with the need to modernize to meet 
future threats. The balance we must find is maintaining a ready force 
with sufficient capability and capacity to meet current mission 
demands, while continuing to modernize our Total Force to fight and win 
against near-peer adversaries in the future.
    The Department is using the Readiness Recovery Framework as an 
action plan focused on specific service-identified areas for 
improvement, such as meeting combatant commander operational demands, 
mitigating manpower shortfalls, enhancing training capabilities on live 
ranges and synthetic environments, and enhancing the planning, 
coordination, and execution of readiness and training activities. The 
DOD is also consolidating all service-specific readiness reporting 
systems into the Defense Readiness Reporting System-Strategic to 
enhance unity of effort and provide senior leaders with data-driven 
choices for optimizing strategic decisions on readiness matters such as 
resource allocation, capabilities, and personnel.
The Space Force
    With the creation of our newest service, the U.S. Space Force, we 
are ushering in an information age service, optimized to meet the 
challenges of the 21st century. We expect the Space Force to be an 
agile and lean organization that will consolidate the majority of space 
missions, units, resources, and personnel from the existing military 
Services into the new Space Force. Although the Space Force will 
leverage existing expertise and infrastructure, it will establish its 
own identity and culture by developing mechanisms to commission, 
enlist, appoint, train, equip, and support its members, as well as 
designate specialty codes that align with the skills necessary for this 
new military service.
    There is much work to be done as the Space Force embarks on its 
mission to craft the innovative strategies and tactics necessary to 
preserve space superiority. However, the Department looks forward to 
continued collaboration with Congress as we develop warfighters for the 
world's most capable Space Force.
Education and Training
    Developing servicemembers who understand the evolving nature of the 
security environment and how it affects American interests, the 
character of warfare, and the dimensions of strategic competition 
requires a military education and training system that can keep pace. 
This system is relied upon to educate the Joint Force, develop 
groundbreaking concepts and strategies to implement the NDS, sustain 
its momentum, and ensure its approach becomes part of an irreversible 
cultural shift in the Department.
    The NDS specifically calls on the Department to emphasize 
intellectual leadership and military professionalism and to revise its 
talent management practices to ensure the greatest return on our 
educational and training investments. In keeping with this NDS mandate, 
the DOD continues to adapt to and leverage the powerful innovations 
underway. Automation, digitalization, artificial intelligence, 
augmented and virtual reality, and collaborative tools not only 
dramatically alter the character of war, but necessitate a shift in the 
learning environment to keep pace.
    The Department is also shifting its focus in curricula in joint 
military education programs from a topic-based approach to a focus on 
outcomes. We are modifying our approach to emphasize ingenuity, 
military professionalism, and historical insights into the art and 
science of warfighting.
21st Century Talent Management
    The Department's talent management enterprise must continuously 
assess, adapt, and innovate to keep pace with 21st century 
developments. Rather than using outdated models where personnel are 
treated like interchangeable parts from a bygone era, the DOD is 
ushering in a new age of talent management that recognizes the unique 
talents that servicemembers bring to the fight by considering 
preferences for assignments, and the knowledge, skills, and attributes 
required at key points in a servicemembers military career.
    Our talent management system also harnesses the relationship 
between military education and training and talent management. We are 
refining our military education and talent management processes to 
ensure our servicemen and women who receive relevant education and 
training opportunities, are then directed to the right assignments to 
best leverage what they have learned and effectively contribute to the 
body of strategic leadership.
             strengthen alliances and attract new partners
    America's alliances and partnerships around the world give the 
United States an unmatched advantage over our competitors. Maintaining 
and nurturing these relationships is a product of a long-term effort to 
build trust and confidence between nations. The NDS recognizes the 
human dynamic as a strategic asset to build trust and deepen 
relationships with international allies and partners.
Professional Military Education (PME)
    In today's complex security environment, where persuasive authority 
is often times as powerful as any weapon in our arsenal, building 
coalitions through personal engagements is at the forefront of our 
efforts. PME is one tool that provides a powerful strategic arena for 
enhancing alliances and expanding partnerships, and understanding the 
value of developing norms within the international profession of arms.
    Increased partner nation access to U.S. PME programs contribute to 
establishing mutually beneficial relationships, developing enduring 
personal connections with future leaders, and exposing participants to 
American values.
        reform the dod for greater performance and affordability
    In line with the NDS's mandate to reform our organization to 
prepare the Department for great power competition, the Department is 
executing reforms to ensure more effective management processes and to 
achieve greater efficiencies to free resources for the warfighter. We 
will ensure we remain good stewards of American taxpayer dollars.
Transformation of the Military Health System
    The Military Health System (MHS) is the most comprehensive military 
medical enterprise in the world. A key Department of Defense reform 
priority is the transformation of the MHS to ensure its ability to 
provide both a medically ready force to execute the National Defense 
Strategy, and a ready medical force to support our Armed Forces 
throughout the world.
    The overarching direction of this reform is to consolidate and 
standardize military health care functions to increase the readiness of 
our force, better integrate healthcare delivery throughout the 
Department, and ensure all beneficiaries have continued access to high 
quality medical care.
    The reform also includes the realignment and restructuring of our 
management processes for overseeing MTFs; the continued implementation 
and standardization of enterprise-wide activities in support of global 
medical activities; and the restructuring of the Department's medical 
personnel end strength. Taken together, these reforms represent the 
most significant change to the MHS in decades.
    The DOD continues its consolidation of the management of military 
medical treatment facilities (MTF) under the Defense Health Agency 
(DHA). This allows Service medical departments to focus on medical 
readiness requirements while providing quality healthcare through 
standardized clinical and business practices. The consolidation should 
eventually lower the Department's costs of operating the MHS by 
eliminating redundancies and improving efficiency. The end state of the 
consolidation will result in primary responsibility for operational 
medical care retained by the Services, while MTF healthcare delivery is 
the responsibility of the DHA.
    In October 2019, the authority, direction, and control of MTFs in 
the continental U.S. was transferred to the DHA. While DHA's 
headquarters management capabilities are expanded, many of DHA's 
functions continue via support agreements with the Services. These 
relationships will be phased out on a conditions-based approach as 
DHA's MTF management capabilities are expanded through transfer of 
functions and personnel, which began earlier this year. The DOD will 
monitor the transition closely to ensure there are no gaps in medical 
care for our beneficiaries.
    The Department recently submitted a report to Congress pursuant to 
section 703 of the fiscal year 2017 NDAA. This report details the 
comprehensive review of 343 MTFs identified as providing healthcare 
services in the United States.
    The Department's review identified 50 MTFs for realignment and 
restructuring that will increase the readiness of our operational and 
medical forces, while ensuring all beneficiaries receive high quality 
medical care. More detailed implementation plans that include MTF-
specific timelines will be forthcoming. The Department will continue to 
monitor MTFs closely and make any adjustments necessary. It is 
important to note that all DOD beneficiaries will continue to have 
access to high quality healthcare, and any transitions will be 
conditions-based on the capacity of provider networks to absorb 
additional patients. This means beneficiaries in some areas could 
transition quickly to civilian networks, others may take years to 
transition as networks build capacity, and some may not transition 
based on local market conditions and capacities.
                          va/dod collaboration
    The DOD and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are working 
closely together. We are collaborating to improve the quality, 
efficiency, and effectiveness of health services and the delivery of 
benefits. Our Joint Executive Committee, a VA-DOD interagency 
coordination body co-chaired by the Deputy Secretary for VA and the 
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, is currently 
engaged on more than 20 VA-DOD joint initiatives to enhance 
interoperability and the seamless transition of our members from 
military service to post-service care, including the Federal Electronic 
Health Record Modernization (FEHRM).
    The FEHRM serves as a single point of accountability in the 
delivery of a common electronic health record for DOD, VA, and the 
United States Coast Guard. The FEHRM will ensure each Department 
successfully executes their respective electronic health record 
deployment strategies with minimal risks to cost, performance, and 
schedule. When complete, DOD and VA clinicians will have the ability to 
share healthcare information to support continued and improved 
treatment for our servicemembers, their families, and our veterans.
    The deployment of MHS GENESIS, the DOD's electronic health record, 
is currently underway. The most recent implementation wave occurred at 
four sites in September 2019. On our current trajectory, we will deploy 
MHS GENESIS at 10 installations in June 2020, and complete the 
deployment by the end of fiscal year 2024.
Military and Civilian Recruiting and Retention
    The Department is adapting to the modern workforce as it strives to 
recruit and retain a diverse force that represents the best America has 
to offer. The current recruiting environment presents challenges due to 
low unemployment rates as well as a competitive job market that 
recruits from the same pool of candidates.
    Recruits today are also digital natives that have an expectation to 
enter a military that uses technology that they are familiar with and 
that will allow them to optimize their time. In order to attract and 
keep these types of individuals, the Department must continue to field 
the most advanced, cutting edge technology.
Military
    In recruiting the best and brightest for our Armed Forces, we are 
using marketing tools such as the Joint Advertising, Market Research & 
Studies (JAMRS) Program to understand factors that are critical to our 
recruiting goals, and ensure our efforts are conducted in the most 
efficient and beneficial ways. In sustaining our All-Volunteer Force, 
we are ensuring the public understands the importance and benefits of 
serving in the military through information initiatives and campaigns 
at all levels of our organization.
    We are also ensuring our pay and benefits packages are competitive 
in order to attract the best candidates and compete against corporate 
America. The fiscal year 2021 budget request supports a 3 percent 
military pay raise to sustain our ability to attract a highly talented 
force. Congress' support for this measure will be greatly appreciated.
    In addressing a broad array of retention issues for our military 
members--from job satisfaction to quality of life to professional 
development--the Department is actively pursuing initiatives to 
increase career path flexibility, identifying non-monetary career-
enhancing opportunities, addressing operational tempo, and managing 
operational commitments to reduce the strain of deployments on 
servicemembers, their families, and employers of our Guard and 
Reserves. In the end, if we do not take care of servicemembers and 
their families, they will vote with their feet and move on to other 
opportunities.
Civilians
    Civilians who serve in the Department share the same values, 
ethics, and maintain the same mission focus as our military members. 
Their ability to provide valued perspective through a long term lens 
and uninterrupted service is vital to the DOD.
    The skills inherent in today's civilian workforce become even more 
critical when we account for complex and evolving requirements such as 
in the cyber and space domains. Our civilian force is a repository of 
best practices and the incubators of new and innovative ideas. Their 
skills and talents are foundational to the strategies and plans we 
develop.
    The Department is enhancing its civilian marketing and recruitment 
outreach efforts, working closely with critical functional communities, 
such as cyber and digital to implement targeted recruitment strategies 
and increase awareness of the Department's civilian employment 
opportunities. We are also identifying and improving ways to decrease 
hiring process bottlenecks, reduce the time to hire candidates, and 
enhance the quality of our hires. The DOD understands that as our 
security environment continues to evolve and straddle every sector of 
society, the role of our civilian force increases in importance every 
day.
                         taking care of people
    Our people--Active, Guard, and Reserve servicemembers, military 
families, and our civilians--are at the core of the NDS. We could not 
accomplish our missions in the Department without the dedication of our 
people who sacrifice every day to protect our Nation. It is imperative 
we remain committed to each and every one of them.
    Secretary Esper's additional priority line of effort--taking care 
of our people and their families--ensures they have the resources they 
need to succeed, and the quality of life they deserve. The Department 
is acting aggressively on this priority to ensure our people have the 
care and support they deserve, and uphold our core values of good order 
and discipline, and treating all with dignity and respect.
Force Resiliency
    The Department is fully committed to strengthening and promoting 
the resiliency and readiness of the Total Force. Among our top 
priorities are to stop sexual assault and prevent suicides.
    Sexual assault is destructive and undercuts our ability to keep a 
mission-focused, ready force. We are committed to preventing this 
crime, encouraging increased reporting, caring for victims, and holding 
offenders appropriately accountable. Most recently, we launched the 
CATCH a Serial Offender Program, and we continue to implement 
recommendations from the Sexual Assault Accountability and 
Investigation Task Force.
    The Department is grateful to all Members of this Committee, in 
particular Senator McSally's leadership, for your partnership on the 
Task Force. The efforts of the Task Force are driving improvements in 
leadership, process timeliness and accuracy, fairness and due process, 
and our overall system's credibility and transparency. We are grateful 
for Congress' support of many of these recommendations in the fiscal 
year 2020 NDAA.
    We are also emphasizing mental health and resiliency for our 
soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines as we strive to prevent 
suicides. Suicides decimate lives, families, and units. The Department 
is committed to supporting our servicemembers and preventing these 
devastating tragedies.
    Our efforts in suicide prevention are focused on increasing help-
seeking behaviors, targeting efforts to our servicemembers at highest 
risk, and ensuring all members of the DOD family are part of the 
solution. In September 2019, the Department released its inaugural 
Annual Suicide Report for Calendar Year 2018. The data from this and 
future reports will assist in targeting the areas of greatest concern 
as we strive to eliminate suicides within the Department of Defense.
Domestic Violence and Child Abuse
    Domestic violence is a serious national issue and the military 
community is not immune. We are focusing on collaborating with civilian 
partners to increase awareness of domestic violence, prevention, and 
support services available to servicemembers and their families.
    The Department's public awareness campaign promotes a military 
community culture that reduces the stigma for seeking help and 
normalizes support for domestic violence victims. The Family Advocacy 
Program (FAP) provides education about available services through 
military and civilian communities, and educates commands on warning 
signs of domestic violence and the command's responsibility to 
encourage servicemembers and their families to seek help.
    The DOD is also committed to ensuring prompt reporting and response 
to all allegations of child abuse and neglect. The FAP uses a 
coordinated community response model, in collaboration with law 
enforcement, legal, medical, command, and civilian child welfare 
services. The FAP also works closely with the Defense State Liaison 
Office on reciprocal reporting issues between State Child Protective 
Service agencies and the military. This collaboration has resulted in 
24 states revising their statutes to develop laws and policies to 
comply with reciprocal reporting.
Military Spouse Employment and Licensure
    Military spouses face barriers to employment due to frequent 
relocations and extended periods of family separations. Delays and 
expenses associated with re-licensure cause many military spouses to 
put their careers on hold or not to practice in their professions at 
all. This financial and quality of life issue impacts the desirability 
of remaining in the military for many servicemembers.
    The Department is dedicated to supporting military spouse 
employment. Recently, the Secretary of Defense directed the Secretaries 
of the military departments to include military spouse employment 
assistance as a criterion in future basing decisions. The DOD is also 
working with State governments to develop legislation and policies that 
grant licensure reciprocity between States. Additionally, the 
Department provides military spouses with education and career guidance 
through comprehensive tools and resources to support career 
exploration, education, training, licensing, employment readiness, and 
career connections. By assisting our military spouses and our families, 
we allow our servicemembers to remain mission focused and incentivize 
retention in their military careers.
Access to Childcare
    Secretary Esper recognizes the importance of providing military 
families with access to quality, affordable childcare. Access to 
childcare is a workforce issue that directly impacts the readiness and 
retention of the Total Force. In February of this year, Secretary Esper 
issued a directive prioritizing uniformed servicemembers' children in 
installation childcare programs.
    The Department is committed to meeting the increased demand for 
childcare services. Initiatives, such as the establishment of a joint-
service working group to look at ways to recruit and retain quality 
childcare staff, will continue to be pursued to ensure we can meet the 
rising demand. At the same time, we understand this challenge requires 
multi-pronged solutions and are also looking at other strategies to 
increase childcare capacity and decrease waiting lists.
                        where congress can help
    The Department of Defense is tremendously appreciative of the 
support you provided in the fiscal year 2020 National Defense 
Authorization and Defense Appropriations Acts. We are hopeful Congress 
will provide us with on-time authorization and appropriations 
legislation for fiscal year 2021 so we can capitalize on the vital 
investments in defense the American people have already made, and 
ensure the predictable and timely funding the Department requires.
    We would also appreciate the Committee's careful consideration of 
the DOD legislative proposals that will more effectively enable the 
Department to carry out its missions.
                               conclusion
    Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before the Committee 
to represent the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and civilians who 
have volunteered to dedicate their lives to protecting our freedoms and 
our way of life. Their sacrifices are awe-inspiring and deserve the 
gratitude of all American citizens. With the continued collaboration 
with and support from Congress, we will do all we can to ensure our 
people have the resources, the education and training, and the full 
range of support needed to accomplish their missions.

    Senator Tillis. Thank you, Mr. McCaffery, and thank you all 
for being willing to be here today.
    Mr. McCaffery, I have a question. The President's fiscal 
year 2021 budget request included a little over $33 million in 
savings from beginning the implementation of right-sizing 
military hospitals and clinics. I believe this decision came 
out of the Defense-wide review that you mentioned.
    The question I have--as somebody who spent most of my 
career doing right-sizing in the private sector, you've got to 
go through and do an analysis. The question is after you 
capture the data, figure out how to right-size and smart-size, 
then you go through and try to identify the sources of the 
savings.
    So can you give me a little sense of how the Department 
went about identifying what are the key sources of savings that 
serve as the basis for the $33 million savings?
    Secretary McCaffery. Sure. So as you indicated, this was 
part of a directive coming out of the NDAA [National Defense 
Authorization Act] for 2017, as well as the Defense-wide 
review. In essence, the review that was directed was to look at 
all of our military hospitals and clinics to ensure that they 
were matched with their readiness requirement. What I mean by 
that is our hospitals and clinics are there and exist for two 
primary missions, to ensure that it is a training platform to 
train our providers so that they are skilled in those efforts 
that they are required to do their job down range, and it is 
also to ensure our servicemembers have quick and easy access to 
health care so that they too are ready to do their jobs down 
range.
    So we looked at all of our U.S.-based facilities. From that 
initial look, we did a deep dive on about 77. The key thing, in 
terms of making any proposed changes to better match the 
services that are provided in those MTFs [military treatment 
facilities] to that readiness requirement, is the ability for 
that civilian health care community around that MTF, their 
ability to receive additional caseload. Our commitment in any 
of these changes is while we do these reforms, including this 
MTF right-sizing, that we will continue to commit to providing 
access to our beneficiaries. We made it very clear in our 
submission to Congress that as we implement these changes, if 
that access is not there, we will rethink our approach.
    With regard to the savings that are in the budget, roughly 
$36 million, for the end of fiscal year 2021, that is based on 
looking at the roughly 48 facilities that we proposed some 
level of reduced services being provided. We believe in those 
areas with the most robust civilian health care market in place 
that can take on additional caseload those would be the first 
facilities that would actually see this implementation. That is 
our projection of what we could see by the end of fiscal year 
2021. Those numbers will be updated as we continue this process 
over the next 2 to 3 years.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you. I understand as part of the 
methodology you engaged an outside firm to assess some of the 
private provider market, and I am sure that you have tiered it 
in terms of risk, low to high risk. I think that we have had a 
couple of facilities in North Carolina designated.
    I am more interested in the nationwide impact, and maybe 
our offices can get together and talk specifically about the 
ones where you are moving forward because you think the risk is 
low. The provider networks are there. So thank you for that. I 
just want to be able to provide assurance to those who 
potentially would be affected that we have done the homework 
and that we can realize the savings where it makes sense and 
the risk is low.
    One area that I have opined a little bit about in various 
Armed Services hearings is military housing. This is an area 
that I have focused a lot of attention on because we had 
absolutely unacceptable conditions down at Camp Lejeune, over 
at Fort Bragg, and to a lesser extent some of the other bases 
in North Carolina.
    So I guess one thing that I really want to get ahead of--I 
do these town hall meetings, and sometimes they are surprised. 
Sometimes I give them a few weeks. All the time, the providers 
do a wonderful job of draining the queue before I get there. 
But I still hear these stories of people that, at least over 
the past year, have been in settings that were unhealthy, and 
so I am trying to get an idea of the guidance that has come out 
of DOD to let these housing providers know if you tell somebody 
to shut a door and maybe tape it shut because it is unsafe to 
go in there, that is probably a house that should not be lived 
in with the adults or children.
    So have the providers gotten the message that if I go down 
to Fort Bragg or Camp Lejeune again and I hear another story 
like that or a dehumidifier that is about the size of a 
dishwasher that is in a hallway literally capturing so much 
moisture that they are piping into the tub because the retainer 
tub fills up too quickly, can I be reasonably assured that the 
DOD has let them know that is unacceptable?
    Secretary McCaffery. I believe you can be reasonably 
assured, and actually the health system role in making that 
connection is when we have patients that present into one of 
our medical facilities, we are very clear in our guidance to 
our hospitals and clinics what to be looking for. If a patient 
comes in and complains that they perhaps have a health 
condition tied to a household exposure hazard, not only do we 
do all the appropriate medical screening and treatment, but one 
of the key things, in terms of direction, is for our provider 
to make sure that the installation commander and the military 
department is aware that that individual, based upon their 
housing, has registered that concern and that complaint so that 
there is a back end communication so that we can track then to 
follow up on dealing with the actual source of the exposure.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    My time has expired. If I have an opportunity, I may come 
back and ask about readiness for coronavirus and a few other 
questions.
    Senator Gillibrand?
    Senator Gillibrand. The purpose of the Department's 
Defense-wide review was to find savings and programs deemed 
lower priority or not supportive of the goals of the National 
Defense Strategy.
    As I mentioned in my opening statement, one program 
identified as a low priority source is the Department of 
Defense's Education Activity and specifically the number of 
teachers employed. According to the Defense-wide review, the 
Department plans to reduce 172 teachers and aides for school 
years 2021 and 2022, yielding savings of $18.6 million. This 
funding will be realigned to higher priorities.
    Would you characterize the education of our military 
children as a lower priority?
    Ms. Penrod. Senator Gillibrand, absolutely not. Education 
of our children is absolutely a higher priority, and I can tell 
you in meeting with Secretary Esper himself, he will tell you 
that is one of his top priorities, supporting our families.
    When we were asked to look at our programs to possibly 
reduce our programs for modernization and readiness, we were 
asked to look at where could we possibly tighten our belts but 
not harm our programs. What we did is looked at our teacher-to-
student ratio and staff ratio and found that we could add about 
2.2 students per class and still be under what the public 
schools offer. We do not think we will have degradated 
classrooms, and we think we still will provide a high quality 
education for our dependents.
    Senator Gillibrand. Well, I do not know that increasing 
pupil-to-teacher ratio increases performance in classrooms, and 
I think all educational experts agree that having a smaller 
class size is beneficial for kids.
    I know that the DODEA schools--we have got 16 in North 
Carolina. We have got two in New York. So are we then asking 
servicemembers who are deployed to smaller bases in remote 
locations to sacrifice the quality of their children's 
education with these cuts?
    Ms. Penrod. No, ma'am. I do not believe we are sacrificing 
the education with these cuts. In many cases, we looked at 
schools where we had classrooms with 10 students in them. As 
you looked across our programs, we felt we could increase the 
student-teacher ratio size and still provide a quality 
education.
    Senator Gillibrand. This is for both Ms. Penrod and Mr. 
Constable. Last year when President Trump raided the DOD budget 
to fund border wall construction, there were hundreds of 
millions of dollars in the DODEA budget, school construction 
budget, that were diverted. In fact, 15 percent of the total 
amount was diverted from military schools. Many of these 
schools are half a century old, and some were slated to be 
replaced altogether.
    Can you discuss the importance of quality schools for 
military children and the impact that has had on retention and 
readiness?
    Ms. Penrod. Yes, ma'am. First, I believe when we looked at 
our schools and what we could, we say, move to the right as far 
as construction, there were schools that were not ready to 
begin construction. So as we programmed construction, we look 
at those programs that we can actually start in that fiscal 
year or calendar year.
    We are improving our schools. We are building new schools. 
We still believe we have the highest quality of education in 
the country in our DODEA schools as witnessed by reaching the 
best in the country on the report card for fourth grade and 
eighth grade math and science.
    Senator Gillibrand. Mr. Constable?
    Mr. Constable. Thank you, Senator.
    In the course of the decision to reprogram, the Secretary 
turned to the Chairman who did a full assessment of force 
readiness and looking at the accounts that would be used to 
transfer, determined that the transfer would not have immediate 
or foreseeable impacts to defense readiness.
    Senator Gillibrand. In 2018, the Air Force Academy adopted 
a policy of not punishing cadets for minor infractions such as 
drinking or fraternization if the discovery resulted from 
reporting a sexual assault. This year's Academy report showed a 
73 percent increase in reports of sexual assault at the Air 
Force Academy, while reporting was flat for the previous 2 
years. While there was an increase at both West Point and the 
Naval Academy, they were negligible when compared to the Air 
Force Academy.
    I introduced language in the fiscal year 2020 NDAA to 
expand this policy to the entire DOD, and we have identical 
[language] in the House. Yet, this language was removed in 
conference in favor of a report. The academies' reports show 
that while we are waiting for implementation reports, dozens of 
assaults have been unreported.
    Ms. Penrod, would you agree such a dramatic increase shows 
that there was a large number of not only cadets but 
servicemembers who are not reporting sexual assault for fear of 
the impact it will have on their career?
    Ms. Penrod. Senator Gillibrand, I will defer that question 
to Dr. Van Winkle.
    Dr. Van Winkle. So I think that the safe-to-report policy 
is a good one because it addresses collateral misconduct, and 
your support of it has been beneficial in that space.
    As with everything in my portfolio, there are some legal 
nuances to it. So specifically while we do hear from some 
victims that that protection will give them the confidence and 
the assurance to come forward and report, which we need 
considering the vast majority of our sexual assault survivors 
do not report, we also know there are some victims who say that 
they would like to face the discipline for any infraction so 
that the defense cannot use that as a reason for why they are 
coming forward with a report. So that is the legal nuance 
there.
    Overall, I think the safe-to-report policy is a good one 
and appreciate your support to it. We just want to make sure we 
get the language right to support both sides.
    Senator Gillibrand. We might be able to do that in the next 
NDAA too. Thank you.
    Senator Tillis. Ms. Penrod, one thing I would be interested 
in, we have been tracking closely any of the military 
construction money that was affected by the executive order in 
North Carolina. In one case it was a school that I think had 
been determined that--a project for a school that they 
determined they were not moving forward with. I think it would 
be very helpful if we could run down the construction projects 
you were saying that provided future funding. It is not 
disrupting the ultimate time that these schools will come on 
line. It would be very helpful if we could get that report 
specifically for the schools in the U.S.
    Ms. Penrod. Senator Tillis, I would be happy to provide 
that report.
    [The information referred to follows:]

    Ms. Penrod. In 2019, DODEA had $559 million of military 
construction funding deferred from 10 approved projects to pay for 
border wall construction. In 2020, funding was restored for the Fort 
Campbell Middle School project; that construction contract was awarded 
in September 2020. In 2020, funds were deferred for another project; 
the amount of deferred funding is currently $516 million. The table 
below provides a listing of the affected projects.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                         $ in
              Project Title                       State/Country                   Location             Millions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Butner Elementary School Replacement....  NORTH CAROLINA                Fort Bragg                      32,944
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kinnick High School Increment 1.........  JAPAN                         Yokosuka                        40,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clay Kaserne Elementary School..........  GERMANY                       Weisbaden                       56,048
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robinson Barracks Elementary School       GERMANY                       Stuttgart                       46,609
 Replacement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bechtel Elementary School...............  JAPAN                         Camp Mctureous                  94,851
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spangdahlem Elementary School             GERMANY                       Spangdahlem AB                  79,141
 Replacement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ft Campbell Middle School...............  KENTUCKY                      Fort Campbell                   62,634
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Croughton Elementary/Middle/High School   UNITED KINGDOM                Croughton RAF                   71,424
 Replacement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ramey Unit School Replacement...........  PUERTO RICO                   Punta Borinquen                 61,071
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Europe West Distric Superintendent's      BELGIUM                       Chievres AB                     14,305
 Office.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                          ............................  ...........................   $559,027
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    Senator McSally?
    Senator McSally. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it.
    Thanks, all, for being here today.
    Dr. Van Winkle, good to see you again. I want to talk about 
Active Duty military suicide rates. When I was a cadet at the 
Air Force Academy, one of my fellow cadets in my squadron took 
his own life. Since then, we have each had way too many 
experiences of our fellow servicemen and women who survived 
combat, who survived the enemy trying to take their lives, and 
they come back home and they take their own lives.
    Just like sexual assault, saying that the prevalence in 
society is a similar rate is not acceptable. Once they are 
under our watch, once they are a part of our team, we are 
responsible for making sure that they have everything they need 
in order to live a good life and to get the care that they need 
in order to prevent these tragedies from happening.
    The rates keep going up, and I find this just so utterly 
unacceptable and unconscionable, both Active Duty and veterans.
    I met with a veteran last week, Zach, who survived--I 
should not have said his name. Sorry. I am not giving you his 
last name, but either way, a number of his fellow servicemen 
did not survive deployments that he was on. He survived, but 
several of his other teammates took their own lives when they 
came back home. He shared this harrowing story of him hitting 
that point himself, but somehow the gun did not go off. He is 
still with us today by the grace of God.
    But hearing stories like that--and again, the ones that we 
each know personally as well--it is urgent and we have got to 
do more together between Active Duty and the VA [Department of 
Veterans Affairs]. I appreciate the President creating a task 
force last year on this. The report is overdue. It is urgent. 
There are lives on the line every day.
    So what is being done? What have we learned from the task 
force? What else can we do to address this urgent issue?
    Dr. Van Winkle. Senator, I appreciate the question, and you 
are right on all accounts.
    We released the first-ever annual suicide report and saw a 
few things in the data. We saw the increased risk in our 17 to 
24-year-olds and our youngest military members.
    We also saw a concerning trend within the National Guard 
that we are also supporting.
    In order to get after this, we are doing a number of 
things. Within the Department for military members, there are a 
few things we have to address that we are going after. The 
first is making sure that we are giving our youngest 
servicemembers the skills, the basic, fundamental skills in 
terms of problem solving, managing crises, emotional 
regulation.
    We also need to make sure that we start to remove barriers 
to getting help, to receiving care. That is extremely 
complicated. I would say across my portfolio, I do not 
necessarily need anybody to go to one of our official resources 
to get help. There are a number of other resources they can go 
to that are confidential, including chaplains. So we are really 
working with our youngest folks to understand what resources 
are out there for them, understanding that as humans we all 
face crises and tragedies and that we can get through it and 
get through it stronger.
    The PREVENTS Task Force that you mentioned is obviously co-
led by the VA and the White House, but we are an integral part 
of that. I cannot speak to when the report will be released, 
but I can say that once it is released, that is not the end. I 
work very closely with Dr. Van Dahlen on enduring efforts to 
take this on in the Nation writ large.
    Senator McSally. Great. Thank you.
    I want to follow up also on sexual assault. Working 
together with you last year and the task force that was 
created, we got 17 of those 18 provisions in my bill into the 
NDAA. So I would like to hear about implementation of those and 
then also one of them we did not, which was criminalizing of 
sexual harassment which the task force recommended. But we did 
say we wanted you to report back to us on progress on this and 
what else needs to be done. So can you share an update?
    Dr. Van Winkle. Absolutely, and I want to start by thanking 
you for your initiative and your partnership on that task 
force. I have been a part of lot of efforts in the DOD on this, 
and this was one of the more rewarding efforts that I have been 
a part of.
    As you know, we had 22 recommendations. They all were 
approved into policy. So we are now working on the 
implementation. The sexual harassment one--we are on track to 
deliver that report to you. In the meantime, we have submitted 
language for an executive order so we could get this moving. 
That is currently with the Federal Register for public comment. 
We are expecting that back in April, and I would be happy to 
come back out and speak to you about the status of the 
recommendations that we have.
    Senator McSally. Great. Let us do that. Thank you.
    I yield back.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you, Senator McSally.
    If we can go back, I think Senator Gillibrand is also 
interested in this. With the spread of the coronavirus, I spoke 
with General Rocco before we got started here talking about how 
they are standing up and making people aware down at Parris 
Island. But what is the DOD doing across the globe to ensure 
best measures are taken to avoid it and provide treatment and 
testing where it is necessary?
    Secretary McCaffery. So, Senator Tillis, a good question, 
and maybe I can spend a couple of minutes with the status in 
terms of what we are doing across the DOD.
    As you can quite imagine, when we look at this virus, the 
threat and what we need to do, we have three priorities. 
Basically we want to make sure that we maintain the health and 
safety of our military forces and our civilians. Very 
importantly, we want to make sure that we maintain that staff 
to support mission assurance. Then finally, we are obviously 
part of the whole-of-government effort in looking at how we as 
a Government combat the virus.
    In January, we issued force health protections guidance 
very much along the lines of CDC [Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention], going after the field in terms of what folks 
need to be aware of, self-hygiene, prevention efforts, and 
screening. We at the DOD need to go a little bit beyond that, 
and we have issued guidance across the globe to installation 
commanders with regard to what they need to be doing based upon 
their unique circumstance in their particular location. It is 
very consistent. We have authorities under existing DOD policy 
on public health emergency management, and we have outlined 
guidance that is basically risk-based so that, again, based 
upon the situation on the ground, gives guidance to commanders 
to take actions to prevent the spread.
    So, for example, the Indo-Pacific geographic combatant 
command, based upon that guidance, has done things like 
restricting all non-official travel to the Republic of Korea, 
China, and Mongolia. They have also directed that all U.S. 
naval vessels maintain a minimum 14-day period between port 
calls in their area of responsibility. They are limiting non-
mission essential travel, increasing guidelines with regard to 
access to installations and screening the folks before they get 
onto those installations. A number of other geographic 
combatant commands are taking similar steps in terms of 
limiting travel for their military members outside of their 
area of responsibility and basically providing direction with 
regard to canceling meetings that are non-essential, 
restricting large group activities, everything that we can do 
to contain the spread of the virus.
    In addition, the DOD--we have 16 laboratories around the 
world. 13 of the 16 laboratories have the CDC-approved test 
kit, and they are all up and running in terms of providing that 
testing ability. In the three that are not yet running, we 
anticipate having them up and running either at the end of this 
week or next week to ensure we have that testing capability for 
our force.
    Senator Tillis. Do we have any specific data on--I know 
that we have the reports. In South Korea, I think one or two 
cases of South Korean military personnel. Do we keep DOD data 
on the rate of tests or any other confirmed infections to date?
    Secretary McCaffery. Yes. So right now, as of last night, 
so last evening, our current across-the-board DOD cases are a 
total of 11, and these are confirmed cases. Of that, four are 
Active Duty. One is a civilian. We have five dependents and one 
contractor. We are regularly updating that. As the virus 
spreads, we anticipate getting more cases and tracking those 
and providing the guidance with regard to what these folks need 
to do in terms of self-isolation for a 14-day period.
    Senator Tillis. When a case is reported, do you--you know, 
if it happens back in North Carolina off a military base, the 
health department gets involved. They try to determine the 
contacts and track down and notify potentially candidates for 
testing. Do you engage the CDC for that, or is that a protocol 
that gets executed within the DOD?
    Secretary McCaffery. We can do that. In terms of the 
testing, we can do that now within the DOD among our labs. With 
regard to, for example, any civilian case in Virginia, a 
civilian employee of the DOD, we would report not only 
internally but, of course, we would report to local public 
health authorities, and either they, if it is a civilian 
outside of DOD, would be doing that contact tracing. We do the 
same thing internally if it is on a base overseas.
    Senator Tillis. Okay. Thank you.
    Senator Gillibrand, if you will indulge, I have just got 
one other question for Ms. Penrod.
    Ms. Penrod, we know that we always have the challenge of 
on-boarding and hiring personnel. We are trying to do our best 
to provide flexibility, as we did in the last NDAA, to provide 
direct hire authorities and special compensation tools, the 
toolkit that we embedded in the NDAA, and some exceptions to 
the OPM [Office of Personnel Management] laws and regulation. 
But it seems to me with respect to hiring personnel, we have 
not seen a lot of those authorities taken advantage of, at 
least from an outsider's perspective.
    So one of two questions. Am I wrong? Are they taking 
advantage of them and we are not seeing the benefits yet? Or do 
we need to do training and get expertise out there so that the 
broader DOD hiring experts or subject-matter experts know what 
kind of flexibilities they have and are looking forward to 
implementing them?
    Ms. Penrod. Well, yes, Senator. Well, first of all, you are 
never wrong.
    But I will say that we want to thank the Congress because 
the flexibility with those authorities have been amazing. I 
know in one of the naval shipyards, the hiring time was cut in 
half, reduced to 43 days. Our civilian experts are using the 
authorities. However, they were not using the authorities as 
much as we would like. Secretary Esper recognized that. He 
required the Services to report on these direct hiring 
authorities and why they were not using them as much. We have 
increased the number of usage of those authorities and reduced 
the hiring time across the Department.
    When we implemented the authorities, one thing that we 
found is it was a little bit confusing because some of the 
authorities overlap. The rules are different depending on the 
direct hire authority. So, again, we thank the Congress for the 
fiscal year 2020 NDAA that simplified those authorities.
    We also found that if we could gain authority for the 
Secretary of Defense to provide a direct hire authority for 
those critical skill sets, that it would provide more 
flexibility.
    I also believe the Services will be able to talk about how 
they have implemented those authorities. Thank you.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you very much.
    Senator Gillibrand?
    Senator Gillibrand. Just a follow-up on the coronavirus 
issues. You said you have 16 facilities up and running. Is that 
what you said? With three more to come online.
    Secretary McCaffery. We have 13 of our 16 labs up and 
running.
    Senator Gillibrand. Three to come online. Okay. So 16 
total.
    How many tests can you do a day given your 13 labs?
    Secretary McCaffery. We have that data. I do not have it 
handy. I can get back to you on it. But we have projected, 
based upon staffing and volume, what we can do in terms of the 
turnaround time of the test results. I can get back to you with 
that information.
    Senator Gillibrand. Do you have an approximation in your 
head? Is it like 100 a day or 1,000 a day?
    Secretary McCaffery. I do not. So I do not want to----
    Senator Gillibrand. So please give me updated data, and as 
it changes, just keep updating me so I know what our capacity 
actually is.

    Secretary McCaffery. Laboratories across the DOD are able to 
analyze a maximum of approximately 3,000 specimens on a working day. 
The limiting factor are supplies. The laboratories run through supplies 
in less than 2 days when they operate at maximum capacity.

    The Department has been engaged in a process of downsizing 
health personnel, the closure of military medical treatment 
facilities, the shifting retiree military family member care to 
TRICARE. In many of these areas, treatment facilities may not 
be capable of handling the increased patient load. These cuts 
are happening at the same time as an outbreak of coronavirus 
and obviously a lot of pressure on our system.
    Has the DHA [Defense Health Agency] taken the impact of 
servicemembers and their families into account while making 
these changes?
    Secretary McCaffery. Most definitely, and as I mentioned, 
the whole effort on what we call right-sizing our footprint in 
terms of hospitals and clinics and what level of services they 
are providing--it is all contingent upon--if we are proposing a 
change and some down-sizing any services of an MTF, it is 
contingent upon the ability of that local community to absorb 
that additional patient. From my prior life in the private 
sector in the health industry, we are doing the same thing that 
is done in the commercial industry. That is, before you make 
that kind of change and you start planning to move folks from 
one provider base to another, you do the on-site working with 
our providers to see----
    Senator Gillibrand. But you obviously did all that work 
before the coronavirus hit. So have you done any subsequent 
work to see are we going to have enough beds, are we going to 
have enough ventilators, do we have enough capacity?
    Secretary McCaffery. So you are correct. The work that went 
into the right-sizing proposal was done in advance of the 
coronavirus. So it is a point in time. But what we have said is 
it is conditions-based, and so part of that will----
    Senator Gillibrand. Okay. So you can ramp up if you need 
to.
    Secretary McCaffery. Part of that will be, if in the future 
our assumptions that went into our proposals have changed, then 
we will need to change what we proposed.
    Senator Gillibrand. So keep looking, please.
    Have you guys changed any of the travel restrictions for 
military civilian personnel to areas affected by the 
coronavirus?
    Secretary McCaffery. So there have been--by geographic 
combatant command, there have been specific restrictions, as I 
mentioned in the Indo-Pacific, restrictions in terms of travel 
to and from Korea, China, other places. It pretty much aligns 
with where the CDC has issued travel health notices in terms of 
countries based upon their level of risk and level of spread of 
disease. We mirror that in terms of controlling and monitoring 
travel to and from.
    Senator Gillibrand. Grateful for the information. Will you 
update this committee weekly on how we are doing on all 
measurables for coronavirus?
    Secretary McCaffery. Be happy to.
    Senator Gillibrand. Will that be all right, Mr. Chairman?
    Senator Tillis. Yes, I think so. Particularly we are very 
interested--the disease seems to have a reasonably short time 
frame. So we are particularly interested not only in reporting 
the incidents and the tests on the front side, but the 
disposition of the----
    Senator Gillibrand. Capacity for testing because one of the 
problems is--you know, New York has the highest number of cases 
now, and our Governor is using our National Guard to deliver 
food and medical supplies. So the tax that will be placed on 
our servicemembers writ large will be more significant than 
now, and it will continue to grow. So I just want to make sure 
you have enough testing labs, you have enough access, you have 
enough supplies, you have enough personnel. I would like you to 
be aggressive in updating us if you are concerned that you will 
not have what you need.
    Secretary McCaffery. Yes.
    Senator Gillibrand. Then, Dr. Van Winkle, with my remaining 
time, can you talk a little bit about the most recent SAPRO 
[Sexual Assault Prevention and Responses Office] report and 
what you think the best way's to stem the tide? We saw an 
increase, obviously, in sexual assaults and unwanted sexual 
contacts. We saw a decrease in the percentage of cases that 
actually went to a trial. We saw a decrease in the conviction 
rate in raw numbers and by percentage. So under any measurable, 
we are not getting better at this. Do you have any suggestions 
about things that you think we can do to improve our 
performance?
    Dr. Van Winkle. Thank you for the question.
    In many ways, you are absolutely right. While we saw 
progress for a certain time frame over 10 years where we saw 
our rates cut in half and reporting go up, in 2016 we saw an 
increase at the service academies. In 2018, we saw another 
increase in the service academies and an increase in the Active 
Duty. So we really tried to look at the data to see what are we 
doing wrong here, what efforts were we doing that may have 
worked a while back but are not working now. Again, what we saw 
as the driver for the increase is that 17 to 24-year-old group 
that I talked about.
    One of the things we are trying to do, as well as 
continuing to focus on the response system, the launch of the 
CATCH [Catch a Serial Offender] program to look at repeat 
offenders, we really are now laser-focused on the prevention 
side. So one of the things I am doing at my level is the 
Prevention Collaboration Forum, which has recently been 
approved by the Under Secretary for charter, and starting to 
look at prevention across my entire portfolio, so the sexual 
assaults, harassment, discrimination, hazing, bullying, 
substance use, as well as suicide prevention. We are looking to 
create a--we are developing right now a violence prevention 
policy across all of those, starting to understand the 
interconnections between them, so really starting to focus on 
preventing this from occurring in the beginning.
    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    Well, thank you all for testifying today and the work that 
goes into preparing for the hearing. We appreciate the 
information you have shared with us, look forward to the 
information we requested follow-up on. So thanks again for your 
service. We will transition to the second panel.
    I want to thank the witnesses on the second panel for being 
here today. I understand some of you may have changed some 
travel plans to be present, and I appreciate that.
    On the second panel, we will hear from the Honorable Casey 
Wardynski, Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve 
Affairs; the Honorable Gregory Slavonic, Assistant Secretary of 
the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Mr. John Fedrigo, 
performing the duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Air 
Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Lieutenant General 
Thomas Seamands, Deputy Army Chief of Staff for Personnel; Vice 
Admiral John Nowell, Chief of Naval Personnel, Deputy Chief of 
Naval Operations for Manpower, Personnel, Training, and 
Education; Lieutenant General Brian Kelly, Air Force Deputy 
Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services; and 
Lieutenant General Michael Rocco, Deputy Marine Commander for 
Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
    Thank you all for being here, and we will begin at the left 
and go down the line for opening statements.

 STATEMENT OF HON. E. CASEY WARDYNSKI, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF 
   THE ARMY FOR MANPOWER AND RESERVE AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY 
 LIEUTENANT GENERAL THOMAS C. SEAMANDS, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, 
                    G-1, UNITED STATES ARMY

    Secretary Wardynski. Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member 
Gillibrand, and other distinguished Members of the panel, thank 
you very much for this opportunity to come before you today and 
talk about Army programs for our people.
    General Seamands and I have already submitted a written 
statement that covers that breadth of our portfolio, but today 
I would like to address some key areas that speak to things you 
have raised in your points at the beginning. They get to the 
business at heart of acquiring talent in the Army, retaining 
it, developing it, and employing it.
    Last year, the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff and 
our Sergeant Major of the Army signed the Army's first-ever 
People Strategy that brings those key elements together in a 
very systematic way to drive forward innovation in the Army. 
With this strategy, we see that acquiring talent, which gets to 
your point, Senator, about recruiting, as being the foundation 
of efforts. We do not do lateral entry in any large manner. 
Therefore, the way we begin is very much going to shape the way 
we go. We need to bring in a very strong starting group of 
folks.
    The foundation of this is our new marketing effort in 
Chicago. There we established the Army Marketing Enterprise 
Office, a short distance away from our new team at DDB, which 
is our marketing firm. This group has already launched a very 
engaging new campaign, ``What's Your Warrior,'' that is 
designed to show the breadth and depth of opportunities in the 
Army, as well as the benefits afforded to our members. Many of 
those, of course, flow from the efforts of this panel or this 
committee.
    Taking note of your guidance in section 512 of the 2020 
NDAA, which pertains to the Junior ROTC [Reserve Officers' 
Training Corps], we are re-imagining our efforts there. This 
includes bringing online computer science and cybersecurity 
instruction that we believe from the level of AP [Advanced 
Placement] to honors to general education for delivery in 2022 
at selected schools as a pilot program. Our effort here is 
designed to capture the imagination of young adults and redress 
the issue of what many believe is only 30 percent of young 
adults who are eligible and could enter the military. We need 
to begin educating them much earlier about the opportunities 
afforded in the military, the benefits of service, and the 
challenges of service so that as they form their set of life 
course alternatives, military service can be in there early 
enough to shape their behaviors throughout high school so by 
the time they graduate, they can avail themselves of those 
opportunities.
    This past fall, we implemented a talent-based market for 
assignments. This is the foundation of our employee talent 
component of our strategy. This innovation is most likely the 
most significant modernization of our personnel system since 
the beginning of the All-Volunteer Force. It relies on the 
Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, IPPS-A, as its 
foundation technology. This system is now, by the end of this 
month, fully implemented across all 54 Guard and Reserve 
elements in the 54 States and territories. By 2022, it will be 
online throughout the Reserve and Active component. With that, 
we will finally be able to see the talent across our formations 
in the Active, Guard, and Reserve and bring them to bear both 
through assignment through temporary duty and virtual 
connection to those who have a need for their services.
    Of course, Army recruiters play a unique role in this 
process. We are, therefore, innovating in that area as well. We 
are going to begin a process of talent management assessments 
for our new sergeants to identify those NCOs [non-commissioned 
officers] who have a gift for both inspiring young adults to 
serve and for identifying a good fit among those young adults 
to make sure when they enter the service, they have the grit 
and capacity to dominate the challenges of soldiering.
    The quality of life for our soldiers and families, of 
course, is a key enabler of all of this. Thanks to authorities 
you provided in the 2018 NDAA, we continue to improve our 
quality of life programs across our installations. These 
include enhancements to spouse employment, particularly in the 
area of licensure, childcare so that our parents have the 
ability to work, dependent education, as well as improvements 
for family support and readiness.
    All of these efforts are the work we now undertake in our 
people space. We share your passion for our people, and our 
people remain our greatest resource.
    Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, distinguished 
Members of the Committee, General Seamands and I thank you for 
your generous and unwavering support for our talented Army 
soldiers, civilians, and families.
    [The joint prepared statement of Dr. Wardynski and General 
Seamands follows:]

   Joint Prepared Statement by Dr. E. Casey Wardynski and Lieutenant 
                       General Thomas C. Seamands
    Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, distinguished Members 
of this committee, we thank you for the opportunity to appear before 
you on behalf of the men and women of the United States Army.
    The greatest strength of the United States Army is our people. 
Soldiers, Army civilians, families, and soldiers for life--our retirees 
and veterans--are our greatest resource. We cannot fight and win our 
Nation's wars without a diverse group of talented, trained men and 
women of character. Readiness must be our number one priority. To 
sustain Army readiness, we must ensure that our people are ready by 
focusing on first-class programs that provide continued care and 
resources for soldiers and their families.
                        the army people strategy
    Army senior leaders signed the first ever Army People Strategy in 
October of 2019, paving the way for transformational change within 
every aspect of our people enterprise--soldiers in the Active and 
Reserve components and Army civilians. The Army People Strategy is 
foundational to all Army readiness, modernization, and reform efforts 
described in the 2018 Army Strategy. With the right people, in the 
right place, at the right time, our Army will successfully deploy, 
fight, and win in multi-domain operations and excel in support of the 
Joint Force. Our people provide us with an enduring advantage to remain 
the world's most ready, lethal, and capable land combat force.
    The Army People Strategy describes our shift from the traditional 
focus of simply distributing personnel to more deliberately developing, 
employing, retaining, and managing the talents of our soldiers and 
civilians. With your help and using the authorities you provided in the 
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), we are building a 21st 
century talent management-based personnel system by creating the 
policies, programs, and processes that recognize and capitalize on the 
unique knowledge, skills, and behaviors of every member of the Army 
team, and then employs each member to achieve the maximum effect. This 
shift is transformational, increasing our organizational agility, 
focusing on productivity, and resulting in increased readiness and 
lethality. It also integrates all people practices, generating a 
positive effect on organizational outcomes and leverages each 
individual's knowledge, skills, behaviors, and preferences.
    The Strategy is transformational in that it describes our shift 
from simply distributing personnel to more deliberately managing the 
talents that our soldiers and civilians possess. The Army People 
Strategy is now driving Army resourcing decisions by creating policies, 
programs, and processes of how we acquire, develop, employ, and retain 
Army talent for our future budget cycles.
    The Army People Strategy mission and vision are clear--The Total 
Army will acquire, develop, employ, and retain the diversity of soldier 
and civilian talent needed to achieve Total Army readiness. Our vision 
is to build cohesive teams for the Joint Force by maximizing the 
talents of our people--the Army's greatest strength and most important 
weapon system.
    We will implement the Army People Strategy by executing tasks along 
four Lines of Effort--Acquire, Develop, Employ, and Retain Talent. 
These Lines of Effort are supported by four critical enablers--a 21st 
century talent management system; meaningful Quality of Life programs; 
a proven Army culture and appropriate resources/authorities. Through 
these actions, we will achieve our vision of cohesive teams that are 
ready, professional, diverse, and integrated.
    We will pursue all four Lines of Effort simultaneously; however, 
our implementation priority and main effort through 2028 is Line of 
Effort 1, Acquire Talent. We have already implemented many activities 
that place an emphasis on modernizing our entire accessions 
enterprise--marketing, recruiting, and onboarding--impacting the Army's 
officers and enlisted members in all three components.
    The Army People Strategy lists six near-term priorities. Our 
Civilian and Military Implementation Plans, now being staffed, describe 
how we will accomplish these near-term priorities in a planned and 
coordinated approach.
    1.  The Army will reform Quality of Life programs for both soldiers 
and civilians based on the Army senior leaders' priorities: a) Housing 
and barracks; b) Healthcare; c) Childcare; d) Spouse Employment; and e) 
Permanent Change of Station Moves.
    2.  The Army Enterprise Marketing Office will transform all 
marketing communications, technologies, and operations, ensuring we 
inform and inspire the diversity of military and civilian talent needed 
to remain the world's premier combat force.
    3.  The Army will reform accession activities based on an end-to-
end evaluation of Total Army accession and retention programs. We will 
develop and implement programs, policies, and systems to attract and 
align new soldiers and civilians with best-fit jobs across the Army, 
which will reduce attrition throughout the enterprise. Moreover, the 
Army will conduct Accessions Information Environment design, 
prototyping, and phased releases, which will support the Army 
Accessions Enterprise in its mission of meeting and maintaining the 
Army's end strength goals.
    4.  The Army will fully resource the Integrated Personnel and Pay 
System--Army (IPPS-A). IPPS-A is the Army's new web-based human 
resources system. It is the critical enabler for the Army People 
Strategy and the Army's transition to a talent management system. IPPS-
A establishes a human resources data-rich environment and integrates 
personnel and pay functions for all 1.1 million soldiers. Once fully 
deployed, IPPS-A will give soldiers and their units unmatched and 
secure access to personnel data through a single, comprehensive human 
resources record. It will directly interface with the U.S. Treasury for 
soldier pay, a feature that will bring significant savings to the Army. 
As of this month, IPPS-A will be fielded to Army National Guard units 
in every U.S. State and Territory. To implement our Talent Alignment 
Process, the pending delivery of IPPS-A Release 4 will bring the 
marketplace to full operating capability. We will also prepare for 
Defense Civilian Human Resource Management System deployment in fiscal 
year 2020, so as to leverage its data capabilities to improve Army 
civilian talent alignment.
    5.  The Army will research, design, and pilot a suite of talent 
assessments for soldiers and civilians for future scaling.
    6.  For Army civilians, the Army will develop and implement 
programs, policies, and systems that leverage new authorities to reduce 
hiring time and improve talent acquisition and talent management.
         acquiring diverse talent in a competitive environment
    Today, we must inform and inspire public awareness of the wide 
array of opportunities the Army offers to attract the talent we 
require. We must direct our efforts to those places where such talent 
is most likely to reside and vividly describe the many rich 
opportunities of serving in the Army. We will inform rising generations 
at key points in their decision-making process so that they can 
consider Army career opportunities and be able to take advantage of 
them upon reaching an age at which they are eligible for service. The 
goal is for prospects to understand the Army better, perceive the 
intangible value of serving their country in the United States Army, 
and have the same effect on their influencers, prompting them to 
support prospects' consideration of the Army. We must make service in 
the U.S. Army a consideration of every American youth. We must 
articulate the opportunities and experiences in the Army today in a way 
that allows our Army to compete even in the best of nationwide economic 
trends.
    Marketing remains a key tool to address these issues. The Army 
Enterprise Marketing Office and our advertising agency, DDB, have 
energized our activities with a bold new campaign titled, ``What's Your 
Warrior?'' This campaign focuses on digital marketing social media 
versus traditional television ads. Initial indicators from the ``What's 
Your Warrior'' campaign are showing positive key performance 
indicators, such as increased engagement on our GoArmy.com (http://
goarmy.com/) website, where, year-over-year, we are generating more 
than 150 percent more leads. In addition, the Army eSports team has 
opened doors to new markets. By, coupling this team to new state-of-
the-art gaming trailers, we are exponentially increasing our ability to 
gather quality leads at large eGame venues. Another significant reform 
effort is the development of our principal IT accessions backbone, the 
Accessions Information Environment (AIE). AIE will dramatically affect 
the way we do business. It will free recruiters to interact with and 
contract future soldiers anywhere there is cellular capability. It will 
also allow us to conduct marketing that is more precise and better 
determine our return on investment.
                              end strength
    The Army continues to focus on retention, recruiting, and 
accessions in order to grow end strength according to plans and 
resources. We enlisted 68,185 recruits in the Active component (AC), 
39,063 recruits in the Army National Guard (ARNG), and 15,304 recruits 
in the Army Reserve (USAR) in fiscal year 2019. The Army is currently 
on a path to achieve the fiscal year 2020 recruiting missions in all 
three components while sustaining quality. The Army also improved entry 
screening in a number of areas, focusing on new methods of screening 
applicants with non-cognitive testing and through instituting a 3-year 
study of new soldier performance of a small group of applicants who 
exceed body fat standards, making clear its commitment to ``Quality 
over Quantity.'' We will use the most effective mix of marketing, 
bonuses, and recruiter manning level to accomplish our accession 
mission. Continued congressional funding in these areas will provide 
the Army the means to achieve the recruiting mission for all three Army 
components.
    In addition to recruiting new soldiers, the Army must continue to 
retain the most talented soldiers and non-commissioned officers with 
the experience and skills necessary to meet current and future needs. 
The AC, USAR, and ARNG each achieved their fiscal year 2019 retention 
missions. The AC has continued to exceed historical retention rates. In 
fiscal year 2019, the AC retained more than 82 percent of our eligible 
population. The historical average is 881 percent of a specific year 
group. The highest retention rate on record is 90 percent, which was 
accomplished in fiscal year 2018. Each component is set to accomplish 
their respective retention missions while maintaining quality standards 
in fiscal year 2020. These retention achievements support meeting our 
NCO [non-commissioned officers] requirements in the near to mid-term. 
These achievements would not be possible without the funding support 
for incentives granted by Congress.
    The Army saw an increase in officer retention in fiscal year 2019, 
retaining 90.0 percent of the Army Competitive Category captains and 
94.6 percent of majors compared to 89.0 percent and 94.4 percent, 
respectively, in fiscal year 2018. Overall, the Army retained 91.9 
percent of all officers in fiscal year 2019. Since 2016, there has been 
nearly a 2 percent officer retention increase. Approximately 73 percent 
of officers are staying at least 1 year past their Active Duty Service 
Obligation. These statistics demonstrate that officers feel they are 
part of an organization worthy of their service and sacrifices.
                               diversity
    The fiscal year 2020 NDAA directed the Secretary of Defense to 
``design and implement a 5-year strategic plan for diversity and 
inclusion.'' The Army is currently revising its Diversity Roadmap into 
a strategic plan, which satisfies NDAA requirements, is nested with the 
Army People Strategy, and enables the Army to acquire and retain the 
diversity of talent required to fight and win the Nation's wars.
    The Army continues to evolve efforts to align talent and promote 
diversity of race and gender in every Army officer branch. In fiscal 
year 2020, the United States Military Academy (USMA) and U.S. Army 
Cadet Command (USACC/ROTC) commissioning outcomes of 65.8 percent white 
and 34.2 percent minority very closely reflect the U.S. population of 
18 to 34 year olds with bachelor or higher degrees, at 65.1 percent 
white and 34.9 percent minority. Officer diversity in combat arms 
remains a focus across both USMA and ROTC programs from fiscal year 
2018 to fiscal year 2020, with percentages of white cadets reducing 
from 71.9 percent to 69.6 percent and non-white cadets increasing from 
28.1 percent to 30.4 percent across the past 3 years. Female 
representation in combat arms also increased in fiscal year 2020, with 
68 women scheduled to access into Infantry and Armor branches, 12 more 
than last year. In fiscal year 2020 branching, women were considered 
for Infantry or Armor only if they volunteered and met talent 
requirements. In fiscal year 2021, the Army will transition to gender 
neutral branching and use a talent-based branching approach at both 
USMA and USACC. The Army continues to integrate diverse attributes, 
experiences, and backgrounds into our Officer Corps. Officer branching 
is nested with the Army People Strategy and is committed to selecting 
and retaining a cohort of officers to ensure the force of today and 
leaders of the future reflects the diversity and strength of our 
Nation.
    The Army strives to continuously improve efforts to select the 
right soldier for the right job. Since January 2017, the U.S. Army 
Training and Doctrine Command has used the Occupational Physical 
Assessment Test (OPAT) to validate that recruits are ready to conduct 
rigorous initial entry training (IET). This physical screening tool is 
used for all soldiers, regardless of gender. Achieving the requisite 
OPAT performance score ensures new soldiers are capable of safely and 
effectively conducting high demand physical training associated with 
their assigned specialty. Longitudinal studies on OPAT are being 
conducted by various Army agencies to assess the OPAT's effect on on-
time graduation and unprogrammed injury and attrition reduction. To 
date, OPAT performance has shown to be a good predictor of on-time 
graduation and attrition reduction across IET enterprise.
    The Army maintains a standards-based approach to increase diversity 
and inclusion in all units. Any soldier who meets the standards of a 
military occupational specialty (MOS) is afforded the opportunity to 
serve in that MOS, regardless of gender. The number of women in the 
previously closed occupations of Infantry, Armor, and Field Artillery 
increases every year, and the Army is on track to have integrated units 
at every installation by the summer of 2020. To date, the Army has 
successfully accessed and transferred in more than 1,400 women into 
these occupations. Women are assigned to units at Forts Hood, Bragg, 
Carson, Bliss, Campbell, Stewart, Drum, Riley, and Polk, as well as in 
Germany and Italy. In 2020, assignments will expand to Hawaii and 
Alaska. Forty-two female soldiers have graduated Ranger school; five 
women have been assigned to the Ranger Regiment; and three women have 
graduated the Special Forces Assessment & Selection Course and are 
enrolled in the Special Forces Qualification Courses.
                             army civilians
    Army civilians comprise approximately 23 percent of the Total Army 
People enterprise. Army civilians are an integral part of the Army 
team, committed to selfless service, enhancing readiness, and in 
support of the protection and preservation of the Nation. They play a 
critical role in enabling our soldiers to deploy, fight, and win our 
Nation's wars in which they also deploy in support of the Army's 
operational mission. Army civilians are important in providing the Army 
with unmatched technical competence in many functional areas. They 
provide leadership, stability, and continuity across the generating 
force, allowing soldiers to focus on warfighting. Our civilian 
workforce is motivated, diverse, and highly skilled.
    To achieve the Army's vision, the Army People Strategy with its 
nested Civilian Implementation Plan will set the path for inspiring 
Army civilian service, modernizing our approach to talent management 
and development, building readiness, and taking care of our people. Our 
commitment to executing this plan will enable us to attract and retain 
the best in defense of our Nation. We are concluding a number of trials 
and looking at modifying policies to improve time to hire. One 
initiative is aimed at increasing the use of direct hiring authority 
and expedited hiring authority. The Army Civilian Implementation Plan 
will establish direct efforts at recruiting and hiring our separating/
transitioning soldiers into the civilian corps.
    The fiscal year 2017 NDAA directed the Department of Defense (DOD) 
to consolidate all service medical treatment facilities under the 
Defense Health Agency (DHA). Because of this action, more than 30,000 
civilians are being realigned under DHA. We are committed to continued 
partnership across DOD to transfer management of military treatment 
facilities to DHA, while continuing to maintain an excellent standard 
of care.
    To retain the best Army civilian workforce possible, we have made 
improving the engagement of our civilian workforce a priority. In 2019, 
the Army improved its ranking to seventh of 17 as Best Places to Work 
in the Federal Government and was best among all DOD agencies.
              building resilience and personnel readiness
    The Army has made significant strides this past year in 
strengthening resilience while combatting suicide, sexual violence, and 
alcohol and substance abuse. We recently renamed the SHARP Ready & 
Resilient Directorate the Army Resilience Directorate to better align 
with DOD's Force Resiliency Office and our sister services' resilience 
directorates.
    We have improved our SHARP Prevention Framework. We are focusing on 
the three domains of a prevention system--human resources, 
partnerships, and infrastructure--and the actions necessary to address 
gaps in the Army's prevention system through capacity building. The 
Army SHARP Prevention Framework will guide our collective prevention 
efforts, optimize our prevention system and ensure we are properly 
nested with DOD's new Prevention Plan of Action (PPoA) (fiscal year 
2019 to 2023) that was published in May 2019. The framework articulates 
the concepts of the PPoA within the context of Army doctrine and 
operational processes to ensure shared understanding and unified action 
from strategic to tactical levels. It provides codified, authoritative 
direction and guidance to the Total Army, enabling subordinate echelon 
planning and execution by leaders and SHARP professionals. 
Additionally, the framework informs and guides the development of 
improved prevention content within the education and training 
activities delivered by the Army SHARP Academy for all Army SHARP 
professionals, Army leaders, soldiers and Army civilians.
    In October 2019, we launched the Suicide Prevention/Resilience 
Strengthening pilot at Fort Bliss, Texas. The pilot is also being 
implemented at Fort Hood, Texas and Fort Campbell, Kentucky and at 
select National Guard and Reserve units. We are bringing to bear all of 
our new capabilities such as improved resilience training, the modified 
Global Assessment Tool, a revamped Behavioral Health Pulse survey to 
gauge concerns within units and a new Ready and Resilient Resource 
Guide.
    Additionally, we developed and began fielding Increment 2 of the 
Commander's Risk Reduction Dashboard (CRRD2) this past August. CRRD2 
expands leader visibility on everything from sexual assault/harassment 
incidents to substance abuse to suicide attempts. CRRD2 provides 
command teams with a much clearer picture of their soldiers, enabling 
them to tailor prevention and intervention efforts more effectively to 
help their troops and to sustain unit readiness.
    This past summer, the Army deployed 55 Master Resilience Trainers-
Performance Experts (MRT-PEs) to Cadet Summer Training (CST) at Fort 
Knox, Kentucky. CST is the Army's largest cadet training exercise, 
where more than 8,000 ROTC cadets from across the country learn what it 
takes to become Army officers and future leaders of soldiers. MRT-PEs 
worked with cadets at Advanced Camp, teaching them the mental skills 
that not only improve their performance in basic soldiering tasks, but 
also enhance their leadership dexterity. By fostering a growth mindset, 
the MRT-PEs are equipping the cadets with the cognitive agility they 
can carry with them throughout their careers. We also deployed MRT-PEs 
to assist U.S. Army Alaska in training approximately 3,500 soldiers on 
how to support teammates who may be struggling. The Army executed the 
month-long training at Fort Wainwright and Joint Base Elmendorf-
Richardson as part of a multipronged strategy to address underlying 
risk factors that may have contributed to an increase in deaths by 
suicide of Alaska-based soldiers in 2018 and 2019.
    The training focused on delivering Engage workshops twice-a-day. 
Engage sessions emphasize bystander intervention and prosocial 
behavior. The training is designed to teach people how to recognize 
behavioral deviations and the empathy and skills required to take 
action. In addition to Engage training, the Army also trained soldiers 
on the Soldier Leader Risk Reduction Tool, which aids leaders in 
identifying risk among their soldiers and connecting them to relevant 
resources.
    The Army tested a new junior leader training curriculum with pilots 
at Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Hood, Texas; USAR units in Texas, Schofield 
Barracks, Hawaii; Fort Irwin, California; and Fort Campbell, Kentucky. 
This training empowers first-line leaders with the tools to address and 
solve cultural problems in their squads, improve ethical decision-
making and increase trust.
    Finally, we are currently developing a Ready and Resilient 
Implementation Plan. Our Implementation Plan will guide our efforts to 
improve resilience, personal readiness, and unit cohesion.
    The Army continues to make great strides in reducing the number of 
non-deployable soldiers. Total Army non-deployable personnel were 
reduced by 889,000 or 9 percent from June 2016 (high water mark) to 
December 2019 (8153,000 or 15 percent to 864,000 or 6 percent). The 
current 6 percent non-deployable rate is a result of both aligning Army 
reporting with the DOD policy and command emphasis at all levels. We 
continue to increase readiness through a culture of deployability and 
fitness. Of the 64,000 non-deployable soldiers in the Army as of 
December 2019, 844,000 (or 69 percent) are non-deployable due to 
medical conditions. The most common non-deployable medical condition is 
a temporary medical profile (between 31 and 90 days) for a minor injury 
or illness (821,000 or 34 percent), primarily for musculoskeletal 
injuries and behavioral health conditions. We are currently reviewing 
our medical readiness categories and classification of light duty 
personnel (temporary profiles) to determine how best to align them with 
Office of the Secretary of Defense guidance provided in the latest DOD 
instructions to more accurately depict a soldier's deployability status 
at the operational, Service, and DOD levels.
    The personnel readiness of Regular Army Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) 
has more than doubled from June 2016 to December 2019 when 80 percent 
of AC BCTs achieved the highest state of personnel readiness. The 
continued increased of personnel readiness is attributable to the 
collaborative efforts of Army senior leader emphasis and an engaged 
medical community.
    The Army remains committed to efficiently evaluating our Nation's 
wounded, ill and injured soldiers through the Integrated Disability 
Evaluation System (IDES). This collaborative DOD and Veterans Affairs 
(VA) program continues to provide a comprehensive medical evaluation 
for determining whether soldiers are fit for continued military 
service. If found unfit, our priority is to deliver timely transition 
assistance and DOD and VA benefits upon separation. Improving trends in 
case processing times demonstrate the Army's resolve. Processing time 
(process referral to separation) continues to decrease from the 2018 
average of 201 days to 193 days, as of December 2019. In accordance 
with the Secretary of Defense's IDES Directive dated September 19, 
2019, we continue to strive towards achieving DOD's revised 180-day 
IDES timeliness goal by December 2020. As of February 2, 2020, the IDES 
non-deployable population remains steady at approximately 11,500 
enrollments.
                 managing the talent of the total force
    Talent management provides our Army a competitive advantage in an 
era of accelerating technological change, generational shifts and 
global competitors who are rapidly closing the gap in economic and 
technological advancement. Our vision is to keep the Army at the 
forefront as the premier organization for human capital development and 
performance while delivering a diverse, professional force that 
dominates in land combat. We are creating a data-rich 21st century 
talent management system that enables decision-making using relevant 
information about individuals' unique skills, knowledge, behavior and 
preferences. The goal is to place the right person, in the right job, 
at the right time, over time. The Army is currently prototyping, 
piloting, or implementing talent management initiatives from Talent 
Based Branching (TBB) to Battalion Commander Assessment Program (BCAP), 
with the goal of implementing most of these initiatives by December 
2020.
    The fiscal year 2019 NDAA provided the Army with key authorities we 
need to increase career flexibility for the officer corps. The Army now 
has the ability to promote officers based on merit, not just seniority, 
which was the approved way of doing business for the last 40 years. 
During the first iteration of ``Opt-In,'' 18 of 24 officers meeting 
specific criteria in the Information Dominance category elected to 
participate in the fiscal year 2020 lieutenant colonel promotion board. 
During the same board, four officers applied, and two were approved, to 
``Opt-Out'' of their primary zone consideration. Moreover, as of 
January, the Army has direct commissioned nine cyber officers. Three 
more await attendance at the Direct Commission Course.
    The Army is creating an officer career assessment structure that 
begins with TBB. This initiative increased top quality talent matches 
between cadets and basic branches. Branches filled 66 percent of their 
allocations with ``most preferred'' cadets compared to 40 percent 
previously, and 88 percent of cadets received their top preference--up 
from 77 percent. Officers are next assessed at the Captain's Career 
Course where, as of fiscal year 2020, they are required to take the 
Graduate Record Exam and a battery of cognitive assessments. A series 
of cognitive and non-cognitive assessments are administered during 
Intermediate-Level Education to inform assignment and selection 
decisions. The culture of assessment continues with the BCAP. This 5-
day program assessed a participant's fitness, written and verbal 
communication, and cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. Exit 
interviews and surveys from participants, board members, and 
distinguished visitors indicate BCAP is better than the legacy system 
for selecting battalion commanders and other key lieutenant colonel 
positions. Seven hundred and fifty candidates participated in the first 
iteration of the BCAP in January and February 2020.
    The data gleaned from the officer career assessment structure and 
the Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP), a regulated marketplace for 
assignments, will inform better decisions. The first assignment cycle 
for the ATAP (October-November 2019) saw more than 14,000 eligible 
officers and units participate. Increased two-way participation 
resulted in more than 55 percent of officers receiving their first-
choice assignment and more than 80 percent of the officers receiving an 
assignment in their top 10 percent of preferences.
    The Army is incorporating talent management into enlisted 
accessions through new programs, including the Assessment of Recruit 
Motivation and Strength Program (ARMS 2.0) and the Tailored Adaptive 
Personality Assessment System (TAPAS). Enlisted manning cycles are also 
now implementing talent management enhancements.
    In support of talent management initiatives, the Army is building 
an enlisted marketplace as a temporary bridge to IPPS-A marketplace and 
talent management functionality. Active component soldiers will see all 
available requirements for which they are eligible, and will be able to 
preference them in an automated marketplace-type interface. The Army 
plans to roll out a marketplace pilot in June 2020 for Armor, Military 
Intelligence, and unit supply specialists, with Army-wide marketplace 
roll out projected for November 2020.
              enhancing soldier and family quality of life
    The Army has established a Quality of Life Task Force to address 
some of the most pressing issues confronting Army families today, 
including spouse employment, housing, and childcare. The task force is 
looking at specific actions which could help address spouse under/
unemployment, including spouse preference for Federal jobs and 
opportunities to engage with industry partners to leverage spouse 
employment opportunities. The task force is also looking at ways to 
educate spouses on employment resources and simplifying the application 
process for home-based businesses. Additionally, in accordance with the 
fiscal year 2020 NDAA, the Army recently released a policy update to 
reimburse spouses up to $1,000 for re-licensure/re-certification due to 
a permanent change of station.
    The Army recognizes that access to affordable and reliable 
childcare for our military families is an important quality of life and 
readiness issue. We are focusing first on those installations with the 
longest wait lists for childcare services and are requesting 
congressional approval and funding for three child development center 
(CDC) military construction projects (2 CDCs in Hawaii and one in 
Alaska) that will have 900 childcare spaces. We have aggressively 
focused on building our Family Child Care (FCC) program through 
marketing and incentives. In January 2019, there were 130 FCC providers 
and today there are 215. This is not only good news for building 
childcare capacity, but has also provided 85 military spouses with 
employment.
   army review boards agency / army board for correction of military 
                                records
    The Army's recent backlog of 14,000 cases has been reduced to 
3,200. The majority of the remaining cases are awaiting medical or 
behavioral health advisories prior to adjudication. This backlog grew 
primarily due to changes in legislation, which directed liberal 
consideration for post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain 
injuries, other behavior health issues, and military sexual trauma, 
which resulted in an influx of cases submitted. To address the backlog, 
with Army leadership's assistance, Army Review Boards Agency (ARBA) was 
permitted to hire 40 temporary (term) employees to eliminate the 
backlog of cases by June 2020. We are on track to complete all cases by 
the June 2020 deadline.
    ARBA is also completing a business transformation where daily 
production practices are streamlined to prevent future backlogs. The 
agency is currently testing a new automated system which will assist in 
overall production and reporting and tracking of cases. Additionally, 
the agency is restructuring its work force to address the task to 
resource requirements. ARBA expects to return to congressional mandated 
timelines for fiscal year 2019 and beyond.
                           soldiers for life
    Taking care of soldiers and their families while they are in the 
Army is just one part of our commitment to serving them. For those 
transitioning from Active Duty, we continue to support them in a way 
that reinforces a powerful and enduring identity as lifelong members of 
the Army team, whether as civilian alumni of Army service or as a 
``Soldier for Life.''
    The Army's Soldier for Life program coordinates and collaborates 
with Army, government, and non-government organizations in order to 
influence policies, programs, and services that support soldiers, 
veterans and families. Soldier for Life engages all levels of 
government, private industry, educational institutions, and military 
and veteran support organizations to enhance the transition process, 
reduce veteran unemployment and connect veterans with services. Soldier 
for Life creates an environment where soldiers, veterans and families 
embrace their positive Army experience and return to their communities 
as Army ambassadors, leaders of character, commitment and service, and 
inspire others to serve through personal example.
    It is in the Army's and our Nation's best interest to ensure 
soldiers transition successfully back into our communities. In 
accordance with the fiscal year 2019 NDAA, we continue to enhance our 
policies and procedures to ensure a more individualized approach for 
transitioning soldiers. All soldiers are required to begin the 
transition process no later than 365 days before the date of their 
anticipated transition from Active Duty. For fiscal year 2019, the 
Army's Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act compliance is 89 percent. 
According to data from the Department of Labor, in fiscal year 2019 the 
Army TAP [Transition Assistance Program] efforts assisted in reducing 
the unemployment rate for veterans that joined the Army after September 
11, 2001, to less than 4 percent (3.4 percent) for the first time, with 
the lowest amount of unemployment compensation for veterans in 19 
years. Between fiscal year 2011 and fiscal year 2019, Army TAP efforts 
coupled with the Nation's low unemployment rates have contributed to an 
86.1 percent decrease in total Unemployment Compensation for Ex-
servicemembers (UCX) payments ($514.6 million to $71.6 million). The 
fiscal year 2019 UCX invoice is the lowest since fiscal year 2000 
($75.1 million).
    Soldiers of all ranks, throughout every phase of the military 
lifecycle, are provided a full range of comprehensive education 
services by highly competent and caring guidance counselors. Such 
services include conducting detailed educational needs assessments, 
academic testing, degree planning and career exploration activities, as 
well as counseling on both tuition assistance and the new credentialing 
assistance program. These programs enable soldiers to receive generous 
Army funding ($4,000/year) for courses from more than 2,000 accredited 
academic institutions and, hundreds of career enhancing credentials. 
Voluntary education and credentialing assistance programs have 
something of value to offer every soldier, and the degrees and 
credentials they earn not only help to make them better soldiers while 
still serving in the Army, they are also better prepared for life after 
their military service.
    The Career Skills Program (CSP) provides soldiers the opportunity 
to participate in first-class apprenticeships, on-the-job training, 
employment skills training, and internships. It also affords soldiers 
the opportunity to obtain industry-recognized skills and move into 
high-demand and highly skilled careers at little to no cost. The Army 
has over 500 industry partners in the CSP program. In fiscal year 2019, 
4,782 soldiers completed a CSP, and 4,572 of them received job 
placement following their training. This is a 95.61 percent placement 
rate.
    We have invested a tremendous amount of resources and deliberate 
planning to preserve the All-Volunteer Force. People are the Army . . . 
these men and women who serve our Nation, both in and out of uniform, 
along with their families, are our most important asset. Accordingly, 
taking care of our people is key to Army readiness, modernization, and 
reform. Army culture is grounded in our enduring values of loyalty, 
duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal 
courage. Every one of our people has unique talents and abilities they 
are willing to use in service to our Nation, and we owe them the 
opportunity to do so. Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, 
Members of this Committee, I thank you for generous and unwavering 
support of our outstanding soldiers, civilian professionals, and their 
families.

    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    Mr. Slavonic, welcome back.

 STATEMENT OF HON. GREGORY J. SLAVONIC, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF 
THE NAVY FOR MANPOWER AND RESERVE AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY: VICE 
    ADMIRAL JOHN B. NOWELL, JR., USN, DEPUTY CHIEF OF NAVAL 
OPERATIONS FOR MANPOWER, PERSONNEL, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION, N-
   1; AND LIEUTENANT GENERAL MICHAEL A. ROCCO, USMC, DEPUTY 
           COMMANDER FOR MANPOWER AND RESERVE AFFAIRS

    Secretary Slavonic. Thank you, sir.
    Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, distinguished 
Members of the Subcommittee, it is my privilege and honor to be 
here today and share the table with Vice Admiral Nowell, 
Lieutenant General Rocco, as well as senior leaders from our 
sister Services, all here representing our Nation's finest.
    I always appreciate any opportunity to talk about what I 
believe to be our most significant and critical assets to the 
advancement of our mission: our sailors, marines, both Active, 
Reserve, their families, and civilian men and women who 
together are globally engaged in the full spectrum of 
operations while being prepared to win against the future 
threats they deploy.
    We are an integrated team collectively demonstrating talent 
and dedication second to none. We are always vigilant, 
collectively shouldering responsibilities and achieving the 
National Defense Strategy. The Navy and Marine Corps team has 
risen to meet challenges of our competitors, a team that is 
bonded together by almost 250 years of tradition and deep-
seated sense of duty to our Nation.
    Today we face an unprecedented intense threat to our way of 
life, coupled with complex systems, advancing technologies. Our 
Nation needs a strong, well trained, well equipped Navy and 
Marine Corps to address the diverse array of challenges and 
threats they face every day. We must leverage our talent to 
retain our competitive edge and our technological dominance.
    The changing strategic landscape demands we manage our 
talent, military and civilian, ensuring we are good stewards of 
the taxpayers' dollars. Our naval force is in the midst of a 
sweeping transformation replacing decades' worth of unchanged 
processes and outdated technology with a modern personnel 
talent management delivery system from recruitment to 
retirement, improving the quality of service to sailors, 
marines, and their families.
    Sailor 2025 modernization complements the programs of our 
ships, submarines and aircraft. We must improve work-life 
balance, including health and wellness, while creating an 
environment built on trust, transparency, inclusion, 
connectedness among our sailors, marines, and their families.
    The rising threat environment, coupled with low 
unemployment, presents incredible challenges in our ability to 
recruit and retain high performing, highly skilled talent in 
both the Navy and the Marine Corps. The Services have achieved 
tremendous success meeting all enlisted and officer recruiting 
goals. We will continue leveraging special pays and bonuses to 
ensure adequate numbers of qualified personnel are available in 
hard-to-fill specialties. Most Services have areas of 
challenges in recruiting and retaining critical talent, and 
incentive pays are vital to our success and viability in 
retaining an innovative skilled force.
    Achieving dominance in the great power competition demands 
an agile force focused on increasing lethality and building 
capacity. To that end, we must continue to invest in the 
mechanisms which ensure the Services are able to meet their 
recruitment and end strength goals for the foreseeable future. 
Right now, we enjoy a force of unprecedented quality, the 
finest and most advanced sailors and marines, and civilian 
employees, including world renowned scientists and patent 
holders.
    If we are to maintain a credible and modern, forward-
leaning global presence, we must leverage all the capabilities 
our Nation affords to secure excellence in our human capital 
talent. To ensure our future success, we need to plan and 
develop and manage better our human assets. Taking care of our 
people as they take care of our Nation is paramount to any and 
all mission success.
    I enlisted in the Navy in 1971, followed by two deployments 
to sea. I earned a commission as a Reserve officer. Then after 
a 34-year naval career, including several recalls to Active 
Duty, I recognized the magnitude and responsibility of raising 
your right hand to take the oath to serve your country, 
preserving these freedoms, and safeguarding our Nation.
    I understand the stresses and challenges placed on our 
servicemembers and their families every day. I understand the 
importance of a spouse who supports the servicemember who has a 
responsibility to care for the family when he or she is 
deployed. In my humble opinion, being a spouse of a 
servicemember is one of the most undervalued and difficult jobs 
there is. The high tempo, high stress environment appears to be 
the new normal for the Department of the Navy. Our people 
consistently step up and perform superbly in times of greatest 
need.
    With your sustained support, we will be able to continue to 
recruit, develop, and retain the best and brightest our Nation 
has to offer for years to come. These men and women who will 
preserve peace, and ensure our national security which our 
Nation deserves. I take this opportunity to be here today, and 
I stand ready to take any questions. Thank you.
    [The prepared statements of Admiral Nowell and Lieutenant 
General Rocco follow:]

           Prepared Statement by Vice Admiral John B. Nowell
                              introduction
    Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, and distinguished 
Members of the military, Personnel Subcommittee, thank you for the 
opportunity to appear before you today to discuss our Navy's most 
important strategic asset, our people.
                         strategic environment
    As stated in the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS), the United 
States (U.S.) is in a new era of great power competition with the 
People's Republic of China (PRC) and Russian Federation (RF), both of 
whom are leveraging all elements of their national power to execute 
global ambitions. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, our 
Nation is in a ``hegemonic struggle'' for control of global markets, 
diplomatic power blocks, and critical global lines of communication, 
including sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Our competitive advantage is 
shrinking, and the world finds itself among the three competing ethe of 
PRC's Belt and Road strategy, Russian state-sponsored coercion, and 
American freedom of the global commons. For over 20 years, these 
competitors have been studying our methods and tactics to gain an 
advantage by exploiting our vulnerabilities. The PRC and RF endeavor to 
transform the entire international system to their advantage and will 
attempt to overwhelm us by advancing at a rapid pace in this long term 
competition. However, we will maintain and increase our edge by 
leveraging our greatest warfighting advantage and asymmetric asset, our 
people.
                         navy the nation needs
    To be victorious in great power competition, we must identify, 
recruit, train, develop, manage, and retain the most talented Navy 
workforce possible, and these men and women will be the first line of 
defense between the U.S. and our global strategic competitors. 
Additionally, we will continue to strengthen the One Navy Team by 
establishing a culture that champions toughness, trust, and 
connectedness. This will maximize readiness and warfighting excellence, 
enabling every person to be ready for decisive combat operations. To 
win, we must enable our teams to think more clearly, learn more 
rapidly, and make better decisions faster and more accurately than our 
adversaries.
    Just as the aging fleet must be modernized to confront these new 
challenges, we must overhaul our antiquated 20th century, industrial-
era personnel system. This will allow our Navy to benefit from a more 
agile, adaptive, and better trained force, ready to meet an 
increasingly complex mission. MyNavy HR's three strategic goals of 
Transformation, Sailor 2025, and Man the fleet are vital to combat 
current and emerging threats, deliver global lethality, and maintain 
maritime superiority.
           warfighting talent management in the 21st century
    Given the rapidly changing strategic landscape, we must manage 
talent differently. Navy is in the middle of a sweeping transformation 
by replacing decades' worth of unchanged processes and outdated 
technology with a modern, world-class personnel talent management 
delivery system. The MyNavy HR transformation provides continuous 
improvements for all ``hire to retire'' processes (recruitment, 
training, education, management, and personnel distribution) to develop 
and sustain the Navy.
MyNavy HR Operating Model
    In recognition of the need to modernize, MyNavy HR formally 
established three operating pillars: force development, force 
management, and enterprise support. Force development focuses on 
recruiting, training, and providing sailors to the fleet, force 
management is in charge of all aspects of their subsequent talent 
management, and enterprise support maintains the infrastructure 
utilized by these pillars and facilitates alignment across all aspects 
of Navy's personnel system. This new operating model is re-engineering 
our business policies and processes by leveraging modern technologies 
to significantly improve personnel readiness and the quality of service 
to our sailors and their families.
Capabilities Delivered
    New capabilities have been delivered benefitting our sailors. These 
include innovative programs, applications, and software that have had 
immediate and positive impact on recruitment, detailing, and the full 
range of tools we use for compensation, including monetary and non-
monetary. Navy Recruiting Command transitioned to a new operating model 
and is using commercial off-the-shelf software to lower costs and 
improve efficiency. Recruiters now specialize in one area of the 
recruiting mission vice being responsible for the same recruit 
throughout the entire accessions process. This allows recruiters to 
maximize their attention on future sailors, leading to less attrition.
    Two MyNavy Career Center locations in Millington, Tennessee and 
Little Creek, Virginia are now operating call centers 24/7, recognizing 
that the arduous schedules of our sailors requires a different model of 
constant support. Three transaction support centers are online, 
consolidating services and replacing legacy personnel support 
detachments with an end state of approximately 12 regional support 
centers located in fleet concentration areas, providing training and 
specialized services. We have created a rapid prototype pilot of the 
new Navy Personnel and Pay (NP2) system, an auditable, cloud-hosted 
system, enabling Treasury direct disbursement.
    Several mobile applications including MyRecord Mobile, MyNavy PCS, 
and MyNavy Family are providing access to information for sailors and 
their families on the mobile devices they prefer with any multifactor 
authentication. Additionally, MyNavy Assignment offers sailors an 
improved way of managing their careers through an enhanced ability to 
apply for assignments, giving the individual sailor more control over 
his or her career while increasing fleet readiness through both lines 
of effort.
Future Capabilities
    As modernization continues, over 55 legacy non-interoperable 
systems are being replaced with a single integrated ``system of 
systems'' built on commercial platforms with minimal customization. 
This will increase readiness, reduce costs, and improve security and 
auditability. NP2 improvements will continue, and an authoritative data 
environment, a ``data lake,'' will allow improved analytic capabilities 
that will facilitate better talent management, greater flexibility, and 
increased transparency.
                          deliver sailor 2025
    MyNavy HR transformation includes Sailor 2025, an initiative which 
will provide the Navy with a more agile and talented 21st century 
workforce that will be complementary to the modernization programs of 
ships, aircraft, and other combat systems. This initiative is built on 
a framework of three pillars, Personnel System Modernization (PSM), 
Ready Relevant Learning (RRL), and Career Readiness (CR).
Personnel System Modernization (PSM)
    Personnel System Modernization will better identify and manage 
talent, reward performance, and expand flexibility to officers and 
enlisted sailors. Examples of those initiatives include promotion merit 
reorder, promotion board consideration opt-out, expanded continuation 
(up and stay), the Targeted Re-entry Program, and the detailing 
marketplace, including MyNavy Assignment (MNA) and Advancement-to-
Position (A2P).
    With the advent of Congress expanding the authorities of the 
Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA) in the John S. McCain 
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, this increased 
flexibility has provided us with a better ability to attract and retain 
a talented officer corps. Promotion Merit Reorder has been extremely 
effective, allowing us to place up to 15 percent of those selected for 
promotion to the top of the list, demonstrating the primacy of merit 
over time-in-service. Promotion board consideration opt-out enables us 
to retain top talent by allowing an officer to ``opt-out'' of promotion 
consideration to complete a broadening assignment, advanced education, 
or a career progression requirement delayed by one of these 
assignments. For example, officers can complete a tour as a White House 
Fellow or a Marshall or Rhodes scholarship without detriment to their 
careers, thereby retaining top talent. Expanded continuation allows 
officers to detour from traditional career tracks that lead to command 
and pursue paths such as professional flight instructors, acquisition 
corps leaders, or foreign area officers serving as defense or naval 
attaches.
    We are working hard to meet the demands of our younger generation 
for greater job satisfaction and work life balance. Targeted Re-entry 
Program for officers and enlisted sailors offers personnel with 
critical skills and superior performance the guaranteed opportunity to 
return to Active Duty following a temporary separation (less than 2 
years) from the Navy. Additionally, we have made many advances to our 
detailing marketplace to improve career flexibility and transparency, 
including MNA and A2P. MNA allows sailors to view all available fleet 
billets in any rating and save billets to revisit in later sessions. 
Sailors can also communicate their skills and talents directly with 
desired follow-on commands through a robust Sailor Resume module. 
Another piece of the detailing marketplace is A2P which rewards proven 
performers willing to take difficult assignments with a spot promotion. 
This program has been used successfully at the journeyman level for 
some recruiter and recruit division commander billets and at the 
supervisory level for key afloat billets. We are expanding the number 
of billets in this program leveraging fleet feedback.
Ready Relevant Learning (RRL)
    Ready Relevant Learning is the establishment of a career long 
learning continuum which drives fundamental changes to our approach to 
sailor training by transforming our industrial-era, conveyer-belt 
training model into a modern, responsive system. Periodically, the 
skills acquired during accession pipeline training atrophy due to 
delays between receipt of training and arrival to the fleet, 
compromising operational readiness. We are using the science-of-
learning to transform the current training model to identify modern 
training solutions delivered at the points of need, better preparing 
sailors to operate and maintain equipment at its technological limits 
and to meet rapidly evolving warfighting requirements. Efforts focus 
across three lines of effort: career-long learning continuum, modern 
delivery at the point of need, and integrated content development.
    We have completed the first stage of the career-long learning 
continuum line of effort, known as Block Learning. This stage divided 
existing accession-level training content into smaller blocks, which 
are moved to real-world points of need in the sailor's career, 
sometimes shortening initial accession training time and getting 
sailors to the fleet sooner but also lengthening training when 
necessary while always focusing on improving readiness. Block Learning 
uses existing training content while we reengineer the training to meet 
objectives of the future RRL training continuum. We have completed 
analysis and approved changes for the 54 ratings previously identified 
for Block Learning, with 47 now executing training in this new block 
delivery construct. The remaining 7 bypassed Block Learning and will 
move directly into Modernized Delivery.
    The second line of effort, Modern Delivery at the Point of Need, 
will take advantage of emerging learning technologies to allow sailors 
to more efficiently receive training at the point of need, at the 
waterfront or aboard an operational unit. These training solutions will 
apply science-of-learning principles to make training more effective, 
efficient, and available by leveraging technology, thereby, minimizing 
the necessity of repeatedly returning to legacy brick-and-mortar 
schoolhouses. To date, we have completed requirements development on 25 
ratings. An additional 20 ratings are in requirements development 
between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2023.
    We are executing the first stage of the third line of effort, 
Integrated Content Development. This has resulted in solidifying the 
fleet's role in defining training requirements and validating analysis 
that aligns training content and delivery methods with fleet needs. We 
delivered the first modernized course, Operations Specialist (OS) A-
school in September 2019, and we are on track to deliver two modernized 
courses in fiscal year 2020 for Intelligence Specialist and Retail 
Services Specialist A-schools. We project we will deliver four 
additional modernized courses in early fiscal year 2021 for Personnel 
Specialist, Yeoman, Yeoman (Subsurface), and Aviation Maintenance 
Administrationman A-schools, and 13 additional ratings are currently 
undergoing content modernization.
Career Readiness
    Career readiness removes barriers to continued service and improves 
sailors' work-life balance, health, wellness, and resilience. Providing 
equal care for our Navy families, we ensure our sailors and their 
families are continuously supported, allowing our sailors to focus on 
their mission--warfighting. Our goal is to enhance sailors' career 
readiness by better developing leaders and removing obstacles that 
negatively influence sailors' decisions to stay Navy. Our Navy is more 
powerful and lethal when we leverage and capitalize on the talents and 
strengths of our military personnel, civilian workforce, and their 
families and instill an environment in which all personnel are valued 
and respected. Toward that end, in May 2019, Navy Leader Development 
Framework 3.0 was released outlining how we develop leaders who 
demonstrate operational excellence and hold high ideals of integrity 
and service, while expanding and enhancing trust and confidence. This 
and many other initiatives are encompassed in a new approach which 
encourages our sailors to excel in all endeavors, Culture of Excellence 
(COE).
Culture of Excellence
    MyNavy HR launched COE, a Navy wide approach to achieve warfighting 
excellence by fostering psychological, physical, and emotional 
toughness; promoting organizational trust and transparency; and 
ensuring inclusion and connectedness among every sailor, family member 
and civilian throughout their Navy journey.
    To attain cultural excellence, Navy must evolve beyond responding 
to incidents after they occur. We will always maintain the ability to 
properly respond to incidents, but our focus must be on proactively 
preventing incidents from occurring in the first place by focusing on 
three key areas:
      We are working to better define problems faced by our 
sailors using tools such as human factors analysis and predictive data 
analytics.
      By developing the Behavior Learning Continuum, we are 
identifying primary prevention touchpoints for behavioral learning 
across a sailor's career continuum, from recruitment to transition.
      Evidence-based policies, programs, practices, and 
processes address the full spectrum of behaviors.
    Navy continues to actively address the interpersonal problems 
associated with suicide through updated policies, programs, campaigns, 
and training. We are also growing our embedded mental health program, 
which places trained mental health professionals within operational 
units to encourage help seeking, identify problems early, and provide 
guidance to leaders as they assist sailors returning to mission 
readiness. Our ``Every Sailor, Every Day'' campaign is an award-
winning, evidence-based health communication campaign designed to 
educate and empower sailors to cope during times of increased stress. 
This includes practicing self-care, help-seeking behavior, and lethal 
means safety. We continue to emphasize to our leaders and sailors the 
importance of building trust and connectedness within their commands to 
create an environment where they feel comfortable asking for help and 
getting assistance without fear or career concerns.
    The Expanded Operational Stress Control (E-OSC) program informs, 
empowers, and encourages sailors, civilians, and their families to 
identify signs of stress within themselves and others. The E-OSC 
program will leverage Command Resilience Teams (CRT) and deckplate 
leadership by providing more accessible, collaborative resources and 
real-time assessments of unit culture to promote healthy command 
climates and mitigate risks. Together, the E-OSC program and CRTs will 
target and address the broad range of stressors (e.g., relationship 
problems, career transitions, disciplinary/legal issues, performance 
issues and financial strain) that affect sailors experiences. CRTs will 
also embrace and adopt the principles of primary prevention and a Human 
Factors Process (HFP).
    Navy's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program (SAPR) 
reflects our force-wide commitment that sexual assault is not 
tolerated, condoned, or ignored. Sexual assault is a threat that 
adversely affects readiness, morale, and retention. We remain focused 
on developing and implementing strengthened prevention efforts and 
increasing victim reporting, support, and resiliency. Accordingly, Navy 
leadership continues to pursue and implement a more dynamic, team-
focused prevention strategy with assessment and evaluation as key 
components. We remain committed to cultivating an environment of mutual 
dignity and respect for all, in which sailors look out for their 
shipmates, victims are supported, and offenders are held appropriately 
accountable.
    Since fiscal year 2019, Navy has partnered with the One Love 
Foundation to provide One Love Escalation Workshop training to 5,606 
young sailors between the ages of 18-24 years old. The workshop focuses 
on making audiences aware of unhealthy relationship behaviors, 
providing the tools to identify and intervene in intimate partner 
violence situations, and available resources. This primary prevention 
training program promotes a social change model that encourages a 
culture where relationships are built on respect and equality.
    In August 2019, Navy released Navy Family Framework 2.0 to set new 
goals in light of the progress we have made since the release of Navy 
Family Framework 1.0. This initiative intends to recognize the ever-
increasing diversity of sailors, families, and civilians serving our 
Nation today. This initiative includes:
      Fostering a command where sailors and families can 
thrive.
      Better connecting and informing our Navy team.
      Ensuring relevant and responsive family quality of life 
programs.
      Navy leaders being accountable for the execution of their 
individual plans to implement this Family Framework.
      Implementing policy and procedures using MyNavy Career 
Center to reimburse spouse licensure fees incurred due to a permanent 
change of station move.
      Releasing a mobile application designed for Navy spouses 
to identify, consolidate, and standardize information available to 
spouses and families into one authoritative source. We leveraged spouse 
input in the design and testing to ensure we delivered an effective 
product designed by Navy spouses for Navy spouses.
      Launching the Navy Family Portal, designed to provide 
ready relevant learning to Navy families 24/7. Portal materials address 
key issues identified by Navy spouses during the Navy Spouse Engagement 
Study and address the goals of the Navy Family Framework.
                             man the fleet
    Over the past year, there has been significant progress in our 
MyNavy HR transformation and Sailor 2025 efforts which will posture us 
better to address MyNavy HR's third strategic goal, Man the Fleet. In 
support of the Navy's growth, MyNavy HR continues to recruit, train, 
and retain the best and brightest our Nation has to offer while 
improving quality of life and service.
Competing for Talent
    Recruiting and retaining superb talent is not trivial given today's 
historically low unemployment rate. Given these trends, MyNavy HR must 
continue to develop and improve recruiting strategies for all 
demographic groups and find ways to best leverage existing incentives 
to attract and retain personnel.
    Centennials, as the youngest military-eligible generation, having 
been born between 1997 and 2012, are our main source of new recruits. 
Understanding this generation is key to winning the war for talent, and 
we must tailor our recruiting tactics and marketing to build our 
workforce by understanding their motivations and desires. Our most 
diverse generation, centennial sailors:
      Have never known life without the internet or 
smartphones, spending an average of 3-\1/2\ hours on mobile devices 
daily.
      Are visual communicators as opposed to verbal 
communicators, hence the proliferation of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, 
and other visual media.
      Prefer to learn through YouTube, and they use it as a 
visual guide to understand how things work.
      Are focused on career progression and growth.
      Value job satisfaction just as much as financial 
stability including the ability to return to a previous company.
      Believe they need to make a difference, and they will 
seek out and work to make change, even in small ways.
      Are work-minded, entrepreneurial, and independent but 
also like working on teams towards a common goal.
    In order to recruit a diverse and talented workforce, Navy has 
updated and refined Active, Reserve, and civilian recruiting strategies 
using data to understand and eliminate barriers and ensure outreach to 
all segments of society. We continue this effort by ensuring recruiters 
understand the effects of bias and other barriers to inclusion, as well 
as Navy's diversity recruiting needs. Additionally, we have 
collaborated with affinity groups and professional development 
organizations to assist in communicating Navy's strategy of recruiting 
a diverse and talented workforce, while updating and refining military 
recruiting and civilian hiring metrics to better reflect Navy's 
inclusion and diversity needs.
End Strength and Budget Growth
    By tailoring our recruiting efforts towards Centennials, we are 
growing the Navy's ranks expeditiously (up by 7,118 from fiscal year 
2018 to fiscal year 2019) to enhance readiness and growth in an era of 
great power competition. Retention numbers remained excellent in fiscal 
year 2019 despite a strong economy. Our recruiting and retention 
efforts resulted in Navy finishing the year over 1,585 sailors above 
fiscal year 2019 authorized end strength levels, positioning Navy for 
further growth this year. We will need to expand efforts to maintain 
high retention, as increasing accessions alone will not be sufficient 
to Man the Fleet. Even in this successful year for retention, we were 
short of supporting Navy's growing demand, and we also continue to face 
challenges in recruiting and retaining sailors in specific high-demand 
skill sets, e.g., nuclear field, cyber warfare, special warfare/
operations, and certain aviation specialties. Successfully growing this 
inventory minimizes friction that can lead to gaps at sea, decreases 
pressure on higher operating tempo on these critical skill sets 
including increased time in arduous billets, and reduces requirements 
for retention and reenlistment bonuses.
    For these reasons, a commitment to continued investment is 
necessary to man the Fleet. The President's Budget for fiscal year 2021 
funds growth in Navy's Active end strength by an additional 7,300 
sailors (above fiscal year 2020), and in addition to funding increases 
in manning and training, the budget request supports growth in special 
and incentive pays, critical to recruiting and retention. These 
requests also provide funding for MyNavy transformation and Sailor 2025 
efforts.
Enlisted Recruiting
    Navy concluded fiscal year 2019 having achieved 100 percent 
(39,027/39,000) of our Active component (AC) accession goal. 
Unfortunately, Navy's record high AC retention made the Reserve 
accession goal more challenging due to fewer eligible personnel 
separating from the Navy to affiliate as reservists, and we were short 
in Reserve component (RC) accessions, achieving only 91 percent of goal 
(7,412 of 8,162). Although these shortfalls are a concern, the Navy-
wide impact is manageable as RC achieved overall congressionally 
mandated end strength levels, and year-over-year, the fiscal year 2020 
AC enlisted accession mission is increasing.
    To support this challenging recruiting mission, we executed several 
new initiatives. In May 2019, the Street-to-Fleet initiative, from 
recruiting a civilian to delivering a trained sailor to their first 
command, created synergy and unity of effort throughout the accession 
and training process. It also improved continuous communication and 
collaboration across recruiting and training commands.
    As a result of transformation, there are now 10 Navy Talent 
Acquisition Groups (NTAG) and 16 Navy Recruiting Districts (NRD). We 
will transform three more districts in fiscal year 2020, and all 26 
will transform by fiscal year 2023. The new transformative business 
model embraces and exploits the speed, accuracy, flexibility, and 
agility of today's digital environment. It optimizes individual 
recruiter talents, streamlines processes and ultimately attracts high 
quality recruits. There will be 65 Talent Acquisition and Onboarding 
Centers (TAOC) nationwide in geographical regions with relatively high 
population density, and each TAOC will have an appropriate number of 
Talent Acquisition Sites to meet the unique supply and demand 
opportunities and challenges of the local market.
    Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software 
facilitates personalized customer service, management decision support, 
and opportunity and territory management capabilities. CRM is being 
employed in 11 NRDs/NTAGs and is on track to complete the rollout in 
all NRDs/NTAGs across the Nation in April 2020.
    MyNavy HR employs a two-pronged incentive approach, one focused on 
augmenting and rewarding our workforce and the other on finding and 
incentivizing our future workforce. We leveraged Navy Reserve Sailors 
to provide over 400 additional recruiters, and we extended over 427 
high performing recruiters for a period of 6 to 12 months. To attract 
and leverage the best Navy talent for recruiting duty, we continue to 
offer 12 months of Sea-Duty credit, A2P in our hard to fill areas, and 
promote highly qualified E-4s under the Selective Training and 
Reenlistment (STAR) program.
    To increase general awareness and propensity to serve in the Navy, 
we continue to utilize the Forged by the Sea digitally focused 
marketing and advertising campaign. Digital prospecting allows 
recruiters to leverage messaging tools on the Navy.com website as well 
as other social media to start initial conversations with prospective 
recruits. We are targeting diverse audiences using digital media on 
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Reddit, increased Forged by 
the Sea content, and the launch of a Navy Esports team to access a 
rapidly expanding youth market. These changes have increased the total 
number of new recruiting prospects and are allowing us to reach markets 
with diverse candidates we previously have not accessed.
Enlisted Retention
    Retention of every capable sailor has remained a vital element of 
Navy's growth strategy. We succeeded in preserving increased retention 
across all pay grades in fiscal year 2019 by continuing to apply a 
range of force management tools. This has maximized retention efforts 
for proven performers across the Navy to meet growing current and 
future mission requirements. While overall enlisted retention in fiscal 
year 2019 continued to set high marks not seen in years, critical 
community skill sets are experiencing some challenges in Navy's current 
steep growth environment, including nuclear field, special warfare, 
advanced electronics, aviation maintenance, information warfare, and 
the submarine force. These skills are challenging to attract and retain 
in the current job and education markets. They require continued 
efforts including both monetary and non-monetary incentives, focused on 
meeting the specific and targeted needs of our sailors and their 
families.
    Monetary and non-monetary incentives will remain an integral part 
of our proactive retention strategy to address force structure 
challenges and meet operational requirements. Special and incentive 
pays continue to play a vital role in the retention of sailors with 
high-risk, high-demand, and high-investment skills within operationally 
intensive ratings, including our new pilot program that adds a merit-
based component to enlisted retention bonuses. Non-monetary incentives 
include advancement opportunities and geographic stability, and the 
combination of initiatives provides our sailors and their families more 
choice and flexibility to manage their Navy careers.
Officer Force Management
    Competition remains significant as we continue use of every tool to 
recruit America's top talent into our officer corps, train them with 
cutting-edge technology and techniques, and retain their expertise to 
preserve our competitive advantage in the maritime security 
environment. Following enactment of the John S. McCain National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, we immediately implemented a 
number of critical officer personnel management modernization 
authorities to help shape the future officer corps including:
      Applying expanded constructive service credit to recruit 
civilian candidates with the requisite education, leadership and 
experience credentials for leadership roles in cyber, acquisition, and 
engineering fields.
      Expanding spot promotion authority beginning in fiscal 
year 2019 to designated O-5 and O-6 billets.
      Applying merit promotion authority with fiscal year 2020 
Active promotion selection boards to incentivize and reward top 
performance.
      Permitting certain control grade officers serving in 
targeted skills to remain on Active Duty beyond traditional statutory 
limits, e.g., professional flight instructor retention program, along 
with chaplains and JAG Corps officers. This has been expanded to Major 
Acquisition Program Management and Naval and Defense Attache billets.
      Beginning with the fiscal year 2021 promotion board 
cycle, we are leveraging promotion deferment authority to afford 
greater flexibility to top performing officers whose competitiveness 
for promotion might otherwise suffer due to participation in career 
broadening opportunities encouraged by the Navy, e.g., Rhodes and 
Olmsted Scholars.
    We are undergoing a cultural shift in education strategy and 
management to ensure our highest caliber officers are sought out early, 
encouraged, and placed in selective graduate level programs, enhancing 
our warfighting capabilities and sustaining strategic superiority. 
Supporting this effort, we implemented a range of process and policy 
changes that most prominently include the requirement for In-Residence 
Graduate Education by all unrestricted line (URL) officers in year 
group 2015 and beyond before assuming major command. Officers who are 
proceeding to URL major command are already the best operational 
leaders in the Navy, and this will ensure our most talented officers 
are given the opportunity to take this educational pause to mature 
their strategic thinking skills.
Officer Recruiting
    In fiscal year 2020, candidates continued to show strong interest 
in commissioning opportunities through Officer Candidate School (OCS), 
United States Naval Academy (USNA), and Navy Reserve Officer Training 
Corps (NROTC) programs, as the number of highly qualified applicants 
vastly exceeds the number of available appointments. Officer accession 
sources continue to attract the finest applicants and graduate well-
rounded, technically competent leaders for commissioned naval service. 
The market remains challenging for certain designators, such as Judge 
Advocate General's Corps and Medical Corps officers. The Navy veterans 
program also faces difficulties as a direct result of our high AC 
retention efforts, which reduced the number of officers separating from 
the Navy. We attained 101 percent (2,421/2,385) of the AC officer 
mission and 72 percent (1,313/1,812) of the RC mission which includes 
both Navy veterans and direct commissioned officers. In fiscal year 
2019, we shipped 1,577 officer candidates to OCS, which is the highest 
number in 20 years, and we achieved 102 percent of OCS shipping goal, 
which is the highest percentage in 10 years. Additionally, we achieved 
Chaplain Corps mission, with no shortfalls of AC or RC for the third 
straight year.
    To support inclusion and diversity, Navy has established the NROTC 
Preparatory Program (NPP) to enhance midshipmen candidates' mental and 
physical foundations preparing them for success in the NROTC. The NROTC 
Preparatory Scholarship Reservations (NPSR) program is foundational to 
these efforts. Under NPSR, interested high school students may apply 
for one-year university or privately funded scholarships to support 
room, board and tuition while enrolled in a university NPP, designed to 
improve academic and life skills to prepare midshipmen for the rigorous 
NROTC academic program. This expanded relationship between the Navy and 
schools that host preparatory programs offers a performance-based 
pathway for midshipmen candidates to earn NROTC scholarships. Through 
the NPSR program, host universities have a yearlong commitment, which 
provides an opportunity to students who show potential via grades, 
character, and extra-curricular activities but attended high schools 
with limited resources. The program's objective is to expand NROTC 
scholarship opportunities by accessing this untapped talent and 
potential. Academic year 2018-2019 was NPP's initial test year with 
four midshipman candidates completing the program and receiving NROTC 
scholarships. For academic year 2019-2020, 67 midshipmen candidates are 
enrolled in the NPP, and to date, there are over 100 applicants for 
academic year 2020-2021, demonstrating significant interest in this 
program.
Officer Retention
    While officer retention remains sufficient to meet milestone 
requirements in most communities, it remains challenging to meet our 
requirements for aviation warfare officers in specific type/model/
series platforms, nuclear-trained surface warfare officers, submarine 
officers, and naval special warfare (NSW), specifically Navy SEALs. We 
continue to apply and refine a combination of monetary and non-monetary 
incentives to address retention among these groups.
    Naval aviation's inventory and accessions (tactical, maritime, and 
rotary wing combined) remain sufficient to meet operational 
requirements. However, declining retention in some AC and RC 
communities, especially strike fighter (VFA) and electronic attack 
(VAQ) pilots, continue to present serious challenges to aviation's 
long-term health. The Chief of Naval Air Forces has embraced the range 
of MyNavy HR led-initiatives, and has been equally engaged with Navy 
leadership in reversing adverse trends along multiple fronts including:
      Maintainer retention/training issues, spare parts 
availability, and depot level maintenance concerns impacting Strike 
Fighter inventory and, consequently, flight hours and tactical 
training/qualification progression of fighter pilots.
      Addressing Quality of Life and Quality of Service 
challenges for our aviation families in remote locations, specifically 
NAS Lemoore and NAS Fallon.
      Enhanced Monetary Incentives. Substantial, across-the-
board improvements to Aviation Bonus (AvB) and Aviation Incentive Pay 
(AvIP) were made last year that increased flight pay and bonus levels 
in a mutually supportive fashion tied to achievement of leadership 
milestones. It is still too soon to fully evaluate the effectiveness of 
these changes, but early indications are positive.
      Improved access to career-enhancing opportunities to 
improve flexibility in the Navy aviation career path, e.g., graduate 
school and fellowships, Tours with Industry, and the Career 
Intermission Program.
      Professional Flight Instructor (PFI) career path 
initiative allows selected officers to serve continuously as flight 
instructors beyond Department Head. This career path offers greater 
assignment stability for selected officers and their families, and 
provides rewarding experiences shaping the development of our newest 
aviators. The PFI program is intended to improve retention by 
responding to calls for greater career choice/flexibility, while also 
improving instructor manning.
    The combination of aviation-specific incentives already underway, 
coupled with a wide range of officer personnel reforms under the Sailor 
2025 initiatives, are slowing the trend of aviators choosing to leave 
the service after their initial commitment. Sustained support for 
readiness enabler accounts, including the flight hour and aircraft 
spares accounts, is critical to improving the quality of aviation 
service in the near term. This support, along with the personnel 
modernization initiatives already implemented, should contribute to 
meaningful changes to the critical issues causing our aviators to leave 
the service.
    The NSW, Submarine, and Surface Warfare (Nuclear) communities are 
also working hard to retain their best talent through tailored monetary 
incentives to include retention bonuses for officers willing to commit 
early to future service and special duty pays for challenging nuclear 
billets. We are renewing the NSW Officer Bonus Programs to increase 
retention across milestone tours. Additionally, we have consolidated 
Jump, Dive, and Demolition pays into a single Skill Incentive Pay 
(SkIP) to minimize costly training interruptions in the Inter-
Deployment Training Cycle and financial disincentives associated with 
operators seeking medical care.
    Finally, in this era of great power competition, Navy is staying 
alert to opportunities for shaping the composition of the officer corps 
in order to create a more effective apparatus necessary to defeat our 
adversaries. Examples of these initiatives include:
      Investments in Enlisted and Officer Cyber skill 
communities. We trained and commissioned our first Cyber Warrant 
Officers in fiscal year 2020. This initiative is intended to retain 
enlisted cyber warriors through an on-ramp into the warrant officer 
community. This will enhance experience in this critical warfare area 
by increasing the average number of years of service due to retaining 
members at the journeyman and supervisor level. Navy is producing more 
Cyber Engineer trained personnel at USNA and has stood up a 12 month 
Master of Science in Applied Cyber Operations program at the Naval 
Postgraduate School.
      Closer management of Space-experienced personnel to 
ensure we are sensibly tracking and growing this cadre of skills for 
assignments in Maritime Operations Centers and the rapidly developing 
Space Command and Space Force to ensure U.S. domination in this domain.
      Expansion of the role the Information Warfare Community 
plays relative to the URL given the ever increasing role being played 
in the cyber and space domains.
      An acceleration of Artificial Intelligence programs in 
MyNavy HR.
      Continued use of selective retirement boards for enlisted 
and officer communities to ensure in this time of outstanding retention 
we are holding senior leaders accountable for performance that is both 
routinely satisfactory and professional.
      Achievement of Best-Ever Performance initiative to demand 
from our sailors and teams an enduring commitment to achieving strong 
character and professional expertise. This is consistent with efforts 
to review the perceived breakdown in SPECWAR/SPECOPS cohesion and 
professionalism, the comprehensive review of the Navy's Judge Advocate 
General Corps, as well as to strengthen our Culture of Excellence and 
reaffirm high standards to ensure Navy remains a lethal force.
                               conclusion
    To deliver the Navy the Nation Needs, we must identify, recruit, 
train, and retain the leaders and talent to build a team that will 
achieve success in great power competition now and in the future. 
Through our transformation efforts, MyNavy HR will change an antiquated 
human resources system into a modern, state of the art system and 
Sailor 2025 remains our guide to Man the Fleet with the right people, 
in the right place, at the right time, with the right training. To be 
competitive in the modern economy, we must recruit faster and smarter 
while focusing on innovation vice sustainment. We must make data driven 
decisions, using more accurate, timely, and reliable data while 
increasing transparency and auditability. We must field cutting edge 
technologies to support training that keeps pace with the modernizing 
Navy. We must retain and better utilize the best and brightest our 
Nation has to offer. I look forward to working with you as we continue 
to meet the challenges in this new era of great power competition. On 
behalf of the men and women of the United States Navy, thank you for 
your unwavering support.
       Prepared Statement by Lieutenant General Michael A. Rocco
                              introduction
    Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, and distinguished 
Members of the Subcommittee, it is my privilege to appear before you 
today to provide an overview on Marine Corps personnel.
    Since our founding in 1775, marines have answered our Nation's 
call, faithfully serving the American people and maintaining a high 
standard of military excellence. Your Marine Corps is, and will 
continue to be, our Nation's expeditionary force in readiness. We are 
warfighters who are ready to rapidly respond to crises around the globe 
to ensure the continued security of the American people and to protect 
the interests that underpin our Nation. Marines will be always faithful 
to the trust which the American people have vested in them.
                               our people
    Mission first, people always. Marines are the centerpiece of the 
Marine Corps. They are the Corps' most critical resource, and always 
have been. As highlighted in our 38th Commandant's Planning Guidance 
(CPG), our principle emphasis must be on recruiting, educating, 
training, and retaining our marines. As part of that mission, we will 
continue to instill our core values and a sense of accountability, and 
treat all marines with dignity, care, respect, and humility.
Recruiting
    All Marine Corps recruiting efforts--officer, enlisted, regular, 
reserve, and prior-service--fall under the Marine Corps Recruiting 
Command. This is unique amongst the Services. Operationally, this 
provides us with tremendous flexibility and unity of command, 
facilitating efforts to meet accession and end strength requirements.
    Last fiscal year, we successfully achieved all enlisted and officer 
recruiting goals for both the Active and Reserve components, and we 
expect to do the same again this year. We also will exceed all quality 
goals. The Department of Defense (DOD) requires 90 percent of enlistees 
to have a high school diploma or equivalent (Education Tier 1), and 60 
percent of enlistees to score in the Mental Groups I-IIIA (mental 
aptitude). Last year, the Marine Corps achieved 99.5 percent for 
Education Tier 1, and 70.3 percent for Mental Group I-IIIA. We expect 
to be at or near these levels in fiscal year 2020.
    To meet the challenges ahead, we remain committed to assigning our 
best marines to recruiting duty; we currently assign 3,763 marines to 
recruiting duty. We must also continue to adequately fund both 
recruiting operations and advertising; we thank Congress for its 
support in this goal. Our advertising program is vital to building 
awareness of the Marine Corps among highquality, diverse populations 
that are increasingly disconnected from military service. A strong 
advertising program enables our recruiting command to attract and 
recruit the highest quality accession cohorts. This, in turn, results 
in lower first-term attrition, higher quality marines, and increased 
readiness. Our prioritization of, and investment in, recruiting ensure 
a high state of readiness for our Corps. Additionally, the Marine Corps 
is now utilizing the Tailored Adaptive Personality Assessment System 
test to begin to inform our organization of the applicant's resilience 
and adaptability to life in the military service.
Retention
    The essence of Marine Corps talent management is to retain the very 
best available marines capable of fulfilling our leadership and 
operational needs. However, there is a continuous challenge to keep 
high-quality marines in the service, especially in the current 
competitive civilian job market.
    Marine Corps retention models, systems, policies, and processes 
emphasize consistency of leadership, personnel stability, and sustained 
readiness across the force. Officer career designation incorporates a 
board system that enables leaders to examine officer records and 
accomplishments. After designation, the promotion process continues the 
evaluation of marine officers. It is a primary tool by which we retain 
only the best and most qualified marines.
    For enlisted marines, a tiered rating system takes into account a 
number of quantifiable performance factors and includes inputs from 
both immediate and more senior leaders. It helps to set achievable 
goals for marines as they compete for retention. After initial 
reenlistment, the evaluation and continued retention of high quality 
enlisted marines is supported by a detailed and continual performance 
evaluation system which is fully integrated with the promotion process. 
Those marines with the best proven performance are retained and 
promoted.
    Always striving for improvement, we are modernizing our performance 
evaluation system to include an enhanced evaluation process that 
focuses on our E1 through E4 marines. The addition of a Junior Enlisted 
Performance Evaluation System (JEPES) process to our existing 
Performance Evaluation System will improve and simplify the evaluations 
for our junior enlisted marines. Once complete, JEPES will integrate 
into our current automated performance evaluation system used to 
evaluate sergeants and above and all officers. This modernized system 
will ensure a detailed and objective evaluation system for all marines 
that leverages our information technology to compare scored performance 
entries. It will provide leaders a broader and more detailed baseline 
from which to evaluate future potential, reinforcing our efforts to 
retain the best and most qualified marines and will ensure all the 
necessary information continues to be provided to selection, retention, 
and promotion boards.
    Incentive pays remain critical to our retention effort, allowing 
the Marine Corps to fill hard to retain positions, such as cyber 
operators and security technicians, special operators, and counter 
intelligence specialists. Selective Reenlistment Bonuses allow us to 
shape our career force by targeting critical military occupational 
specialties (MOSs) and supporting lateral movement of marines to these 
MOSs.
    The Marine Corps is experiencing shortfalls in the number of 
certain grades of fixed wing and tiltrotor aviators required to fill 
our aviation billets. As a result, we have implemented a narrowly-
tailored aviation bonus to stabilize the pilot shortfall and facilitate 
the proper execution of all aviation staffing demands. We will continue 
to build on the fiscal year 2020 bonus plan in fiscal year 2021.
    We are also now offering Assignment Incentive Pay to offensive 
cyberspace operators to increase retention. This monthly pay is 
targeted towards hard-to-fill critical billets that have significant 
training requirements. Overall, these incentive pays help us recruit 
and retain the best marines, especially for critical skills. At only 
one percent of our Marine Corps personnel budget, these pays provide 
return on investment many times over.
    Based on continuous analysis of inventory health and input from the 
force, we have instituted two new initiatives for the fiscal year 2021 
Enlisted Retention Campaign to increase retention. First, delegation of 
retention authority allows for commanding generals of major subordinate 
commands to reenlist their best and brightest marines at their level 
rather than having to provide recommendations for reenlistment to 
Headquarters Marine Corps. This authority capitalizes on the concept of 
talent management by providing commanders and their senior enlisted 
advisors, who are the most knowledgeable about their marines, the 
ability to advocate to their commanding generals for reenlistment 
approval. Second, the early reenlistment authority allows a portion of 
Tier 1 first term marines to reenlist up to 27 months early. This 
authority allows our top rated marines who know they want to reenlist 
the flexibility of managing their careers.
Reserves
    Your Marine Corps Selected Reserve is fully manned at its 
authorized end strength of 38,500 and unit personnel readiness stands 
at its highest level in a generation. Unit reserve personnel readiness 
continues to increase from 71 percent in 2013 to over 84 percent today, 
with significant improvement in both enlisted and officer force 
management.
    Our comprehensive manpower management plan provides full-service 
support to our Reserve officers and staff NCOs throughout the Selected 
Reserve for their career management. This is a talent management 
initiative that will help our NCOs, staff NCOs, and officers move 
between commands to enhance their development and military career 
goals.
    Our officer manning success has also been driven by bonuses and 
incentives to attract more marines from the Active component. In 
addition, our Reserve Officer Commissioning Program has produced 1,386 
lieutenants for the Marine Corps reserves since its creation in 2006. 
As a result, our ground company grade officer manning has increased 
from 21 percent in 2007, to 78 percent today.
    Your Marine Corps Reserves continue to mobilize Selected Reserve 
marines under the 12304b mobilization authority for pre-planned 
training missions in support of combatant commander requirements; 
approximately 2,460 Reserve marines deployed in fiscal year 2019 under 
this authority. We thank Congress for its support for Reservists 
mobilized under 12304b by extending pre- and post-deployment health 
care, counting service towards post 9/11 G.I. Bill and reduced age 
retirement benefits, and extending high deployment allowance and non-
reduction of pay benefits.
    The BRS [Blended Retirement System] is a significant change from 
the legacy retirement system and, while it confers a portable monetary 
benefit on the large majority of marines who do not reach retirement 
eligibility, we remain concerned on the potential changes to the 
retention behavior of the force, and will continue to closely monitor 
retention for impacts.
Outreach and Inclusion
    Diversity remains critical to the Marine Corps and must be included 
in meaningful ways in order to take advantage of the wide array of 
aptitudes and perspectives necessary to maintain our current and future 
warfighting excellence. It is our responsibility to ensure the Marine 
Corps is comprised of the best and brightest from every segment of our 
diverse society. We are committed to capitalizing on the knowledge, 
skills, abilities, performance, and potential of every marine.
      In 2010, 30 percent of marines identified as minority. 
Today, that number is over 40 percent. We expect these numbers to 
continue to rise as 45 percent of all enlisted and 31 percent of all 
officer accessions in fiscal year 2019 identified as minorities.
      In 2010, women comprised 6.7 percent of the Marine Corps; 
they are now almost 9 percent. These numbers should also continue to 
rise as women are now over 10 percent of all accessions.
      Last year 12.7 percent of officer accessions were women, 
representing the highest percentage of female officer accessions in the 
Marine Corps since the establishment of the all-volunteer force.
      Women represented in previously-restricted MOSs are also 
on the rise. Last year, I testified that 507 women were in previously 
restricted Active component units--that number is now 737. At that 
time, there were 203 women serving in previously restricted MOSs, today 
that number is 283, and we now have our first female F-35 pilot and 
first female reconnaissance marine.
    We have achieved our accession successes by employing a total-
market approach that includes female inclusive messaging. This is 
supplemented with specific targeted campaigns focusing direct mail and 
advertising to generate awareness and highlight opportunities in the 
Marine Corps. We are also partnered with a host of diverse 
organizations across the Nation. We have recruiters assigned to every 
square mile, every zip code, and every public school in our Nation; our 
goal is to reach the youth and influencers--from the most rural of 
small towns to the largest of cities.
    On the retention side, we are leveraging technology to help 
understand--and someday predict--why individuals decide to join the 
Marine Corps as well as remain a marine. These efforts include 
improving current data collection and management; longitudinal 
accession, retention, and exit surveys; along with cognitive and non-
cognitive testing with the objective of identifying and fitting the 
right person, with the right skill, into the right billet.
    Even with our successes, there is still a lot of work to be done. 
While female and minority marines who promote at nearly the same rate--
and often higher--than majority marines, they remain underrepresented 
at the higher officer ranks--especially at general officer level. 
However, we believe that our efforts today will pay dividends as our 
junior officer populations are now more diverse, and today's junior 
officers will be tomorrow's senior leaders.
Culture
    One of my top priorities is to make sure that the Marine Corps' 
culture is one of respect, dignity, and inclusion for all. We can do 
better--this is evident from the research, surveys, town halls, and 
just talking to marines. A recent study on Marine Corps culture we 
commissioned illustrated where we have fallen short and we are working 
tirelessly to self-assess and improve.
    Examples:
      Have established a Talent Management Oversight Executive 
Council, led by the Assistant Commandant.
      We have published a comprehensive Prohibited Activities 
and Conduct Order to consolidate all such activities under one order, 
increase accountability, and provide for punishment under the UCMJ 
[Uniform Code of Military Justice]. This order provides for a clear, 
common understanding of what is prohibited and how such activities have 
a corrosive effect on the Corps.
      We continue to cultivate a lethal fighting force through 
the implementation of gender neutral MOS specific physical standards 
ensuring both men and women have the requisite physical fitness to 
perform their assigned mission.
      During recruit training, instructors of both genders 
regularly train recruits - providing a balance of strong, confident, 
and knowledgeable Marine leaders as positive models to emulate.
      We have started an Exit and Milestone Longitudinal Survey 
program to assess why marines join and why do they choose to leave.
      The Marine Corps Outreach program pays the registration 
and travel costs for marines to participate at various affinity group 
events for professional development, mentoring, and networking 
experiences. The Marine Corps plans to participate in 19 such events 
this year.
      In conscious recognition of power of communication, the 
Marine Corps has updated websites and directives to remove gender-
qualifying language so that we recruit, promote, and retain marines 
based upon their personal intellect, capabilities, and performance.
      The Parenthood and Pregnancy order demonstrates the 
Marine Corps recognition of the importance of family and investment in 
ensuring marines have options to enable them to thrive both 
professionally and in their personal family lives.
    This topic is on the minds of all marines--especially senior 
leadership--as it should be. It is, more than anything, a leadership 
issue. Marine leaders must not just talk about changing culture--they 
must be the example of how to treat your fellow marine and all 
individuals with dignity, respect, empathy, and compassion. Be servant 
leaders. I personally consider this my ultimate responsibility.
Civilian Marines
    Our civilian marines support the mission and daily functions of the 
Marine Corps and are an integral part of our total force. They 
exemplify our core values; they embrace esprit de corps, teamwork, and 
pride in belonging to our Nation's Corps of Marines. Serving alongside 
our marines throughout the world, in every occupation and at every 
level, our civilian appropriated-funded workforce remains by far the 
leanest of all Services, with a ratio of one civilian to every ten 
Active Duty marines.
    Approximately 95 percent of our appropriated funded civilians work 
outside the Washington, DC, beltway at 57 bases, stations, depots, and 
installations around the world. Sixty-nine percent are veterans who 
have chosen to continue to serve our Nation; of those, eighteen percent 
are disabled veterans. Our civilian non-appropriated funded workforce 
steadfastly continues to provide vital support to our marines, Reserve 
marines, their families, and our wounded, ill, and injured.
    We thank Congress for providing a full-year funding for our 
civilians. It has provided a measure of predictability for them this 
year, which improves morale, while also aiding in recruiting and 
retention efforts to bring top civilian talent to the Marine Corps. 
Overall, our civilians continue to truly shown themselves as Semper 
Fidelis by keeping our marines and their families in the forefront. For 
that, they have my personal admiration.
               taking care of marines and their families
    Our comprehensive portfolio of services is a coordinated and 
synchronized effort that addresses the mind, body, spirit, and social 
needs of our marines and their families. Taking care of marines and 
families improves our overall readiness and resilience. It also 
directly increases retention, quality of life and, most importantly, 
combat effectiveness.
Behavioral Programs
    The Marine Corps Behavioral Programs are an integrated community-
based service model that promote the social, behavioral, and 
psychological fitness of marines and families in order to enhance 
mission effectiveness.
Suicide Prevention
    Suicide prevention continues to be one of the Marine Corp's top 
priorities. Suicide prevention is a challenging task, but one on which 
we are determined to remain focused. The current and future suicide 
prevention initiatives include:
      Releasing Marine Awareness and Prevention Integrated 
Training for Families as a prevention-focused training designed to 
provide families with information on suicide prevention.
      Improving combat and operational stress control 
capability initiatives.
      Revising the Inspector General Marine Corps checklist to 
ensure commanders have the necessary protocols in place, at the unit 
level, to prevent deaths by suicide.
      Embedding Operational Stress Control and Readiness 
(OSCAR) team members within Marine Corps units to help marines 
recognize and respond to stress. If a marine believes their stress-
level is negatively impacting their unit, an OSCAR member is there to 
talk and to connect the marine with other resources.
      The Marine Corps DSTRESS Line is a 24/7/365, marine-
specific call center providing phone, chat, and video-telephone 
capability for anonymous counseling. DSTRESS Line callers can discuss 
stress, anger management, grief and loss, deployment cycles, parent-
child relationships, couples communication, marital issues, 
relationships, relocations, and suicidal crisis as well as other areas 
of concern.
Sexual Assault Prevention & Response
    Protecting marines and preventing sexual assaults are top 
priorities for the Corps. We are committed to preventing incidents of 
sexual assault by promoting positive behaviors, fostering healthy 
command climates, and building skills to identify and prevent negative 
behaviors. We remain committed to responding to sexual assaults, 
including those occurring before service, by providing victim-centered 
support.
    Collaboration is key in addressing sexual assault prevention and 
response. The Marine Corps Sexual Assault Prevention and Response 
(SAPR) program works together with the other Services, Department of 
the Navy Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), DOD 
SAPRO, and outside entities to enhance our ability to prevent and 
respond to sexual assault, identify best practices, and to leverage 
resources. SAPR supports enterprise-wide efforts to prevent sexual 
assaults within the military and care for marines which will foster a 
culture of respect to all.
    Updated SAPR annual training for Staff Non-Commissioned Officers 
(SNCO) is in development to provide more focus at the small unit level. 
The training's goal is to help increase SNCO knowledge about sexual 
assault, reporting, resources, rank-specific roles and 
responsibilities, and to build skills consistent with primary 
prevention.
    SAPR updated its training for the commander's course to better 
prepare senior leadership to prevent sexual assault once they assume 
command. This includes information focused on actionable 
recommendations for pre-command leaders and small group discussions 
facilitated by Marine Corps mentors and SAPR experts.
    A revised SAPR Victim Advocate training was released in October 
2019 and has been fully implemented. The revised 40-hour curriculum 
focuses on building and refining advocacy skills and includes cultural 
competency and prevention training. We are implementing an online 
evaluation tool for SAPR training to assess the effectiveness of 
current training, beginning with the current rank-specific training for 
E1 to E5 marines. This effort will begin with pilot programs in fiscal 
year 2020. The tool will provide real-time feedback to SAPR personnel 
to improve the quality of instruction and will measure training 
participants' changes in knowledge and satisfaction.
Command Individual Risk and Resiliency Assessment System
    The Marine Corps force preservation process is the formalized 
method used by commanders to identify individual marine risk factors 
and to apply holistic risk management measures to improve individual 
and unit readiness. Every day, this process assists leaders across the 
Corps to identify those in need. However, gaps in knowledge about our 
marines have historically limited the effectiveness of the effort. To 
improve the process, we have developed the Command Individual Risk and 
Resiliency Assessment System, which compiles individual force 
preservation data from authoritative databases with information 
inputted by small unit leaders, medical officers, and other authorized 
support staff. By presenting timely, prioritized, actionable 
information to those who can help Marines, and by protecting 
unauthorized disclosure through strict access limits and cybersecurity, 
leaders will be better equipped to reduce destructive behaviors in 
their units.
Spouse Employment
    Spouse employment is a major source of stress for many Marine Corps 
families, and can be an obstacle for financial security. The Marine 
Corps Family Member Employment Assistance Program (FMEAP) emphasizes a 
proactive approach for military spouses, and other dependent family 
members. This enables them to formulate informed career and educational 
choices by utilizing employment-related referral services, career and 
skill assessments, career coaching, job search guidance, portable 
career opportunities, and education center referrals/guidance. The 
FMEAP provides coaching and training such as: interview techniques; 
resume and cover letter writing; the federal application process; 
salary negotiations; appropriate dress; staff-assisted computerized job 
searches; skills and personality assessments; one-on-one career 
coaching; education, training, and volunteer opportunities; and 
entrepreneur business opportunities.
    Installations provide training/workshops to assist spouses and 
transitioning servicemembers with the federal hiring process. 
Installations also conduct job fairs to assist veterans and family 
members in finding employment. FMEAP connects Marine Corps spouses with 
volunteer opportunities through installation volunteer coordinators to 
assist with establishing career experience throughout permanent change 
of station transitions. FMEAP also helps translate volunteer 
experiences into marketable skills on resumes. The program's holistic 
approach helps support spouses throughout a marine's service. The 
Marine Corps participates in the DOD Military Spouse Preference 
Program, which was instituted to reduce the adverse impact on the 
career paths of spouses of Active Duty servicemembers.
    The Marine Corps is now authorized to reimburse Marine spouses up 
to $1,000 for State licensure and certification costs arising from 
relocation to another State. To date, the Marine Corps has reimbursed 
128 individual claims totaling $45,660. The Marine Corps also 
participates in the Military Spouse Career Advancement Account (MyCAA) 
Scholarship which provides up to $2,000 per year (maximum of $4,000) 
for military spouses (private to sergeant, warrant officers 1 & 2, and 
2nd lieutenants to 1st lieutenants) to pursue licenses, certificates, 
certifications, or associate degrees necessary for gainful employment.
Child and Youth Programs
    High-quality child care is a family readiness priority for the 
Marine Corps. The Marine Corps provides high quality, accessible, and 
affordable programs and services for eligible families with children 6-
weeks to 18-years of age. Currently, USMC has a total unmet need of 
1,181 children with notable waitlists at MCB Camp Pendleton, Hawaii, 
Quantico, and Camp Lejeune/New River. These are primarily due to a 
shortage of qualified workers, high turnover/low pay, and lengthy 
hiring/background check process. We are addressing these issues as part 
of a DOD Compensation, Recruitment, and Retention Working Group and 
implemented a non-competitive child care employee transfer program in 
November 2019. The Marine Corps appreciates the additional $20 million 
Congress provided this fiscal year to update and repair our child care 
facilities. The Marine Corps is developing a prioritization plan on how 
we intend to execute those funds this fiscal year to improve the 
quality of our centers.
Marine Corps Business and Support Services
    The Marine Corps delivers many of its quality of life programs via 
an integrated Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS) construct that 
combines Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR); Marine Corps Exchange 
(MCX); Warfighter and Family Services; and Child Development Programs. 
This integrated model is unique within DOD and provides many operating 
efficiencies, including consolidated nonappropriated fund (NAF) back-
office support, e.g., human resources, finance and accounting, 
procurement, construction, and information technology. Our focus on 
efficiency continues today with transformation and innovation pursuits, 
such as a shared services center for all MCCS NAF transactional 
accounting functions; we are expecting a significant cumulative NAF 
benefit over a 10-year period.
    The MCX is an integral self-sustaining business component of MCCS, 
delivering products and services in garrison and expeditionary 
environments, while producing an invaluable NAF dividend to our MWR and 
family programs. The recent expansion of Commissary, Exchange, and MWR 
program privileges to disabled veterans and their caregivers has 
allowed more than 4 million customers to return and use the benefits 
that they enjoyed when they were on Active Duty. The 2019 market basket 
survey showed an average savings of approximately 25 percent. The MCX 
is proud to employ military family members who represent approximately 
33 percent of our workforce.
    The MCX is always looking for better ways to support marines' needs 
outside of traditional store formats and during off peak hours. As an 
example, many installations are expanding unmanned convenience 
offerings like Micro Marts and expanding traditional vending services, 
there are currently 14 Micro Marts deployed across the Marine Corps. 
The MCX is also piloting a partnership with Amazon to provide secure, 
self-service delivery kiosks at two bases to allow marines living in 
the barracks to pick up packages at a place and time that is convenient 
for them. In late 2020, MCX will also pilot two additional new concepts 
for unmanned offerings and ``buy on-line pick-up anywhere'' concepts.
    The Marine Corps is also an Active participant in DOD Business 
Reforms that encompass many of the programs and services within the 
MCCS portfolio. We are committed to seeking efficiencies across the 
Department through cooperate efforts and other partnerships while 
preserving our highly effective MCCS organization that is best attuned 
to meeting Marine Corps operational requirements.
Wounded Warrior Care
    The Marine Corps' Wounded Warrior Regiment (WWR) continues to 
execute our Recovery Coordination Program in support of wounded, ill, 
or injured (WII) marines and their families. WWR greatly facilitates 
their recovery and upholds our enduring commitment to ``keep faith'' 
with those who have incurred life changing impairments in service to 
our Nation.
    Regardless of the origin of affliction, our marines require and 
genuinely deserve access to the comprehensive recovery care available 
through the WWR.
    WWR recovery care coordinators, in coordination with medical 
providers and unit leaders, help WII marines develop and execute their 
individual comprehensive recovery plans, which provide the road map for 
a successful transition. WII marines with complex care coordination 
needs are assessed for post-separation support requirements. When 
appropriate, those marines are transferred to a Department of Veterans 
Affairs (VA) designated lead coordinator prior to their medical 
discharge to ensure seamless support.
    WWR maintains faith with our marines through our district injured 
support coordinators, who are geographically dispersed around the 
country and provide one-on-one support as needed, and the Sergeant 
Merlin German Call Center, which conducts outreach calls to marines and 
receives and responds to calls for assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a 
week.
    Since our WWR was established in 2007, thousands of WII marines and 
family members transitioning from Active service have benefitted from a 
full spectrum of support services that begins with physical recovery 
needs and increasingly focuses on post-service employment and education 
opportunities as they heal. Marines and their families, Members of 
Congress, and the public at large can be assured that the Marine Corps, 
through the WWR, will continue to expertly provide recovery care 
coordination support at all times.
                               conclusion
    The marines of our Corps represent a diverse group of individuals 
from our Nation who are bonded together by a sense of duty. These young 
Americans have stepped forward and sworn to defend and protect our 
Nation. Through recruiting, training, education, and retention of men 
and women of character who take up our challenge to become one of ``the 
Few and the Proud,'' we will enhance the quality of our Corps and our 
overall combat effectiveness. To echo the sentiments in CPG--the Marine 
Corps is entering a period of transformation to produce a force that 
will meet the challenges of the NDS and uncertainty of the future. By 
ensuring we take care of all marines and their families, we will keep 
faith with the honor, courage, and commitment they have so freely given 
during this next chapter in our illustrious history.
    Our individual marines are our most precious asset. They are proud 
of the ``Eagle, Globe, and Anchor'' and what it represents to our 
Nation. With your support, a vibrant Marine Corps will continue to meet 
our Nation's call.
    Thank you again for the opportunity to be here today.

    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    Mr. Fedrigo, did I pronounce your name properly?
    Mr. Fedrigo. Yes, Chairman, you did.
    Senator Tillis. Fedrigo.
    Mr. Fedrigo. Yes, sir.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you.

  STATEMENT OF JOHN A. FEDRIGO, PERFORMING THE DUTIES OF THE 
 ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE FOR MANPOWER AND RESERVE 
  AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY LIEUTENANT GENERAL BRIAN T. KELLY, 
    USAF, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR MANPOWER, PERSONNEL AND 
                            SERVICES

    Mr. Fedrigo. Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, it 
is an honor to speak with you today. We appreciate the 
continued interest, support, and advocacy this Committee 
provides to our Air and Space Force.
    While multiple topics are covered in our prepared 
statement, I will use this short introduction to highlight 
three key areas of effort: building a lethal and ready 
Department of the Air Force; developing our Nation's air and 
space professionals; and finally, improving and sustaining 
family readiness.
    The Department of the Air Force must compete, deter, and 
win in an increasingly complex global security environment. We 
must continue to sharpen our competitive edge by developing and 
building a lethal and ready Air and Space Force. At its core, 
building the force we need is about people. Our air and space 
professionals, both military and civilian, and their families 
remain our most important asset.
    To this end, I cannot overemphasize how important stable 
and predictable budgets are to morale and readiness. They give 
us the ability to build combat-capable forces ready to compete, 
deter and, if deterrence fails, defeat adversaries set on 
disrupting our way of life. Investments in end strength and 
properly resourcing the Space Force will pay dividends to our 
Nation's security well into the future.
    In this era of near-peer competition, rapidly evolving 
technology and an increasingly complex operational environment, 
we realize our talent management systems must evolve to be more 
agile, responsive, and effective at empowering and driving 
performance. These attributes are the bedrock for increasing 
lethality and developing exceptional leaders. They are also the 
filters we use to evaluate the effectiveness of new reforms or 
initiatives.
    The Department of the Air Force has taken significant steps 
to transform our talent management systems to ensure we can 
attract, recruit, develop, evaluate, and retain the air and 
space professionals needed to support our future force 
requirements. We recognize the talent marketplace is more 
competitive than ever. New congressional authorities have 
augmented existing tools providing increased flexibility and 
efficiency in managing both our military and civilian 
workforce. We ask for your continued advocacy by providing the 
statutory framework and resources necessary to field a ready 
and resilient military and civilian workforce.
    In addition to our military and civilian force, our 
families are critical to ensuring we remain the world's 
greatest air and space force. We are focused on family 
readiness and resilience to ensure our personnel can focus on 
the mission knowing their family members are supported with a 
robust network of people and capabilities dedicated to their 
wellbeing.
    In fiscal year 2019, our 76 airmen and family readiness 
centers responded to almost 3 million service requests, hosted 
more than 26,000 workshops with 360,000-plus participants, and 
sponsored over 40,000 outreach events connecting with almost 
1.5 million attendees. While we are proud of the support we 
provide, we remain committed to improving our capabilities 
especially in the exceptional family member, childcare, and 
spouse employment arenas.
    Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, and 
distinguished Committee Members, a ready and resilient military 
and civilian force is the bedrock of our service. The 
Department of the Air Force is evolving to compete, deter, and 
win in the air, space, and cyber domains. We look forward to 
continuing to partner with Congress on initiatives to remain 
competitive as an employer of choice. We rely on and are 
grateful for your efforts to protect and support our 
servicemembers and their families. The Department of the Air 
Force welcomes your continued commitment to these causes.
    Thank you again for this opportunity to represent our 
incredible professionals and their families. We look forward to 
your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Fedrigo and Leutenant 
General Kelly follows:]

Joint Prepared Statement by Mr. John A. Fedrigo and Lieutenant General 
                             Brian T. Kelly
                              introduction
    Chairman Tillis, Ranking Member Gillibrand, distinguished Members 
of this Committee, thank you for your continued support and for the 
opportunity to appear before this committee to talk about our Air and 
Space professionals; Active, Guard, Reserve and civilian. America's air 
and space professionals remain ``Always There'' providing global 
vigilance, reach, and power to protect and defend our Nation.
        building a lethal and ready department of the air force
    Great power competition continues to provide the central challenge 
to U.S. prosperity and security. To face this challenge, the Department 
of the Air Force (DAF) must compete, deter, and win in an increasingly 
complex global security environment. To accomplish this, we must 
continue to sharpen our competitive edge by developing and building a 
lethal and ready force. At its core, building the force we need is 
about people. Our air and space professionals (military and civilian) 
and their families are our most important asset.
End Strength
    The Department of the Air Force appreciates the support for end 
strength growth in fiscal year 2020 to 700,000 (military and civilian) 
as well as for the development of the new Space Force in the fiscal 
year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The DAF's fiscal 
year 2021 budget request is for 699,000, which includes a commitment to 
reducing 2,500 civilian positions by converting Guard and Reserve 
civilian members to full time military members and adjusting the 
Working Capital Fund workforce. Our fiscal year 2021 budget also 
focuses on growing 900 Active Duty positions for two new F-35 
squadrons, resiliency programs for our air and space professionals, the 
B-21, and Joint All Domain Command and Control initiatives. 
Additionally, it supports growing 400 Air National Guard positions for 
five cyber defense mission teams, fuels, security forces, and traffic 
management office to improve unit readiness and augment the 9th Air 
Force Joint Task Force. We would also grow 200 Air Force Reserve 
positions to support C-5, C-17, C-130 global mobility operations and 
transition from the KC-135 to the KC-46. Our specific resiliency 
program is the expansion of our True North Program adding 64 officer, 
71 enlisted, and 272 civilian personnel to address mental and spiritual 
health in fiscal year 2021.
Space Force
          developing our nation's air and space professionals
    In this era of near-peer competition, rapidly evolving technology, 
and the joint all-domain environment in which the Department of the Air 
Force operates, we realize our talent management system must also 
evolve to be more agile, responsive, transparent, and effective at 
empowering and driving performance. These attributes are the bedrock 
for increasing lethality and developing exceptional leaders. They are 
also the filters we use to evaluate the effectiveness of new reforms or 
initiatives. The DAF has taken significant steps to transform our 
talent management system to ensure we can attract, recruit, develop, 
and evaluate air and space professionals to support our future force 
requirements. DAF transformation activities recognize we are competing 
for talent in a more competitive market. New congressional authorities 
have augmented existing tools providing increased flexibility and 
efficiency in managing both our military and civilian workforce.
Performance Management
    Recruiting, retaining, developing, and best employing our military 
and civilian total force team is crucial to our National Defense 
Strategy. Ensuring we maintain our fierce focus on using policies, 
programs, and procedures to sustain responsive, agile, empowering, and 
transparent personnel management systems is a warfighting necessity.
Enlisted
    Over the last few years, we have evolved our enlisted performance 
system, incorporating feedback from the field and garnering trends from 
industry. Our evolution has focused on making the system more agile, 
transparent, and simple to focus on and drive performance as we 
strengthen the readiness and professionalism of our vital enlisted 
force. One example is our initiative to go to a ``board only'' process, 
removing the Weighted Airmen Promotion System (WAPS) test for promotion 
to the grades of master sergeant, senior master sergeant, and chief 
master sergeant. This past year was the first year we implemented these 
boards, ensuring duty performance is the most important factor in 
evaluating promotion to the next higher grade.
Officer
    The Department of the Air Force is committed to transforming the 
way we develop, promote, and retain our officer corps in order to 
successfully carry out the National Defense Strategy. To meet that 
task, we must have an officer corps which can adapt, innovate, and 
demonstrate agility in dealing with today's complex security 
environment. We appreciate the additional Defense Officer Personnel 
Management Act (DOPMA) authorities given to us in the fiscal year 2019 
National Defense Authorization Act and have instituted several 
programs.
    The first program is an assignment matching system which puts all 
Active component officers on a new web-based system that balances 
member input, job owner input, and development needs to create 
assignment matches. Our air and space professionals now have new 
digital input for assignment opportunities and engagement through a 
more transparent assignment system. The DAF has also changed its 
promotion development/competitive categories, which had remained 
unchanged since 1947. Active component line officers are now managed in 
six developmental categories for promotion instead of a single 
category, which acknowledges different specialties need different 
developmental experiences and progression. Officers are now screened 
and selected for formal instructor and recruiting positions as a valued 
part of career progression, ensuring our best officers serve as role 
models to shape the future force. This restructure give us the ability 
to create more agile development paths and better match the officer 
inventory to actual requirements which is vital to increasing readiness 
and lethality. Finally, using the increased flexibilities provided by 
Congress we are transitioning out of our current below-the-promotion 
zone offering to a merit-based approach with first implementation 
during the upcoming May Lieutenant Colonel board. Under this new 
system, those whose record of performance score highest on the board, 
pin-on first, reinforcing the importance of performance. This change 
also increases feedback and transparency, as selects will know where 
they stand in relation to their peers.
Civilian
    Another key component of our force is the more than 185,000 
Department of the Air Force civilian employees stationed around the 
globe. Our civilian workforce teams with the military as part of the 
Air and Space Force Total Force in the defense of our Nation. Working 
in over 600 occupations and professions, the civilian workforce 
underpins the Department. Civilian engineers work in research labs and 
social workers help children acclimate to new environments. Civilians 
are physicians treating air and space professionals and their families. 
They are police officers, aircraft mechanics, nuclear physicists, 
mathematicians, human resources professionals, electricians, rocket 
scientists, cyber security experts on the front line guarding against 
hackers, among many other occupations. At home and abroad, to include 
deploying to combat zones, our civilian members work shoulder to 
shoulder with their military counterparts. Having a high quality force 
and being able to recruit and compete for top civilian talent is an 
essential aspect of our total force and critical to our readiness. As 
such, we are thankful for all the previously granted congressional 
authorities for civilian hiring. Direct and expedited hiring 
authorities provided by Congress have allowed us to hire civilians 
faster. As of January 2020, the DAF used Direct Hiring Authority and 
Expedited Hiring Authority for 3,965 of our actions that were eligible, 
or 69 percent of the time. Correspondingly, the overall time-to-hire 
timeline is down to 76 days from 118 days. To make further advances in 
this arena, expansion of hiring authorities is desired. We are 
partnering with our sister services and the Department of Defense (DOD) 
to identify legislative proposals which will enhance the civilian 
personnel system.
Recruiting
    The Department of the Air Force achieved its fiscal year 2019 
recruiting goals of 32,421 regular DAF enlisted (100 percent of goal) 
and regular DAF Officers of 5,598 (100 percent of goal). We also met 
our ANG combined officer and enlisted goal by recruiting 9,422 Guard 
members (118 percent of goal), and our Reserve combined Officer and 
Enlisted goal of 8,641 (100 percent of goal). Additionally, the DAF is 
on target to reach our fiscal year 2020 recruiting goals of 29,193 
regular DAF enlisted, 4,553 regular DAF officers, ANG combined officer 
and enlisted of 11,664, and Reserve combined officer and enlisted of 
8,650.
    Readiness is foremost about having the right number of capable air 
and space professionals within our force. Today only 29 percent of 17 
to 24 year old men and women in the United States are eligible to serve 
in the military and only one in eight have a propensity to serve. While 
we have been able to meet our recruiting goals, we are keenly aware of 
a growing competition for talent and expect the recruiting environment 
to become even more challenging. The DAF is committed to improving how 
we recruit tomorrow's air and space professionals. Steps we have taken 
to improve our recruiting efforts over the past year include moving to 
a Total Force recruiting approach where our commander of the Air Force 
Recruiting Service is now responsible for recruiting for our Active, 
Guard, and Reserve. To move in this direction we have added a 1-star 
reserve deputy commander, adjusted recruiter training to be Total 
Force, and have begun the consolidation of marketing and operations 
budgets. We have also added 159 recruiters; established a recruiting 
squadron specifically focused on areas where we continue to experience 
shortfalls such as special warfare airmen, explosive ordnance disposal, 
and survival, evasion, resistance, and escape; and we are working with 
OSD on potentially implementing the DAF Compatibility Assessment, an 
integrity test to screen out accessions at high risk for unethical 
behaviors, including sexual assault.
    We also recognize that recruiting is not just about meeting 
numbers, but about attracting eligible talent from across the country. 
The current population of Americans eligible to serve includes 57.5 
percent women, 7 percent African Americans, and 9.5 percent of Hispanic 
ethnicity. The DAF has made strides toward improving our diversity with 
a current force comprised of 22 percent females, 15 percent African 
American, and 13 percent with Hispanic ethnicity, representing an 
increase of female airmen by 4 percent over the last 10 years and a 5 
percent increase for racially and ethnically diverse airmen (African 
American, Hispanic, and others) over the same time. While heading in 
the right direction, these modest gains are not keeping pace with the 
changing demographics of the military eligible population and are at a 
slower pace than we desire.
    To enhance our diversity we have focused on increasing our female 
applicant pool within the officer accession sources, setting an initial 
target to achieve growth in applicants to 30 percent female. We 
attained that goal at the Air Force Academy for the class of 2023, and 
we admitted 28.1 percent of those female applicants. Last year's 
graduating class was more than 25 percent female, a 4 percent increase 
from 2012. Within our ROTC program, we raised our applicant pool to 28 
percent female with an actual cadet class of 25.5 percent, marching 
toward the initial 30 percent applicant pool goal. The 2019 ROTC class 
consisted of 25 percent female, a 1.5 percent increase since 2012. 
Finally, our 2019 OTS classes were 18.7 percent female, which is a 2.5 
percent increase since 2012.
    Recruiting talent is also dependent on our Department being an 
inclusive organization. Since June 2018, we have accessed and made 
accommodations for more than 29 practicing Sikh, Muslim, Heathen, 
Jewish, Norse, Easter, and Russian Orthodox individuals to allow these 
talented members to serve while still respecting their religious dress 
and appearance requirements. These professionals serve as role models 
for other talented Americans who can potentially see themselves serving 
in our force as well.
Retention
    As important as recruiting is, retention within our high-tech force 
is even more important. While the DAF is experiencing generally high 
retention rates in both the enlisted and officer corps, the aggregate 
success sometimes masks pockets of retention challenges. To help 
ameliorate these retention challenges, the DAF continues to offer 
targeted monetary incentives.
    For enlisted skills, the fiscal year 2021 Selective Retention Bonus 
program's $157 million targets critical capabilities in enlisted Air 
Force Specialty Codes with low manning percentages, low retention, and/
or high training costs, such as special warfare, aircraft maintenance, 
cyber, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. For the 
officer corps, the fiscal year 2021 budget is $31.8 million for Officer 
Retention Bonuses in areas such as contracting, special tactics, 
operations research, combat rescue, and air liaisons. Focusing on 
pilots specifically, the DAF has a fiscal year 2020 budget of $175.9 
million for the Aviation Bonus (AvB). The take-rate for pilots has 
steadily declined from 68 percent in 2013 mainly due to an 
unprecedented major airline hiring boom that is anticipated to continue 
for at least the next decade. However, while the overall rate is still 
below our 65 percent annual target, the take-rate has stabilized around 
45 percent (44 percent in 2019) since the AvB cap was raised from 
$25,000 to $35,000 in fiscal year 2017.
    Monetary incentives are only one small piece of our overall 
retention portfolio. The majority of the retention efforts are non-
monetary and focused on improving quality of life, quality of service, 
and mitigating operational tempo. Those efforts include adjusting 
enlisted high year of tenure limits (senior airmen from 8 to 10 years, 
staff sergeants from 15 to 20 years, and technical sergeants from 20 to 
22 years); implementation of an information technology solution known 
as ``Talent Marketplace'' to improve the officer and enlisted 
assignment processes; increasing our child and youth focus to expand 
childcare during non-duty hours; and expanding the Recharge for 
Resiliency program to provide unit leaders deliberately designed 
activities to improve unit cohesion.
    Just as diversity plays an important role in our accessions, so too 
does it underscore our retention efforts. While our overall population 
diversity and recruiting numbers have improved, we have not been as 
successful in retaining women and diverse airmen for longer careers. To 
improve diversity, the DAF created several barrier analysis working 
groups to identify barriers to retention of women and diverse air and 
space professionals, and we made several policy adjustments based on 
their findings. One policy, `Child Career Balancing Time,' allows new 
mothers to defer their decision to separate up to 12 months after 
delivery. This provides an opportunity to experience the programs and 
resources available to assist with balancing career and family 
priorities. The DAF also implemented the fiscal year 2017 Military 
Parental [Non-Chargeable] Leave Program, which allows a mother to take 
6 weeks, the family primary caregiver to receive 6 weeks, and the 
secondary caregiver to receive 21 days within the first year of birth 
or adoption. Further, female airmen are exempt from deployment, PCS, or 
TDY for 12 months after giving birth unless they volunteer.
    The DAF also continues to utilize the Career Intermission Program 
(CIP). The program provides flexibility for airmen looking to pursue 
goals such as advanced education, raising or starting a family, or 
aligning career timing for dual military couples. The program appears 
to be working. In calendar year 2018 and calendar year 2019, 54 percent 
of CIP participants were female and 100 percent of the airmen (6 in 
calendar year 2018 and 11 in calendar year 2019) who completed the 
program and their follow-on commitment elected to stay in the service. 
We are assessing ways to improve this program and look forward to 
working with the Congress to do so in a way that further incentivizes 
use.
    Knowing opportunity and advancement have a lot to do with 
retention, we have increased focus on ensuring exposure for younger 
officers to key developmental positions such as selection for Aide-de-
Camp and Executive Officers for senior leaders. By way of policy, we 
ensure all selection slates for these key positions have a minimum of 
one qualified female or qualified diverse candidate for consideration. 
In a short period under this policy, we have seen a 17 percent increase 
in female selections and a 21 percent increase in African American 
female selections.
                            family readiness
    Our families are critical to ensuring we remain the world's 
greatest Air and Space Force. We are focused on family readiness and 
resilience to ensure the professionals of the Department of the Air 
Force can focus on the mission, knowing their family members are 
supported with a robust network of people and capabilities dedicated to 
their well-being. In fiscal year 2019, our 76 Airman and Family 
Readiness Centers responded to almost three million service requests, 
hosted more than 26,000 workshops with 360,000-plus participants, and 
sponsored over 40,000 outreach events connecting with almost one and a 
half million attendees.
    This support provided great value to the families of the 
department, and resulted in valuable feedback on areas that need 
attention. While we are proud of the support we provide, we remain 
committed to improving our capabilities, especially in the exceptional 
family member, childcare, and spouse employment arenas.
Exceptional Family Member Programs (EFMP)
    Today, there are 51,665 family members enrolled in EFMP and 35,773 
Active Duty air and space professionals coded as EFMP sponsors. When a 
family is identified as EFMP, the supporting installation Airman and 
Family Readiness Center EFMP-Family Support (EFMP-FS) Coordinator 
connects them with appropriate information, assistance, and resources. 
Our 99 EFMP-FS Coordinators are spread across 78 installations and 
provide the community support function to enhance quality of life of 
special needs family members. EFMP-FS coordinators provide non-medical 
case management that includes assessing family needs, developing family 
services plans, and providing related workshops and support events in 
addition to assisting families in navigating community resources. 
Examples of these resources include Federal, State and local programs; 
Military OneSource; respite services; and other non-profit 
organizational support such as Easter Seals support services. In 
concert with our increase of 59 EFMP-FS coordinators since 2017, the 
Department of the Air Force implemented a 1-week in-person training 
course for newly assigned EFMP-FS staff to standardize the level of 
services provided to families. We also continue to offer quarterly 
parent focused training on topics such as Applied Behavior Therapy, 
Medicaid, financial planning, individualized education program, and 
future life planning. These training opportunities help enhance the 
connection and knowledge of parents as they navigate resources for 
their special needs children. Additionally, the Department of the Air 
Force funded or hosted over 450 outreach events across our 
installations in fiscal year 2019, with 100 of those specifically 
addressing the increased number of special need adults as well as 
resilience support to caregivers. As we move forward, we are 
strengthening our EFMP focus across the board and detailing ways to 
increase awareness and use of legal services for all EFMP families.
    Even with these efforts, we continue to have families who are 
frustrated with the EFMP program and in particular the permanent change 
of station process. In February of 2020, we initiated a review and 
rapid improvement event to get after the medical clearance process 
associated with moving EFMP families. This ongoing work includes 
creation of a new 20-person section at the Air Force Personnel Center 
dedicated to EFMP. The section will have representatives from the 
medical community, child and youth education, and family support all 
under a single organization to help focus and streamline EFMP support. 
We hope to have this new section and the findings from our rapid 
improvement event implemented and operating by summer of 2020.
Child and Youth Programs
    Available, affordable, quality childcare programs support families 
and enable air and space professionals to focus on the mission. The 
Department of the Air Force Child Development Program (CDP) provides 
services to children from birth to 12 years of age within installation 
child development centers, school age care programs, and family 
childcare homes DAF-wide. Two key CDP elements are the Air Force 
Expanded Child Care Program and the community-based child care fee 
assistance. The DAF Expanded Child Care Program provides non-
traditional childcare for irregular duty hours through an array of 
approaches to meet unique needs of our air and space professionals and 
their families. This program is offered in Family Child Care homes to 
fit virtually any schedule, deployment, or need. Community-based 
childcare fee assistance supports our air and space professionals not 
living near a military installation or where the on-base program has an 
unmet demand waiting list, by subsidizing a portion of childcare fees.
    The availability of quality, affordable childcare varies across 
locations and age groups and, as a result, families may be placed on a 
wait list. The priority usage category of customers influences both 
access to childcare and waiting period. As of January 31, 2020, there 
were 3,578 children across the DAF with unmet childcare needs. To 
reduce wait lists, the DAF convened a cross-functional working group of 
child and youth professionals, engineers, and data analysts focused on 
improving access to childcare for military families across lines of 
effort including staffing challenges and facility shortfalls that can 
impact availability of on-base childcare. Some accomplishments this 
past year include: implementing Direct Hiring Authority (DHA), 
decreasing the time required to on-board new appropriated fund staff 
from an average of 190 days to 73 days; hiring 60 additional Family 
Child Care (FCC) in-home providers bringing the total number of FCC 
providers to 348, augmenting CDC capability; deploying a Child and 
Youth Program Non-appropriated Fund Employee Transfer Assistance 
Program; implementing DAF Centrally Funded Non-appropriated Fund 
Recruitment Bonuses and Non-appropriated Fund Retention Allowances; and 
implementing Family Child Care provider recruitment and retention 
incentives--pay increase, retention bonus, and 100 percent offset for 
credentialing. Additionally, the DAF reversed a downward trend, going 
from an all-time low of 283 certified providers in September 2018 to 
333 providers in December 2019 with an additional 144 in the process of 
certification.
    To ensure smart investment in facilities we developed a childcare 
access scorecard dashboard to better inform decisions on funding 
facility repairs and expansions, and prioritizing military construction 
(MILCON) projects, priorities, and decisions. We analyzed each base and 
wait list, identifying if the shortfall is a staffing, configuration, 
or MILCON limitation, allowing us to prioritize and attack the issue. 
We are ensuring investment dollars go to the greatest impact on our 
waitlists. As a result, we are applying the $20 million provisioned to 
AF in the fiscal year 2020 NDAA against eight facility projects that 
will provide spaces for 552 children on our waitlists. We also 
identified 21 projects and are preparing them for execution should 
additional funding become available. These efforts reflect our 
commitment to addressing the childcare demand, and we will remain 
engaged at all levels in providing the best support possible for our 
families.
Spouse Employment
    Spouse employment is a critical element impacting family 
resilience, financial readiness, quality of life, retention, and 
mission success. Permanent change of station moves may negatively 
impact military spouse wages and employment opportunities. The DAF 
spouse employment program provides a robust system of support to help 
military spouses find meaningful employment and connect with available 
resources. The DOD continues to advance spouse employment initiatives 
with States to improve professional license portability and is 
currently pursuing interstate compacts. The DAF continuously addresses 
spouse employment challenges to help meet the needs of our Air and 
Space professionals and their families. The DAF enacted policy in May 
2019 per fiscal year 2018 NDAA for reimbursement of re-licensing/re-
certification costs up to $500 resulting from a PCS for spouses of 
military members. As of February 29, 2020, DAF has processed 219 claims 
for spouses, with average payment of $311, and overall total of $68.1K. 
The fiscal year 2020 NDAA increased this reimbursement from $500 to 
$1,000 and policy changes are underway to provide this increased 
support to our spouses. The DAF partners with the DOD State Liaison 
Office which works directly with State legislators to improve licensure 
portability across all states. Military service secretaries established 
a working group in 2019 to identify barriers and make recommendations 
to improve spouse overseas employment opportunities, and this work is 
still in progress.
                   foundational readiness imperatives
    The Department of the Air Force's core values--Integrity First, 
Service before Self, and Excellence in All We Do-- are the foundation 
of all air and space professionals' performance. They define our 
culture, who we are as a force, and are the basis of the care solutions 
we consider foundational readiness imperatives.
Personal Violence Prevention and Response
    Interpersonal violence and suicide are counter to our culture and 
our core values. These actions negatively impact victims, the bereaved, 
and their units. As a result, unit cohesion, mission effectiveness, and 
ultimately the Department of the Air Force`s readiness are threatened. 
We are deeply committed to the prevention of interpersonal violence on 
all fronts including sexual assault, child maltreatment, domestic 
violence, and workplace violence. We are dedicated to a strategy that 
leverages the latest science, implementing best practices and feedback 
from our members, with our ultimate goal of never losing another air or 
space professional to suicide. Should these acts of violence occur 
despite our prevention efforts, we are committed to providing victims 
of violence the care they need as well as caring for individuals, 
families, and units left to grieve.
Suicide Prevention
    Suicide prevention remains a difficult challenge with 2019 
Department of the Air Force suicide counts elevated compared to 
previous years.
    The DAF remains 100 percent engaged on preventing suicides and is 
focused on four strategic areas that align with suicide prevention 
strategies established by the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention: building connections, detecting risk, promoting protective 
environments, and equipping our air and space professionals and their 
families to mitigate risk and build resilience. The DAF is taking a 
leadership-driven public-health approach informed by data and analysis 
in partnership with academia, industry, and sister Services to include 
diverse ideas and perspectives.
    This past year the DAF launched the Resilience Tactical Pause (RTP) 
to enhance and build connections, encourage help seeking, reinforce 
squadrons as the heartbeat of our force, and derive feedback from our 
air and space professionals. Since inception of the RTP, we have 
received more than 12,000 responses from our force informing subsequent 
and ongoing resilience efforts. This feedback has highlighted the need 
to continue RTP efforts allowing our force time to personally connect, 
clarify existing resources, and reduce the stigma to help seeking. 
Follow-on RTP efforts will use this feedback as a guide. This feedback 
validates our decision to expand True North, a comprehensive approach 
to engaging members and families early, normalizing help-seeking 
behavior as a strength, and providing helping resources to our Force. 
Based on the updated DAF suicide prevention strategy, five suicide 
prevention priorities have been established by the DAF Community Action 
Team for 2020. These priorities include improving the Total Force 
suicide prevention training, strengthening implementations of the 
suicide prevention program, encouraging lethal means safety, empowering 
and equipping family members in suicide prevention, and enhancing 
suicide postvention procedures. The prevention priorities we 
established for 2020 are expected to further initial efforts to produce 
measurable change in risk and protective factors within our force.
    Specific examples enacted this past year include developing and 
distributing time-based prevention products such as 150,000 gun locks 
at no cost to our members, educational materials, and training on safe 
storage options. These new time-based prevention efforts put time and 
space between our members in distress and access to lethal means, 
particularly firearms which are involved in more than 70 percent of DAF 
suicide deaths. Additionally, the first MAJCOM [major command] Suicide 
Analysis Boards (SABs) were completed on January 1, 2020. The process, 
modeled after Safety Investigation Boards, identifies gaps and better 
equips leaders, air and space professionals, and families for suicide 
prevention, intervention, and postvention.
    Our revised strategy and initiatives to build partnerships with 
academia, industry, and sister Services will also help ensure our 
suicide prevention efforts continue to leverage the best ideas and 
research to end the tragedy of suicide. The DAF is therefore planning a 
National Suicide Prevention Summit for late 2020 following a model 
similar to the National Discussion on Sexual Assault and Sexual 
Harassment at America's Colleges, Universities and Service Academies. 
The audience of the National Suicide Prevention Summit will be experts 
and stakeholders from across industry, healthcare, and academia in 
order to facilitate the sharing of ideas on preventing suicide.
    Leaders at all levels are needed to help reinforce the notion that 
seeking help is a sign of strength and our air and space professionals 
do not need to go it alone. While suicide is a difficult and complex 
issue requiring complex solutions, it is preventable and the DAF 
remains committed to leveraging the best ideas and research to end the 
tragedy of suicide.
Task Force True North
    True North has moved from a beta test to an execution program for 
embedding mental health providers and religious support teams in units 
to increase access and build trust and confidence in the care givers. 
Initial results are promising and we are investing further in True 
North. While the budget for True North in fiscal year 2019 and fiscal 
year 2020 had been $9.9 million each year, we are increasing funding 
for True North to $53.3 million in fiscal year 2021. This growth will 
expand the program to fully serve all four beta test locations plus 12 
additional installations (for a total of 16 installations), while also 
covering Air Support Operations Squadrons and Rescue Squadrons DAF-
wide. Priority for installation expansion is based on a 5-year history 
of suicides, sexual assaults, domestic violence, child maltreatment, 
and other violence (including workplace violence).
Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR)
    Sexual assault remains a serious national problem. It is a crime 
that negatively affects our air and space professionals and their 
families, erodes unit trust and cohesion, and ultimately undermines 
force lethality, readiness, and mission success. It is counter to our 
core values and goes against our culture of dignity and respect. The 
DAF remains committed to eradicating sexual assaults using effective, 
research-based prevention. Commanders set the standards and require our 
air and space professionals to meet them, establishing the foundation 
of military discipline, while ensuring victims receive care, and 
holding perpetrators accountable. Commanders, advised by judge 
advocates, are best positioned to handle the disposition of all crimes 
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Taking away a 
commander's ability to discipline and care for their air and space 
professionals removes their authority and diminishes their 
responsibility and accountability.
    The Secretary of the Air Force (SecAF) attended the first National 
Discussion on sexual assault and sexual harassment at America's 
Colleges, Universities, and Service Academies, at the Naval Academy in 
April 2019, to combat and eradicate sexual assault and harassment from 
our campuses. This event brought together 126 universities, 21 
congressman/professional staffers and 17 educational/Federal agencies 
to create a forum for leaders and experts in the public and private 
sectors to advance evidence based prevention efforts and share lessons 
learned and best practices. In April 2020, the National Discussion will 
be held at West Point and will be attended by the SecAF, Vice Chief of 
Staff, congressional staffers, and over 100 universities and 
educational organizations. In April 2021, the DAF will host the 
National Discussion at the Air Force Academy.
    General officers from the DAF participated in the Sexual Assault 
Accountability and Investigation Task Force (SAAITF) which examined 
investigative and accountability processes across the Services. The 
task force found a command-centered military justice system is integral 
to military discipline and lethality, and is best positioned to protect 
both the rights of victims and defendants. The DAF's SAAITF 
implementation plan, which was signed by Acting SecAF Donovan on July 
8, 2019, will ensure the commander has all available tools to hold 
offenders appropriately accountable and support the victim, while 
protecting the rights of the victim and the accused throughout the 
process. The SAAITF implementation plan improves the ability of the 
commander to set appropriate command climate by making sexual 
harassment a ``stand alone'' military crime which highlights the 
severity of this behavior. The SAAITF implementation plan improves 
support to the victim by providing additional information and 
assistance throughout the process, including more consistent and 
regular updates from command. DAF prevention efforts address key sexual 
assault risk factors with long-term goals including assessment tools 
for identifying and screening out those at high risk for unethical 
behaviors. In addition, DAF is implementing the Department of Defense 
Sexual Assault Prevention Plan of Action.
    The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019, 
and is the largest military justice overhaul since 1983, enhancing the 
efficiency and effectiveness of the military justice system. These 
changes, in conjunction with the changes implemented by the Air Force's 
SAAITF plan, are continuing to shift the landscape of sexual assault 
prevention and response towards more support for victims while 
balancing the rights of the accused. It has only been a year since the 
effective date of the Military Justice Act of 2016, and continued 
implementation of the numerous provisions of the DAF SAAITF plan is 
ongoing. We appreciate the changes Congress has made in the laws 
allowing us support victims and hold offenders accountable. Taking the 
time to objectively evaluate these changes will allow the DAF to 
institute effective and research-based sexual assault prevention, 
victim support, and offender accountability.
    Sexual assault reporting across the DAF steadily increased over the 
last 3 years (fiscal year 2018 1,544 reports v. fiscal year 2017 1,480 
reports v. fiscal year 2016 1,355 reports), viewed as both a positive 
trend (trust) and negative (volume). USAF Academy reporting was 
consistent from academic year 16/17 to 17/18 with 23 reports each year. 
In academic year 18/19 there was a rise with 40 reports. Based on the 
latest sexual assault prevalence study in 2018, approximately 33 
percent of sexual assaults were reported across the DAF versus 30 
percent for the DOD. The DAF is focused on reducing prevalence while 
increasing victim reporting to seek care and hold alleged offenders 
appropriately accountable. The DOD Inspector General concluded that 
USAFA personnel properly provided services to cadet victims and USAFA 
leadership did not retaliate against them.
    Since 2013, legislation has been proposed that would strip 
commanders of court-martial convening authority--DAF opposes this 
legislation as it undermines readiness and lethality. Our military 
justice system operates within a careful balance between the interests 
of the government, the rights of the accused, and the respect for the 
dignity of victims. Commanders serve a critical role in maintaining 
this balance by bringing all resources and support programs to every 
case, to include access to counsel, sexual assault response 
coordinators, medical services, mental health providers, and 
investigators. Installation commanders also conduct monthly Case 
Management Group meetings to ensure that victims are receiving the 
services they need to recover and are being screened for retaliation. 
Over the past several years, external and congressional panels have 
examined and continue to review the military justice response to sexual 
assault offenses including reviewing the commander's role--not one has 
recommended removing the commander. ``Unlike a lawyer-focused civilian 
system, the military needs a commander-driven, lawyer-supported, 
victim-supportive system to drive cultural change and enforce 
discipline required on the battlefield'' (Department of Defense, Sexual 
Assault Accountability and Investigation Task Force Report, April 30, 
2019). Sufficient protections exist within our current military justice 
system to ensure that disposition authority for sexual assault cases is 
reserved to levels of command far removed from the subject and victim, 
and provides at least one superior review of dispositions in every 
penetrative sexual assault case while reinforcing the partnership 
between commanders and judge advocates in making disposition decisions. 
Additionally, Special Victims Counsel and Defense Counsel, who are each 
independent of the chain of command, provide zealous representation in 
sexual assault cases to ensure that the rights of both victims and 
accused are defended.
                               conclusion
    Resilient and ready air and space professionals, both military and 
civilian, are the bedrock of the Department of the Air Force's 
readiness and lethality. Your Air and Space Forces are evolving to 
compete, deter, and win with unmatched power in the air, space, and 
cyber domains. Our ability to remain competitive as an employer of 
choice is reliant upon prioritizing and resourcing what is most 
important, and we look forward to continuing to partner with Congress 
in our endeavors to protect and defend our great Nation. We thank you 
for your continued support of your Department of the Air Force--those 
in uniform, our civilian professionals, and the families who support 
them.

    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    Mr. Slavonic, I understand that childcare availability is 
lacking in areas, particularly in Virginia Beach and San Diego. 
I know that a lot of the families are utilizing the fee 
assistance program while they are on a wait list for a CDC 
[child development center] to go out into a private provider 
network. I believe I am right, and I want to be corrected if I 
am wrong, but I think the Navy is the only service that right 
now does not seem like it is budgeting adequately for the fee 
assistance program. Do you have an update on that, and what we 
can look forward to going forward to correct it?
    Secretary Slavonic. Senator, thank you for that question.
    As you know, right now we have approximately I believe 
9,000 unfilled seats at childcare centers. There is a shortage 
in that area from what I understand, and we are trying to go 
out into the public area and try to solicit and find areas 
where we can plug those individuals in, take care of them.
    As far as the funding, I am not sure on the funding. I 
think we do need more funding. We need to look at it. Admiral 
Nowell may have a better number for me on that to know, but I 
think we are getting closer to where we need to be.
    Senator Tillis. Admiral Nowell?
    Vice Admiral Nowell. Mr. Secretary, thank you, and 
Chairman, thank you.
    We share your concern there and we know that we recruit the 
sailor but we retain the family, and we know that childcare is 
an important part of that. We are going to add a thousand new 
spaces this year. We have budgeted for 4,000 new spaces next 
year, and as the Secretary mentioned, we are also using these 
public-private venture partnerships, things like schools with 
excess capacity where we come in and manage and get them. So we 
are going after this aggressively. But we acknowledge that we 
are not where we need to be right now.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    This will be for Mr. Slavonic and Mr. Wardynski and the 
chiefs where appropriate. You've got to give the Air Force 
credit for recently publicizing your methodology on your 
intention of moving forward with the inclusion of education and 
military spouse licensure reciprocity and the future base 
scoring process. As somebody who led the State house in North 
Carolina, I was constantly looking for ways to be as military-
friendly as possible. I think this is a great way to send the 
message that you welcome us, we may come visit you. But I do 
not think that the Navy, Marines, or Army has moved forward 
with this.
    Is it your intention to do that? When would put forward 
that kind of implementation plan?
    Secretary Wardynski. Senator, actually we are moving 
forward with that, and the schools are obviously a very 
important part of that, spouse licensure reciprocity as well. 
We have added a few other items to our consideration set, and 
our Army Analysis Agency has already begun the work of 
gathering that data, and to some degree, I think we may be 
transferring that work to West Point given the nature of it.
    Senator Tillis. Well, good. I tell you for my part--and I 
will be constantly looking at whether or not North Carolina is 
tied down and got a good story to tell there. So the sooner we 
get that out there, the sooner I will be calling the Senate 
Leader and the Speaker of the House for any deficiencies that I 
see there to make sure that we are doing the right thing down 
in North Carolina, whether it is Seymour Johnson, Lejeune, 
Cherry Point, New River, Fort Bragg, or any part in between.
    And so the Navy, Mr. Slavonic?
    Secretary Slavonic. Yes, sir. I echo the Secretary. Thank 
you for increasing the fee from $500 to $1,000. That has been 
significant. That has helped us a lot. But we are still needing 
to do more with our spouses on our licensing, and we are 
looking at it and trying to move as quickly as we can to make 
sure that we are doing what we need to do for the spouses.
    Senator Tillis. Well, I would like to, again, make sure 
that we are keeping pace. It looks like, in this particular 
case, the Air Force is a little bit ahead of the curve, but I 
cannot imagine there would be any different policy. This is 
something that should be common and shared among the service 
lines. So I look forward to prompt action on that.
    Actually this is a question again for Mr. Slavonic. I think 
the Navy's Active Duty end strength has grown from 323,600 in 
fiscal year 2015 to 340,500 in fiscal year 2020. The budget 
request has the Navy growing faster than any other service and 
requests an additional 7,300 sailors. But at the same time, we 
have lowered enlistment standards for new recruits and relaxed 
retention timelines for experienced sailors.
    I just want to get a read on this. I know the personnel 
business is a pretty complicated business, but how can you 
reassure this committee that as the Navy continues to grow, it 
will not let recruiting and retention standards slip? Or tell 
me why that is perception and not reality.
    Secretary Slavonic. So, Senator, as you know, we have a 
commitment to build a 355-plus ship Navy, and to get there, we 
must keep our attrition--our recruitment up to the level it 
needs to be to reach those goals. Admiral Nowell's team is 
doing a great job in heading that direction. Some of the 
individuals--if they decide to leave Active Duty, we are 
rolling them into the Reserves so we maintain that talent.
    But we hope that we would be able to keep that growth. I 
think this year we are going to grow 4,600, if I am not 
mistaken. I think our recruiting goal is 4,800.
    Senator Tillis. Admiral Nowell, are we lowering the bar?
    Vice Admiral Nowell. Mr. Chairman, thank you for that, and 
I assure you we are not lowering the bar, nor are we lowering 
the bar for retention.
    I will tell you--and the Secretary touched on it--Sailor 
2025, as we look at managing talent differently, as we look at 
modernizing, as we look at delivering that customer service 
going to mobile apps, going to more options, flexibility, you 
hear us talk about a detailing marketplace. That is giving us 
the highest retention that we have ever seen. We are at about 
77 percent across all zones. That is how we are doing that 
growth. We are not--not--sacrificing our standards while we do 
that, sir.
    Senator Tillis. I think that is very important. I am glad 
to hear that.
    General Rocco, Senator Gillibrand, if you would not mind, I 
just have one other question on personnel. The Commandant's 
Plan and Guidance says the current manpower system throws 
talent away at the point it is most productive and highly 
trained. How is the Marine Corps planning to revise its 
personnel policies to achieve the Commandant's manpower 
objectives?
    Lieutenant General Rocco. Chairman, thank you for that 
question.
    So in conjunction with the Commandant's Planning Guidance, 
we have implemented a few different manpower approaches. This 
is all under the umbrella of force design, which is underway 
right now, and some of the things we have looked at and we just 
instituted on the last promotion board was merit reorder. That 
is something that the other Services have done in the past. We 
have not done that, and it is basically, to put it into the 
normal vernacular, below zone promotions. It is something 
similar to that. So what we do is we look at the promotion 
grades for majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels, and we 
break out those high performers and put them at the top of the 
list, something that has not been done in the past for the 
Marine Corps, something that is new. We just did it. We are now 
looking at the analysis of these promotion boards to see if we 
want to expand it or just how effective it has been.
    The other thing we have done is we have given reenlistment 
incentives to the commanding generals out in the operation of 
the fleet Marine force. So in the past, all of the 
reenlistments would have to come to manpower. Now what we have 
given them is a percentage that they can take their high 
performing marines and they can actually reenlist them. Not 
only can they reenlist them, but they can reenlist them early, 
which again for us is--we have never done that in the past. So 
that is just a few things that we have done.
    We have also recognized the fact, specific in the 
Commandant's Planning Guidance, it is industrial-age. We want 
to move to information age. We have to modernize our manpower 
systems. The other Services have a talent management 
marketplace. We do not have that. We do not have that ability. 
We do not have that ability. We do not have the computer power 
and network to do that. We are developing that to try to come 
to something that is more a LinkedIn type approach to how we do 
manpower.
    So those are just some of the initiatives to line up with 
the Commandant's Planning Guidance.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    Senator Gillibrand?
    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    For Mr. Wardynski and General Seamands, the Army combat 
fitness test (ACFT) is set to replace the current Army physical 
fitness test beginning in October. Although I applaud the 
Army's focus on a more lethal force, I am concerned at the 
impact this test may have on recruiting and retention in the 
force, especially among specialty occupations such as doctors 
and mental health professionals. ACFT also seems to 
disproportionately affect women, especially those who have 
recently given birth. My office has heard concerns from 
officers and soldiers from all over the force about this.
    Are you worried about the impact that the ACFT will have on 
the Army's ability to recruit and retain professionals in STEM 
[science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] careers? 
Are you worried about losing servicemembers to the Air Force 
and Marines who have made significant adjustments to the 
physical standards to address similar concerns? What impact 
will ACFT have on integrating women into combat arms?
    Lieutenant General Seamands. Senator, thank you very much 
for the question.
    The six-event ACFT Army combat fitness test is in a 
diagnostic stage right now where we are gathering information. 
It's pre-decisional. No decisions have been made in terms of 
what the standards are across the board. This year in fiscal 
year 2020, the entire Army will take two PT [physical training] 
tests to establish a baseline across the board. It is much more 
challenging physical fitness test. It lines up better with 
lethality, as you stated, things like the dead lift is more 
akin to picking up a stretcher and carrying it across the 
battlefield, et cetera.
    We are concerned or are aware that you could have a 
disproportionate impact on a gender or an age because it is 
age-neutral as well. That is why I want to gather the data. 
There are no decisions that have to do with a current three-
event PT test, how to phase in the six-event PT test, what are 
the rewards and consequences because promotions and separations 
are based off it. It is a challenging test.
    But if you do not mind, Senator, my sergeant major is 
sitting behind me. Last year he had major back surgery. About 4 
months ago, we took the new PT test together and he did about a 
dozen leg tucks, which is the most challenging piece of it.
    So what we want to do is bring the test on board, allow 
people the opportunity to take the test, reduce the angst 
across the force, establish a baseline that measures fitness, 
as well as rewards those who go above and beyond.
    Senator Gillibrand. Right. But you are setting yourself up 
for failure because--I will give you a couple fact patterns. 
Imagine that you have an Army physician who has been serving 
for 15 years, has two children, fully operating in a clinical 
schedule and is otherwise stellar, in excellent physical 
condition, but cannot perform the leg tuck. You are going to 
lose all that training and all that seniority. She has not been 
asked to do it for 15 years. She is being asked to do it now.
    Second example. A woman who has to give a C-section. You 
slice every stomach muscle you have when you have a C-section. 
So the leg tucks can be really hard within 6 months of a C-
section because those muscles take at least 3 months to heal, 
and then it is going to take you months to recover the ability 
to do those physical exercises.
    So I think there is going to be a disproportionate harm on 
certain talented servicemembers that you need in STEM fields 
that have been serving for a long time and have not been forced 
to do this and you need for their missions and for what they 
actually have been trained to do, and you may have a 
disproportionate impact on women.
    We have heard anecdotally that in your tests among the 
women who have taken it in the last few, something like 84 
percent failure rate among women. So I would like to see the 
results of the fiscal year 2019 field testing if you have them 
available. But you do not want to lose people that you have 
been training and serving for years who are combat-ready and 
who do a great job. So I just would be mindful about what you 
are creating and some unintended consequences, which means you 
will lose servicemembers.
    [The information referred to follows:]

    Lieutenant General Seamands. The purpose of the fiscal year 
2019 Field Test was to validate ACFT administrative procedures 
and determine baseline levels of physical readiness in 63 
Battalions (Active, National Guard and Reserve) across the 
Army. The sample size was approximately 14,000 soldiers 
representing a wide demographic mix of soldiers. The female 
pass rate was 817 percent and the male pass rate was 81 percent 
for an overall pass rate of 72 percent. Female soldiers had the 
most difficulty with the standing power throw and the leg tuck 
and male soldiers had the most difficulty with the leg tuck.
    Soldiers, who took a practice ACFT during fiscal year 2019, 
were unfamiliar with and untrained on the ACFT test events. The 
primary objectives of the field test were to refine testing 
protocols, design grader training procedures, track testing 
times and throughput and trial different test event orders to 
set conditions for fiscal year 2020 and beyond. As units re-
focus their physical training programs, better understand the 
importance of the ACFT and become more familiar with the test 
events, soldiers will achieve success and pass the ACFT. In the 
first 5 months of fiscal year 2020 (pre-COVID), the female pass 
rate improved from 17 percent to 40 percent. These continued 
improvements reflect the start of a change in the Army's 
culture of fitness, better training programs and greater 
familiarity with the Anny Combat Fitness Test events. As the 
physical fitness levels of our soldiers continue to improve, we 
expect associated reductions in musculoskeletal injuries and 
un-programmed attrition.

    The other thing I am a little worried about is Fort Drum. 
You know the weather in Fort Drum is very harsh in the winter. 
You get about 110 inches of snow. Dan Sullivan has the same 
problem in Alaska. Are you concerned or preparing to update and 
improve their fitness facilities? Because they cannot train 
outside during the winter, and their current fitness facilities 
do not have the things you are going to need to train properly, 
particularly the drag. They do not necessarily have those 
facilities. So I would look and review that people who have 
tough conditions and cannot train outside can have access to 
inside training. You might need to update their facilities.
    Lieutenant General Seamands. Yes, ma'am. I think our 
approach is nested exactly in what you are saying. We are being 
slow. We are being deliberate. We are gathering the data before 
we make any decisions and acknowledge the weather conditions in 
a place like Fort Drum or Alaska that we need to account for.
    Senator Gillibrand. Yes, because we have heard, again 
anecdotally, that some of our servicemembers are spending 
upward of $2,000 to create their own gyms so they can be ready 
for the test. I mean, that is absurd. Providing a really state-
of-the-art gym for our servicemembers should not be that hard. 
So that is just a red flag for you.
    As you review, I would like you to give a letter to the 
committee giving us an assurance that you are not going to 
leave the female force behind and you are not going to leave 
members who have been serving for over a decade, particularly 
in STEM fields.
    Lieutenant General Seamands. Yes, ma'am. Will do.
    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you.
    Lieutenant General Seamands. I am the father of a daughter, 
a captain, who calls me on a regular basis and asks what is 
going on with the ACFT. So it is personal for me as well.
    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you. I appreciate it.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you.
    Our senior committee staff here, Al, was telling me he was 
working out recently. Maybe if we have time at the end of the 
hearing, we will see how many leg tucks he can do.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Gillibrand. Yes. I want to see how many I can do. I 
want to see if I can pass your test.
    Senator Tillis. We have got another question. I know that a 
lot of times we ask you all to focus on priorities that are 
very important, but oftentimes we fail to provide the resources 
for those priorities. So I get that you are trying to move 
things around and work with whatever authorities you have to do 
that. So take this next question in that context.
    Mr. Slavonic and General Rocco, in fiscal year 2020, the 
NDAA authorized Marine Corps' end strength of 186,200. It looks 
like you are going to miss the authorized end strength by about 
1,600 marines. The cynic would say you are missing that because 
it frees up about $150 million to be used for other items that 
may not have been directly authorized. But I am not necessarily 
cynical when it comes to the folks wearing stars on their 
shoulders.
    So I would like to, number one, understand was it just a 
miss? Was it, some would say, an intentional miss? What the 
money is going to be used for, and then, number two, like I 
said, how they were applied. Then more importantly, as we go 
into the next cycle, what should we expect in terms of end 
strength and hitting closer to the mark? General Rocco?
    Lieutenant General Rocco. Senator Tillis, sir, yes, we 
will. We are within the margins. We are not being fast and 
loose, and we do appreciate the support that we receive 
certainly from the Congress and your committee specifically.
    What we are doing is General Berger has started the force 
design, and what he is looking at is force that is a 2030 
force. So recognizing the fact that we can say now, put into 
place takes years to develop. So that is what we are looking 
at. So we are looking at basically redesigning the force to be 
that force in 2030, and this miss in end strength is really the 
first tranche of looking at divesting ourselves of legacy 
systems that we do not need and investing in systems that will 
be that 2030 force.
    Senator Tillis. Well, I think we had--I think it was the 
Army. I had a similar discussion with then-Secretary of the 
Army where we hit some end strength targets. It is just so 
important to get right so that your next estimates are taken 
seriously and fulfilled. So that is why I raised the question. 
But thank you for the answer.
    Mr. Fedrigo and General Kelly, you all have asked for new 
end strength authorization for the Space Force of 6,434 
personnel for fiscal year 2021. I do not believe the committee 
has received any specific substantiation for the request. The 
reason that is important, we are getting in the hearing cycle 
now for the markup. The sooner we get that information the 
better we can work to justify it and understand the 
justification for it. Can you give us a heads-up, number one, 
on the justification for the need just in response to the 
question? Number two, when we would see a formal communication 
of the need?
    Mr. Fedrigo. Yes, Senator. Thank you very much for that 
question.
    So the actual transfer of the manpower positions is what it 
is. This is transferring positions from the Department of the 
Air Force that were previously in the Air Force to the Space 
Force. So that 6,400 that you are talking about represents 
about 3,500 on the civilian side, about 6,400 on the military 
side. So it actually ends up to about almost 10,000 in total, 
and it includes----
    Senator Tillis. Just to clarify, would that be more or less 
a net? So what is the base that involves an organizational 
transfer, people doing similar jobs within the Space Force? 
Then what is in that incremental need?
    Mr. Fedrigo. It is basically everything that used to be the 
Air Force Space Command before. The 2020 NDAA redesignated the 
Air Force Space Command to be the United States Space Force. It 
is transferring all of those authorizations into the Space 
Force with a couple of additions.
    The additions that we asked for in end strength increase in 
fiscal year 2021. You will see an increase of 900 on the Active 
Duty side. 140 of that 900 Active Duty would go to the Space 
Force to start increasing capabilities for space operators, 
range operators, folks who will start to flush out the Space 
Force operating in a contested domain. There are also 84 
positions in there that are the beginnings of transfers from 
the Army and Navy on personnel who were working on space to 
come over into the U.S. Space Force as well.
    Senator Tillis. Good. I think that material--the sooner we 
get it to the committee to just show that you are doing the 
organizational transition, that is where the majority of the 
baseline is, and then the description of the net incremental 
resources I think will be helpful as we move forward.
    Mr. Fedrigo. It has been submitted. I think it is working 
its way through approval to get to you.
    Senator Tillis. Okay.
    Well, thank you all for being here. Any closing comments 
from anybody? Is there anything that we did not ask you that 
you want to talk about? I got all night.
    [Laughter.]
    Secretary Slavonic. Senator, I have one comment. Trying to 
help Admiral Nowell and the good work his team has done on 
implementing our MPT [manpower, personnel, and training], our 
manpower, our transition, we would appreciate any support you 
could provide. We had a mark on MP-2 which is our program which 
helps with the permeability from going from Reserves to Active 
Duty and back, and so any support we might receive from you on 
that would be most appreciated.
    Senator Tillis. Well, let us make sure we get with the 
staff and get in the office to discuss it.
    Senator Gillibrand, did you have any other questions?
    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding 
this hearing. Thank you all for your service. This is a time of 
great need for our country, and I think, as you respond to the 
needs of the coronavirus and protecting our servicemen and 
women, I would be grateful for your attention and dedication to 
keeping our force strong. Thank you.
    Senator Tillis. I want to thank you all. I hope that you 
know in these committee hearings, you can only cover so much 
material. But our office--and I am sure I speak for Senator 
Gillibrand--is wide open to any ideas or feedback particularly 
within the lanes of the Personnel and Readiness Subcommittee. 
We want to do everything we can to make your job easier so you 
can keep our men and women safer. Thank you very much.
    We will keep the record open, and we will also, without 
objection, include any outside statements received for the 
official record.
    Thank you all.
    The hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 3:55 p.m., the Subcommittee adjourned.]

                            APPENDIX

           Prepared Statement by The Military Coalition (TMC)
   uniformed services personnel, healthcare, and compensation matters
    Mr. Chairman, Madame Ranking Member, and distinguished Members of 
the Subcommittee, The Military Coalition (TMC), a consortium of 
nationally prominent uniformed services and veterans' organizations, is 
grateful to the committee for this opportunity to express our views 
concerning personnel and compensation issues affecting the uniformed 
services community. This statement provides the collective views of the 
following military and veterans' organizations, which represent 
approximately 5.5 million current and former members of the seven 
uniformed services, plus their families and survivors.
    Air Force Association
    Air Force Sergeants Association
    Association of Military Surgeons of the United States
    Association of the United States Navy
    Blinded Veterans Association
    Chief Warrant and Warrant Officer Association, U.S. Coast Guard
    Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health 
Service, Inc.
    Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the U.S.
    Fleet Reserve Association
    Gold Star Wives of America, Inc.
    Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
    Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America
    Marine Corps League
    Marine Corps Reserve Association
    Military Chaplains Association of the United States of America
    Military Officers Association of America
    Military Order of the Purple Heart
    National Guard Association of the United States
    National Military Family Association
    Naval Enlisted Reserve Association
    Non Commissioned Officers Association
    Reserve Officers Association
    Service Women's Action Network
    The Retired Enlisted Association
    Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, Inc.
    United States Army Warrant Officers Association
    United States Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association
    Veterans of Foreign Wars
    Vets First, United Spinal Association
    Wounded Warrior Project
    The Military Coalition, Inc. does not receive any grants or 
contracts from the Federal Government.
                         continuing resolutions
    TMC thanks the Subcommittee for its efforts in recent years to 
abandon arbitrary caps--culminating in the end of sequestration last 
year--in favor of a more responsible approach to funding national 
defense requirements for personnel and other critical programs. DOD is 
at a pivotal point in implementing its National Defense Strategy (NDS), 
as in 2021 it seeks to robustly fund readiness across the uniformed 
services and U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM); modernize and 
divest legacy platforms to improve force readiness; and implement 
operational reforms to enhance readiness (directed readiness, dynamic 
force employment, and immediate and contingency response forces). It is 
of paramount importance that DOD begin fiscal year 2021 with a fully 
funded budget, as it did in fiscal year 2019, versus a return to the 
use of crippling, ongoing continuing resolutions.
                        currently serving issues
Force Levels
    TMC urges the Subcommittee to sustain needed personnel strengths in 
both Active and Reserve components and to ensure associated funding for 
approved force levels to meet national security strategy requirements 
and dwell time needs. The Coalition thanks the Subcommittee for their 
attention in this area, as demonstrated in recent years.
Uniformed Services Pay Raise
    TMC appreciates the Subcommittee's commitment in recent years to 
keep uniformed services pay commensurate with service and aligned with 
private sector wage increases as determined by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics through their Employment Cost Index (ECI)--currently 3 
percent for fiscal year 2020. We request the Subcommittee's support for 
this military pay raise as submitted in the President's fiscal year 
2021 budget request. We also seek full restoration of previously capped 
pay raises resulting in a cumulative gap of 2.6 percent.
Basic Allowance for Housing
    Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is an essential component of 
regular military compensation--TMC applauds Congress' action to protect 
BAH in recent years. The Coalition urges the Subcommittee to continue 
sustaining current applicable BAH calculations for all servicemembers 
and restore BAH rates to match 100 percent of median housing costs.
Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention
    We want to thank Congress for continuing the focus on eliminating 
sexual assault and harassment. Of note in fiscal year 2020 NDAA was the 
establishment of a new Defense Advisory Committee focused on preventing 
sexual assault. TMC requests continuing congressional vigilance on 
prevention and on commensurate accountability for perpetrators. 
Finally, we would like more emphasis placed on stopping retaliation 
against those who report sexual assault or harassment.
                           retirement issues
Concurrent Receipt
    TMC supports legislation authorizing the immediate payment of full 
military retired pay and veterans' disability compensation for all 
disabled former servicemembers. Concurrent receipt refers to the 
simultaneous receipt of two types of monetary benefits: military 
retired pay and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability 
compensation. There are two types of disability payments: 1) Combat-
Related Special Compensation (CRSC) is paid to military retirees who 
have a combat-related disability and do not have their military retired 
pay reduced in order to receive VA disability compensation. 2) 
Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) military retirees with 
20 or more years of service and a 50 percent or higher service-
connected disability rating have concurrent receipt. All CRDP, 
medically retired with less 20 years of service (Chapter 61) are not 
eligible for concurrent receipt.
    The Coalition strongly supports legislation in both the House and 
Senate that expand concurrent receipt to include:
      H.R. 333, Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act;
      H.R. 303, Retired Pay Restoration Act; and
      S. 208, Retired Pay Restoration Act.
      H.R. 5995, Major Richard Star Act; and
      S. 3393 (similar bill).
    TMC urges this Subcommittee to expand concurrent receipt to CRDP 
retirees with less than 50 percent disability rating and all those 
medically retired CRDP beneficiaries with less than 20 years of service 
(Chapter 61s) who are not currently eligible for concurrent receipt. 
The Coalition is specifically concerned about the CRDP Chapter 61 
members with ratings of 50 percent or greater that do not qualify for 
concurrent receipt. Other disabled servicemembers with a 50 percent or 
greater disability rating already have concurrent receipt.
DFAS Backlog on Reserve Component Retirement Pay
    TMC is deeply concerned over the delays in processing Guardsmen and 
Reserve retired pay. These backlogs in the Services' retirement 
administration offices are leading Guard and Reserve retirees to wait 
as long as a year after reaching their qualifying year to receive 
retirement pay.
    Additional oversight by the Armed Services Committees is needed to 
ensure the Services and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service 
(DFAS) do whatever is necessary to review and improve the process for a 
timelier completion of retirement pay for Reserve component retirees.
    Allow Survivors of Retirees to Draw Full Month's Retired Pay for 
Month in Which Retirees Die
    TMC supports legislation to allow survivors a full month's pay for 
the month the retiree dies. Currently DFAS recovers the paid retirement 
annuity in the month the retiree died and later pays a final settlement 
for the number of days in the same month the retiree was alive. This 
often creates hardships for survivors who must wait several months for 
the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) benefits to be started by DFAS. This is 
why TMC supports the ``Military Retiree Survivor Comfort Act'' (H.R. 
463) which would authorize the retention of the full final month's 
retired pay by the surviving spouse (or other designated survivor) for 
the month in which the member was alive for at least 24 hours.
Reform the Military Retirement System
    TMC believes that the Blended Retirement System (BRS) needs to be 
improved with the following provisions:
      Increase the government matching contribution from 4 
percent to 5 percent (as originally recommended by the Military 
Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission);
      Extend the period of government matching contribution 
from 26 years to include all years of service for all eligible 
servicemembers; and
      Oppose any delay in the start of matching contributions 
(currently, matching will begin after two years of service).
    TMC urges the Subcommittee to engage in oversight of the 
administration of the BRS.
      Ensure the Defense Department (DOD) provides a high-
quality education program that assists members under the new system in 
developing prudent investment strategies: Military spouses should be 
included as fully as possible in the BRS education program. Statistics 
show over 90 percent of household finances in a military family are 
managed by the spouse.
      Ensure the financial impact on servicemembers and their 
families under BRS is understood: Understanding of the BRS remains low. 
Per a recent survey taken by Blue Star Families, the majority (51 
percent) of those servicemembers and spouses who indicated they were 
eligible for the new BRS say they do not understand it and 42 percent 
indicated they did not know how the new system works compared to the 
old.
      Ensure the calculations used to determine lump-sum 
payment options for newly eligible retirees under the blended system 
reflect reasonable discount rates that do not disproportionately erode 
their retired pay value: In this regard, the Coalition notes a 
significant number of actuaries have expressed concern the planned 
discount rate will result in substantially devalued lump sum payments 
to future retiring servicemembers.
Retired Pay Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA)
    TMC urges the Subcommittee to oppose the adoption of a chained 
Consumer Price Index (C-CPI) computation or any other COLA reductions 
which would devalue retired pay, survivor benefits, disability 
compensation, and other programs over time.
Reduced Retirement Age for Guard and Reserve Personnel
    TMC supports legislation that recognizes the service and sacrifice 
of Reserve component members, by authorizing early retirement credit 
for all Active Duty service by all Guard and Reserve members since 
September 11, 2001.
                           guard and reserve
    The National Guard and Reserve are regularly being used for 
operational missions making them more than just a strategic asset. As 
of February 2020, more than 1,000,000 men and women of the Reserve and 
National Guard have been activated in support of the Nation's war on 
terror since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the 
Pentagon. Since 2015, a RAND report showed the Reserve component (RC) 
provided 25 percent of military support to Iraq and Afghanistan. As 
impressive as this milestone is for a part-time force, it does not 
include all the operational support they have provided beyond 
deployments. For example, in 2019, ``In addition to around 20,000 
Guardsmen and women mobilized around the world, on average, about 8,000 
Guard Soldiers and Airmen conduct domestic and homeland security/
defense operations in the United States on any given day.''
    Not only does the Reserve component provide the Nation with a 
ready, surge force, but they do so at a reduced cost. The Reserve 
Forces Policy Board is keenly aware of the value of the National Guard 
and Reserve and work to preserve their value. They recently observed 
the RC has been able to maintain that, `` . . . when not activated, 
[cost] remains less than one third that of their AC counterpart. 
According to RFPB analysis of the fiscal year 2018 budget request [ . . 
. ] the RC per capita cost ranges from 28 percent to 32 percent of 
their AC counterparts' per capita costs, depending on which cost 
elements are included.'' If the cost of activations were included, 
overall the RC would still be less than the Active component because 
they are only put on orders when needed. For legislative decisions and 
audit purposes, Congress should require the use of fully burdened and 
life cycle personnel costs for all components.
    Besides costing 28 percent to 32 percent of their Active 
counterparts' per capita costs they provide 100 percent of mission 
responsibility in many areas, such as the Air Force Reserve hurricane 
and weather reconnaissance, aerial firefighting, and aerial spray 
missions and the Navy Reserve organic intra-theater air logistics 
support. The Air National Guard provides 100 percent of air defense 
interceptor force for the continental United States and the Army 
Reserve provides 100 percent of chemical and internment brigade 
missions along with many others.
    TMC believes the following legislative goals would support 
recruiting and retention:
Special Incentive Pay Parity
    Provide parity for the Reserve component to align with the Active 
component in special incentive pay, including career enlisted/officer 
special aviation incentive pays, diving special duty pay, and pro-pay 
for medical professionals regardless of Reserve component duty status.
National Guard Reserve Equipment Accounts (NGREA) Funding
    Continue funding National Guard Reserve Equipment Accounts (NGREA) 
in the base budget to ensure that the Reserve component can maintain 
strategic and operational roles. TMC appreciates the continued support 
of Congress when they fund the NGREA, but this year we are asking to 
include language that prevents reprogramming of the fund for any 
requirement outside of Reserve component equipment.
USPHS Commissioned Corps
    Fund and implement a Ready Reserve component within the USPHS 
[United States Public Health Service] Commissioned Corps. The recent 
flu season and worldwide spread of the coronavirus show more than ever 
how important it is to support a USPHS Ready Reserve. TMC also believes 
there will be a title 10 role for this force as DOD continues to make 
changes under the Defense Health Agency (DHA).
                            survivor issues
Survivor Benefit Plan Open Enrollment
    After almost two decades of advocacy, we are gratified Congress 
finally eliminated the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) 
offset to the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP).
    When the Social Security offset to the SBP was eliminated in the 
fiscal year 2005 NDAA, Congress provided for a one-year open enrollment 
for those who opted out of the SBP. Since 1980, there have been six 
open enrollment opportunities. Now that the SBP/DIC offset has been 
eliminated, we ask Congress to authorize an open enrollment period once 
again.
Access to Electronic Medical Appointing, Referrals and Prescription 
        Refills
    In addition to losing financial benefits, ID cards, and TRICARE for 
themselves, remarried surviving military spouses lose access to the 
TRICARE Beneficiary Self-Service Account that allows them to access 
referrals and check the status of referrals for their TRICARE-eligible 
children. Instead, referrals must be physically mailed delaying in many 
cases, treatment. In addition, they no longer have access to Relay 
Health which facilitates communication, prescription refills, and 
appointments online. Minor children do not have their own accounts: 
they are under their parents' account. If the parent is no longer in 
the system under TRICARE the remaining parent cannot access the 
electronic means for referrals, prescription refills, and online 
appointments.

        ``I truly just want electronic access to her referrals so I can 
        set up appointments for specialty doctors and equipment like 
        her insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (both of which 
        took over a month to get a paper copy to send and get these 
        lifesaving things ordered even though the referral was approved 
        in days). That should not be too much to ask as I am their ONLY 
        living parent. It shouldn't matter if I'm remarried or not, I 
        am still the ONLY living parent that these children have 
        left.''
                    Kaanan, remarried surviving spouse
Increase Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC)
    We recognize that the DIC is not in the purview of the Armed 
Services Committee, but we would be remiss if we didn't go on the 
record for an increase in DIC. Since 1993, surviving spouses are 
falling further and further behind in meeting their financial 
obligations from month-to-month. Many surviving spouses of World War II 
(WWII), Korea, and Vietnam are receiving only DIC. These DIC recipients 
struggle monthly with their budget of $1,340.14 juggling bills to meet 
the rising costs in health and dental insurance, housing, utilities, 
food, clothing, and other living expenses. Some receive DIC and minimum 
Social Security benefits. The struggle to meet financial obligations 
leads too often to homelessness. Congress must take action to rectify 
this inequity by increasing the current amount of DIC to a level 
comparable to other Federal employees. Widows from WWII, Korea, and 
Vietnam are now in their 60's through 90's. These surviving spouses are 
in dire need for an increase in DIC. We support S. 1047 and H.R. 3221 
to increase DIC from 43 percent ($1,340.14), to 55 percent.
                           military families
Child Care
    DOD has long recognized the importance of high-quality and 
affordable child care for servicemembers and their families. While we 
understand child care challenges are a national issue, ensuring access 
to affordable and quality child care for military families is a key 
element in ensuring readiness of the force.
    Despite previous action taken by Congress and DOD to address child 
care challenges that military families face, we continue to hear 
reports of long waitlists in some locations as well as trouble finding 
eligible providers within DOD's fee assistance program due to strict 
standards for these providers to participate in the program. We 
encourage DOD to explore ways to increase participation in the program, 
expanding options for military families to secure child care within 
their communities. We also encourage Congress and the DOD to pursue 
flexible spending accounts (FSA) for servicemembers to use pre-tax 
dollars to pay for dependent care and health care expenses. In 
addition, Family Child Care (FCC) program participation on 
installations has declined over the years. FCC home providers receive 
the same level of training and screening as CDC employees, but many 
times offer flexibility that CDCs may not be able to offer military 
families. We encourage DOD to reevaluate the FCC program and determine 
ways to improve and incentivize participation.
Military Privatized Housing
    Last year we heard numerous stories from military families who have 
endured deplorable conditions within military privatized housing, 
including rampant mold and vegetation growth in walls, bathrooms 
fixtures, carpets, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning 
systems, infestations of vermin, among other inexcusable situations.
    We are thankful Congress has taken the first steps to address the 
situation within the fiscal year 2020 NDAA, including the formation of 
a Tenant Bill of Rights, prohibition of non-disclosure agreements, and 
the establishment of a uniform code of basic housing standards for 
safety, comfort, and habitability. We urge Congress to ensure the 
Services move forward with improved oversight and management of the 
contractors and housing officials responsible for conditions which 
continue to affect the health, safety and wellbeing of servicemembers 
and their families. We also call on Congress to address the short- and 
long-term health effects of military families who have lived in 
privatized housing by creating a registry to track illnesses sustained.
    We also urge similar attention and focus be placed on remaining 
installation buildings and barracks, to ensure the safety of personnel 
living and working in them.
Food Insecurity
    It's no secret that many junior military families tend to struggle 
to make ends meet and put healthy food on the table. While some 
military families may qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance 
Program (SNAP), many more families don't qualify for assistance due to 
the inclusion of BAH as part of income calculations. \1\ Military 
families, especially those living in high cost of living areas, often 
struggle to cover housing costs as BAH is now set to cover only 95 
percent of those costs. Additionally, Congress has restructured the 
retirement system, which necessitates servicemembers contribute a 
percentage of their basic pay to receive a matching contribution from 
DOD. Other contributing factors that cause servicemembers to struggle 
include costs related to frequent moves and a stagnant 24 percent 
unemployment rate among military spouses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ ``Military Personnel: DOD Needs More Complete Data on Active 
Duty servicemembers' Use of Food Assistance Programs''. GAO. July 15, 
2016. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-16-561
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    For these reasons, we ask Congress to institute the military family 
basic needs allowance (BNA) which would provide targeted assistance for 
those in need. To qualify for BNA, a servicemember's basic pay, in 
addition to his/her household size, would have to meet a minimum level 
of 130 percent of the Federal poverty threshold. Providing the 
servicemember reports no additional income, the amount of BNA would be 
the difference between income and the established poverty threshold. 
Instituting a BNA for military families who meet this threshold would 
ensure mission readiness and encourage retention of first-term 
servicemembers who often struggle to put food on the table.
                          military health care
    TMC understands the goal of the military health system (MHS) is to 
ensure a medically ready force to execute the NDS, and a ready medical 
force to support our Armed Forces throughout the world. Additionally, 
we appreciate the goals of MHS reform include improved readiness, 
increased efficiencies, and enhanced access, quality of care and an 
improved patient experience for beneficiaries. However, we remain 
concerned that some MHS reform initiatives have the potential to 
undermine these goals.
MHS Reform--Direct Care System Realignment/Rightsizing
    The recently released section 703 of the NDAA for fiscal year 2017 
report to Congress outlines DOD's plans to restructure or realign 
military treatment facilities (MTFs). While we appreciate assurances 
that DOD is committed to a deliberate process with no immediate 
changes, we fear some beneficiaries may encounter access challenges 
when seeking civilian care despite DOD's best efforts to ensure 
adequate medical capacity in communities surrounding downsized MTFs. 
There are many variables impacting access to care and the report 
acknowledges numerous limitations to their assessments including the 
point-in-time nature of their analysis, the inability to determine 
actual capacity for new patients, provider willingness to access 
TRICARE patients, and shifting micro- and macroeconomic factors.
    The section 703 report left many questions unanswered and deferred 
numerous legislative report requirements to a follow-on implementation 
plan. We urge Congress to ensure the following questions are answered 
by DOD's detailed implementation plans:
      What is the process for ensuring a by name provider with 
appointment availability for every disempaneled beneficiary?
      How will medically complex beneficiaries, or those with 
on-going treatment plans, be transitioned to civilian providers? What 
are the staffing requirements for these additional case management 
needs?
      What are the plans for maintenance and update of health 
records during transition from MTFs to the civilian network and 
possible subsequent return to the direct care system upon geographic 
move or PCS?
      How will impacted graduate medical education (GME) 
programs and residency programs be relocated?
      How will health care for female servicemembers be 
impacted by MTF service reductions?
      What are the costs of restructuring/realignment?
      What are the planned changes to military and civilian 
personnel assigned to each facility?
      What are the timelines for restructuring/realignment?
      What are plans to assist servicemembers and covered 
beneficiaries with travel and lodging, if necessary, in connect with 
the receipt of specialty care services at regional centers of 
excellence?
    MTF pharmacies play a critical role for many beneficiaries, 
including those not enrolled at MTFs. From the section 703 report, it 
is unclear how pharmacies will be impacted. TMC has the following 
concerns about pharmacy services at impacted MTFs:
      Will pharmacies at downsized facilities be staffed to 
handle all eligible beneficiaries, not just those enrolled at the MTF?
      Will formularies be reduced to meet the needs of only the 
smaller enrolled population?
      The section 703 report says pharmacies will be accessible 
to ``MTF eligibles.'' How is that term defined?
      For beneficiaries disempaneled from MTFs, will their 
civilian providers have the option of prescribing to the MTF pharmacy?
    Before any MTFs are converted to Active Duty only, we urge Congress 
to require a study on the impact to female servicemember health care. 
Almost 85 percent of patients at Active Duty-only MTFs will be male and 
the volume of female-specific healthcare provided will tumble as 
dependents leave the system. Will MTFs retain enough volume of female-
specific services to maintain a cadre of credentialed providers to meet 
the needs of Active Duty women for OB/GYN care, mammogram services, 
treatment of female specific cancers, newborn care, etc.? If not, the 
study should determine: 1) Projected lost time for Active Duty women if 
they must obtain these services from the civilian community; 2) Newborn 
care for infants of Active Duty women; 3) Impact on medical readiness 
of Active Duty women.
    TMC also remains concerned regarding DOD plans to decrease the 
military medical force by nearly 18,000 positions, a reduction of 
almost 18 percent. If not carefully and methodically implemented, this 
reduction could place combat readiness, medical readiness, and 
beneficiary care at risk.
    While we have been told the smaller uniformed medical force can 
meet operational requirements, TMC fears second and third order effects 
of billet reductions have not been addressed. A diminished medical 
force would mean more frequent and unpredictable deployments for 
medical personnel resulting in reduced overseas dwell ratios, which 
would negatively impact retention in critical medical skills areas. 
Surge capacity, the ability to surge medical care in the event of a 
major crisis or conflict, could be compromised with a reduced medical 
force. Additionally, the priority to resource combat care is 
understandable, but most of the medical cases, even in combat zones, 
are from disease and non-battle injuries.
MHS Reform--Transition of MTFs to DHA Administration & Management
    With DHA now handling administration and management of U.S. MTFs, 
there has been a move to greater policy standardization and compliance 
across the system. While TMC supports the goal of standardization, we 
are already hearing from beneficiaries regarding poor communication and 
insufficient lead time for providers and patients to adapt to policy 
changes. We urge Congress to conduct oversight on this transition and 
take steps to proactively identify systemic transition-related 
problems, specifically:
      Require DHA reporting on access to care metrics at the 
MTF level together with referral data for time periods when MTF access 
standards were not met (to ensure beneficiaries are being referred out 
vs. denied care) and plans for addressing persistent failure to meet 
TRICARE Prime access standards.
      Establish and widely promote an online problem reporting 
system. Evaluate DOD's Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) system as 
a possible platform for collecting patient feedback. Require problems 
to be reported to DHA for analysis and identification of systemic 
issues.
MHS Reform--TRICARE
  Out-of-Pocket Costs
    TMC remains committed to protecting the value of the TRICARE health 
benefit. We are disappointed TRICARE reforms to date have focused on 
shifting costs to beneficiaries via increased copays and enrollment 
fees and seek to have disproportionate fee increases rolled back.
    We are particularly concerned with copays for mental health 
outpatient visits, as well as physical, speech, and occupational 
therapy that are categorized as specialty care. This results in copays 
that are excessively high for relatively low-cost visits. Additionally, 
a course of treatment involving multiple visits can result in 
substantial out-of-pocket costs over a relatively short timeframe. We 
urge Congress to reduce copays for mental health visits and physical, 
speech, and occupational therapy. We also ask Congress and DOD to limit 
any future TRICARE out-of-pocket costs increases to modest and 
predictable indexing that does not outpace the growth of retiree COLA 
and does not include new enrollment fees or other new out-of-pocket 
costs.
  TRICARE T-5 Contract
    TMC appreciates MHS reform goals of greater beneficiary choice and 
an enhanced focus on high quality care within the TRICARE networks. 
However, we fear simultaneously increasing demand for care in the 
TRICARE network (by transitioning patients out of realigned MTFs) while 
also changing the supply of TRICARE providers via major changes to the 
TRICARE regions and contracts could lead to provider and appointment 
shortages.
    We also believe it is important to analyze value-based care pilots, 
such as the Atlanta Kaiser Permanente test, in order to incorporate 
lessons learned into the next generation of TRICARE contracts.
    We urge Congress to ensure the T-5 timeline allows for an adequate 
assessment of potential changes to TRICARE network care demand due to 
MTF restructuring as well as incorporating lessons learned from value-
based care pilots before expanding that concept across the purchased 
care system.
  TRICARE Annual Open Enrollment Policy
    We remain concerned about the potential of TRICARE's new annual 
open enrollment policy to prevent TRICARE Prime families from leaving 
MTFs that don't meet their needs. We realize the annual open enrollment 
period is a feature of civilian plans, and generally have no issues 
with this new requirement. However, TRICARE Prime's reliance on 
military hospitals and clinics creates a situation unique to the 
military and demands a policy tailored to the MHS. While an annual 
enrollment period is not unreasonable, preventing military families 
from leaving their MTF if they experience problems with appointment 
access or quality of care is unreasonable. We request that 
``dissatisfaction with MTF access or quality of care'' be added to the 
list of Qualifying Life Events (QLEs) to allow TRICARE Prime 
beneficiaries to leave MTFs that do not meet their needs.
  TRICARE Coverage Updates
    As MHS reform results in more beneficiaries transitioning to 
civilian care, it is critical that TRICARE's coverage gaps are 
addressed. We appreciate updated TRICARE policy for continuous glucose 
monitoring that is now consistent with VA and Medicare coverage. We 
urge DHA and Congress to update TRICARE reimbursement policies to cover 
additional technology innovations and evolving treatment protocols 
including non-pharmaceutical pain management (chiropractic care and 
acupuncture), FeNO [fractional exhaled nitric oxide] testing for airway 
issues and asthma, and lab developed tests including diagnostic genetic 
testing.
  Reserve Component/TRICARE Reserve Select
    TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS) has been around for over a decade. 
However, Federal employees have been specifically restricted from 
participating. There are over 113,000 eligible reservists who are 
Federal employees. Included in this number are Army and Air Guard and 
Reserve military technicians. In the fiscal year 2020 NDAA this cohort 
will see the restriction lifted but not until 2030. We ask that the 
necessary cost offset be identified to move the implementation date 
from 2030 to 2021 or 2022.
                             defense resale
    We want to thank Congress for its continued vigilance over 
commissary and broader defense resale reforms, and specifically for 
language in fiscal year 2020 NDAA mandating further review of DOD's 
resale consolidation business case analysis prior to implementation of 
planned changes.
    TMC supports reforms that protect the commissary benefit, the 
longevity of the defense resale system, its dividends for MWR, savings 
for patrons, customer satisfaction, and product quality. However, these 
represent an intricate ``ecosystem'' of important earned benefits, and 
reforms must be carefully implemented.
    We ask Congress for continued vigilance and appropriated funding to 
support reforms in defense resale while increasing performance and 
patronage, and to ensure any efficiencies gained are used to improve 
vital military resale benefits, and all other important programs, 
dependent on their success, ensuring any modernization efforts of the 
commissary and exchange systems in no way degrades the earned benefit.
                                summary
    The Military Coalition again thanks the Subcommittee for your 
unfailing support of the entire uniformed service community and for 
taking our concerns and priorities into consideration as you deliberate 
on the future of the one weapon system that has never let our Nation 
down--the men and women who wear and have worn the uniform and their 
families.

                               [all]