[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.
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\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
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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]