[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


.                                     
                         [H.A.S.C. No. 117-62]

                       MILITARY PERSONNEL TALENT

                      MANAGEMENT MODERNIZATION AND 
                      THE EFFECTS OF LEGACY POLICIES

                               __________

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                   SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                              HEARING HELD

                            FEBRUARY 8, 2022

                                     
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 

                              __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
50-334                     WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     

                   SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

                 JACKIE SPEIER, California, Chairwoman

ANDY KIM, New Jersey                 MIKE GALLAGHER, Wisconsin
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania       STEPHANIE I. BICE, Oklahoma
VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas, Vice Chair  LISA C. McCLAIN, Michigan
SARA JACOBS, California              RONNY JACKSON, Texas
MARILYN STRICKLAND, Washington       JERRY L. CARL, Alabama
MARC A. VEASEY, Texas                PAT FALLON, Texas

               Dave Giachetti, Professional Staff Member
                 Glen Diehl, Professional Staff Member
                           Sidney Faix, Clerk
                            
                            
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

              STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

Gallagher, Hon. Mike, a Representative from Wisconsin, Ranking 
  Member, Subcommittee on Military Personnel.....................     2
Speier, Hon. Jackie, a Representative from California, 
  Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Military Personnel.................     1

                               WITNESSES

Brito, LTG Gary M., USA, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, U.S. Army...     4
Kelly, Lt Gen Brian T., USAF, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, 
  Personnel, and Services, U.S. Air Force........................     6
Mulcahy, Patricia, Deputy Chief of Space Operations for 
  Personnel, U.S. Space Force....................................     9
Nowell, VADM John B., Jr., USN, Chief of Naval Personnel, U.S. 
  Navy...........................................................     5
Ottignon, LtGen David A., USMC, Deputy Commandant, Manpower and 
  Reserve Affairs, U.S. Marine Corps.............................     8

                                APPENDIX

Prepared Statements:

    Brito, LTG Gary M............................................    41
    Kelly, Lt Gen Brian T........................................    68
    Mulcahy, Patricia............................................    91
    Nowell, VADM John B., Jr.....................................    52
    Ottignon, LtGen David A......................................    77
    Speier, Hon. Jackie..........................................    39

Documents Submitted for the Record:

    American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, 
      Statement for the Record...................................   101

Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:

    Ms. Escobar..................................................   109
    Dr. Jackson..................................................   109
    Ms. Speier...................................................   109

Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:

    Ms. Houlahan.................................................   118
    Ms. Jacobs...................................................   139
    Mr. Kim......................................................   144
    Ms. Speier...................................................   113
                  
                  
                  
                  MILITARY PERSONNEL TALENT MANAGEMENT

                    MODERNIZATION AND THE EFFECTS OF

                            LEGACY POLICIES

                              ----------                              

                  House of Representatives,
                       Committee on Armed Services,
                        Subcommittee on Military Personnel,
                         Washington, DC, Tuesday, February 8, 2022.
    The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:10 p.m., via 
Webex, Hon. Jackie Speier (chairwoman of the subcommittee) 
presiding.

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

    Ms. Speier. The Military Personnel Subcommittee will come 
to order.
    I want to welcome everyone to our subcommittee hearing on 
service member talent management and the effects of legacy 
personnel policies--on military members and their families--
from the service personnel chiefs. Talent management, officer 
or enlisted, is at the core of almost all military personnel 
policy, from promotions, to change of station, to childcare and 
spouse employment, and how these policies affect these issues, 
the service member, and their family for their entire career. 
It is the center of everything you do.
    Today I want to explore a wide range of policies, 
especially how your talent management programs have considered 
not just the service member but their family, and how career 
progression decisions are impacted by these policies.
    Service members and military families have personal needs, 
and when the military services fail to consider those needs as 
part of assignments and moves, we pay for it with lower morale, 
lower retention, and even suicides. It goes without saying that 
the high cost of recruiting, training, and developing 
replacements--and some personnel with critical skills are very 
hard to replace. Service culture has driven career management 
for too long to the detriment of talent retention and 
diversity, whether racial, gender, or geographic, in many 
cases.
    Congress has given you extensive statutory flexibilities to 
manage personnel through the NDAA [National Defense 
Authorization Act] over the last several years. We want to hear 
what you have done to implement these authorities, to change 
the longstanding service cultural barriers, and box-checking 
requirements for career management.
    We hear a lot of lip service about recruiting the service 
member but retaining the family. I believe we have and still 
are leaving the family behind. The total person who importantly 
includes the family needs to be considered in development and 
execution of all of these policies, not as an afterthought. 
Many policies continue to be Industrial Age remnants, including 
moving from place to place at a cost of about $8 billion a 
year, which may be part of the career development or necessary 
for rotation from overseas, but it is a prime legacy policy 
that contributes to a military spouse unemployment rate that is 
24 percent according to the GAO [Government Accountability 
Office].
    PCS [permanent change of station] moves are incredibly 
disruptive and have received little attention until now. For 
example, now that remote meetings and learning are commonplace, 
why are we requiring families to move or separating families 
for 6 months or a year for professional military education? 
Have the services considered changes as it relates to longer 
times in the same place for those that may benefit from or even 
prefer some stability for themselves or their families, even if 
that comes with a perceived career setback?
    The Marine Corps 2030 Talent Management Plan specifically 
proposes lengthening the time between moves to reduce 
disruption for military families. This disruption in particular 
leads to financial hardship, loss of jobs for spouses, 
scrambling for or a lack of childcare availability, instability 
for school-age children, and especially so for children in the 
Exceptional Family Member Program for whom parents must fight 
school districts after every move to obtain appropriate 
educational services for their child with special needs, and an 
incredible cost to the services. Is it really worth it in its 
current form?
    Lack of racial, geographic, and talent diversity have been 
longstanding problems in the services, especially in the 
officer corps and especially in fields like aviation and combat 
arms that lead to higher commands. We want to learn what has 
been done with regard to actual personnel policy changes to 
address lack of diversity.
    We also want to know how these real needs and challenges of 
service members, their families, and the service requirements 
themselves can be dealt with in a system rooted and largely 
stuck in the past that cannot keep up with the speed of 
societal or technological change.
    All of the services operate personnel commands. But do 
these organizations have meaningful ways to accept input from 
and meet the preferences of service members, both officers and 
enlisted? Or are they really just putting faces in spaces 
without regard to the real impact on people and families?
    Okay. Before hearing from our briefers, let me offer 
Ranking Member Gallagher an opportunity to make opening 
remarks.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Speier can be found in the 
Appendix on page 39.]

    STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE GALLAGHER, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM 
 WISCONSIN, RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

    Mr. Gallagher. Thank you, Chairwoman Speier.
    I want to thank all our witnesses for being here today.
    Talent management in the services is an extraordinarily 
important topic for this committee, for the broader committee. 
In fact, I can't think of a more important topic. You know, a 
lot of times on this committee we tend to focus on the fancy 
hardware, the ships, the planes, the guns, the bombs. But at 
the end of the day, it all comes down to people. It is whether 
we can recruit and retain talented, smart, highly ethical 
people to defend this country. And so thank you for your 
service and your commitment to solving that very difficult 
problem.
    And I think, as we think about the threats we face from 
China, Russia, or emerging--or, you know, Iran or other 
emerging threats, the constant in all of this is that we need 
to have warriors in our military with the moral conviction, the 
physical constitution, and the character to defeat our 
adversaries.
    I look at talent management as critical to success in the 
multidomain battle space. We need people with the right skills, 
knowledge, the abilities, the ability to embrace the warrior 
ethos.
    And, as service personnel chiefs, you and your staffs play 
an integral component in the success of our military.
    So for me personally, one of the interest areas in today's 
hearing is understanding your service definition of talent 
management, how that is woven into the fabric of your 
organization, how you think about investing in the right 
people, which I think may be the single most important factor 
in any organization's success. The strength of the joint force, 
in my opinion, ultimately relies upon the strength of our 
broader society. And talent management should target the best 
and the brightest to serve our Nation, regardless of 
socioeconomic status, race, color, or creed. How do we reach 
that person that has not yet been exposed to the military but 
has the talent to serve? In my own case, not coming from a 
military family, it almost happened by happenstance based on 
something I started studying in college.
    I think another integral component of talent management is 
promotion and retention. I believe our military is and should 
be a meritocracy. We should promote individuals that are most 
deserving and exemplify the warrior ethos. However, my concern 
is ensuring DOD [U.S. Department of Defense] has the tools 
needed to proactively retain and promote the talent required to 
defeat our adversaries, as well as sort of the niche 
specialized talents we are going to need to win a long-term 
competition with China, whether that is a greater cadre of 
Mandarin linguists or people that have facility in certain 
technological areas like quantum or AI [artificial 
intelligence].
    So there is a lot to dig into today. I am very much looking 
forward to it.
    And, with that, I yield back to the chairwoman.
    Ms. Speier. I thank the ranking member.
    I ask unanimous consent to include in the record all member 
statements and extraneous material.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    I would now like to welcome our distinguished witnesses. 
Lieutenant General Gary Brito, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, for 
the U.S. Army; Vice Admiral John Nowell, Jr., Chief of Navy 
Personnel; Lieutenant General Brian Kelly, Deputy Chief of 
Staff for Manpower, Personnel, and Services, U.S. Air Force; 
Lieutenant General David Ottignon, Deputy Commandant, Manpower 
and Reserve Affairs, U.S. Marine Corps; and Ms. Patricia 
Mulcahy, SES [Senior Executive Service], Deputy Chief of Space 
Operations for Personnel at the U.S. Space Force.
    Each member will have an opportunity to question the 
briefers for 5 minutes following their statements.
    And, with that, let's begin with Lieutenant General Brito. 
You may begin.

 STATEMENT OF LTG GARY M. BRITO, USA, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, G-
                          1, U.S. ARMY

    General Brito. Good afternoon.
    Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Gallagher, distinguished 
members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to 
appear before you on behalf of the men and women of the United 
States Army. The Army's number one priority remains our people: 
soldiers, Army civilians, families, and veterans. All of our 
Army's personnel programs and initiatives are focused on taking 
care of our people with dignity and respect and building a 
culture of trust and cohesion.
    We continue to focus on the Army People Strategy's mission 
and vision to acquire, develop, employ, and retain the very 
best talent, uniform and civilian alike.
    One of the critical enablers from the Army People Strategy 
is our Army's 21st century talent management system, which we 
are continuing to build and refine today. Today I would like to 
give you an update on the Army's talent management initiatives.
    Personnel readiness is critical to Army readiness. New 
technology, programs, policy, innovation, and management models 
are transforming the Army's personnel systems and will provide 
our soldiers and civilians with more opportunities to excel and 
improve our ability to compete for and retain talent.
    The Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, also known as 
IPPS-A, is the number one human resource modernization effort 
for the Total Army. IPPS-A is the Army's new web-based HR 
[human resources] system, which, when fully deployed, will 
deliver a single comprehensive data-rich HR and talent 
management system to the Total Force.
    The Army Talent Attribute Framework, or ATAF, and the Army 
Talent Alignment Process collectively is a decentralized, 
regulated, market-style hiring system that aligns officers and 
noncommissioned officers in some cases with jobs based on their 
preferences and the talents needed by commanders in the field 
for specific jobs. This talent marketplace gives leaders more 
flexibility to build a team of individuals with the needed 
skills, talents, and experience they need. It also gives 
individuals more control over their assignments and their 
career path.
    A similar process called the Assignment Satisfaction Key-
Enlisted Model, ASK-EM, and other processes are in place for 
our senior noncommissioned officers. The Command Assessment 
Program continues to improve the Army's ability to select 
leaders at the battalion and brigade levels who are more 
cognitively capable; better communicators, both oral and 
written; more physically fit; more self-aware; and less likely 
to exhibit counterproductive or ineffective leadership traits.
    Initiatives such as direct commissions, brevet promotions, 
and the options for individual service members to have more 
control over when they are considered for promotion, continue 
to help the Army fill critical shortages in technical fields 
and also gives individuals more flexibility on their career 
paths.
    Talent-based branching for Army ROTC [Reserve Officers' 
Training Corps] and the United States Military Academy combines 
talent assessments, coaching, resumes, interviews, and 
selection panels to put these new officers in the right branch 
at the start of their careers.
    The Army also continues to build initiatives to acquire and 
retain civilian talent. The use of direct hiring authority for 
students and recent graduates allows the Army to expeditiously 
compete for new talent entering the workforce. And also, the 
Army has established the Army Career Civilian Management 
Activity, the first ever organization specifically designated 
to provide centralized career management services for our 
treasured Army civilians.
    Lastly, we recognize that talent management is more than 
just acquiring, developing, and distribution. We fully 
recognize a connection to our Army families. The Army will keep 
a keen eye on the impacts of PCS moves, quality-of-life 
efforts, employment opportunities, and more as the Army 
maintains its combat readiness.
    Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Gallagher, members of 
this committee, I thank you for your generous and unwavering 
support of our outstanding soldiers, civilian professionals, 
and their families. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of General Brito can be found in 
the Appendix on page 41.]
    Ms. Speier. Thank you, General.
    Admiral Nowell.

  STATEMENT OF VADM JOHN B. NOWELL, JR., USN, CHIEF OF NAVAL 
                      PERSONNEL, U.S. NAVY

    Admiral Nowell. Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member 
Gallagher, and distinguished subcommittee members, thank you 
for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the 
Navy's military personnel talent management modernization 
initiatives. The service and sacrifice of our sailors and their 
families amidst the challenges of a global pandemic has enabled 
our Navy to project power around the globe and accomplish our 
worldwide missions. We are leveraging our asymmetric advantage: 
our people.
    As part of Sailor 2025, we continue to modernize talent 
management programs, training systems, and recruiting 
platforms. We are transforming internal business processes to 
improve HR service delivery to our sailors, increase agility, 
accelerate responsiveness, and reduce calls. Thanks to the 
continued support of Congress in fully funding our MyNavy HR 
transformation programs, our efforts have allowed us to 
simplify and streamline personnel and pay services for sailors 
across the fleet.
    We continue to leverage our large-scale digital recruiting 
presence through our Forged By the Sea marketing and 
advertising strategy, which allows us to reach all ZIP Codes to 
access previously undiscovered talent. In 2017, 34 percent of 
our marketing and advertising was digital; today nearly 100 
percent.
    We realize that PCS moves and job changes continue to 
factor significantly in sailor and family retention decisions. 
In response, over the past 5 years, the Navy has focused on 
improving geographic stability, and currently more than 75,000 
sailors have been at the same duty location for at least 3 
years with over 42,000 of those sailors and their families 
stable for 4 or more years. We also announced recently our new 
Detailing Marketplace Assignment Policy, which will provide 
additional opportunities for improving geographic stability for 
sailors electing to stay at sea beginning next month.
    Continuous learning also remains a key warfighting enabler, 
and Navy is committed to investing in education for our current 
and future leaders. This past year, the United States Naval 
Community College successfully completed its first pilot course 
offerings with nearly 600 students across the sea services 
completing courses across operationally relevant concentration 
areas, and we thank Congress for the degree-granting authority 
that was included in fiscal year 2022 NDAA.
    Additionally, we continue to develop our talent through 
Ready Relevant Learning, a career-long learning continuum, 
transforming an Industrial Age training model into a modern 
responsive system.
    Our Navy remains committed to attracting, developing, and 
inspiring America's finest talent so that we can best protect 
and defend our American way of life. We appreciate all of your 
support, and as CNO [Chief of Naval Operations] discussed last 
month, though, every day matters in this critical decade, and a 
yearlong continuing resolution will degrade our warfighting 
capability and would have significant impacts on fulfilling our 
commitments to our sailors and families.
    Like you, I remain inspired by our sailors each and every 
day. They exceed every expectation. You can remain proud of 
them for what they are doing around the globe. We so appreciate 
your support and commitment to the men and women of the United 
States Navy and their families.
    I look forward to your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Admiral Nowell can be found in 
the Appendix on page 52.]
    Ms. Speier. Thank you, Admiral.
    Lieutenant General Kelly.

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

    General Kelly. Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Gallagher, 
distinguished members of this subcommittee, thank you for the 
opportunity to appear before you to talk about our airmen and 
families. I am honored to appear before you today with my 
fellow service personnel chiefs, and I am particularly proud to 
be here with my Department of the Air Force partner, Ms. 
Mulcahy, who is here representing the U.S. Space Force.
    The U.S. Space Force was purposely built as an agile and 
operationally focused service with the United States Air Force 
providing much of the support programs for guardians and their 
families. As such, some of the support programs we will discuss 
today are applicable to both airmen and guardians.
    As the Air Force chief of staff has articulated, our 
national security challenges are growing at a rapid pace. It is 
clear our Air Force must accelerate the changes we need to 
successfully meet those challenges or face losing. We are fully 
focused on this imperative and recognize that airmen and their 
families form the essential foundation for our ability to meet 
those future challenges anytime, anywhere.
    As such, it is essential we accelerate the establishment of 
the environment, the developmental paths, and the talent 
management systems needed to unlock our airmen's ability to 
reach their full potential. We know success squarely depends on 
our airmen, on them having the ability to operate in a safe and 
inclusive environment where they can be the best airmen they 
can possibly be.
    Your United States Air Force is an All-Volunteer Force, and 
in order to maintain and be an employer of choice, it is 
important that current and prospective members see the Air 
Force as an agile employer, flexible in meeting the personal 
needs of its members and families while also meeting our 
operational requirements. It is critical we challenge existing 
paradigms and remain open-minded about the way we attract and 
retain top talent in our military and civilian ranks. We must 
inject flexibility into career paths and focus on efforts on 
capitalizing on diversity within the Total Force, while testing 
unconventional ways to ensure the Air Force is a career choice 
our airmen are excited to pursue.
    While the Air Force is an All-Volunteer Force, we are also 
a worldwide requirements-based force. And we must meet our 
commitments to deliver airmen and capabilities to combatant 
commanders in locations all across the globe. The Air Force is 
working hard to balance the needs of the service while 
accommodating service member requests that often include the 
desire for increased family stability, something we aim to 
provide when we are able to do so without sacrificing our 
ability to meet wartime requirements.
    We recognize military service impacts the whole family, not 
just the service members, and have adjusted policies to provide 
longer tour lengths, as well as earlier notifications and 
simplified processes for permanent change of station moves. 
Additionally, the Department of the Air Force continues to 
works with States and military communities as part of our 
strategic basing process to factor in the community's ability 
to provide adequate education and to advance the ability for 
spouses to sustain careers without added expense or delays. 
This key program signals the seriousness of our commitment to 
these programs directly to our community partners.
    Since taking care of airmen and families is a mission 
imperative for us, I also want to mention the challenges and 
impacts we face if we continue to operate under or end up 
operating under a yearlong continuing resolution. A yearlong CR 
essentially equates to a $5.5 billion top-line reduction in 
buying power. Within our personnel budgets, we are very 
appreciative of the pay raise for fiscal year 2022 for both 
military and civilian members and believe it was absolutely 
necessary. But covering those bills under a reduced MILPERS 
[military personnel] top line further erodes our ability to 
cover other costs. This means the Department will have to 
eliminate incentives and bonuses, impacting approximately 
11,000 military members, as well as reduce the number of 
accessions late in the fiscal year fourth quarter maybe by up 
to 21,000 members.
    Further, the Department will have to delay or cancel 
necessary PCS moves, creating uncertainty for many families, 
particularly during the summer months when the majority of our 
moves occur in order to accommodate school schedules. This, in 
turn, impacts spousal employment, childcare, and school 
transition plans, both in the U.S. and overseas.
    A yearlong CR also impacts our authorized MILCON [military 
construction] efforts supporting childcare and our ability to 
execute civilian hiring actions including hard-fought gains we 
are making to increase our resiliency and directed prevention 
workforce programs. As a bottom line, we should all understands 
that a yearlong CR will have a negative impact to our airmen 
and families.
    In conclusion, resilient airmen and families are our 
competitive advantage. And they deserve nothing less than our 
best. The United States Air Force is committed in our actions 
to support our airmen and families, and we look to continuing 
to partner with the Congress in our endeavors to do so.
    I appreciate your continued support of your Air Force, your 
airmen, both military and civilian, and the families who 
support them.
    I thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
    [The prepared statement of General Kelly can be found in 
the Appendix on page 68.]
    Ms. Speier. Thank you, General Kelly.
    Lieutenant General Ottignon. Did I pronounce that right?
    Okay. Thank you.
    General, is your microphone on?

STATEMENT OF LTGEN DAVID A. OTTIGNON, USMC, DEPUTY COMMANDANT, 
        MANPOWER AND RESERVE AFFAIRS, U.S. MARINE CORPS

    General Ottignon. My apologies, Chairwoman.
    We have decisively stepped down on talent management design 
and modernization efforts to increase the readiness and the 
lethality of your Marine Corps to fight and win if called upon 
by our Nation. The Commandant published Force Design 2030, and 
it is all about lethality and warfighting capabilities.
    Talent Management 2030 supports these efforts. 
Accomplishing these objectives of Force Design will not be 
possible without highly skilled, mature, and mentally tough 
Marines to execute it. Talent management is all about building 
that future force that is better equipped to fight and win in 
an increasingly high-tech and complex environment. There are 
three main points I would leave with you this afternoon.
    First is that we recognize that we are in a competition for 
talent, and we are executing our initiatives at speed today. 
The statutory authorities that Congress has granted have 
streamlined this effort. Other initiatives will require more 
study to implement. We remain committed to getting this right.
    Second, this is a multiyear effort that will require time 
and resources to complete successfully. A fundamental redesign 
of our personnel system is necessary to provide management 
talent and includes upgrading decades-old systems to the 
digital cloud-based technologies of today. Predictable funding 
will be a key to our success.
    Finally, your Marines and your Marine Corps has always been 
about families. And people is our business. Our focus remains 
on building and managing and interfacing with the best of our 
Nation's men and women that serve and defend this country, and 
we also want to ensure the readiness of their families. We know 
that we recruit the Marine, but we retain the family. I am 
proud to represent your Marines, their families, and the 
civilian employees, and look forward to answering your 
questions.
    [The prepared statement of General Ottignon can be found in 
the Appendix on page 77.]
    Ms. Speier. Thank you, General.
    Ms. Mulcahy.

STATEMENT OF PATRICIA MULCAHY, DEPUTY CHIEF OF SPACE OPERATIONS 
                FOR PERSONNEL, U.S. SPACE FORCE

    Ms. Mulcahy. Thank you, Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member 
Gallagher, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank 
you for your leadership and support that you have provided to 
the United States Space Force, our guardians, and their 
families. It is a privilege to come before you today alongside 
my military colleagues.
    And as we purposefully build a force capable of securing 
the space domain, we developed and released our new human 
capital vision, the Guardian Ideal, back in September of last 
year. Our approach is grounded in our values of connection, 
commitment, competency, and courage, and combines the more 
traditional recruit-and-retain objectives with an eye towards 
connecting with our guardians and their families, enabling a 
digital force, while integrating wellness and resiliency.
    Because of our small size and the importance of 
establishing our warfighting culture, we believe it vital to be 
collaborative and connected to all of our guardians, both 
uniformed and civilian, in a way that would be much more 
difficult in a larger service. This innovative human capital 
and talent management design we are creating is team-centric, 
capable of scaling on demand and adapting to changing 
circumstances, and it is designed to allow our guardians to 
move more easily between full- and part-time statuses. This 
approach could allow us to flex with our force so our members 
do not have to choose between their careers and their personal 
lives.
    And to implement our vision, we have three guiding 
principles: manage talent based on competencies required to 
succeed; find and develop diverse talent to advance our 
mission; and provide access to the digital services, tools, and 
training. We have developed occupational competencies for all 
five of our warfighting space capabilities of operation, 
intelligence, cyber, acquisition, and engineering. We are 
conducting barrier analysis with various diverse groups to 
listen to how our guardian experiences could be more inclusive 
and using a boot camp approach to training coders, resulting in 
increased digital fluency and positive impacts to mission 
accomplishment.
    Over the past 2 years we secured a number of wins for our 
Nation. I am proud of the more than 13,000 military and 
civilian guardians who joined our ranks from the Air Force, 
Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as from across America.
    We launched recruiting initiatives to ensure we are 
competitive for the STEM [science, technology, engineering, and 
math] talent we need. We instituted interviews that include 
scientifically based questions to help us determine how the 
applicant aligns with the Space Force values to create that 
holistic approach to selecting our future guardians, create a 
more diverse applicant pool, and ensure a best fit.
    We are moving from an annual evaluation-based performance 
appraisal system to one that is more continuous approach and 
captures the inputs of subordinates, peers, and superiors to 
provide a more comprehensive and timely picture of guardian 
performance, potential, and growth.
    And let me also state that there are real resource impacts 
to our guardians and their families and our mission if we do 
not receive a fiscal year 2022 appropriation. The long-term 
vision for consolidation of all Armed Forces Space Force 
professionals, it will be stalled. We would be unable to 
execute Army and Navy interservice unit transfers and unable to 
cover much-needed increases in our civilian talent. And 
finally, there will be delays in building our proactive, 
preventative integrated resiliency program.
    And although I am very pleased with the progress that has 
been made, we have much work to do in this third year of 
building the Space Force. We want to deliver capability that 
includes integrating our Reserve Components and our sister 
services to create that more permanent and agile force.
    We will continue to focus on our innovative approach to 
talent management, allowing us to build an organizational 
culture in which leaders at every level take bold data-driven 
and risk-informed actions. We will capitalize on the diverse 
ability of our Nation's guardians to secure American interests 
in space and make the contributions to joint operations.
    I thank you for your time today and look forward to your 
questions.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Mulcahy can be found in the 
Appendix on page 91.]
    Ms. Speier. Thank you.
    Thank you all. I will now ask a series of questions in my 5 
minutes.
    General Brito, there were twice as many service members who 
died from suicide in Alaska in 2021 as from the year before. It 
is a difficult area, cold weather. We have heard that, in many 
of these settings, these are first-time deployed, enlisted 
soldiers, many who have come from warmer climes and 
unaccustomed to the cruelty of the weather in Alaska.
    So I am curious whether or not you have used a volunteer 
program to enlist soldiers to go to Alaska. And for those that 
like it in Alaska, there is an interest, I think, for many of 
them to want to remain. So what are you doing about that?
    General Brito. Thank you, Chairwoman Speier.
    We are running a long-term pilot, enlistment option 90 [is] 
the official term, to share which soldiers when they enlist, 
those who want to enlist in Alaska, either ones who live in 
Alaska, Wisconsin, or other cold climates, and they want to 
serve in that area. To date we have 600 future soldiers--I will 
call them enlistees--enrolled in that program. I say future 
soldiers, enlistees. Some are in the basic training pipeline 
now and will soon move on to an assignment in Alaska, and some 
are in assignments to Alaska as well. We do hope that will 
culturally and environmentally further mitigate any 
environmental concerns that may cause a soldier to die from 
suicide. Fully, fully share the same concerns with you as well.
    Additionally, looking at reenlistment options for those who 
want to stay in Alaska after their first term of assignment, 
second term of assignment with some professional growth as 
well. And, of course, that will be balanced with the needs of 
the Army and needs of the readiness, professional military 
education, and, of course, career progression growth.
    I would like to highlight an ongoing visit, as we speak, in 
Alaska now led by our Vice Chief of Staff the Army, our 
Sergeant Major of the Army, representation from the Chaplain, 
Surgeon General, and a quality-of-life staff, as well, to look 
at the entirety of the environment and holistically for all 
that can support Alaska, all the camps, post stations included. 
And they will come back and share that information with us. And 
we have later in the spring a precision-focused visit, which I 
may be on myself, focused on suicide specifically for Alaska, 
fully understanding that some of the conditions there are more 
severe than others.
    Share your concern, ma'am. We are getting at it 
aggressively.
    Ms. Speier. The subcommittee will hold a townhall later 
this month with our service members in Alaska, and we intend to 
also send a team up as well. So I thank you for that, but I 
continue to be very concerned about it.
    In talking to some of the healthcare professionals who work 
in Alaska in the Fairbanks area, their concern is that many of 
these new enlisted soldiers who are being deployed for the 
first time either have mental health issues, were seen for 
mental health issues, or have substance abuse issues that 
probably should have screened them out of going to Alaska. And 
I hope that you will look at that as well in the coming months. 
We would like a report back on those who are part of this pilot 
program to see how many do, in the end, go to Alaska and are 
successful there.
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
on page 109.]
    General Brito. Thank you, ma'am.
    Ms. Speier. Admiral Nowell, the GAO reported to Congress 
that the Navy surface fleet is undermanned by some 15 percent 
below the required staffing for safe operations, and on the 
heels of the tragedy of losing 17 sailors on the McCain and 
Fitzgerald due to the collisions, being understaffed is really 
unacceptable.
    So, what are you doing to deal with that problem? And if 
you need more resources and tools, will you please tell us what 
you need.
    Admiral Nowell. Madam Chairwoman, thank you for that.
    And that was a tragedy that we lost those 17 sailors. That 
was in 2017, as you mentioned.
    And so, to give you some of the data, since 2017 we have 
added more than 23.8 thousand billets so that we will have more 
sailors at sea. We have increased our accessions in 2018, 2019, 
2020 from in the low 30s, if you went back to 2016, 2017, to 
39,000 in each of those years. Those sailors are starting to 
arrive in those billets at sea now, and indeed we have got 
10,000 more sailors at sea now than we had in 2017.
    Ms. Speier. Well, are you still 15 percent below the 
manning?
    Admiral Nowell. We will look at the GAO report with you, 
but we have 145,000 sea duty billets. And right now the report 
that I got as of the end of last week was about 5- to 6,000 
gaps at sea. So, as you look at the billets that we have bought 
at sea, that is where that manning is.
    I will share with you, ma'am--so I am not saying that we 
are happy with that number. We are doing a number of things to 
get after that. You know, when you look at things like our 
Detailing Marketplace Assignment Policy, which is all about how 
do we provide incentivization, both monetary and nonmonetary, 
to keep those sailors at sea, primarily in the journeyman 
level. But, again, we have really been leaning into this. And 
we have been helped by very good retention.
    So, right now, besides--again, the CR would be very 
injurious as we look at stopping PCS moves, as well as freezing 
the accessions pipeline. But I have got no other ask right now 
for Congress.
    Ms. Speier. All right. We will come back to that. My time 
has expired.
    Ranking Member Gallagher.
    Mr. Gallagher. Thank you.
    Lieutenant General Ottignon, I recently listened to a War 
on the Rocks interview between Ryan Evans and Commandant 
Berger. I thought it was a great discussion, and I really think 
the Marine Corps deserves credit for trying to grapple honestly 
with some challenges. And among them the Commandant talks a 
little bit about lateral entry. And some of the criticism has 
been that, if you are bringing someone in as an O-5 because 
they have specialized cyber skills, for example, you know, how 
are you being mindful of the organization's culture while doing 
that? You know, you don't allow people to skip certain rites of 
passage like boot camp or OCS [Officer Candidates School].
    So talk a little bit about how you think about lateral 
entry in your 2030 plan and how you respond to that criticism 
the Commandant mentioned.
    General Ottignon. Congressman, thank you for that question.
    What I would say about--first about lateral entry is, 
thanks to Congress, we already have the authorities that we 
need to execute this type of program. Inside Talent Management 
2030, we are looking and studying how we would implement such a 
program with those authorities. So the Commandant has been on 
the record and said that this was an idea and a concept to 
attract that niche that you spoke of, skill sets that we might 
consider for the Marine Corps. Nowhere in there did we say that 
we would skip entry-level training, Officer Candidates School. 
I think that is where the misunderstanding of what the 
Commandant spoke to.
    But there is a recognition that there are programs the 
services have utilized. The Marine Corps utilizes it for the 
law program, for example. An individual will get credit. But 
the Congress' authorities to us would be, an example would be, 
as we study it, could you bring in a man or a woman who has 
post-baccalaureate degree; service credit would be applied to 
those degree hours; would go through Officer Candidates School 
and The Basic School; and then potentially come out at a 
different grade; and then proceed to that technical skill MOS 
[military occupational specialty].
    I think that is kind of what we are studying at right now. 
It is an exciting thing to see where we could go to build 
capacity in certain areas where we think the future fight will 
take us in those complex environments.
    Mr. Gallagher. Well, one of the other points he brought up 
in the interview that I thought was interesting is the idea 
that today's environment is filled with--I am going to quote 
from him so I don't misconstrue the Commandant. As a former 
captain, I don't want to get in trouble.
    ``Today's environment is filled with a different body of 
people coming into the military with different goals, different 
priorities, different set of focus. We have to meet them. We 
have to understand them.''
    Could you maybe provide some color on that, you know? And 
what is the Marine Corps doing to meet that generation where 
they are?
    General Ottignon. Thank you for that.
    We have had some good excitement in this area. One of the 
things that is pretty common in the civilian sector is 
crowdsourcing. Never done before inside a manpower organization 
and we tried it, and it was remarkable the feedback that we got 
from our young Marines. As you would suspect, the majority of 
them want great training. They want the ability to deploy. They 
are excited about those things. But we learned some other 
things in here that I think is important as we try to 
recalibrate----
    Mr. Fallon. Sorry. I got to----
    General Ottignon [continuing]. And balance where we are.
    Mr. Fallon [continuing]. Join a--doing a hearing virtually.
    Mr. Gallagher. Fallon, you've got a hot mike.
    Mr. Fallon [continuing]. Virtually.
    Ms. Speier. You need to mute yourself.
    I think he did.
    General Ottignon. Excuse me, sir.
    So where we would rebalance family and the requirements for 
the service, we are exercising opt-out authorities. We have 
just announced it for promotion. We have had opt-out 
authorities for particular events in your career with no 
penalty. And then the other one that I think is important that 
we have looked at is where, since 2019, executing what we would 
call a change of assignment set of orders, which means you 
would not leave geographically an area vice leaving an area. 
And, since 2019, we have had 40,000 Marines that are presently 
at their duty station in excess of 36 months which is where we 
want to be. We think that that is an avenue to meet and 
recalibrate.
    Those types of things are what we are learning from our 
Marines, but it is kind of neat to see young men and women who 
have that swagger that want to serve and ask about great 
training and want to deploy. And it is really remarkable, and 
it is a pleasure to serve.
    Mr. Gallagher. Well, I am out of time, and I don't want to 
be accused of service parochialism. So I hope we might get a 
chance to ask the other services some questions, but I 
appreciate that. I wonder if sometimes we think that retention 
is about pay, which is a variable that is important; but for 
younger people in particular, I wonder if it is more about just 
sort of freedom to influence their subsequent assignment and a 
little bit of flexibility as opposed to just the pure economics 
of staying in.
    Sorry to go over my time.
    Ms. Speier. To your point, I think we found out that with 
pilots in the Air Force, money wasn't doing it. They wanted to 
be able to fly, and they wanted a quality of life with their 
families. And we have got to be much more holistic. So thank 
you for those questions.
    Ms. Escobar, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
    And many thanks to our panelists. Really appreciate your 
time here.
    I have the incredible privilege of representing Fort Bliss 
in my community, El Paso, Texas. And I have had the privilege 
of speaking to many, many service members. And so I appreciate 
the topic and the timeliness of it for me.
    So actually I would like to start with what the biggest 
challenges are that you all see in terms of talent management, 
including retaining and attracting talent. What--if each one of 
you wouldn't mind, please, identifying what the top two 
challenges are for you that you want to make us aware of.
    General Brito. Ma'am, I am sure, similar to my fellow 
service members, we have a very challenging recruiting 
environment right now, largely due to COVID [coronavirus 
disease] and some other environmental factors but very 
aggressively working through all of that. I am very proud of 
where our talent management efforts are going. If there was one 
we continue to manage and very much focus on stabilization so 
that we can lengthen our PCS moves and get to the issues that 
Chairman Speier mentioned as well, those two remain challenges, 
one of which we are very focused on and ensuring that the same 
quality of life, opportunities to excel is applied to our 
civilians and families and support their loving soldiers.
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you, sir.
    Admiral Nowell. Ma'am, thank you for that question.
    I would agree with General Brito that, as we look at the 
recruiting landscape, we do worry for all of those same 
reasons.
    And I would just share that I got a recent report that, as 
we look at the eligible population of youth that are available 
for us to go after for service, in the last 2 to 3 years the 
number that are propensed to serve has gone from 13 percent to 
10 percent. So, at the same time that we and so many others are 
going after the same talent pool, and certainly we are 
competing against each other, we also have the number of in the 
pool that is shrinking. That is probably one of my number one 
concerns.
    And then the other is that, as we look at how we keep some 
of our communities that are always challenging--think cyber, 
think nuclear, think naval special warfare or aviation--I think 
making sure that we have the flexibility and the agility. As 
Rep. Gallagher mentioned, with monetary and nonmonetary 
incentives, we know that the centennials are really driven by 
both, as are folks that are our age. And can we change quickly 
enough, to the chairwoman's point, too, to make sure that, 
focusing on warfighting readiness, we give them options and 
flexibility to keep them in the Navy, so in some of those 
specific high-demand, low-density skill sets. Thank you.
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you.
    General Kelly. And, ma'am, I won't touch on the recruiting 
piece. My colleagues have already. But all of us are obviously 
concerned about that. So I will go in different directions to 
help our conversation here.
    The first thing I would say is balance of individual 
desires and needs with balance of our force. We are working 
hard to make accommodations and things work. For instance, we 
have Sikh airmen now. We have Muslim airmen with different hair 
policies. We have a women's hair policy that we did to help us 
attract and retain. We changed rule sets on putting hands in 
pockets and silly things like that, that could help us start to 
get to that generation.
    At the same time, though, we have these requirements around 
the world that we have to meet. Right? So not all of our 
locations are garden spots. Not all our locations allow you to 
take a family. So how do you do that, and how do you balance 
it? Right now, we have a tour length of about 51 months on 
station. That is over 4 years on station here in the CONUS 
[continental United States] here for enlisted members, 39 
months for officers. When you go overseas, about 47 months 
enlisted, 35 for officers.
    So balancing that out and being able to do that and give 
that stability is one of the challenges that we have and that 
we work hard to sort of balance those things together.
    Ms. Escobar. General, can I interrupt very----
    General Kelly. Yeah.
    Ms. Escobar [continuing]. Briefly----
    General Kelly. Sure.
    Ms. Escobar [continuing]. Because I have only got about 30 
more seconds. Something I do want to throw out for you all, 
just as you are talking about these other policies, I have a 
Wounded Warrior fellow in my district office, a Marine. She 
would love to reenlist, but she can't because of the tattoo 
policy. There are things that we really need to look at and, as 
you mentioned, you know, may sound silly to some folks out 
there. But what are the obstacles that are keeping out really 
talented, amazing service members, patriots who want to be a 
part of the armed services?
    General Ottignon. Chairwoman, if you would give me that 
young lady's name, we will take care of that. The Commandant 
recently waived tattoo policies. So there should be no issue 
with the tattoos.
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
on page 109.]
    Ms. Speier. Yeah, I was under the impression that the 
tattoo policy is history. Is that true for all of the services?
    General Ottignon. That is correct.
    Ms. Speier. And there is no restriction at all. It can be 
up to the neck and up to the arm?
    General Ottignon. That is correct.
    Ms. Escobar. It is my understanding that, if it goes onto 
the hand, there is a----
    General Ottignon. So there is some uniqueness to the 
policies, I think, from each of the services. The Marine Corps 
says that it can't go past the collarbone here, and it can't go 
past the wristbone. But clearly let me see that young lady, and 
we can see what we have there.
    I would offer just very briefly on a--I worry about 
accessions. I worry about the headwinds. We have asked and we 
partnered with the Department for a legislative proposal that 
allows us to get into the digital market, much like the private 
sector, for recruiting to make sure that we have access to the 
best and the brightest young men and women that choose the 
propensity for service. So I would ask for the support for that 
proposition.
    I think the other one I would say, just very briefly, the 
challenges I think that I see in my service is the 
modernization of our systems. We really are not in the 21st 
century, and it is a challenge. I see the vision. It is going 
to require time. It is going to require money. But if you 
remember the movie ``Ender's Game,'' that is how I see it: 
cloud-based systems, applications that run on one system that 
allow us to have full, ready access, human interaction and 
involvement to help manage those opportunities. That is my 
challenge. I think that is my concern that we can't get it fast 
enough. Thank you.
    Ms. Escobar. I am way over time.
    Ms. Speier. You are.
    Your time has expired.
    And I know that----
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you.
    Ms. Speier [continuing]. Representative Jackson was putting 
on his jacket. I don't know if he is still within earshot, but 
he is recognized if he is.
    Okay. Mrs. McClain.
    Mrs. Bice.
    Mrs. Bice. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
    I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the witnesses 
today. Thank you for being on.
    I actually want to shift the conversation just slightly to 
talk a little bit about what we are doing to recruit and retain 
technology talent. You know, one of the things that I keep 
hearing from the services is what we are doing on the cyber 
front. And so I want to maybe ask, what are you doing to sort 
of build up a pipeline for these critical cyber positions that 
are currently maybe open or unfilled? How are we addressing 
that? Because it is such an important piece. You know, I think 
warfare is changing. And one of the important aspects of that 
is making sure that cyber warfare, should it become a thing, is 
being addressed properly.
    So can anybody speak to that?
    General Kelly. Yeah, ma'am, this is Lieutenant General 
Kelly from the Air Force. I will start in. I will tell you that 
on the accession front for cyber, we have for the last 2 years 
and will continue this coming year, over-accessed purposely on 
the cyber side, trying to make up for the talent pieces that we 
know we need. So we are about at 110 to 120 percent of the 
normal accession requirement.
    When we get them on board, though, the key now is giving 
them something exciting to do and making sure that we are doing 
things that are going to keep them. So it is the quality of the 
service they get and then including stability for them.
    So specifically in our cyber/STEM career fields, we have 
lengthened the tour lengths for initial once they graduate tech 
school. They used to go for 3 years. They are going to 4 years 
now. When they get a second assignment, the second assignment 
is at 4 years for those folks.
    But I will tell you where the challenge is for us is not 
right now in those young folks. It is the mid-career folks. 
When we started to grow the cyber ranks out, we already didn't 
have enough field-grade officers and enough folks at the, you 
know, O-3 to O-5 level. And so lateral entry and trying to 
catch up a little bit in that is key for us. I would say we are 
a little bit behind in that in the Air Force, but those are the 
kind of things we are trying to do to get the cyber and pieces 
forward.
    General Nowell. And, ma'am, John Nowell from the Navy here.
    If I can just jump in there, to kind of continue what 
General Kelly was talking about. So I think one issue is, how 
do we find them? And I think we are all going down that path. 
But then the other is, as we bring them in, and then to your 
point on the retention. So we have done a couple of things 
here.
    For instance, for our cyber warrants, we brought back the 
warrant officer 1 program for the first time since Vietnam. And 
we specifically targeted our cryptologic techs, who are called 
Interactive On-Net. So they are the folks that go in there and 
actually do things in dark rooms.
    At the E-5 level, we heard that they didn't want to become 
a chief and then kind of lead a division, do the administrative 
stuff. They wanted to actually go ahead and sit in that dark 
room and launch attacks.
    That is what we do with warrant officers. So we created it. 
We brought in our first tranche here 2 years ago, and we get 
about an extra 5 to 6 years in the warrant ranks with these 
sailors. And we found that that is very, very popular.
    We have also leveraged the DOPMA [Defense Officer Personnel 
Management Act] authorities with lateral entry. So we have been 
able to bring in 44 officers here over the last 2 years in 
cryptologic warfare and our information professionals that will 
work in this realm. So I think we have got to approach it from 
a number of different fronts.
    Mrs. Bice. I think that is a great point. You have 
individuals that are experts in the cyberspace, and they are 
not necessarily wanting to be in a leadership role. They know 
what they know, and they are really good at it, and they want 
to continue to be in that role. And so finding ways to develop 
them, to given them additional responsibilities without putting 
them in a leadership role is incredibly important.
    And, Lieutenant General Kelly, you actually kind of segued 
into my next question, which was I see that, you know, you are 
looking to potentially PCS those individuals at a longer 
timeframe. Is anyone else looking at that? Because I do wonder 
just sort of generically, not specific to cyber. But do you 
feel that the 2-year rotation for families is becoming a real 
burden, and is there a thought process or a discussion 
happening around lengthening that PCS time?
    General Brito. Congressman, so Lieutenant General Brito 
from the U.S. Army.
    In short, yes, to be sure, stabilization is key. And, 
again, we do look at professional military education, 
professional growth, but also taking in the fact the school 
stabilization, high school stabilization, which may be key for 
some families, spousal employment, as well, to include some 
incentive programs that will help the spouse if he or she 
should be PCS'ing within the continental United States or 
overseas.
    Specifically to cyber, as one of my peers mentioned, giving 
them the job that they want to do to help retain that talent 
while in, in some cases incentive bonuses as well, tied to a 
stabilization of up to 6 years in some cases that will give 
them, one, job satisfaction and help us compete with a very 
demanding civilian environment for that talent skill.
    Mrs. Bice. And I think that is one thing that we need to 
look at, sort of an overarching discussion, is we are training 
these individuals. They are working in an incredible 
environment that, let's be honest, they are probably not making 
the pay that they could make in the private sector but they are 
incredibly necessary and important to mission readiness and 
national security.
    So looking at long term, how do we keep those folks engaged 
within the services is going to be incredibly important.
    Madam Chair, I appreciate the opportunity. And I yield 
back.
    Ms. Speier. The gentlewoman yields back.
    The gentlelady from Washington, Ms. Strickland, is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
    The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Veasey, is recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Veasey. Madam Chair, thank you very much.
    I wanted to ask specifically about service academies. In 
the district that I represent--and this--and I have talked with 
other Members that also represent urban areas. And they have a 
very tough time getting young people to apply to the service 
academies.
    Is there anything that you are doing specifically to target 
talent at--in your more urban areas? In the--in the--you know, 
in the--if you look at the Dallas-Fort Worth area, we represent 
a very large metropolitan area. So we have a lot of Members of 
Congress in our very specific geographic region. And the outer 
suburbs, the exurbs, they don't have any problems recruiting. 
But those of us that represent the more urban areas do.
    Is there anything that you are doing to specifically reach 
out to some of these kids to make sure that they know about the 
opportunities that are available in your various services?
    General Kelly. Yeah, Congressman, I will start. I know you 
guys have had the opportunity to talk with Lieutenant General 
Clark at our United States Air Force Academy, who is all over 
this topic and more. Right? And so one of things that he has 
done is identify those districts and places where we found 
talent, where we have lack of nominations. So he has engaged 
congressional Members in talking about the nomination process.
    We have got a recruiting pool, applicant pool goal for 
which we set diversity goals for the applicant pools to come 
in. And I will tell you that it is, over the last couple of 
years, it has started to manifest with this last graduating 
class was our most diverse class we have had at the Air Force 
Academy. The number of folks going into operational career 
fields, particularly pilot training from a gender and racial 
diversity perspective, is the highest we have had.
    So they are actively going out, looking at those districts 
that you are talking about. They are engaging congressional 
Members on, you know: Please nominate some of these folks to 
come in because we have had congressional districts who haven't 
nominated in the past. And I know it is starting to manifest 
itself.
    And, like I said, the last class we had at the United 
States Air Force Academy has made great strides. I think we 
were at 46 percent non-White male, if you will, in terms of 
diversity coming out of the Air Force Academy.
    Mr. Veasey. And let me ask this also.
    And, Admiral, I will let you weigh in here in just a 
second. You know, when I--and I remember this vividly, even 
though it has been 30 years since I have been in high school, 
literally can remember vividly, the NCOs [noncommissioned 
officers]--and it was usually when they were on their way out. 
They would go to a specific high school and set up a table 
usually in the lunchroom, and they would talk to kids about 
enlisting.
    Have you-all looked at going into specific schools? Because 
one of the things that I worry about is, like, when you do like 
a region-wide academy day and you do it on a Saturday and it is 
in a location for all the schools to go to, that you are really 
not honing in on kids at specific schools that are missing out 
on opportunities.
    Are you going to specific schools?
    Admiral Nowell. Sir, I will just jump in there, because we 
are doing exactly that. And we are going there with junior 
officers who look like them. We call it JODO, Junior Officer 
Diversity Outreach. We are looking for all kinds of talent 
there.
    But when you have a young surface warfare officer or an 
aviator or submariner where those students can relate, that 
really--that really resonates. And then that helps us find the 
folks that we then want to try and bring in for those summer 
STEM camps, for a summer seminar. And then--and then we are 
doing this very similar on the NROTC [Navy Reserve Officers' 
Training Corps] side.
    Mr. Veasey. If we wanted to as individual Members reach out 
to respective branches about targeting high schools in our 
district, how would we reach out to you?
    Admiral Nowell. Probably for all of us, if you have someone 
in your office, contact us. We will take you up on that in a 
heartbeat.
    Mr. Veasey. Okay. Good.
    Admiral Nowell. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Veasey. Good. Thank you very much.
    General Ottignon, am I pronouncing that correctly?
    General Ottignon. Yes. Yes.
    Mr. Veasey. I wanted to specifically ask you about 
diversity. There were a series of articles last year or year 
before last about the fact that the Marines still have not had 
a Black four-star general. I think that you-all were the last 
to have a Black sergeant major of the--of your branch to be the 
head person.
    Is the Marines looking into diversity in their ranks and 
how they can alleviate some of that? Because that is, you know, 
I mean, you know, we are seeing everything happening right now 
with NFL [National Football League] for instance. Have you-all 
looked at just some of the structural components within your 
branch to just to try to address some of that?
    Because we obviously want kids that are trying to go into 
cyber and trying to go into some of these fields to know that, 
hey, if I go and join a particular branch, I'm going to have 
all the opportunities that everyone else has. But if they read 
that, hey, it is 2022 and everybody else has had multiple four-
stars but this branch has not had any four-stars and they were 
the last to have a sergeant major of their branch, like, how do 
you work through all of that? What are you-all doing to try and 
address that issue?
    General Ottignon. Congressman, thank you for that question.
    First of all, let me say this: We have got a ways to go, 
but we have made some great progress. And we have been at it 
for several years. And the statistics that I have sometimes 
fall flat because we are not stopping there, or we are not 
trying to pat ourselves on the back. But you refer to officers, 
and I think that is important, because we recognize that.
    In the last 5 years, the Marine Corps in its officer 
accessions has been 35 percent diverse. And it has been that 
way for the last 5 years. Also, I think more telling for me, as 
I look at the playing field, in our one-star ranks, 24 percent 
of our brigadier generals have diversity. That is compared to 
the overall population of 14 percent.
    That tells me that the work that we are doing is the long 
game, and it has been the long game, and it has been, how do we 
reach people of all diversity, of all colors, because we think 
that it is a part of the fight that we represent. We are going 
to fight next.
    So, to me, we have been focusing on this for several years 
because we recognize all the way back through to General 
Neller--to General Amos for that matter--that this was going to 
be necessary.
    So we have work to do on particularly the officers' side of 
the house to get to where we have a sufficient pool of senior 
officers where through a competitive process, fully most 
qualified will make the executive ranks, the general officer 
ranks.
    But I think it is important that we recognize we have had 
an African-American Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps; 43 
percent of the Marine Corps is considered diverse, of 
diversity. So there are a lot of good things happening here in 
the Marine Corps. Close to 10 percent identify as women for 
gender. Officers' accessions for females is at 13 percent. So 
there is a lot of things happening here, but I acknowledge that 
we have work to do in that space.
    Mr. Veasey. Thank you.
    Madam Chair, thank you.
    Ms. Speier. The gentleman's time has expired.
    Ten percent is not very good when the rest of the military 
is at 18 percent or 20.
    We now will cede the floor to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. 
Jackson, for 5 minutes.
    Dr. Jackson. Thank you, Chairwoman Speier and Ranking 
Member Gallagher, for holding the hearing today.
    I also want to thank our witnesses for being here. 
Appreciate your time.
    Understanding issues related to recruitment and retention 
is important as decisions are made in Congress regarding 
funding levels, of course. Now more than ever we need to focus 
on maintaining a military that is prepared to fight and win in 
a conflict against a highly advanced adversary such as China.
    The 2018 National Defense Strategy laid out a strategic 
approach to addressing military challenges. We need to focus on 
building a more lethal force, strengthening our alliances, and 
reforming the Department of Defense practices to match our 
modernization efforts. When thinking through those lines of 
efforts, the number one priority is taking care of our greatest 
asset: our people.
    With that said, I have a question. My first question is: We 
are currently in the middle of sweeping reform in the Military 
Health System. This includes transferring responsibilities that 
used to fall under each service to the Defense Health Agency 
[DHA].
    Over the past year, I have prioritized going to some of our 
major medical facilities around the country to hear directly 
from our medical personnel. Regardless of branch or rank, one 
common theme that I keep hearing is that nobody has a clear 
explanation to me on how these reforms are going and what is 
meant for their future and for the future of military medicine. 
I think that that could potentially be a problem. I think it is 
starting to be a little bit of a problem with morale, and I 
just wanted to address that.
    If we lose medical personnel and jeopardize our medical 
readiness, we will not be able to recover quickly. That is not 
something we are going to be able to stand up very quickly, and 
we could face severe casualties in future conflict. Those 
casualties could be avoided if we focus on retaining these 
service members and maintaining adequate medical readiness.
    General Brito, could you speak specifically to the Army's 
efforts to retain medical personnel as we undergo comprehensive 
reform within the Military Health System and what policy 
changes you will need from us to ensure that we retain these 
highly skilled members and don't lose them to the civilian 
sector?
    General Brito. Thank you, Representative Jackson. Under the 
umbrella of leadership development, we must continue to, one, 
recruit the best, retain the best, and give them the best 
leadership and medical training so they can provide the best 
services to our soldiers and our families. That is including a 
very aggressive retention effort as well, largely led under the 
umbrella of our surgeon general and other medical professionals 
fully respecting the complexities that may come as services get 
rolled into the DHA.
    For one, job satisfaction, continued medical training, 
which they need, and continued training to keep them advanced 
in the skills that they need to provide with whatever specialty 
they are working in. Also, we are leveraging the authorities 
that have been provided to us through direct hiring authorities 
and direct commissioning. We do have some specialized talent 
that wants to serve in the Army and can serve in the Army to 
bring them in and continue to provide the service that we need 
to our soldiers, both in garrison, and as you have mentioned, 
more important--as important, while deployed as well.
    Dr. Jackson. Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate that. And I 
would just let all of you know that I am invested in making 
sure that this goes well. I know it is a work in progress right 
now. But as a former military member, 25 years on Active Duty 
and in the Medical Corps, and on this subcommittee, I want to 
make sure that I am an active part of making sure that we are 
doing everything we can to make this successful because I know 
it is an important transition for our folks.
    General Brito. Thank you, Congressman.
    Dr. Jackson. Yes, sir.
    I have one more question. Having spent 25 years on Active 
Duty as a Navy emergency medicine physician, I still have close 
relationships with many on Active Duty. I have some concerns 
about some current plans that I have recently heard about. I 
hope to find out what is driving these plans so that I and my 
HASC [House Armed Services Committee] colleagues can hopefully 
address any problems in next year's NDAA.
    I believe, and I know that each of you will agree with me, 
that our medical readiness should not be an afterthought. Vice 
Admiral Nowell, I would like to ask you to respond to this 
question first. I don't think we will have time for the other 
services to respond, so I would just ask if you could get me 
the information from your services to my office in the next few 
weeks, I would appreciate that.
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
on page 109.]
    Dr. Jackson. But the Navy provided information to my 
office, sir, that, right now, currently about 6.5 percent of 
the officer end strength in the Navy is made up of the Medical 
Corps, yet only 4.5 percent of the Navy's authorized flag 
billets are medical personnel. There is probably around 10 
percent of the military--of the Navy that is--the officer end 
strength that is made up of medical personnel in general, and 
while I think it is--the 4.5 percent is how much of the overall 
Navy medical side, not just the Medical Corps, includes the 
flag billets, but 1.9 percent from the Medical Corps.
    My point is that these numbers are a little bit off. It 
seems to me there is a discrepancy here. This discrepancy 
concerns me because I don't think it is an adequate 
representation of senior leaders in the Navy advocating for the 
needs of military personnel and for the care that our Active 
Duty operational troops are going to be provided by these 
folks.
    My question, sir, is that, do you know why this plan is in 
place? Can you tell me a little bit about how this is playing 
out and what we can do to remedy that, because I am interested 
in making that happen if I can?
    Admiral Nowell. Sir, thanks very much. And having benefited 
from military healthcare for 38 years and with a son who is a 
lieutenant who will start Uniformed Services Health College 
next year to become a Navy doctor, I am pretty passionate about 
that.
    And I will first say that, you know, we are really looking 
at distributed maritime ops as we look at what we are doing now 
with different units of scale. If you think a carrier strike 
group is sometimes a surface action group, we have spent a lot 
of time looking at what do we need to deliver that 
expeditionary healthcare.
    With respect to the number of flag officers, I would tell 
you that the Navy believes that we probably need Congress to 
mandate more. You know, we have had a drawdown for all of the 
service in flag and general officers. We do understand why, but 
that has forced us to make very hard decisions, to include the 
flag officers that are delivering healthcare.
    So we will work with you on that, but we certainly share 
your passion. But I do think, when you look at some of those 
numbers, what explains some of that is actually congressional 
mandates on ceilings for flags and general officers.
    Ms. Speier. The gentleman's time has expired.
    Dr. Jackson. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes, ma'am.
    Ms. Speier. The gentlewoman from Washington, Ms. 
Strickland, is recognized for 5 minutes.
    And before you ask your questions, if you would provide all 
that information to the committee as well, we would appreciate 
it. Thank you.
    Ms. Strickland. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Service members and their families make sacrifices every 
day, and we must do everything to ensure that their experience 
while they are serving is a good one. It is why I led a letter 
to the Defense Approps [Appropriations] Committee urging 
Congress to raise base pay for service members.
    Today, however, I want to draw your attention to research 
released by Blue Star Families, an institute for veterans and 
military families, on experiences of military and veteran 
families of color. Their data was compelling, and it really 
points to key challenges to recruiting and retaining a diverse 
ready force. So I would like to submit the Blue Star Families' 
Social Impact Research 2021 into the record, please.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     The report, titled ``Blue Star Families' Social Impact 
Research 2021: The Diverse Experiences of Military & Veteran Families 
of Color,'' can be found online at https://ivmf.syracuse.edu/article/
bsf-rei/ and at the Blue Star Families, Campaign for Inclusion website.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [The information referred to is retained in subcommittee 
files.]
    Ms. Strickland. All right. By 2027, most recruitable U.S. 
adults will be people of color, and we know that a person's 
familiarity with the military, not necessarily race or 
socioeconomic status, is often the best predictor of joining 
the Armed Forces. However, it is also likely that experiencing 
racial and ethnic discrimination while in uniform will decrease 
one's likelihood of recommending service to a young person.
    So to all the witnesses, very briefly, can you please talk 
about how you are ensuring that your respective services are an 
attractive place to serve, especially for communities of color, 
both to recruit people and to retain them? And I will open up 
the floor to anyone who would like to answer the question.
    Ms. Speier. Why don't we ask Ms. Mulcahy to go first.
    Ms. Mulcahy. Yes. Thank you, Chairwoman, and thank you, 
Representative, for that question.
    So I would like to first address it on the recruiting side. 
So we have, relatively speaking, smaller numbers into the Space 
Force, and we are still benefiting from the great excitement 
about our new service. And so we have many, many more 
applicants than we actually are able to take in.
    We are very focused, though, to the point that has been 
raised several times here about diversity. And so we have been 
able to work with our Air Force recruiting services to actually 
expand the pool and to do it, because we are a smaller service, 
on a quarterly basis. And we are finding that that is allowing 
more diverse talent to be able to be coming in and to be 
considered.
    We also know it is important that, when folks are making 
selections, that they do that and look like from our diverse 
background. So we are using our chiefs, our E-9s, and we are 
making sure that we have a diversity on those panels as we are 
making selections.
    We are also now in select university and colleges that are 
HBCUs [historically Black colleges and universities], that are 
HSUs [Hispanic-serving universities], and that have alignments 
with women colleges to be able to get out our message and our 
information about the Space Force and how to join. And that is 
both on a military and a civilian perspective. And what we 
bring to these select universities and colleges is not just a 
linkage with the ROTC program there but also the linkage with 
research dollars that we bring. And, again, that goes to the 
question earlier about what are some of the different things 
you are doing to attract the STEM talent.
    And we find over and over again that there is that 
connection to be made about, okay, I am not sure if I want to 
do military service, but I could do civilian service. So we are 
being successful there. And then also to be able to reach out 
through these institutions that are historically Black colleges 
or Hispanic universities to do better in reaching out, both 
from an enlisted perspective and an officer perspective.
    Ms. Strickland. Great. Thank you.
    Would any other witnesses like to answer this?
    General Ottignon. Chairwoman, I just would--this is 
Lieutenant General Ottignon from the Marine Corps. Very 
quickly, I am familiar with the Blue Star Families' report and 
the interaction, and I was grateful that we were able to 
participate with that organization. Our chief diversity 
officer, General Williams, was involved in that, and it was a 
good give and take. And I also was very pleased to see there 
were quite a bit of positive things that came out of that 
report that were very good reflections.
    I think for us, the recommendations that came out of that, 
we really want to focus on military personnel readiness that is 
related to the families, as you described, about making sure 
that we find that recalibration and that balance, as well as 
supporting infrastructure within our installations and our 
communities to make sure that those Marines and their families 
have the best connection to those resources and inside those 
communities.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Strickland. Great. Thank you very much.
    And before I run out of time, really just emphasizing that, 
you know, we all want a Nation that is safe, that is just and 
secure, and that should also apply to the folks who serve in 
our military and their families.
    Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
    Ms. Speier. The gentlewoman's time is expired.
    Mrs. McClain, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mrs. McClain. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
    I want to thank you all for being here today. With the 
growing threats around the world, it is paramount that we 
maintain significant force strength for years to come.
    General Brito, in your statement, you mentioned your 
Command Assessment Program [CAP]. While I appreciate the 
success the program has had or has been having in selecting 
capable leaders of the future, you mentioned that it is too 
early to draw definite conclusions from that program. But can 
you briefly describe the early iterations of these assessments, 
what you have learned from them, how you plan to evolve the 
program in order to have greater success in finding command 
candidates for the future? I mean, I think this is a very 
important point, and I am excited to hear how things are going.
    General Brito. Yes, Congressman. Thank you very much. And 
since its inception, we have had over 3,400 eligible candidates 
participate. If I may use a last CAP, CAP 2023, for fiscal year 
2023, which we executed back this last fall, had over 1,600 
candidates participate for 733 command-level billets. And I 
would note, of that, around 87 percent ready for command rate, 
roughly 9 and 10 percent not ready for command rate.
    And I would like to mention the components of the CAP 
assessment, which will kind of talk to your question. Both a 
cognitive and noncognitive assessment; a psychological 
interview; in our case, Army physical fitness test; peer and 
subordinate feedback; verbal and written communications 
assessment; and a blind panel interview, which serves as a key 
indicator to select the best talented leader to take command 
and stand in front of soldiers, whether it is 5,000 or 15,000.
    It is very much a data-rich assessment, and we are 
collecting data on the trends, and I will just pick one for 
illustration. Let's say that we see written communication 
skills as a weakness or even a strength, but in a weakness in 
this case we tie it back to the leadership development early in 
the chain.
    I would highlight something we have called Project Athena, 
where we are developing now captains and majors to become 
better lieutenant colonels and colonels. Sergeants become 
better sergeant first classes and master sergeants.
    Mrs. McClain. What was that project called again, I'm 
sorry, your project?
    General Brito. Yes, ma'am. Very proud of it. It is called 
Project Athena by name. And we are starting at the junior 
leader level in the intent, pardon my illustration, to connect 
that junior leader development to the type of leader we want to 
become commanders and command sergeant majors. And in essence--
--
    Mrs. McClain. So in your assessment, although it is not 
finalized, it is hitting the benchmarks in which you wanted it 
to hit, in which it was intended to hit?
    General Brito. I do assess that it is, ma'am. And with the 
data over the future years, I think--I know we will have a more 
data-rich informed environment to, one, develop the program 
better and refine it as necessary, but yet develop those junior 
leaders early on so that we have a much better prepared cohort 
as commanders and command senior leaders when they get to the 
senior rank. And that would feed into our general officer corps 
as well.
    Mrs. McClain. Thank you, sir.
    General Ottignon, I want to shift to you real quick. In 
your statement, you mentioned that you need resources to 
modernize your personnel systems. What does modernization mean, 
and, specifically, what resources are required for you to 
achieve this?
    General Ottignon. Madam Chairwoman, thank you for the--
excuse me, Congresswoman, thank you for that question. First, 
it comes to resources, and resources I mean dollars. But in a 
lot of the things that we are doing now, we are capitalizing on 
partners.
    So, for example, we have a great partnership with Johns 
Hopkins and the Applied Physics Lab. We are using dollars from 
OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense] to help us craft out 
this model that will give us a predictive tool that helps us 
determine those attributes for retention. This will be a 
platform in which we think will be ripe for machine learning 
and for AI technologies.
    But we literally want to be able to round out our systems, 
our analytical systems, that will allow us to have at speed 
information, as I have described earlier, readily available so 
that all opportunities are seen and the dialogue between the 
individual is seen.
    There are other things inside the modeling that I think is 
the most important that I think the Commandant would desire: 
the ability to simulate and test against structures, against 
whether or not the entire human resource process can meet those 
requirements. That is where we are coming up short. But it will 
come down to resources, both in dollars and in time.
    Thank you.
    Mrs. McClain. Thank you.
    Ms. Speier. The gentlewoman's time is expired.
    The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Fallon, is recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Fallon. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it.
    I am going to start with a little bit of nostalgia, but I 
will get there, and it may sound like a little bit of glory 
days. But not only when I was in the--my college days, I was an 
ROTC cadet, but I was also on a--I was an athlete on a football 
team, and we happened to win the national championship in my 
junior season.
    And why I mention that is, being around that kind of 
excellence, the--Lou Holtz and his team of coaches actively 
recruited the best and the brightest around the country. They 
didn't wait for talent to show up at their doorstep.
    And so, if I could, being the Air Force homer that I am, 
start with General Kelly. I think we would all agree that, you 
know, the high-tech digital unmanned cyber world, et cetera, is 
the future of warfare. General, what is the Air Force and the 
Space Force doing specifically to attract the world's or, in 
our case, the Nation's best and brightest into these--that have 
a knowledge or interest in these cutting-edge fields into the 
Space and Air Force?
    General Kelly. Yeah, Congressman. Thanks for that question. 
And let me start by saying, as a 1988 Notre Dame grad, I was 
there too and it was fantastic, so thanks for bringing up the 
nostalgia.
    You know, so I think the key for us is we want to attract 
these people by telling them what they can do and showing them 
what they can do. As we talked about before, money is a little 
bit of what is out there, but what it is really about and what 
we see it being about is the opportunity to work on something 
really great with really great people and have this quality of 
service.
    So, for instance, in the cyber world, you know, we have got 
to talk to them, we have got to show them the things that they 
can do, you know, the things that they can do that on the 
outside would maybe get them locked up that they can do for us 
legally and be really exciting to do some great things. And we 
have got to let them do those things. We have got to let them 
show their talents and show the things that are out there.
    We have started a bunch of academies and things for flying 
and exposing people to cyber and other areas that we think are 
really important. As you mentioned, we--you heard the other 
witnesses mention, propensity to serve has gone down, right. 
And so we have got to take more effort on our recruiting side 
to inspire people and get people interested in those areas.
    In the past, we kind of took that for granted, but we have 
really had to invigorate ourselves now in this inspirational 
campaign to make sure people know about the STEM things they 
can do, know about the cyber opportunities they will have, know 
about the flying opportunities they will have, in ways that we 
haven't done in the past, and that is the areas that we are 
really focused on now.
    Mr. Fallon. Well, thank you, General. And I hope that we 
are making Colonel Woods proud, our former PAS, but----
    General Kelly. I am sure he would be.
    Mr. Fallon. You know, I would have to say too, I would be 
remiss if I didn't mention the importance of love of country 
and patriotism, because if you love your country, you tend to 
want to serve it, and that helps. That is just more of an 
ethereal 35,000-foot-view thing.
    But, specifically, General Ottignon, how does the role--I 
am interested in the Marine Corps, because you are so, you 
know, such a lean force and, you know, the few, the proud. How 
does the role of social media impact your ability to recruit 
Marines? Kind of a two-part question. That, and do you feel you 
have the flexibility and authorities you need to be able to 
reach today's generation?
    General Ottignon. Congressman, thank you for that question. 
I think what I would start by saying is that I agree that when 
we look to attract a young man or woman who looks to the Marine 
Corps for service, we are looking for somebody who is smart, 
tough, has a fighting spirit, courage. And it is challenging, 
and sometimes in today's environment with social media, to 
reach out to those men and women.
    One of the things that we have asked for, and, again, I 
make the selfish plug for the leg prop [legislative proposal] 
that the Department of Defense has asked for, which is to allow 
us to have better access in social media, which would be 
commensurate to what we would see in private industry. But we 
know that whether it is--every generation has its calling, and 
social media is where a majority of young men and women live, 
and clearly there are tools that we can use and should use.
    I would also say, finally, that that never stops a great 
Marine recruiter who uses gaming and those kind of devices to 
attract young men and women. And we can find them, but I think 
there is more to be done in that space, because clearly that is 
where a lot of our youth are today.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Fallon. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. I had just 
one other question. I am going to go over, though, so I will 
just leave it to you if you want to indulge.
    Ms. Speier. Go ahead.
    Mr. Fallon. Oh, thank you. Just for General Brito and 
Nowell, we hear reports of rundown barracks on occasion or, you 
know, contaminated water supplies or families not being taken 
care of. And I just wanted to get a quick thought about--to 
hear what they would do differently and to make good on our 
promise that we are going to treat our military like the best 
in the world they are.
    General Brito. Sir, we would share the same concern for 
quality of life for our soldiers and their families, of course. 
I can tell you that is a major priority for most--our senior 
leaders in the military, listen to the soldiers, listen to 
their families, and if something needs to be done, take action 
on it. But, clearly, it is something that needs to be invested 
on with the utmost leadership and financial investment if 
necessary and when necessary.
    Mr. Fallon. Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
    Ms. Speier. The gentleman's time is expired.
    We are going to do a second round. And if you could keep 
your answers short and concise, I can maximize how many of my 
questions I can get in this round.
    Twenty-five percent of the spouses are unemployed. That is 
a huge hit for service members, particularly enlisted whose 
salaries are low. What are each of you doing to try and assist 
in terms of finding employment for spouses? But I want you to 
be brief.
    General Brito. Ma'am, Chairwoman, since you are going to 
hear from all of us, I will just hit one of the many 
initiatives that--few initiatives that we are working now is an 
online tool for our spouses to see opportunities at their said 
installation or one that they are going to move to and apply 
for it early on. That has been helpful.
    And also leveraging home station businesses on the 
respective installation where a spouse may have a home-based 
business, can run that on a respective base as well. And 
additionally, sharing all this in a very aggressive sponsorship 
programs and in our processing programs when a soldier with 
family shows up at whatever camp or installation, whatever 
installation they are going to be at.
    Ms. Speier. So the Marines are creating an environment 
where you can do change of duty but not change of station. Is 
the Army doing that at all? Because that would help with 
unemployment.
    General Brito. We are working within the umbrella of 
stabilization as best we can, but, again, we do take into 
consideration the readiness requirements of the Army and the 
professional growth of that soldier and do stabilize them for 
the sake of their family when we can. But all that is factored 
into the----
    Ms. Speier. Well, it has got to become a priority. The 
readiness is certainly an issue for the Marines as it is for 
the Army. So I would urge all of you as you look at--the talk 
that we engage in with the family is retained, the family 
serves, that PCS is a huge issue, and we should look at ways of 
changing that. Because we did it for the last 40 years doesn't 
mean we have to continue to do that, particularly if you can 
change their duty.
    Admiral Nowell.
    Admiral Nowell. Ma'am, to your last point, we have 
concentrated on the geo [geographic] stability. In fiscal year 
2008, 19 percent, same geographic locality moves. Fiscal year 
2021, almost 30 percent. So we have seen more ability to keep 
folks in the same place.
    On PCS spouse employment, first, thank you to Congress for 
increasing the stipend for the licensure to $1,000. We have had 
559 spouses that have taken advantage of that. Getting the word 
out, as General Brito mentioned, where we are leveraging things 
like our MyNavy Family app to get them to Military OneSource 
and then counselors at our fleet and family centers that can 
then connect them with both local businesses and other online 
opportunity is pretty essential.
    Ms. Speier. All right. General Kelly.
    General Kelly. Yeah, Madam Chairwoman, two quick things. 
One, we do permanent change of assignment, which is what 
General Ottignon was talking about. That is where you change 
your assignment but don't change your location. About 20 
percent of our moves already are PCA. We have had that for a 
number of years, and we continue to emphasize that.
    We learned something out of COVID, though, that I want to 
share, which is we started programs, obviously forced to for 
telework, but we started our program called remote work, and we 
formalized the policy where we now have, particularly for staff 
assignments, not every assignment lends itself to it, but for 
staff assignments folks who get a staff assignment but never 
leave their current location.
    I have a person on my staff who lives in Louisiana, one who 
lives in Texas, who are now assigned to the A-1 here in the 
Pentagon who never PCSed. They've remote-worked from down 
there. They do their things. Every once in a while, they come 
TDY [temporary duty] to the Pentagon, but they never moved. We 
saved PCS dollars, and they live in the same location where 
they were.
    Ms. Speier. Great. Thank you.
    General Ottignon. Madam Chairwoman, the only one I would 
add from my colleagues--and I do agree that licensure fees were 
very popular. The other one I think that I know you are very 
passionate about it is childcare. I think that is something 
else that is something we want to pay attention to.
    And as I have mentioned before, I have seen some great 
success with our off-base fee assistance and where we take what 
the rate would be for the installation and capped at $1,500, 
that if they cannot get on to the base, that there is an 
ability to provide childcare off base. So I think those are 
some important things that I know we want to work very hard at, 
because I think that also lends itself to employment from our 
spouses.
    Ms. Speier. Thank you.
    Ms. Mulcahy.
    Ms. Mulcahy. And, Chairwoman, I want to thank you for that 
question too. We have been really focusing at both our junior 
and our senior folks with--that come up for assignment to make 
sure those that are part of a military couple, especially now 
that many of them are with the Air Force or with other 
services, to be taking that really deliberately into account.
    And then I too want to echo General Kelly and say that we 
have multiple instances now in this past year of where we have 
been able to do these remote assignments for staff assignments 
for NCOs and for officers and it has been very successful.
    Ms. Speier. All right. Final question, parental leave. We 
have authorized 12 weeks. I want to know, are you each going to 
institute 12 weeks for the service member?
    Ms. Mulcahy. I will go first, Chairwoman. We will.
    Ms. Speier. Whether they are giving birth or the----
    Ms. Mulcahy. Foster care or adoption, yes, Chairwoman.
    Ms. Speier. Okay.
    General Ottignon. Madam Chairwoman, one of the things I 
wanted to let you know was that we will, this week, release the 
3-week secondary care leave that we discussed.
    Ms. Speier. Excellent. Good.
    General Ottignon. And we are going to work very closely 
with the Department to implement the NDAA language for the law. 
And as you know, the Commandant has spoken pretty clearly, both 
written and in the press, about his commitment to families and 
to that particular issue.
    Ms. Speier. General Kelly.
    General Kelly. Chairwoman, easy answer, yes, we are going 
to implement in the full state of the law. We are ready and the 
policy is ready to go as soon as DOD publishes it.
    Ms. Speier. All right. Admiral Nowell.
    Admiral Nowell. In similar fashion, on the 3 weeks, the 
Navy is supportive of that as well, and we are working with OSD 
on the 12 weeks.
    Ms. Speier. Well, are you going to increase that? You can 
do that now to 3 weeks and then it is going to be 12 weeks 
coming----
    Admiral Nowell. And then we are working with OSD on the 
implementation of the NDAA language, yes.
    Ms. Speier. Okay. Very good.
    General Brito. Uniform, ma'am, yes on the 3, and as the 
NDAA law comes out, execute the 12 as well.
    Ms. Speier. Thank you. My time is expired.
    The gentleman from--what State are you from?
    Mr. Gallagher. Wisconsin.
    Ms. Speier. The gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized for 
5 minutes.
    Mr. Gallagher. Alaska, Wisconsin, cold States. I come from 
a family of Domers, so it is disgusting to hear all this Notre 
Dame love going on.
    Vice Admiral Nowell, I genuinely appreciate you responding 
to my letter. A lot of times we send these letters and we don't 
get a response; we may have a disagreement on the issue. But my 
concern at the time, in response to your comments that we need 
to use photos to enforce diversity for general officer, flag 
officer selection boards, was that we are going to start 
explicitly judging people by the color of their skin, and that 
might sort of paradoxically stoke racial tension as opposed to 
alleviate it, as well as undermine sort of the concept of a 
color-blind meritocracy, which my view is essential to the 
military.
    Your response was--well, I will let you respond and 
characterize your response as opposed to mischaracterizing it 
myself.
    Admiral Nowell. Sir, thanks for that. And those comments at 
Sea-Air-Space and--I think what I would zero in on is that when 
we talk about diversity, we always talk about not only 
diversity of race, gender, and ethnicity, but of thought, of 
where you are from, Wisconsin, for instance, or how you attack 
problems. And we value all of that. So for us it is all about 
warfighting readiness. So that is really the point that we want 
to make.
    And to your point, we don't ever want, in the Navy or I 
think any of the services, to not give both the reality as well 
as the appearance of being a meritocracy. So we do think that 
that is very important.
    Mr. Gallagher. I do appreciate that, because I think 
sometimes when we hear the CNO or other Navy officials say 
diversity is our strength, it raises the question, well, what 
type of diversity are we talking about.
    Admiral Nowell. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Gallagher. If we are solely talking about racial and 
gender diversity to the exclusion of intellectual diversity, 
then we might have a disagreement on this committee. And I am 
hearing you say we are talking about all sorts of different 
types, correct?
    Admiral Nowell. That is true, sir. And the way that we 
characterize it is that you not only want a diverse team, but 
you have to lead it inclusively so that everybody is a part of 
that team and they are buying in. And so that is part of not 
your question, but as we look at what we are calling our 
culture of excellence, that is all part and parcel of that, so, 
again, about warfighting readiness.
    Mr. Gallagher. And I think is the issue in the Navy--
because the Navy concedes it is more diverse than the rest of 
the population. But the issue is specifically with the flag 
officer class, which is not as diverse as the rest of the 
population.
    Admiral Nowell. And that is a great point, sir. So I will 
tell you, one, so we do know, though, we need to bring more 
diversity in the front door across all of the areas that you 
have been talking about. And then we have got to do a better 
job retaining it. And then as we look at the flag ranks, while 
we have made progress there, we are not where we want to be. In 
most meetings, I look around the room and it is a lot of folks 
that look very much like me. So that--where the rubber meets 
the road in the Navy is our 17 communities.
    Mr. Gallagher. Yeah.
    Admiral Nowell. And so the CNO and the vice chief meet 
biannually, so twice a year, with the three-star that leads 
each of those communities. And they talk about what are you 
doing across character, across competence, and then 
connectedness. And they specifically look at how are you 
developing your leaders--O-4, O-5, O-6--so that we actually 
have the folks going into those flag boards.
    Mr. Gallagher. You have made this claim that diverse teams 
that are led inclusively perform better. And does the Navy have 
data to support that claim? And what type of diversity are you 
talking about in that context?
    Admiral Nowell. So I will tell you, a lot of times when you 
hear that, they are Harvard business studies or from academia 
that will give that to you, and typically they are talking more 
from the standpoint of race, gender, and ethnicity. So we 
certainly know, though, that when we look at ships that are 
knocking out of the ballpark during their deployment workups, 
it is a diverse team across all those areas and it is led 
inclusively. We are just now, though, getting after the better 
data collection to be able to say, here is that outcome and now 
we can link that all the way.
    Mr. Gallagher. Again, it is like what type of diversity, 
though? If it is true that more racially or gender diverse 
teams on ships perform better, that is an interesting finding. 
But when you actually look at documents the Navy has produced 
for evidence, it is not saying that.
    Specifically, you cite in--the Task Force One Navy report 
cites an article from 2014 from the proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences, which took 180 people with finance 
experience and gave them brief exposure to diversity, basically 
taking a White participant to a non-White participant, and then 
sent them to individual computer terminals to make fake bets on 
fake stock markets. And that is the citation that the Navy uses 
to say diverse teams are 58 percent more likely than nondiverse 
teams to accurately assess a situation.
    I think that--I actually think that undermines the case 
because it is such a poorly designed study that is not 
applicable to the world of finance, let alone to the specific 
business of asking young men and women to kill and be killed 
for their country.
    The other study you--the Navy cites is this 2015 McKinsey 
study called ``Diversity Matters.'' It omits half the data set, 
and it also has this complicated formula for quantifying sort 
of the diversity of a board that makes no sense if you dig into 
it.
    So I just bring--I have run out of time. I know this is a 
fraught topic. I actually think if we had better social 
science, we would better answer this question. In the report 
that was just mentioned that we read into the record, if you 
look at the methods--I just got this, so forgive me--it admits 
it is not a statistically representative sample. So what are we 
supposed to do with it if we can't--if we can't even understand 
the problem. I don't know how we can devise a solution.
    So I have gone over my time. I am sorry, Madam Chairwoman. 
You can take it from future time.
    Ms. Speier. The gentleman's time is expired.
    The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Jackson, is recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Dr. Jackson. Thank you, ma'am. I don't have any further 
questions.
    Ms. Speier. All right. Mr. Fallon, you are recognized for 
another 5 minutes if you would like.
    I think he is not listening.
    All right. So----
    Mr. Gallagher. He is on social media.
    Ms. Speier. I want to thank you all for participating 
today. We are very engaged, as you can tell. We want to see the 
services succeed in meeting their goals for both accession and 
retention, and we want a 21st century military. I mean, it is 
different, and we have got to change our ways so that we can 
retain the talent that we develop. So, many of these questions 
fall into that category.
    I would like to just close by thanking you, and I 
appreciate the fact that you appear to be very flexible in 
terms of looking at the future. And I really think that is 
going to be necessary if we are going to be successful.
    So I am going to identify the testimony that I am going to 
be putting into the record. It is congressional testimony from 
the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO.
    And, without objection, that will be admitted into the 
record.
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
on page 101.]
    Ms. Speier. And we stand adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 3:48 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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                           A P P E N D I X

                            February 8, 2022
      
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              PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

                            February 8, 2022

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                   DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

                            February 8, 2022

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              WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING

                              THE HEARING

                            February 8, 2022

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              RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MS. SPEIER

    General Brito. 1. When did the option start? 1 Jul 2021
    2. How many soldiers have been given the option to go to Alaska? 
All qualified applicants in 35 MOSs have had it available to them 
(Option 20).
    3. How many soldiers have expressed a preference to be assigned to 
Alaska so far (over what time period--program start to X date)? From 1 
Jul 21 to 14 Mar 22, 844 Soldiers have selected Option 20 as part of 
their Enlistment Contract.
    4. Of the soldiers who expressed a preference to be assigned to 
assigned to Alaska, how many have been sent or given orders to go to 
Alaska so far? How many have been denied, and how many is the request 
still pending?
        846 Contracted for Alaska
        403 are in some TTHS account (contracted, shipped)
        363 have not yet shipped to training (contracted, not shipped)
        80 are in an operational unit
        Zero have been denied.
    5. Of the soldiers who have volunteer to go to Alaska and have been 
sent to Alaska so far, what data does the Army have about how well they 
are succeeding compared to soldiers who did not volunteer to go to 
Alaska? If the Army does not yet have data to share, what data is the 
Army collecting and how does it plan to analyze differences in outcomes 
between soldiers who volunteered to go to Alaska and soldiers who did 
not?
    ARI, ICW ARD, was tasked to address VCSA Priorities 12 
(Longitudinal Assessment of Option 20 Cohorts) and 24e (Develop Options 
20 Assessment Measures). On 11 Mar, COL Wes Hankins briefed the status 
of priorities tasked to G-1 to the VCSA. VCSA accepted ARI's 
recommendation that the longitudinal study cannot be conducted until 
FY24 because there are insufficient Option 20 Soldiers on the ground 
and that measures of job performance, attitudes, resilience, and 
attrition be developed 6-9 months prior to start of study. He requested 
a research plan 2 months from the briefing, approximately 11 May.'' The 
measures will be administered to Option 20 Soldiers, non-Option 20 
Soldiers in AK, and Soldiers in the lower 48 in the same timeframe.   
[See page 11.]
                                 ______
                                 
             RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MS. ESCOBAR
    General Ottignon. We will reach out to this individual to determine 
her eligibility and desire to serve.   [See page 16.]
                                 ______
                                 
            RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY DR. JACKSON
    General Brito.
      Active Duty Army Medical Department Officers comprise 16% 
of the total Active Duty force.
      The Active Duty Army Medical Department has 18 of 295 GOs 
(6%).
      LTG Dingle, the Army Surgeon General, assesses the Army 
is adequately represented by medical officers at the provider and 
general officer levels. Strategic level requirements differ from those 
at the provider level. As such, the Army requires a smaller percentage 
of medical general officers, compared to the total number of general 
officers.   [See page 22.]
    Admiral Nowell. The number of flag officers assigned within the 
Navy is based on function rather than the number of subordinates or the 
eligible pool of personnel from which they are selected. Mandatory flag 
officer reductions required by the National Defense Authorization Act 
(NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2017, which eliminated 11 flag officers, and the 
FY22 NDAA, which requires each Secretary concerned to detail a 
commissioned officer no lower than O-7 to serve as special trial 
counsel has pressurized an already lean Navy flag wardroom requiring 24 
billets to be eliminated, merged, downgraded, or civilianized by the 
end of 2022. These reductions come at a time when the great powers 
competition demands more in the Maritime domain making hard choices 
much more difficult. The Navy conducted an in depth review of flag 
officer billets and determined, based on mission requirements, the best 
use of the limited authorizations that will remain following the above 
mentioned reductions. Despite these reductions, the medical community 
and the Medical Corps are, and remain, adequately represented.   [See 
page 22.]
    General Kelly. The Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) comprises 18% 
of total Air Force officers while AFMS general officers (9 total) 
comprise 5.4% of Air Force general officers. There is no known 
operational or care delivery impact as a result of this current rank 
composition. The AFMS is structured through the line of the Air Force. 
This unique force structure empowers line of the Air Force senior 
leaders and general officers to advocate on behalf of the medical 
components, which amplifies advocacy achieved by medical general 
officers.   [See page 22.]
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps defers to Navy on the adequacy 
of General/Flag officers in the Medical Corps.   [See page 22.]
    Ms. Mulcahy. Please see response to the same question from A1/SG. 
There are no USSF equities to this question.   [See page 22.]
    
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              QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING

                            February 8, 2022

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

                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. SPEIER

    Ms. Speier. What data is the Army collecting on officer and 
enlisted servicemember satisfaction with the personnel assignments 
process and what does that data indicate for the three most recent 
years? If no such satisfaction data is being collected, is the Army 
considering implementing satisfaction surveys of servicemembers after 
assignments are made?
    General Brito. The Officer Personnel Management Directorate (OPMD) 
at Human Resources Command (HRC) conducted a survey of Army Talent 
Alignment Process (ATAP) participants over the last two years. Officers 
take the survey after the ATAP market is complete and as part of the 
process to obtain orders for their new assignment. The Enlisted 
Personnel Management Directorate does not yet have an assignment 
satisfaction survey, but is considering implementing one in the future.
    There are two officer assignment cycles throughout the year: a 
large market for summer movers and a smaller market for those officers 
moving in the winter. HRC did not ask about Officer ``satisfaction'' in 
either of the smaller winter market surveys. However, HRC did ask about 
``satisfaction'' in the survey of the summer 2021 market, and about 
``trust'' in the survey of the summer 2022 market. The questions and 
results (grouped) are as follows:
    1. Survey questions and results for the Summer 2021 market:
        a.  ``Rate your overall satisfaction with the assignment you 
        received.'' 82% Extremely Positive/Positive; 11% Neutral; 7% 
        Negative/Extremely Negative
        b.  ``Rate your overall satisfaction with AIM2 (the interface 
        used).'' 62% Extremely Positive/Positive; 22% Neutral; 16% 
        Negative/Extremely Negative
    2. Survey question and initial results for the Summer 2022 market 
(results are still coming in):
        a.  ``How much do you agree with the following statement: I 
        trust the Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP).'' 70% Strongly 
        Agree/Agree; 29% Disagree/Strongly Disagree
HRC and OPMD plan to continue the survey program through future ATAP 
cycles, and will look at more pointedly addressing Officer satisfaction 
in future iterations.
    Ms. Speier. When does the Army expect to next publish or update its 
strategic plan for diversity and inclusion for military personnel?
    General Brito. Since the Army introduced its diversity and 
inclusion strategic plan in September of 2020, the Army has made 
positive strides in identifying and bringing awareness to potential 
barriers to success within the Army's culture. Many initiatives, such 
as Project Inclusion, remain ongoing as we continue to gather more data 
to validate and mitigate any potential barriers while listening to 
concerns from Soldiers across the Total Force. We are currently in the 
process of staffing and revising our existing strategy to align with 
the DOD priorities. We expect to have an updated plan by the end of 
summer 2022.
    Ms. Speier. What data is the Navy collecting on officer and 
enlisted servicemember satisfaction with the personnel assignments 
process and what does that data indicate for the three most recent 
years? If no such satisfaction data is being collected, is the Navy 
considering implementing satisfaction surveys of servicemembers after 
assignments are made?
    Admiral Nowell. An excellent Sailor experience with the personnel 
assignment process remains a core focus of MyNavy HR. Sailors and 
civilian spouses have the opportunity to provide feedback on the 
assignment process via survey requests and the directed website located 
at the bottom of all assignment orders and also included in the 
respective detailer's email signature block. Responses that require or 
request follow-up, are conducted by the respective Division Directors 
with a targeted response time of one business day via email or phone. 
Each response is provided to the Assistant Commander for Career 
Management.
    Provided below is the survey data collected from February 2018 to 
November 2020. We are still processing 2021 data. [Note: the original 
is a color pie chart.]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    .epsMs. Speier. When does the Navy expect to next publish or update 
its strategic plan for diversity and inclusion for military personnel?
    Admiral Nowell. Navy will publish an updated Diversity, Equity, and 
Inclusion (DEI) strategic plan following the release of the Department 
of Defense and Department of the Navy DEI Strategic Plans, which are 
currently in development.
    Ms. Speier. GAO completed their report (GAO-21-366) in May 2021 
detailing the Navy's undermanning in the surface fleet, which has led 
to mishaps and exhaustion. The Department concurred with each GAO 
recommendation.
    a. GAO reported last May that the surface fleet is manned at 15% 
below required (not funded) levels. Please provide an update for this 
statistic--what is current surface ship manning compared to required 
(not funded) crewing levels?
    b. What actions is the Navy taking to increase manning across the 
surface fleet to required crewing levels, not just funded positions? 
Please provide the Navy's plans to increase surface ship manning to 
required levels.
    c. By what date does the Navy expect to be able to fill all funded 
positions in the surface fleet with the proper fit?
    d. By what date does the Navy expect to be able to fill all 
required crewing in the surface fleet with the proper fit? What are the 
Navy's long-term plans to address this problem?
    e. What is the current status of implementation for GAO 
recommendations 5 and 6 of report GAO-21-366?
    f. What resources do you need from Congress to complete these GAO 
recommendations?
    Admiral Nowell. A. As of March 3, 2022, Navy has 193 surface ships. 
Billet requirements are 83,355, and Sailors Current On Board are 
74,096, for a current surface ship manning level of 88.7 percent, 12.3 
percent below required levels.
    B. Navy's principal focus on this issue remains unchanged and 
increasing manning levels across the surface fleet is a strategic 
objective for the MyNavy HR enterprise. MyNavy HR is using a variety of 
Force Management tools to attack this issue, including:
      Financial incentives, such as Assignment Incentive Pay, 
Sea Duty Incentive Pay (SDIP) and Incremental Sea Duty Incentive Pay.
      Policy levers, such as rating conversions, high-year 
tenure flexibility, and directed detailing (extending Sailors on sea 
duty and curtailing shore duty tours).
    C. Navy is making effective and sustainable improvements to filling 
all funded surface fleet billets, by seeking new and innovative ways to 
mitigate shortfalls in the surface fleet. MyNavy HR has adopted the 
Perform to Plan--Human Resources process to address a wide range of 
issues in the distribution process that currently limit our ability to 
close gaps in operational billets. For example, Navy is instituting the 
Detailing Marketplace Assignment Policy (DMAP), a new comprehensive set 
of personnel policies designed to improve Fleet manning. DMAP will 
replace the current Sea Shore Flow policy and provide monetary 
incentives, non-monetary incentives and early advancement opportunities 
for Sailors who stay Navy and stay on sea duty.
    We will continue to retain top talent through modernization efforts 
such as MyNavy Assignment, which better positions Navy to match 
skillsets to fill critical jobs in order to meet Fleet requirements. 
These efforts--combined with Navy's commitment to identifying and 
funding total ownership cost will ensure we have the Sailors to support 
the Navy the Nation needs.
    Funding for key manpower accounts are vital for Fleet wholeness and 
improved readiness. Support for Talent Management initiatives, MyNavy 
HR Transformation, and other enablers such as Marketing and 
Advertising, Special and Incentive pays are critical to recruiting, 
training, retention and improved talent management.
    Navy will continue to focus energy on ensuring the Fleet is fully 
and properly manned, with the right Sailor, in the right place, at the 
right time, with the right training. The number of Sailors on 
operational sea duty is at the highest level since 2014 and since 2017, 
we now have 10,000 more Sailors at sea for all sea duty units.
    D. Navy is on a deliberate path to provide seagoing commands with 
more Sailors who are better trained via an assortment of levers and 
mitigations that maximize Fit and Fill in the surface fleet such as 
optimized assignment of Master Chief, Senior Chief, and Chief Petty 
Officers, Journeyman redistribution, Sea-Shore Flow Improvements, Ready 
Relevant Learning, Advancement to Position, and Increase in SDIP. The 
number of Sailors on operational sea duty is at the highest level since 
2014 and since 2017, we now have 10,000 more Sailors at sea for all sea 
duty units.
    E. BACKGROUND: Recommendation 5: The Secretary of the Navy should 
ensure that the Office of Chief of Naval Operations and the Commander, 
U.S. Fleet Forces Command and Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet revise 
guidance to institutionalize the practice of using crew requirements to 
track and report positions that are filled.
    GAO was concerned that Navy did not have a permanent, codified 
policy of calculating Billet Requirements (BR) vice Billets Authorized 
(BA). While the Fleets annually issue a Sea Duty Manning Notice that 
contains this information, GAO stated a need for a higher-level 
document that would emphasize the use of crew requirements for tracking 
and reporting. After discussion, GAO concurred with the Navy's offer to 
update the current Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command/Navy Personnel 
Command Instruction 1300.1, Enlisted Manning Policy and Procedures, 
with BR definitions. This instruction is currently being updated. 
Additionally, on December 30, 2021, the Vice Chief of Naval Operations 
directed that Fit and Fill percentages will be calculated using the 
full manpower requirement. In light of these developments, GAO closed 
out Recommendation 5 as ``Closed Implemented.''
    BACKGROUND: Recommendation 6: The Secretary of the Navy should 
ensure that the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command and Commander, 
U.S. Pacific Fleet establish crewing targets that are based on analysis 
and assessment of risk.
    GAO accepted Navy's process after detailed discussion with U.S. 
Fleet Forces Command on how the annual joint Commander, U.S. Fleet 
Forces Command and Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet Sea Duty Manning 
Target Levels Notice is developed. GAO requested a copy of the updated 
``Sea Note;'' the annual notice was signed on March 7, 2022 and was 
provided to the GAO. GAO acknowledged receipt and processed 
Recommendation 6 for closure. Navy is awaiting confirmation from GAO 
the recommendation has been ``Closed Implemented.''
    F. No further resources required to complete recommendations 5 and 
6.
    Ms. Speier. What data is the Marine Corps collecting on officer and 
enlisted servicemember satisfaction with the personnel assignments 
process and what does that data indicate for the three most recent 
years? If no such satisfaction data is being collected, is the Marine 
Corps considering implementing satisfaction surveys of servicemembers 
after assignments are made?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps does not currently maintain a 
formal study on service member satisfaction with the personnel 
assignments process. However, assignment monitors engage with moving 
Marines through multiple means--online questionnaires, interviews 
(virtual and/or in-person during annual roadshows), and direct phone/
email correspondence. All of these engagement methods provide 
individual Marines the opportunity to communicate their duty and 
location preferences with their monitor and highlight any circumstance 
or preference changes, directly increasing the Marine's potential 
satisfaction with their assignment.
    Consistent with Talent Management 2030, we believe a baseline of 
satisfaction could provide additional insight on service member 
satisfaction can inform and add value to future development of the 
Talent Management information technology platforms discussed in the 
strategy. As such, we plan to explore development of an annual survey 
for the movement population upon establishment at permanent change of 
station or permanent change of assignment.
    Ms. Speier. When does the Marine Corps expect to next publish or 
update its strategic plan for diversity and inclusion for military 
personnel?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps published its DE&I Strategic 
Plan in May 2021. It is a deliberate effort to (1) examine the current 
state, (2) envision outcomes, and (3) set a path over the next five 
years that will help the Service increase diversity, equity, and 
inclusion. We are currently in the first year of the plan and the 
setting conditions phase. The Maine Corps is putting in place the 
infrastructure, programs, and resources required to support the plan. 
The Marine Corps plan aligns with higher departmental guidance and has 
flexibility to incorporate further or additional institutional guidance 
as required.
    Ms. Speier. Lieutenant General David Ottignon discussed the Marine 
Corps' new talent management system and the need for funding to 
complete development. a. How much funding does the Marine Corps need to 
complete the talent management modernization? b. Has that funding been 
requested in FY22 or FY23? c. If funding was requested in FY22, how 
much was requested? d. If funding has not been requested, how does the 
Marine Corps intend on funding the modernization?
    General Ottignon. The cost estimate for the overarching Talent 
Management 2030 (TM2030) effort is in progress. The Commandant 
established the Marine Corps Talent Management Strategy Group (TMX) to 
refine the associated requirements and cost estimates. The highest 
priority and foundational building block requirement for TM2030 is the 
modernization of the portfolio of IT systems that supports Marine Corps 
personnel data, products and services. We did not request funding for 
personnel IT systems modernization in the FY 2022 budget, but we will 
request a portion of the requirement in the FY 2023 budget. The Marine 
Corps will plan to request the remaining requirements in FY 2024 and 
future FYs.
    Ms. Speier. When will the Marine Corps fully integrate females at 
the platoon level of bootcamp? Is there a plan in place to accomplish 
full integration? If not, why will full integration not be 
accomplished?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps will meet the requirements of 
the FY20 NDAA within the specified timelines through deliberate 
planning, adaptation, evaluation, and refinement while assuring our 
continued ability to transform civilians into Marines and maintain our 
combat capability.
    The Marine Corps values integrated recruit training. Gender 
integration contributes to cohesive units capable of diverse thought 
and intelligent action necessary for combat effectiveness. Recruit 
training marks the beginning of the transformation of a civilian into a 
United States Marine and demonstrates the Marine Corps' resolve to 
instill our warrior ethos.
    We submitted a recent update to our gender integration plan in 
accordance with the NDAA. Integrated training companies will continue 
and will increase in number to include the West Coast. We continue 
building capacity of female drill instructors, which has had its 
challenges mainly due to eligible population of females for this duty. 
The University of Pittsburgh study, delayed due to COVID, should 
release its recommendations this summer and we continue to identify the 
facility requirements and infrastructure investments to support the 
requirement. The Marine Corps is using a proven model of gender 
integration at recruit training that maximizes unit cohesion, 
accountability, equity, diversity, and sustainability for both the 
recruits and drill instructors.
    The Marine Corps will conduct an annual review to analyze measures 
of performance and measures of effectiveness in order to continually 
refine and optimize this model. Recruit training and Officer Candidate 
School (OCS) are only the initial stages of the training continuum. 
Enlisted Marines progress to the School of Infantry (SOI) and officers 
to The Basic School (TBS), which are both integrated at the platoon 
level. After graduating from SOI or TBS, Marines proceed through 
Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) schools which are integrated to 
increasingly lower levels.
    Ms. Speier. When does the Space Force expect to next publish or 
update its strategic plan for diversity and inclusion for military 
personnel?
    Ms. Mulcahy. The DOD Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and 
Accessibility (DEIA) Strategy is expected to be published in April 
2022, in alignment with Executive Order 14035, Diversity, Equity, 
Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce.
    The Department of the Air Force DEIA Strategy is in final stages of 
coordination. The goal is to release the document soon after OSD 
releases the DOD Strategy. The USSF will release their strategic plan 
after the DAF Strategy is released.
    Ms. Speier. Considering the size of the Space Force as currently 
envisioned, how will the Space Force manage talent and promotions with 
the smaller pool of eligible and qualified candidates without nearly 
every officer needing to be promoted to fill requirements, especially 
in the senior ranks?
    Ms. Mulcahy. The Space Force will manage talent and promotions in 
accordance with 10 USC 623. SECAF will ``determine the number of 
officers in the promotion zone for officers serving in any grade and 
competitive category from among officers who are eligible for promotion 
in that grade and competitive category'' based on an estimate of the 
number of officers needed in that competitive category in the next 
higher grade in each of the next five years and the number of officers 
to be serving in that competitive category in the next higher grade in 
each of the next five years.''
    One of the most challenging aspects of talent management is 
identifying and promoting the best qualified individuals. Current 
performance is the best predictor of future performance under similar 
conditions, but on its own, does not predict adequately how an 
individual will perform with greater authority and responsibility. As 
we follow the dictates of 10 USC 623, the Space Force is exploring a 
new construct that assesses promotion readiness using three indicators: 
current performance, situational judgment, and other behavioral 
components of performance through the use of cognitive and non-
cognitive assessments which are still under development.
    Ms. Speier. What data is the Air Force collecting on officer and 
enlisted servicemember satisfaction with the personnel assignments 
process and what does that data indicate for the three most recent 
years? If no such satisfaction data is being collected, is the Air 
Force considering implementing satisfaction surveys of servicemembers 
after assignments are made?
    General Kelly. The Air Force implemented the automated Talent 
Marketplace application in 2018, which facilitates advertising, 
bidding, and matching officer assignments with transition to some 
enlisted assignment practices also underway. Talent Marketplace permits 
an officer to express assignment preferences and facilitates 
communication between hiring authorities and the officer during the 
assignment matching process. Talent Marketplace also captures 
historical data for previous officer assignment cycles according to 
officer's rank-ordered preferences. Data collected over the past three 
years reflects less than 6% of officers were matched to a location they 
indicated as less than desirable. For enlisted Airmen, Talent 
Marketplace currently has limited assignment capabilities; moving 
forward, enlisted assignment expansion is in progress and is a priority 
funded project for FY22 and FY23.
    Ms. Speier. When does the Air Force expect to next publish or 
update its strategic plan for diversity and inclusion for military 
personnel?
    General Kelly. The DOD Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and 
Accessibility (DEIA) Strategy is expected to be published on or about 
23 March 2022, in alignment with Executive Order 14035, Diversity, 
Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce. The 
Department of the Air Force plans to release its DEIA Strategy soon 
after OSD releases the DOD Strategy.
    Ms. Speier. What is the Air Force doing to retain pilots (or other 
specialists, such as medical providers and cyber operators) who want to 
continue fly (or practice medicine or stay on keyboard, etc.) but are 
not interested in advancing into leadership positions?
    General Kelly. The Air Force works to retain pilots, and other 
specialist, using a combination of quality of service and monetary 
benefits. For quality of service, we've added additional support staff 
to operational units to reduce administrative burdens. We routinely use 
retention bonuses to provide financial incentives. For those who are 
interested in continuing to fly or practice their specialty without 
moving to leadership positions, we rely on our development teams to 
design assignments that maintain proficiency and leverage skills; if 
members are passed over for promotion, we use continuation boards to 
retain those with the skill sets we need for the future. Options to 
transfer into the Reserve or Guard components also exist which usually 
entail many opportunities to focus exclusively on technical tracks 
while remaining part of the Total Force.
    There are two main concerns expressed by pilots when surveyed: a) a 
fly-only track and b) reduction of additional duties. A fly-only track 
would allow pilots to remain as line pilots. Challenges being discussed 
are the impact on development and promotion, as well as the ability to 
on- and off-ramp for late bloomers or those who become interested in 
leadership opportunities later on in their careers. Reduced additional 
duties will create more time for pilots to focus on flying and improve 
quality of life and quality of service for the member. Civilian 
positions in Commander Support Staffs have been funded to relieve 
administrative burdens and more are being considered. Further analysis 
on both initiatives are still continuing and updates will be provided 
as progress is made.
                                 ______
                                 
                  QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. HOULAHAN
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies such as Defense Health Agency 
(via Workforce 3.0) and Space Force (outlined in the Guardian Ideal) 
are exploring workforce strategies that have been used extensively 
within industry to identify siloed or otherwise hidden pools of talent 
in order to immediately identify and deploy talent when and where it's 
needed. Delivering on this concept requires changes in culture, 
assignment and procurement policy, and investment in workforce 
marketplace technology. Would this body entertain the development of a 
workforce strategies, supported by an engagement platform that would 
seek to identify hidden or siloed talent, identify, and address crucial 
talent gaps, and support joint deployment of talent when and where 
needed?
    General Brito. The Army would entertain development of workforce 
strategies, supported by an engagement platform that would seek to 
identify hidden or siloed talent, identify, and address crucial talent 
gaps, and support joint deployment of talent when and where needed.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies have numerous systems that are 
outdated, and often used for single purposes, but house useful data. 
Having too many disparate systems that do not integrate well with other 
systems prevents automation that could drive tremendous time and cost 
savings. It also complicates the ability to achieve data transparency, 
so that all the data you need is in one place, enabling true analytics 
to drive automation or business decisions. Modern talent platforms can 
house many single-purpose tools within the same platform and can serve 
as a hub to ingest external data into one place for data transparency 
and automation purposes. Would the witnesses recommend exploration of 
talent technology platforms that promote data transparency and 
efficiency?
    General Brito. HQDA is currently exploring Integrated Personnel and 
Pay System--Army (IPPS-A) as the modern single-purpose talent platform 
that integrates over 1.1 million Soldiers into a multi-component 
(Active, Reserve and National Guard) personnel and pay system to 
deliver Total Force visibility to support Readiness, Talent Management 
and Auditability. IPPS-A will be the Authoritative Data Source (ADS) 
serving as a hub to maintain authoritative Soldier data for data 
transparency and enabling the automation of personnel transactions in a 
single platform. IPPS-A will be the critical enabler for HR data 
analytics to achieve HRM Strategic Goals and Objectives and real-time 
decision making. Development and implementation of the new system is 
more than the deployment of an information technology solution, it is a 
change in how the Army will conduct personnel and pay business 
activities. The system will provide a single database of all Army 
personnel and pay information creating a single member record for all 
Soldiers and will include both a classified and unclassified version.
    IPPS-A Release 3.0 provides core capabilities that support 
accountability and essential personnel services necessary to subsume 
numerous legacy field systems and establishes a consolidated system 
that provides accountability of Soldiers in all three Components and 
tracking of all personnel to include deployed Soldiers. Additionally, 
Release 3 will include the foundation of a robust data warehouse that 
enables talent management and business analysis that will be completed 
in subsequent builds. The warehouse allows commanders and staffs to 
manage their talent, find essential insights about their Soldier 
population, and enables decision-making. At the corporate level, it 
will enable the Army to make strategic human resource decisions that 
shape the Army. Release 3.0 will allow Commanders in the field the 
ability to access timely, accurate, and standardized personnel data for 
Soldiers in all components and provide a basic means to identify 
Soldiers who should be on the payroll for each given mission.
    In addition to delivering most of the functions required to 
establish an Army-wide HR system, Release 3.0 will include HR payroll 
drivers to enhance accuracy of pay, credit for service, and benefits. 
As a result of this release, IPPS-A will serve as the authoritative 
data source (ADS) for all personnel transactions across multiple 
security domains (NIPRNet and SIPRNet).
    Additional functionality scheduled for later development will allow 
the Army to reduce labor, enhance talent management, understand the 
force and enhance services for Soldiers. These capabilities include the 
following:
      In/out processing (checklists) and personnel action 
requests (PARs)
      Talent management (succession planning, CSL management) 
and PARs
      Business intelligence and HR analytics (HR actions & 
Talent Management) and HCM surveys
      Business intelligence and HR analytics (profile 
validator) and PARs
      Business intelligence and HR analytics (stress on force), 
customer relations modules and enterprise learning management (ELM)
    HQDA is also exploring Accession Information Environment (AIE) as 
the modern single purpose talent recruitment platform to acquire and 
retain talent. AIE will be serving a hub not only to centralize and 
standardize recruitment and accession process but also to maintain 
authoritative accession data to meet the required Total Army End 
Strength. The Army Accessions Enterprise (AAE) is data-driven, 
analytics-enabled, Soldier workforce centric, and customer-focused. It 
provides the Army's strength through its four (4) missions: (1) enlist 
Soldiers, (2) commission Officers, (3) fulfill In-Service requirements, 
and (4) support and sustain. The enterprise serves the Army well, but 
requires modernization to meet emerging requirements and ensure 
continued success.
    The Accessions Information Environment (AIE) is a program of record 
established to confront the challenges facing the AAE. AIE will 
implement new business practices and modern technology. It will be a 
fully integrated enterprise level capability enabling transparency, 
efficiency and effectiveness of the accessions workforce to acquire 
best qualified talent to meet all Army manning requirements. Data and 
analytics drive the AAE. Therefore, the AIE will be built on a 
foundation of data, information technology architectures and standards, 
infrastructure, and analytical tools to achieve a modern end state 
using configurable, commercial off the shelf (COTS)software. The 
envisioned end-state is a net-centric enterprise solution characterized 
by standardized architecture and data formats; maximized authoritative 
data discovery and sharing; fully integrated capabilities; intuitive 
ability to access, visualize, assess, and understand data; integrated 
and automated business processes; and single source data entry.
    Primary AIE users are Army Recruiting Command (USAREC), U.S. Army 
Cadet Command (USACC), and U.S, Army National Guard (ARNG), with a 
total of 28,200 core end users. AIE will operationalize eight (8) 
accessions enterprise core capabilities: Lead Generation/Management, 
Prospecting, Interviewing, Processing, Marketing, Intelligence, 
Training/Leader Development, and Pay and Incentives. The following 
system objectives have been established: Secure, Interoperable 
Solution; Mobility; Connectivity; Data Access, Accuracy, and 
Timeliness; Device-agnostic, Real-time Access from Multiple Domains; 
Interface to Systems of Record; Common Operating Picture; Knowledge 
Management; Leadership End-to-end Enterprise Visibility; Single Source 
Record, and Automated Business Processes. The AIE target infrastructure 
is a commercial cloud hosted on a commercial network.
    Ms. Houlahan. The military provides the training and experience 
that provides individuals with broad skills and talents. As individuals 
progress within their careers, either in other assignments within the 
Military, or in the private sector, it would provide tremendous mutual 
benefit to the government and the individuals to be mutually aware of 
new opportunities to use their various capabilities. Would the 
witnesses consider creation of a CRM (``candidate relationship 
management'') tool that would continually engage and nurture talent, so 
that the demand and supply of talent are aware that opportunities 
exist?
    General Brito. The Army is already developing ways to continually 
engage and develop talent so that individuals, units, and the Army are 
aware of available opportunities. In early 2019, the Army rolled-out an 
interactive assignment module that enabled officers to see all 
authorizations in the Army and filter them by rank, career field, 
location, or unit. This module is always available.
    Again, in 2019, the Army decentralized its assignment process using 
a regulated market-style hiring system that aligns officers with jobs 
based on their knowledge, skills, behaviors, and preferences (KSB-Ps) 
and the talent needs of commanders. The market-style hiring system--
commonly called the Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP)--incentivizes 
individuals to consider, develop, and report their talents (KSB-Ps) to 
attract attention from units.
    In 2020, the Asst. Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve 
Affairs (ASA(M&RA)) approved the idea of a talent attribute framework 
to establish a common language for describing, measuring, and recording 
KSB-Ps across the Army. The benefits of this ``language of talent'' are 
threefold. First, it provides a means for individuals to self-assess 
the talents they have gained through past assignments, previous 
civilian and cultural experiences, education, and self-development. 
Second, it allows Soldiers to align and employ their talents with 
progressive assignments and education choices.
    Finally, from a strategic talent management perspective, this frame 
work provides senior leadership a data-driven means for understanding 
the resident talent or talent that we must develop across the Total 
Force.
    Ms. Houlahan. Many former Military members who leave for the 
private sector express an interest in continuing to serve their 
missions. While the reserves are an option, many would prefer 
opportunities more in line with a private sector career. How would this 
committee outline a plan to compete for private sector talent to ease 
the bureaucracy around serving after leaving full-time service?
    General Brito. The Army has a number of programs that partner with 
industry. For example, The Training With Industry (TWI) places highly 
qualified Soldiers in corporations across specialties to provide an 
extensive exposure to managerial techniques and industrial procedures 
within corporate America. Applicant backgrounds are matched up against 
desired and required skills of the specific companies. Training 
received is normally not available either through the military school 
system or civilian university system. Another example is the Army 
Reserve's Private Public Partnership Office (P3O) ensures Army Reserve 
Soldiers are succeeding in their civilian careers, which directly 
benefits the Army and the Nation by bringing substantial value and 
depth to the force. More than 87% of the Army Reserve force integrates 
military service with civilian careers, providing the Army with 
professional skills, education, and expertise acquired in the private 
sector. Through collaboration with organizations offering job 
opportunities, and a nationwide network of corporate, profit/nonprofit 
and academic partners, the Army Reserve's P3O is increasing its efforts 
to connect Soldiers with internship, employment, and education 
opportunities.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the recommendations from the Audit of the 
Department of Defense Recruitment and Retention of the Civilian Cyber 
Workforce report been completed as due in 2021? if no, why don't the 
other branches just follow the Army's working lead?
    General Brito. The Army continues to comply with the requirement to 
code filled and unfilled positions to meet Federal requirements and 
comply with the DOD Coding Guide. The Army continues to mature its 
coding capabilities in both the personnel and manpower databases, and 
continuously evaluate quality assurance processes to continue complying 
with the DOD Coding Guide.
    Ms. Houlahan. Do you agree that a software automated workflow and 
management system is necessary to track, manage and report on Cyber 
Workforce Compliance adequately? The Army has a practice that seems to 
be working well. Are you aware of what cyber workforce compliance 
systems they are using? Is there a reason other services can't 
replicate the process?
    General Brito. Yes, the Army agrees that a software automated 
workflow and management system is necessary to track, manage, and 
report on Cyber Workforce Compliance adequately. The Army uses a 
combination of manual and automated workflow and management systems to 
ensure civilian cyber workforce compliance. Investing in modernized, 
automated software workflow and management systems would strengthen the 
Army's capability to track, manage, and report civilian cyber workforce 
compliance.
    Ms. Houlahan. How will the cyber workforce roles be codified and 
cataloged? Will this cover the entire cyber workforce: including 
contractors, civilians, and military? What are the challenges you're 
facing getting this initial inventory completed? (i.e., Why is this 
taking over five years to complete?)
    General Brito. The cyber work role codes for the military and 
civilian cyber workforces are codified and cataloged in the personnel 
and manpower systems. The civilian cyber workforce is currently 
cataloged in the civilian personnel database; and system updates are 
in-progress to include cataloging of civilian cyber work role codes in 
the manpower system. Cataloging the inventory of military work role 
codes in the military personnel and manpower systems is also in-
progress. The Army is concurrently updating military personnel and 
manpower systems to include the adoption of the Integrated Personnel 
and Pay System (Army) (IPPS-A) while employing the Defense Cyber 
Workforce Framework coding process. Contractor employees are not 
cataloged in Army systems are part of the ``Army workforce.''
    Ms. Houlahan. The NIST NICE framework's adoption codifies the cyber 
workforce and increases interoperability. Will this initial inventory 
be interoperable between components, or is there an alternative plan in 
place to enable training and rotation? Are there plans to align the 
cyber workforce to national standards?
    General Brito. The Defense Cyber Workforce Framework, which 
contains cyber work role codes and a lexicon, is derived from the NIST 
NICE framework and national cyber workforce standards. This framework 
is interoperable between Components.
    Ms. Houlahan. Cyber continues to be a recruiting/training/retention 
struggle across the country. Do we believe we have an accurate picture 
of our force levels? If not, what is the major obstacle?
    General Brito. We have an accurate picture of our forces. From 
FY16-22, the Cyber Branch increased 350% from 1200 to 5400 billets 
across the three components and cohorts. Our current civilian strength 
is around 6,000 personnel.
    To date, the Army Cyber Branch does not have a military recruiting 
challenge. The Army is achieving accession goals, attracting talented 
recruits with the highest Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery 
(ASVAB) scores and education levels to enlist and commission in the 
Cyber branch. The Army fills the branch in higher numbers than 
authorized strength to account for long training timelines. The service 
obligation to enlist or branch into the cyber branch is 6 years. The 6-
year service obligation is due to the length of time Soldiers spend in 
training.
    The Army trains cyber-Soldiers for assignments to both the Cyber 
Mission Force (CMF) and Army Service Component Commands (ASCC). ARCYBER 
and NSA trains a smaller subset of Cyber Soldiers for specialized work 
roles to support missions for the Cyber Mission Force. Specialized work 
role training periods for this subset range from three months to three 
years. The more technical the work role the longer the training period 
and the less likely the Army is to retain these Soldiers.
    Retention of Soldiers and civilians filling specialized work roles 
has been a challenge. The retention was within the Army's retention 
averages for the aggregate of the cyber branch. However, when we look 
at the specialized work role subset of the branch it is lower than the 
acceptable Army averages. As a result, the most difficult work roles 
receive the highest incentives and retention bonuses. To improve 
recruitment and retention, the Army is using all available incentives 
which include: Assignment Incentive Pay, Special Duty Assignment Pay, 
merit based promotions, brevet promotions, direct commissioning, and 
Selective Retention Bonuses for enlisted and warrant officers.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the branches improved the recruiting and 
tracking of cyber workforce? (Re: DOD IG finding that the accuracy and 
consistency is not yet there. In the IG Report, there were action items 
listed--seeking to follow up on that, due to be completed by 2021) How 
do you plan to keep this critical workforce cataloged and the skill 
sets up to date? Where and who is this tasked to?
    General Brito. The Army continues to mature its cyber workforce 
coding in both civilian personnel and manpower databases. This expanded 
view will allow the Army to better oversee and track staffing levels of 
the civilian cyber workforce. The Office of the Army Principal Cyber 
Advisor is actively coordinating with key Army stakeholders to oversee 
the recommendations of the DOD IG report; fully implement the Defense 
Cyber Workforce Framework for the civilian and military cyber 
workforces; and implement the unique qualification requirements 
outlined in the US Cyber Command Joint Cyberspace Training and 
Certification Standards manual.
    Ms. Houlahan. Is the cyber training, completed for military roles, 
transferrable to the commercial sector? How can this be improved?
    General Brito. The institutional and operational cyber units 
utilize a number of commercially-available systems and programs, and 
Soldiers are given course exams to demonstrate their proficiency in 
using them. Soldiers that pass the course exams receive certifications 
indicating they have mastered the expertise required to be awarded the 
certificate.
    Ms. Houlahan. The Department of Defense recently released its 
Software Modernization. The use of commercial cloud solutions to 
address the challenges of tracking and managing enterprise-wide 
educational requirements represents an opportunity to implement this 
strategy. The Air Force's implementation of the Air Education and 
Training Command's student lifecycle management program is an 
outstanding example of how a military service can utilize a commercial 
cloud solution to address a military requirement. Given this, I would 
appreciate if the witnesses from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and 
Space Force may provide specific examples of how their services seek to 
adopt this new strategy and utilize commercial and commercial off the 
shelf solutions to support enterprise-wide education management in the 
future.
    General Brito. The two enterprise systems that track any training 
or education in the HRM Domain are ATRRS and ArmyIgnited--neither are 
in the cloud. However, the T&R Domain is building out another 
enterprise system, Army Training Information System (ATIS). It is still 
in development, but it is projected to be in the cloud.
    ATIS will be a single system entry point for all aspects of Army 
training that will increase efficiency and accuracy in Army training 
management. It will be comprised of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) 
and/or Government Off-the-Shelf (GOTS) software products and be 
portable, which enables the system to give time back to the Soldiers, 
increasing overall readiness. As this system is fielded, the Army will 
reduce the overall cost of training by retiring duplicative, stove-
piped systems, and improve performance with a net-centric, governed, 
and architecturally compliant system. ATIS will serve as a program of 
record (PoR) that provides a common operational picture of the training 
environment through integrated, interoperable training development, 
management, scheduling, and delivery capabilities in all three training 
domains--Operational, Institutional, and Self-Development (O/I/SD). 
These capabilities will enable Commanders, leaders, Soldiers, and 
civilians to better understand, visualize, describe, direct, lead, and 
assess training requirements. ATIS PoR will deliver an Army enterprise 
capability to enable the Training Environment with a single system for 
scheduling, development, learning content management, training 
management and resource management for all individual and collective 
training and education.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies such as Defense Health Agency 
(via Workforce 3.0) and Space Force (outlined in the Guardian Ideal) 
are exploring workforce strategies that have been used extensively 
within industry to identify siloed or otherwise hidden pools of talent 
in order to immediately identify and deploy talent when and where it's 
needed. Delivering on this concept requires changes in culture, 
assignment and procurement policy, and investment in workforce 
marketplace technology. Would this body entertain the development of a 
workforce strategies, supported by an engagement platform that would 
seek to identify hidden or siloed talent, identify, and address crucial 
talent gaps, and support joint deployment of talent when and where 
needed?
    Admiral Nowell. Yes, Navy would entertain the development of a 
workforce strategy for identifying siloed talent in an effort to 
address talent gaps and supporting timely joint deployment of talent.
    If new talent is needed to fill these talent gaps, Navy currently 
has marketplace technologies in its strategy for recruiting towards 
specialty jobs. For example, Navy currently leverages online platforms 
for recruiting college students who possess highly technical skills 
aligning with Navy talent gaps. By using these types of tools, Navy has 
sourced 64 contracts in hard-to-fill jobs including Nuclear Submarine 
Officers, Nuclear Surface Warfare Officers, and Nuclear Engineers and 
Instructors.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies have numerous systems that are 
outdated, and often used for single purposes, but house useful data. 
Having too many disparate systems that do not integrate well with other 
systems prevents automation that could drive tremendous time and cost 
savings. It also complicates the ability to achieve data transparency, 
so that all the data you need is in one place, enabling true analytics 
to drive automation or business decisions. Modern talent platforms can 
house many single-purpose tools within the same platform and can serve 
as a hub to ingest external data into one place for data transparency 
and automation purposes. Would the witnesses recommend exploration of 
talent technology platforms that promote data transparency and 
efficiency?
    Admiral Nowell. The MyNavy HR enterprise is transforming how Human 
Resources (HR) services are offered through a holistic, end-to-end 
effort that will directly impact the entire Navy Hire-to-Retire 
lifecycle. The current IT architecture started with 50+ systems, having 
multiple operating systems, programming languages, hardware platforms 
with some over 30 years old. It is also recognized there are no 
centralized IT architecture or management processes, and it is 
expensive to sustain and extremely difficult to enhance and include 
support for new business processes needed for the modern Navy.
    With MyNavy HR Transformation we are building a high-performance 
enterprise that will be a modern, responsive, and customer focused HR 
system to manage and promote talent transparency and efficiency. By 
utilizing an Enterprise Authoritative Data Environment, Navy will use a 
single, integrated data source for MyNavy HR which will improve 
transparency and accuracy of Sailors' personnel records across the 
Navy, and provide commanders with comprehensive analytics to better 
support fleet readiness. These advances will also allow Navy to 
implement an integrated Active/Reserve pay system utilizing Navy 
Personnel and Pay that will improve pay support and audit capabilities 
leading to fewer pay issues and greater transparency.
    Ms. Houlahan. The military provides the training and experience 
that provides individuals with broad skills and talents. As individuals 
progress within their careers, either in other assignments within the 
Military, or in the private sector, it would provide tremendous mutual 
benefit to the government and the individuals to be mutually aware of 
new opportunities to use their various capabilities. Would the 
witnesses consider creation of a CRM (``candidate relationship 
management'') tool that would continually engage and nurture talent, so 
that the demand and supply of talent are aware that opportunities 
exist?
    Admiral Nowell. In many respects, the Navy is already doing this, 
but we do intend to consolidate legacy system functionality into our 
Personnel and Pay system along with our transformed tools to more 
effectively prepare Sailors for their military career and post-military 
opportunities.
    The Navy offers Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL), a 
convenient website and mobile app that provides Sailors with tools and 
information for making career decisions along with in-Service civilian/
industry certification and licensing opportunities. The website and app 
also provide insights into prospective occupations during a sailor's 
eventual transition from the Navy back to the civilian workforce.
    Tied into Navy COOL is MilGears, a customized career-building tool 
developed to assist service members by analyzing their unique history 
to include their military assignments and training, civilian education 
and credentialing, and apprenticeships. This data is then used to show 
service members what civilian opportunities are attainable, and if not 
attainable, MilGears will highlights steps service members can take to 
fill in education and training gaps that can make them more competitive 
in the job market.
    Ms. Houlahan. Many former Military members who leave for the 
private sector express an interest in continuing to serve their 
missions. While the reserves are an option, many would prefer 
opportunities more in line with a private sector career. How would this 
committee outline a plan to compete for private sector talent to ease 
the bureaucracy around serving after leaving full-time service?
    Admiral Nowell. Easing the 180-day rule that restricts the 
Department of Defense from hiring retired military to civilian 
positions within the first six months of retirement would allow the 
Navy to consider those retirees for employment sooner through fair, 
competitive applications while mitigating the risk of losing that 
talent to the private sector.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the recommendations from the Audit of the 
Department of Defense Recruitment and Retention of the Civilian Cyber 
Workforce report been completed as due in 2021? if no, why don't the 
other branches just follow the Army's working lead?
    Admiral Nowell. Updates to Department of Defense Chief Information 
Officer (DOD CIO) coding guidance is in progress. While Navy was not 
directly assigned response to the Audit, a review of the report listed 
recommendations and Navy's Cyber Workforce team is working closely with 
the DOD CIO Cyber team to ensure coding guidance is executable in the 
Navy.
    The report included a recommendation for DOD CIO to code filled and 
unfilled positions to meet Federal requirements and comply with the DOD 
Coding Guide. Navy completed coding efforts of the Civilian Cyber 
Workforce. The December 2021 release of the DOD Instruction 8140.02, 
Identification, Tracking, And Reporting of Cyberspace Workforce 
Requirements, is actively refining the initial coding guidance to focus 
on primary cyber workforce that perform primary cyber work.
    The report also included a recommendation for DOD CIO, in 
coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 
Readiness and the Office of the Chief Data Officer, to conduct a 
feasibility study of including quality assurance checks in systems used 
for coding civilian cyber workforce positions to ensure that work role 
coding is in accordance with the DOD Coding Guide. Navy is working to 
ensure processes are in place to validate and capture Cyber Workforce 
coding data to include proficiency levels. Modification to both 
databases have been made in the last two years to include required 
cyber workforce fields.
    Finally, the report recommended that, based on the results of the 
feasibility study, DOD CIO establish and implement a manual or 
automated (or combination of both) quality assurance process to 
determine compliance with the DOD Coding Guide. DOD CIO is in the 
process of refining coding guidance and once additional guidance is 
published, Navy will update current coding to comply with the new 
guidance. Updated guidance will need to be approved by the DOD Cyber 
Workforce Management Board (CWMB).
    Ms. Houlahan. Do you agree that a software automated workflow and 
management system is necessary to track, manage and report on Cyber 
Workforce Compliance adequately? The Army has a practice that seems to 
be working well. Are you aware of what cyber workforce compliance 
systems they are using? Is there a reason other services can't 
replicate the process?
    Admiral Nowell. Yes, Navy agrees that a software automated workflow 
and management system is necessary to identify, track, and assess the 
readiness of the cyberspace workforce. The Department of Navy currently 
utilizes Total Workforce Management Service cyber workforce module. The 
module receives automated feeds of data from both authoritative 
manpower and personnel databases in order to appropriately code the 
billet requirement and set qualifications requirements under the 
current Secretary of Navy cyber workforce program. While Navy is 
unfamiliar with the Army's compliance system, we have established 
meetings with DOD Cyber Workforce Advisory Group where they have 
representation.
    Ms. Houlahan. How will the cyber workforce roles be codified and 
cataloged? Will this cover the entire cyber workforce: including 
contractors, civilians, and military? What are the challenges you're 
facing getting this initial inventory completed? (i.e., Why is this 
taking over five years to complete?)
    Admiral Nowell. The Department of Defense (DOD) Directive, 8140.01, 
Cyberspace Workforce Management, establishes the DOD Cyberspace 
Workforce Framework (DCWF) as the authoritative reference for the 
identification, tracking, and reporting of DOD cyberspace positions. 
The cyberspace workforce will be codified and cataloged in 
authoritative manpower and personnel systems as they are properly 
configured to capture the quantitative data requirements. In December 
2021, the release of the DOD Instruction, 8140.02, Identification, 
Tracking, and Reporting of Cyberspace Workforce Requirements, requires 
all civilian and military positions performing cyberspace work be coded 
utilizing the DCWF. Navy has coded all civilian and military billets in 
the authoritative manpower and personnel databases. The challenges we 
faced with coding has been the allocation of resources to update 
authoritative manpower and personnel systems supporting cyberspace 
workforce identification, tracking, and reporting data requirements and 
processes. In addition, in order to require contractor personnel 
performing cyberspace work to be coded, the Defense Federal Acquisition 
Regulation Supplement Subpart 239.71 must be updated. Currently it 
addresses the DOD 8570.01-Manual, Information Assurance Workforce 
Program. The clause cannot be updated until the forthcoming DOD 8140 
Cyber Workforce and Qualification Manual is signed.
    Ms. Houlahan. The NIST NICE framework's adoption codifies the cyber 
workforce and increases interoperability. Will this initial inventory 
be interoperable between components, or is there an alternative plan in 
place to enable training and rotation? Are there plans to align the 
cyber workforce to national standards?
    Admiral Nowell. Yes, the Department of Defense (DOD) established 
the Defense Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF), which is based upon and 
aligns to the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) 
Cybersecurity Framework and DOD's Joint Cyberspace Training and 
Certification Standards. This is a comprehensive, standardized way to 
describe DOD cyber work using lists of tasks, knowledge, skills, and 
abilities for 54 work roles within seven categories and 32 specialty 
areas. The framework supports the interoperability and unity of action 
throughout the DOD. With the pending release of the DOD 8140 Cyber 
Workforce and Qualification Manual, components will be able to utilize 
this to target recruitment and retention strategies, identify 
enterprise-level qualifications, as well as develop role-based training 
standards.
    Ms. Houlahan. Cyber continues to be a recruiting/training/retention 
struggle across the country. Do we believe we have an accurate picture 
of our force levels? If not, what is the major obstacle?
    Admiral Nowell. Cyber recruiting and retention remains a challenge 
across the Navy due to competition for talented commissioned officers 
and enlisted Sailors within other Navy communities, other Services, 
other government organizations and agencies, and the private sector. We 
do have an accurate picture of our force levels and continue to 
aggressively work to improve recruiting and retention.
    The Navy Cyber Workforce consists of officers in the Cryptologic 
Warfare, Information Professional, Cyber Warfare Engineer, and Cyber 
Warrant Officer designators and enlisted Sailors in the Cryptologic 
Technician Networks (CTN) and Information System Technician (IT) rates 
within the Information Warfare Community.
    Navy fulfills both officer and enlisted cyber force manning via 
targeted recruiting throughout the Nation, targeting a principal 
audience of 17-24 year olds. Navy focuses most of its attention at the 
local high schools, community colleges, universities, and local 
workforce. Various programs within Navy's Marketing and Advertising 
strategy target these specific fields throughout social media platforms 
and job search sites. Navy also partners with various Science, 
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics affinity groups for community 
outreach; conducting engagement events that provide the Navy with 
direct access to high-achieving prospects and key influencers.
    The cyber communities all maintain training for specific skillsets. 
All cyber billets require an initial level of knowledge that is 
provided at all basic courses and with follow-on training that is 
provided prior to arrival to meet force requirements. There are three 
cyber skillsets, Cyber Warfare Engineer, Cyber Warrant, and CTN 
Interactive On Net (ION), which each have pre-requisites that include 
in-depth knowledge based screenings with follow-on schools and training 
that must be completed in order to perform critical cyber skillsets. 
Navy offers advanced training for our enlisted (IT Industry 
Certifications/COMPTIA/SEC+) and education opportunities (Tuition 
Assistance; NPS Enlisted Cyber Master's Program) to the enlisted cyber 
workforce. Our officers have opportunities to pursue Masters and 
Doctoral level education as well as participate in tours in private 
sector cyber industry.
    Navy has taken targeted actions to address retention and meet cyber 
force levels. In August 2021, Navy reinstated Selective Reenlistment 
Bonus for the CTN rating. Additionally, Navy uses Special Duty 
Assignment Pay and Sea Duty Incentive Pay, as needed. In 2018, Navy 
reinstituted the Warrant Officer 1 paygrade, which was last used in 
1974. The Cyber Warrant Officer 1 (WO1) program allows CTN ION E-5s 
with 6-14 Years of Service an opportunity to earn a commission to meet 
increasing demand for officers with specific computer network 
operations skills/abilities and provide increased advancement 
opportunity for our talented cyber workforce.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the branches improved the recruiting and 
tracking of cyber workforce? (Re: DOD IG finding that the accuracy and 
consistency is not yet there. In the IG Report, there were action items 
listed--seeking to follow up on that, due to be completed by 2021) How 
do you plan to keep this critical workforce cataloged and the skill 
sets up to date? Where and who is this tasked to?
    Admiral Nowell. Yes, overall Navy has improved the recruiting and 
tracking of the cyber workforce. The authoritative Navy database for 
Authorized Civilian and Military Cyber billets by work role and 
proficiency level is the Total Force Manpower Management System 
(TFMMS). Civilian Personnel Data is tracked in the Defense Civilian 
Personnel Data System and should be synchronize with TFMMS to ensure 
alignment of cyber coding. Qualification will be tracked via the Total 
Workforce Management Service Cyber Workforce Module. The module 
includes a readiness assessment tool to measure individual 
qualification and overall readiness. Cyber qualification requirements 
are pending approval with the release of the Department of Defense 8140 
Cyber Workforce and Qualification Manual.
    The Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve 
Affairs Reporting and Performance Metrics Branch, Manpower, Analytics, 
and HR Systems Directorate generates the civilian recruit and retention 
data reports. The Deputy Chief of Naval Operation (Manpower, Personnel, 
Training, and Education) provides military recruitment and retention 
information.
    Ms. Houlahan. Is the cyber training, completed for military roles, 
transferrable to the commercial sector? How can this be improved?
    Admiral Nowell. Navy's cyber training, military occupations, and 
qualifications are directly transferrable to the commercial sector as 
well as other federal government agencies. The Navy's cyber training 
directly relates to industry cyber-related certifications, which are 
attained while performing cyber military roles. These industry 
certifications are the same as those required and/or expected for 
cyber-related jobs in the commercial sector, as well as federal 
government cyber sector.
    The Navy Credentialing Opportunities On-Line and MilGears programs 
provide direct pathways to commercial and federal cyber occupations 
based on cyber training and the military roles and qualifications. The 
United Services Military Apprenticeship Program has incorporated U.S. 
Department of Labor cyber apprenticeships that may be recognized in the 
commercial sector towards cyber jobs.
    While we strive to make these opportunities known to all, further 
increasing awareness of these programs would assist individuals who are 
transitioning to the commercial sector or other federal agencies.
    Ms. Houlahan. The Department of Defense recently released its 
Software Modernization. The use of commercial cloud solutions to 
address the challenges of tracking and managing enterprise-wide 
educational requirements represents an opportunity to implement this 
strategy. The Air Force's implementation of the Air Education and 
Training Command's student lifecycle management program is an 
outstanding example of how a military service can utilize a commercial 
cloud solution to address a military requirement. Given this, I would 
appreciate if the witnesses from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and 
Space Force may provide specific examples of how their services seek to 
adopt this new strategy and utilize commercial and commercial off the 
shelf solutions to support enterprise-wide education management in the 
future.
    Admiral Nowell. Navy has been at the forefront of the adoption of 
the Department of Defense's software modernization efforts. Through the 
adoption and implementation of efforts like Sailor 2025 and Ready 
Relevant Learning, Navy identified the need to enhance the Sailor 
experience through modernized integration of IT architecture, what we 
refer to as MyNavy HR Transformation. Transformation is accomplished by 
leveraging an enterprise-oriented approach to IT architecture, 
highlighting its adaptability to meet future needs. Transformation 
focuses on the goals of enabling Sailor self-service, Commercial Off-
The-Shelf strategy and governance, cloud (Software as a Service) 
architecture, data warehouse consolidation, and a reduced 
infrastructure. In order to accomplish MyNavy HR Transformation, an 
effort that will overhaul the HR services provided to Sailors, their 
families, and future recruits, Navy has taken a ``Pillar'' approach. 
These pillars consist of Single Point of Entry, Navy Pay and Personnel, 
Enterprise Customer Relationship Management, Learning Stack, and 
Authoritative Data Environment. Each of these Pillars are standing up a 
core suite of integrated systems, developing a streamlines approach to 
operations, and optimizing data management.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies such as Defense Health Agency 
(via Workforce 3.0) and Space Force (outlined in the Guardian Ideal) 
are exploring workforce strategies that have been used extensively 
within industry to identify siloed or otherwise hidden pools of talent 
in order to immediately identify and deploy talent when and where it's 
needed. Delivering on this concept requires changes in culture, 
assignment and procurement policy, and investment in workforce 
marketplace technology. Would this body entertain the development of a 
workforce strategies, supported by an engagement platform that would 
seek to identify hidden or siloed talent, identify, and address crucial 
talent gaps, and support joint deployment of talent when and where 
needed?
    General Kelly. Yes, the Air Force is constantly exploring new ways 
to use current authorities to increase career flexibility for Airmen 
and leverage our workforce's specialized skills, talents, and 
capabilities. The Air Force is leading an effort called ``myLearning'' 
that aims to digitize how we capture skills and certifications many of 
our Airmen have earned through their Air Force-provided specialty 
training or other means. As we continue to stand-up full implementation 
of our myLearning platform, we will be able to connect Airmen who have 
certified skills to crucial talent requirements across the Air Force 
and our joint/combatant commanders. With this new platform, we see ways 
to deliver our Airmen's specialized talent to National Defense 
requirements at speed and scale we have never done before. 
Additionally, the Air Force has the longest history among the services 
using our modern ``Talent Marketplace'' to connect military Airmen with 
assignment options and duty requirements across the globe. This has 
proven to be an invaluable workforce management experience that 
balances Airmen and family needs and our service's workforce planning 
priorities. We welcome all additional authorities and resourcing that 
could further advance our ability to employ continued agile expansions 
to the Talent Marketplace and other Personnel IT Systems platforms.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies have numerous systems that are 
outdated, and often used for single purposes, but house useful data. 
Having too many disparate systems that do not integrate well with other 
systems prevents automation that could drive tremendous time and cost 
savings. It also complicates the ability to achieve data transparency, 
so that all the data you need is in one place, enabling true analytics 
to drive automation or business decisions. Modern talent platforms can 
house many single-purpose tools within the same platform and can serve 
as a hub to ingest external data into one place for data transparency 
and automation purposes. Would the witnesses recommend exploration of 
talent technology platforms that promote data transparency and 
efficiency?
    General Kelly. Yes. We are currently modernizing the Air Force 
Human Resource systems with the same goal of promoting data 
transparency and efficiency. We are actively working to consolidate 
systems into modern platforms. This is a multi-year project, and we are 
proceeding with care to ensure we maintain system capabilities while 
modernizing.
    Ms. Houlahan. The military provides the training and experience 
that provides individuals with broad skills and talents. As individuals 
progress within their careers, either in other assignments within the 
Military, or in the private sector, it would provide tremendous mutual 
benefit to the government and the individuals to be mutually aware of 
new opportunities to use their various capabilities. Would the 
witnesses consider creation of a CRM (``candidate relationship 
management'') tool that would continually engage and nurture talent, so 
that the demand and supply of talent are aware that opportunities 
exist?
    General Kelly. MyVector is an existing platform that actively 
manages force development, talent management, mentoring relationships, 
and assignment matching across the Air Force. Talent Marketplace is an 
application within the platform that allows hiring authorities to 
identify and match qualified officers based on their training, 
certifications, and experience. We are also adding a Talent Marketplace 
capability to areas of our enlisted assignment system. MyVector is one 
of many tools Airmen and Guardians use to document, advertise, and 
enhance their career development.
    Ms. Houlahan. Many former Military members who leave for the 
private sector express an interest in continuing to serve their 
missions. While the reserves are an option, many would prefer 
opportunities more in line with a private sector career. How would this 
committee outline a plan to compete for private sector talent to ease 
the bureaucracy around serving after leaving full-time service?
    General Kelly. In addition to marketing the DAF civilian workforce 
as a potential employer through our transition assistance programs, DAF 
leverages special Veteran and Direct hiring authorities (DHAs) to 
recruit veterans into civilian positions quickly without having to go 
through the traditional recruitment process.
    This committee can ease the bureaucracy around hiring members of 
the military by granting an across the board repeal of the requirement 
to obtain an approved waiver when hiring retired military members into 
civilian positions during the period of 180 days immediately after 
their retirement (5 U.S.C. Sec. 3326). The 180-day requirement creates 
barriers in the hiring process, and the enterprise loses valuable 
former military candidates. The DAF average time-to-hire without the 
required waiver approval process is 85 days, and with the waiver 
requirement 139 days (increase of over 50 days).1 Note: While DOD is 
affording some exceptions to the 180 day process when using DHA, many 
DHA 180 waiver requirement exceptions still do not exist, or are 
temporary.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the recommendations from the Audit of the 
Department of Defense Recruitment and Retention of the Civilian Cyber 
Workforce report been completed as due in 2021? if no, why don't the 
other branches just follow the Army's working lead?
    General Kelly. As of 29 July 2021, the audit was completed and 
released to DOD CIO. DOD CIO has not formally tasked DAF on overall DOD 
audit recommendations; however, the DAF stands ready to support DOD CIO 
in addressing recommendations from the audit report. The Department of 
Defense's 2018 DOD Cyber Strategy emphasizes the importance of 
developing the DOD cyber workforce. The strategy includes identifying, 
recruiting, and retaining cyber personnel. It also calls for 
collaborating with industry and academia to establish standards in 
training and education to facilitate workforce growth. A key first step 
is to identify cyber talent. Whenever the official task is released 
regarding the audit recommendations, DAF recommends DOD CIO include the 
Army's plan of action as a benchmark. In the meantime, DAF Civilian 
cyber workforce coding has been partially completed and there are on-
going efforts to complete the coding while ensuring accuracy. Coding is 
being accomplished through applicable manpower and personnel systems 
for civilian [and military] personnel.
    Ms. Houlahan. Do you agree that a software automated workflow and 
management system is necessary to track, manage and report on Cyber 
Workforce Compliance adequately? The Army has a practice that seems to 
be working well. Are you aware of what cyber workforce compliance 
systems they are using? Is there a reason other services can't 
replicate the process?
    General Kelly. A software automated workflow and management system 
is necessary to track, manage, and report on Cyber Workforce 
Compliance. However, based upon the clearly defined set of 
requirements, an analysis would be required to determine whether or not 
current IT systems can be modified to meet compliance-related mandates. 
Notionally, this system would also track cyber training and development 
so that the DAF can readily identify specialized skill sets as emergent 
needs evolve. The Department will investigate what the Army is doing 
for their soldiers consider its feasibility in light of DAF-specific 
requirement(s), and build/integrate the solution.
    Ms. Houlahan. How will the cyber workforce roles be codified and 
cataloged? Will this cover the entire cyber workforce: including 
contractors, civilians, and military? What are the challenges you're 
facing getting this initial inventory completed? (i.e., Why is this 
taking over five years to complete?)
    General Kelly. DAF civilian cyber workforce coding has been 
partially completed and there are on-going efforts to complete the 
coding (while maintaining accuracy). Coding is being accomplished 
through applicable manpower and personnel systems for both civilian and 
military personnel. Current coding efforts between the USAF and USSF 
have resulted in primary work role coding for approximately 72% of the 
1B4, 1D7, and 17X career fields. Initially, system owners were awaiting 
guidance to implement the proficiency levels as described in DOD 
Directive 8140. Additionally, manpower and personnel systems are being 
updated to now track cyber codes and proficiency levels. One of the 
challenges with this effort is that it requires distributed effort by 
hundreds of individual squadron commanders to properly update their 
manpower documents--but through an old, bureaucratic change request 
process. To remedy this, the DOD Cyber Workforce Framework codes need 
to be displayed in standard Unit Manpower Document reports; and DAF 
must provide standard guidance and emphasis to commanders to bring 
their units into compliance.
    Ms. Houlahan. The NIST NICE framework's adoption codifies the cyber 
workforce and increases interoperability. Will this initial inventory 
be interoperable between components, or is there an alternative plan in 
place to enable training and rotation? Are there plans to align the 
cyber workforce to national standards?
    General Kelly. Yes, the DOD Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) is 
based upon NIST NICE and DOD Joint Cyber Training and Certification 
Standards. Additionally, the DAF is adopting the DOD version of the 
NIST NICE Framework to code, track, and train the cyber workforce based 
upon the published DCWF. Lastly, the DAF plans to align the cyber 
workforce to national standards and only make adjustments as DAF 
missions dictate. Through the DCWF standards, the DAF implementation 
will be aligned with the rest of DOD. Currently, there is no 
alternative plan in place to enable training and rotation, though the 
DAF is willing to assess other potential courses of action.
    Ms. Houlahan. Cyber continues to be a recruiting/training/retention 
struggle across the country. Do we believe we have an accurate picture 
of our force levels? If not, what is the major obstacle?
    General Kelly. We have an accurate picture of our force levels, and 
we track cyber expertise among our Airmen. Active Duty Airmen who have 
held cyber AFSCs currently retain at 97% with retention continuing to 
grow. Each year the Air Force evaluates Cyber specialties to determine 
the need for selective retention bonuses in accordance with manning 
levels and mission needs. Based on market factors and current manning 
levels, DAF pays Cyber Airmen Special Duty Assignment Pay. The major 
obstacle that we face, due to highly specialized training and 
specialized skills gained while serving with the DAF, is direct 
competition with other government agencies and civilian employers who 
offer lucrative opportunities to our mission-ready cyber warfare 
operators.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the branches improved the recruiting and 
tracking of cyber workforce? (Re: DOD IG finding that the accuracy and 
consistency is not yet there. In the IG Report, there were action items 
listed--seeking to follow up on that, due to be completed by 2021) How 
do you plan to keep this critical workforce cataloged and the skill 
sets up to date? Where and who is this tasked to?
    General Kelly. The DAF has developed several creative efforts with 
existing resources to enhance cyber workforce recruiting and tracking. 
The DAF utilizes bonuses and incentive pays for recruiting and 
retention of talent; each pay or bonus is targeted to a critical need. 
In the Cyber workforce, recruiting services target careers for enlisted 
accessions (e.g., Cyber Transport, Cyber Systems and Crypto Language 
Analyst). To capture this talent pool, a variety of approaches have 
been applied from periodic posts highlighting cyber to a presence at 
major cyber events like Major League Hacking (MLH), the official 
student hack-a-thon league. Financial incentives, in the form of 
initial enlistment bonuses, ranging from $12,000 to $20,000 for 
recruiting have also been offered to applicants with various cyber 
coding and program certifications. The cyber career field is continuing 
to recruit talent at colleges, universities, and other targeted events 
with desired skill sets. The intern programs are still attracting 80-
100 applicants per year. Additionally, the DAF is participating in the 
DOD Cyber Scholarship Program and the DOD Cyber Information Technology 
Exchange Program. The DAF is also working with DOD CIO to determine 
other positions that can transition to the Cyber Excepted Service. The 
DAF is also taking advantage of the hiring authorities and 
flexibilities like the Direct Hiring Authority to attract and recruit 
cyber talent.
    Cyber position coding is being accomplished through applicable 
manpower and personnel systems for civilian (and military) personnel. 
Additionally, the DAF is working to develop a Joint Talent Management 
Framework that will address the recruitment, training, and retention of 
cyber personnel to include a skills assessment to determine gaps and 
identify strategies to fill those gaps. This framework will sync with 
the DCWF to easily identify work roles and assigned cyber codes leading 
to targeted recruitment and deliberate training and development. 
Finally, the career fields anticipate that career field health and 
talent management systems will be enhanced so that career field 
managers can more easily track and effectively measure what matters for 
recruiting, retention, training, and talent development/management--
notable solutions may include digital badges, Retention Early Warning 
System, and modernized systems that automate career field statistics 
with granularity down to specific skill area and weapons system 
qualification.
    Ms. Houlahan. Is the cyber training, completed for military roles, 
transferrable to the commercial sector? How can this be improved?
    General Kelly. Cyber training for USAF and USSF military roles 
requires the same core competencies and underlying skillsets found in 
the commercial sector. For example, Security+ is a commercial 
certification that is granted to a large portion of the cyber workforce 
at Initial Skills Training. Alternatively, digital badging would also 
improve the portability of military training and skills to the 
commercial sector (if implemented). It should be noted that in many 
cases, the USAF and USSF rely on commercial sector experts to provide 
expert technical training in IT security, cyber defense, penetration 
testing, malware reverse engineering, malware analysis, etc.--this can 
then be repurposed and used specifically for military applications. 
These skills remain relevant to the commercial sector. Skills may also 
flow in the opposite direction through corporate fellowships and other 
partnerships, as well as the natural transition of military personnel 
to the private sector.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies such as Defense Health Agency 
(via Workforce 3.0) and Space Force (outlined in the Guardian Ideal) 
are exploring workforce strategies that have been used extensively 
within industry to identify siloed or otherwise hidden pools of talent 
in order to immediately identify and deploy talent when and where it's 
needed. Delivering on this concept requires changes in culture, 
assignment and procurement policy, and investment in workforce 
marketplace technology. Would this body entertain the development of a 
workforce strategies, supported by an engagement platform that would 
seek to identify hidden or siloed talent, identify, and address crucial 
talent gaps, and support joint deployment of talent when and where 
needed?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps is deliberately exploring the 
use of workforce strategies to identify siloed and hidden pools of 
talents within our ranks. Concurrent with this effort, the Marine Corps 
is exploring the necessary cultural, assignment, and policy changes to 
invest in a workforce marketplace technology. As it currently stands, 
the unique requirements of the Marine Corps integrated pay and personal 
system necessitates a tailored solution to this problem set.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies have numerous systems that are 
outdated, and often used for single purposes, but house useful data. 
Having too many disparate systems that do not integrate well with other 
systems prevents automation that could drive tremendous time and cost 
savings. It also complicates the ability to achieve data transparency, 
so that all the data you need is in one place, enabling true analytics 
to drive automation or business decisions. Modern talent platforms can 
house many single-purpose tools within the same platform and can serve 
as a hub to ingest external data into one place for data transparency 
and automation purposes. Would the witnesses recommend exploration of 
talent technology platforms that promote data transparency and 
efficiency?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps currently has two authoritative 
personnel data repositories. The Total Force Data Warehouse houses 
historical data, and an Operational Data Store houses day-to-day data. 
These two data repositories link most of our disparate data into an 
aggregated data solution. The Marine Corps continues to explore how 
best to aggregate and house its disparate data into a single solution 
to better maximize automation, analytics, and artificial intelligence.
    Ms. Houlahan. The military provides the training and experience 
that provides individuals with broad skills and talents. As individuals 
progress within their careers, either in other assignments within the 
Military, or in the private sector, it would provide tremendous mutual 
benefit to the government and the individuals to be mutually aware of 
new opportunities to use their various capabilities. Would the 
witnesses consider creation of a CRM (``candidate relationship 
management'') tool that would continually engage and nurture talent, so 
that the demand and supply of talent are aware that opportunities 
exist?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps is deliberately exploring the 
creation and use of a custom CRM tool to engage and nurture its 
talented force. The goal of this platform is create a market place 
environment where Commands and individuals can align to ensure the best 
match of individual talent to a position.
    Ms. Houlahan. Many former Military members who leave for the 
private sector express an interest in continuing to serve their 
missions. While the reserves are an option, many would prefer 
opportunities more in line with a private sector career. How would this 
committee outline a plan to compete for private sector talent to ease 
the bureaucracy around serving after leaving full-time service?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps is exploring new pathways to 
cultivate high-potential Reserve Marines for critical billets to 
further the Active Component mission, specifically looking at Reserve 
Component Marines in academia, think tanks, research organizations, the 
interagency, and industry to serve as a bridge between these audiences 
and the Marine Corps.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the recommendations from the Audit of the 
Department of Defense Recruitment and Retention of the Civilian Cyber 
Workforce report been completed as due in 2021? if no, why don't the 
other branches just follow the Army's working lead?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps is working with the Department 
of Defense (DOD) and the other services through the DOD Cyber Workforce 
Health Report hosted on the ADVANA data science platform to provide 
answers to the report recommendations. Specifically, we have provided 
data from our Manpower and Civilian Personnel systems to create a 
visualization for the status of our workforce. This report allows us to 
see work roles, vacancies, and coding statuses in a simple visual. As a 
result, we have been able to find out where we have coding issues and 
can pinpoint areas that may be inaccurate or missing. The Cyber 
Workforce Health report is the recommended quality assurance tool; it 
initiates quality checks at a service level. The Marine Corps will be 
initiating a work role code review and remediation starting in April of 
this year.
    Ms. Houlahan. Do you agree that a software automated workflow and 
management system is necessary to track, manage and report on Cyber 
Workforce Compliance adequately? The Army has a practice that seems to 
be working well. Are you aware of what cyber workforce compliance 
systems they are using? Is there a reason other services can't 
replicate the process?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps agrees that there should be an 
automated compliance system. At this time, the Marine Corps will be 
using the Department of the Navy (DON) Total Workforce Management 
Services (TWMS) Cyber Workforce Module for managing and reporting on 
the Cyber Workforce. The TWMS Cyber Workforce Module allows us to 
aggregate data for military, civilian, and contractors into one system 
where managers can review coding and qualification status for the 
workforce at Marine Corps, Navy, and DON levels. The module provides 
the coding and qualification requirements and a scorecard that enables 
review of compliance status.
    The Marine Corps has met with Army personnel who administer their 
Training & Certification Tracking System (ATCTS). We have reviewed both 
systems and will regularly collaborate on the best qualities and 
capabilities of both systems.
    Ms. Houlahan. How will the cyber workforce roles be codified and 
cataloged? Will this cover the entire cyber workforce: including 
contractors, civilians, and military? What are the challenges you're 
facing getting this initial inventory completed? (i.e., Why is this 
taking over five years to complete?)
    General Ottignon. We code cyber workforce roles for military and 
civilian billets in our Manpower System the Total Force Structure 
Management System (TFSMS); civilian codes are also in the Defense 
Civilian Personnel Data System (DCPDS). We will code contractors in 
either the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) or 
DON TWMS depending on HR processes. We will then aggregate all of this 
information into DON TWMS for reporting.
    Since 2018, we have had a Primary cyber work role code in place for 
military and civilian in TFSMS, plus secondary and additional work 
roles, if required, for our civilian personnel in DCPDS. Contractors in 
the DOD have remained at the previous DOD 8570 IA category.
    Through our Marine Corps Cyber Workforce Program (MCCWP) 
Operational Planning Team (OPT), we will be initiating a Cyber work 
role review and remediation, staring in April of this year, to ensure 
all personnel (military, civilian, and contractor) in the Cyber 
Workforce are coded and coded correctly, to include proficiency levels.
    Publication of DOD Instruction 8140.02 in December 2021 provides 
the formal policy for the coding requirements of the Cyber Workforce in 
the DOD. However, we continue face challenges with updating the data 
systems to accept more than the Primary Work role Code; we have a 
phased plan in place to meet full requirement by FY 24. Another 
challenge with coding is that organizations and components individually 
code their personnel and positions. Decentralized coding increases the 
variance in how NIST NICE codes are interpreted.
    Ms. Houlahan. The NIST NICE framework's adoption codifies the cyber 
workforce and increases interoperability. Will this initial inventory 
be interoperable between components, or is there an alternative plan in 
place to enable training and rotation? Are there plans to align the 
cyber workforce to national standards?
    General Ottignon. There is currently a divide of interoperability 
between the Cyber Mission Force (CMF) and Fleet Marine Forces (FMF) for 
cyber operators. USCC JQRs and Marine Corps T&Rs do not align to ensure 
Marines are meeting the same requirements. The Marine Corps is 
currently working to update the Information Maneuver T&R manual Cyber 
Specific Tasks to improve the alignment between the T&R and NIST/DCWF/
USCC JQRs.
    There is a plan in place to rotate Marines between the CMF and FMF, 
which will enable the Marine Corps to have an interoperable cyber 
workforce that can transition between the FMF and CMF without the need 
for significant additional training. Of note, the role of Marines in 
the two formations is different, in part due to where authorities 
reside. As a result, even with the rotation of forces, there will still 
be continuing training requirements for CMF work roles.
    While still in its infancy, Cyber Mission Force (CMF) is working to 
realign its 16 work roles to comply with DOD Cyber Workforce Framework 
(DCWF) standards. Marine Forces Cyber Command has begun to look at the 
interoperability between CMF components through work role comparisons 
based on the USCC Joint Cyberspace Training and Certification Standards 
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Tasks (KSATS) for each work role. 
Currently, initiatives are underway at MFCC to map the 16 CMF work 
roles to the greater 54 DCWF work roles, which maps back to the NIST 
NICE framework. Once this is complete, MFCC should be able to identify 
which KSATs overlap and can count towards completion of additional work 
roles in Joint Cyber Command and Control (JCC2) Readiness. Based on 
this alignment, MFCC can identify additional training needs and 
individual personnel to rotate to additional locations based on 
qualifications listed in JCC2 readiness.
    Ms. Houlahan. Cyber continues to be a recruiting/training/retention 
struggle across the country. Do we believe we have an accurate picture 
of our force levels? If not, what is the major obstacle?
    General Ottignon. We do have an accurate picture of our force 
levels and, through the introduction on new necessary MOSs in August 
2021, we now have the ability to more closely track specialized 
skillsets. We can track Cyber Warfare Operators through the primary MOS 
1721. We can also track how many are Interactive On-Net Operators 
through the necessary MOS of 1712.
    Recruiting: The biggest obstacle with Cyber Warfare recruitment is 
finding candidates that meet the strict other agency clearance and 
occupational field requirements. Foreign contacts and drug related 
disqualifying events have created a significant problem for special 
screeners to classify recruits for the 17XX community.
    Retention: One indicator of success is FTAP and STAP goals. We have 
been successful in meeting retention goals for STAP, something we 
largely attribute to selective retention bonus (SRB) and assignment 
incentive pay (AIP). Data for FTAP enlisted Marines is not yet 
available due to the length of their initial contract. A common theme 
affecting retention focuses around job satisfaction. As the Marine 
Corps continues to develop and define what cyber operations are at 
every echelon, Marines in the FMF do not have the same mission space as 
Marines in the CMF. The CMF continues to be the main effort for both 
defensive and offensive operations. When Marines are due to rotate 
between assignments and away from MARFORCYBER, they have a multitude of 
civilian opportunities that work the same missions supporting national 
interests. There are fewer incentives to remain on Active Duty when 
Marines can make the same impact out of uniform and still serve the 
country.
    Training: Currently, the FMF 17XX population does not receive the 
same level or amount of training as the CMF. FMF units have difference 
missions and limited to discretionary funding to train their Marines to 
better equip them in their work roles. The net effect is an imbalance 
between training the Marines receive by unit.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the branches improved the recruiting and 
tracking of cyber workforce? (Re: DOD IG finding that the accuracy and 
consistency is not yet there. In the IG Report, there were action items 
listed--seeking to follow up on that, due to be completed by 2021) How 
do you plan to keep this critical workforce cataloged and the skill 
sets up to date? Where and who is this tasked to?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps recruits to requirements. The 
information/cyber communities are a small but important element of our 
force. Recruiting efforts have been effective in both enlisted and 
officer accessions for these communities. We access 20 new cyber 
officers a year, with about 40% coming from the United States Naval 
Academy. We achieved over 100% attainment of enlisted accessions in 
both FY20 and FY21 in IT and cyber warfare communities with 
approximately 1300 accessions each year. Each enlisted information/
cyber warfare contract receives a $2,000 bonus for meeting the program 
qualifications. The challenges in attracting potential accessions for 
these specialties are security clearance requirements and competition 
with the private sector. The recruitment of ``cleared'' and qualified 
personnel remains an issue, specifically in relation to foreign 
contacts. Private industry continues to draw the attention of highly 
trained and talented personnel with a much higher annual salary and 
other incentives.
    The 17XX occupation field utilizes necessary military occupational 
specialties to identify and track advanced cyber mission force (CMF) 
work role certifications. This allows the enlisted monitor to better 
manage critical skill sets built through rigorous training and 
qualification standards.
    The Marine Corps Cyberspace Warfare Group (MCCYWG) is tasked with 
training the preponderance of cyber forces. MCCYWG is required to train 
and certify Marines through the established USCYBERCOM/NSA work role 
pipeline and joint qualification requirements to meet obligated 
staffing in the CMF. Currently, the FMF components are maintaining 
cyber skill sets with either discretionary funds or established 
educational funding programs (i.e COOL).
    Ms. Houlahan. Is the cyber training, completed for military roles, 
transferrable to the commercial sector? How can this be improved?
    General Ottignon. 1721/1799 1000 level training pipelines are 
aligned with NIST and DCWF work role KSATs. JCAC, the first entry-level 
training course, was developed and certified by NSA and is recognizable 
throughout public and private sectors as a base line cyber analyst 
requirement. COPC meets the training requirements of a Cyber Operations 
Planner.
    2000 level and above training is primarily focused around the CMF. 
MFCC and MCCYWG man, train, and equip defensive, offensive, and support 
teams per USCC requirements. The training Marines receive while serving 
within the CMF are all highly desirable and recognizable skills in the 
civilian sector. Programs like USMC COOL and other discretionary 
funding programs give Marines the opportunity to receive commercially 
recognizable training and certifications throughout their careers.
    Ms. Houlahan. The Department of Defense recently released its 
Software Modernization. The use of commercial cloud solutions to 
address the challenges of tracking and managing enterprise-wide 
educational requirements represents an opportunity to implement this 
strategy. The Air Force's implementation of the Air Education and 
Training Command's student lifecycle management program is an 
outstanding example of how a military service can utilize a commercial 
cloud solution to address a military requirement. Given this, I would 
appreciate if the witnesses from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and 
Space Force may provide specific examples of how their services seek to 
adopt this new strategy and utilize commercial and commercial off the 
shelf solutions to support enterprise-wide education management in the 
future.
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps eLearning Ecosystem plans on 
leveraging cloud based analytics and artificial intelligence from Adobe 
to provide an adaptive learning capability that understands what 
training a Marine needs, when they need it based on factors such as 
rank, MOS, PME requirements, and other service design requirements. The 
ultimate goal of this adaptive learning model is to provide talent 
managers with a greater pool of personnel from which to choose, since 
learning has been adapted to meet the needs of the Marine as well as 
the Marine Corps.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies such as Defense Health Agency 
(via Workforce 3.0) and Space Force (outlined in the Guardian Ideal) 
are exploring workforce strategies that have been used extensively 
within industry to identify siloed or otherwise hidden pools of talent 
in order to immediately identify and deploy talent when and where it's 
needed. Delivering on this concept requires changes in culture, 
assignment and procurement policy, and investment in workforce 
marketplace technology. Would this body entertain the development of a 
workforce strategies, supported by an engagement platform that would 
seek to identify hidden or siloed talent, identify, and address crucial 
talent gaps, and support joint deployment of talent when and where 
needed?
    Ms. Mulcahy. Yes, the Space Force would entertain and support the 
development of workforce strategies and the accompanying engagement 
platform. Currently, we are utilizing commercial products to identify 
talent in areas across the United States and abroad. Such applications 
allow recruiters to search by occupation, location, number of hiring 
actions, and similar attributes. We are also open to further 
development of workforce strategies to support joint deployment of 
talent as needed by the Department of Defense.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies have numerous systems that are 
outdated, and often used for single purposes, but house useful data. 
Having too many disparate systems that do not integrate well with other 
systems prevents automation that could drive tremendous time and cost 
savings. It also complicates the ability to achieve data transparency, 
so that all the data you need is in one place, enabling true analytics 
to drive automation or business decisions. Modern talent platforms can 
house many single-purpose tools within the same platform and can serve 
as a hub to ingest external data into one place for data transparency 
and automation purposes. Would the witnesses recommend exploration of 
talent technology platforms that promote data transparency and 
efficiency?
    Ms. Mulcahy. Yes, the Space Force, like the Department of the Air 
Force, sees data integration and modernization in talent management as 
an imperative for achieving the CSO's vision for maximizing our ability 
to confront uncertainty in volatile and competitive environments. For 
instance, there has been a historic split between 1) the systems that 
describe the positions and requirements for the military and 2) the 
systems that describe the talent inventory available to fill those 
positions, which stymies our ability to do person-job matching. We 
currently utilize `flat files' to port information from the education/
training domain to inform personnel decisions in a separate system. We 
recognize Cloud technology alone will not provide the Guardian Ideal's 
(The U.S. Space Force's Human Capital Strategy) desired end state. The 
convergence of many technologies/applications is needed to achieve 
desired end state with required security, resilience and compliance 
with laws, we are undertaking this work and assessing across existing 
automation and available options.
    The Space Force continues to work closely with the Department of 
the Air Force to ensure our combined policies, infrastructures, and 
technologies simultaneously protect our data from unauthorized access 
while enabling access to authorized users in a transparent and 
efficient manner.
    Ms. Houlahan. The military provides the training and experience 
that provides individuals with broad skills and talents. As individuals 
progress within their careers, either in other assignments within the 
Military, or in the private sector, it would provide tremendous mutual 
benefit to the government and the individuals to be mutually aware of 
new opportunities to use their various capabilities. Would the 
witnesses consider creation of a CRM (``candidate relationship 
management'') tool that would continually engage and nurture talent, so 
that the demand and supply of talent are aware that opportunities 
exist?
    Ms. Mulcahy. Yes, the Space Force, like the Air Force, is utilizing 
an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to connect future and current 
Guardians to opportunities based on their skill sets. If a position in 
the Space Force is advertised, USSF Recruitment Specialists will 
connect candidates with the requested skills sets from the ATS to the 
advertisement and encourage them to apply.
    Ms. Houlahan. Many former Military members who leave for the 
private sector express an interest in continuing to serve their 
missions. While the reserves are an option, many would prefer 
opportunities more in line with a private sector career. How would this 
committee outline a plan to compete for private sector talent to ease 
the bureaucracy around serving after leaving full-time service?
    Ms. Mulcahy. The United States Space Force is developing a holistic 
approach to talent management that will strengthen our ability to 
attract, recruit and retain talent. With our small size we require an 
innovative human capital management approach capable of scaling on 
demand; doing so quickly and effectively; adapting to changing 
circumstances; and allowing Guardians to move easily between full- and 
part-time status. Establishing a more permeable force with these 
characteristics will allow us to optimally use and retain highly 
skilled talent in the Space Force.
    Furthermore, the Space Force is implementing a competency based 
force management framework that focuses on utilizing the discrete 
talents each Guardian brings to the service. Through the use of 
competency management, we will make ourselves competitive with the 
private sector market to capture and retain this talent. Additionally, 
the enterprise approach to talent management versus a career-field only 
perspective will ensure Guardians have opportunities to use their 
proficiencies in competencies in the jobs they desire, and the Space 
Force needs.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the recommendations from the Audit of the 
Department of Defense Recruitment and Retention of the Civilian Cyber 
Workforce report been completed as due in 2021? if no, why don't the 
other branches just follow the Army's working lead?
    Ms. Mulcahy. The DAF has received and implemented the Service 
System Updates tasker from DOD CIO, requiring the identification and 
coding of both encumbered and vacant cyber positions within 
authoritative manpower and personnel systems. DAF is currently able to 
utilize position level data to respond to data requests from OSD and is 
leading the Services in its ability to provide the Advana Cyber 
Workforce Use Case with an established data pipeline. The information 
being ingested into Advana is capable of generating the full set of 
summary statistics and key performance indicators (recruiting and 
retention of cyber personnel) such as those contained within the Cyber 
Workforce Health Report efforts being led by DOD CIO. These data points 
help inform our leadership on the current state of the cyber workforce 
as well as inform further policy/program efforts led by DOD CIO to 
collaborate with industry and academia to facilitate workforce 
development.
    Ms. Houlahan. Do you agree that a software automated workflow and 
management system is necessary to track, manage and report on Cyber 
Workforce Compliance adequately? The Army has a practice that seems to 
be working well. Are you aware of what cyber workforce compliance 
systems they are using? Is there a reason other services can't 
replicate the process?
    Ms. Mulcahy. Yes, a software automated workflow and management 
system is necessary to track, manage and report on Cyber Workforce 
Compliance. DAF is partnering with OSD-CDAO and the DOD CIO to use 
Advana. Advana is established as the single enterprise authoritative 
data management and analytics platform, per the Deputy Secretary of 
Defense memorandum from May 5, 2021 ``Creating Data Advantage''. This 
effort consists of the following: cataloging of authoritative data 
sources for positions (manpower systems) and personnel (personnel 
systems), establishment of necessary data-sharing and data-protection 
governance mechanisms and agreements, development of methods and 
frequencies for data ingestion and automated pipelines, and development 
and deployment of analytic dashboards for authorized DOD users. Advana 
is able to track, manage and report on DAF's cyber workforce per the 
needs specified in the question and presently provides capabilities for 
the compliant portions of the workforce.
    The Army Training and Certification Tracking System (ATCTS) is a 
training and certification program tailored to meet Army needs, but 
does not scale across the DOD enterprise. The DAF currently utilizes 
the DCWF as the policy-established framework, and Advana as the 
authoritative data analytics platform, to deliver the capabilities 
sought and established as a single source of truth for authoritative 
cyber workforce statistics, tracking, and reporting across the 
enterprise. Additional tools and capabilities are not presently sought 
by DAF at this time.
    Ms. Houlahan. How will the cyber workforce roles be codified and 
cataloged? Will this cover the entire cyber workforce: including 
contractors, civilians, and military? What are the challenges you're 
facing getting this initial inventory completed? (i.e., Why is this 
taking over five years to complete?)
    Ms. Mulcahy. DAF civilian cyber workforce coding has been completed 
and there are on-going efforts to maintain accuracy. Coding is being 
accomplished through applicable manpower and personnel systems for both 
civilian and military personnel. Current coding efforts between the 
USAF and USSF have resulted in primary work role coding for 
approximately 72% of the 1B4, 1D7, and 17X career fields. Coding is 
being accomplished through applicable manpower and personnel systems 
for civilian (and military) personnel. Initially, system owners were 
awaiting guidance to implement the proficiency levels as described in 
DOD Manual 8140. Additionally, manpower and personnel systems are being 
updated to now track cyber codes and proficiency levels. One of the 
challenges with this effort is that it requires distributed effort by 
hundreds of individual squadron commanders to properly update their 
manpower documents--but through an old, bureaucratic change request 
process. To remedy this, DOD Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) codes 
need to be displayed in standard UMD reports and the DAF must provide 
standard guidance and emphasis to commanders to bring their units into 
compliance.
    Additionally DAF coordinates extensively with our subcomponents as 
well as with the DOD CIO to ensure the appropriate application of DCWF 
work role codes to our manpower and personnel systems. The size of the 
DAF's cyber workforce and careful application of work role codes has 
resulted in a multiyear effort yielding high fidelity data on the cyber 
workforce.
    Ms. Houlahan. The NIST NICE framework's adoption codifies the cyber 
workforce and increases interoperability. Will this initial inventory 
be interoperable between components, or is there an alternative plan in 
place to enable training and rotation? Are there plans to align the 
cyber workforce to national standards?
    Ms. Mulcahy. Yes, the DOD Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) is based 
upon NIST NICE and DOD Joint Cyber Training and Certification 
Standards. Additionally, the DAF is adopting the DOD version of the 
NIST NICE Framework to code, track, and train the cyber workforce based 
upon the published DCWF. Lastly, the DAF plans to align the cyber 
workforce to national standards and only make adjustments as DAF 
missions dictate. Through the DCWF standards, the DAF implementation 
will be aligned with the rest of DOD. Currently, there is no 
alternative plan in place to enable training and rotation, though the 
DAF is willing to assess other potential courses of action.
    Ms. Houlahan. Cyber continues to be a recruiting/training/retention 
struggle across the country. Do we believe we have an accurate picture 
of our force levels? If not, what is the major obstacle?
    Ms. Mulcahy. Yes, we believe we have an accurate picture of our 
force levels, but technology is accelerating rapidly. However, the 
Space Force is always enhancing our cyber capabilities to keep with 
technological advancement which calls for new talent. As we identify 
new cyber skills for Space Force, we will pivot our recruiting/
training/retention approach to meet the needs of the mission. This 
question could also be answered by #71's input with minimal changes.
    Ms. Houlahan. QHave the branches improved the recruiting and 
tracking of cyber workforce? (Re: DOD IG finding that the accuracy and 
consistency is not yet there. In the IG Report, there were action items 
listed--seeking to follow up on that, due to be completed by 2021) How 
do you plan to keep this critical workforce cataloged and the skill 
sets up to date? Where and who is this tasked to? [#71 for cross-
reference.]
    Ms. Mulcahy. The DAF has developed several creative efforts with 
existing resources to enhance cyber workforce recruiting and tracking. 
The department utilizes bonuses and incentive pays for recruiting and 
retention of talent; each pay or bonus is targeted to a critical need. 
In the Cyber workforce, recruiting services target careers for enlisted 
accessions (e.g., Cyber Transport, Cyber Systems and Crypto Language 
Analyst). To capture this talent pool, a variety of approaches have 
been applied from periodic posts highlighting cyber to a presence at 
significant cyber events like Major League Hacking (MLH), the official 
student hack-a-thon league. Financial incentives, in the form of 
initial enlistment bonuses, ranging from $12,000 to $20,000 for 
recruiting have also been offered to applicants with various cyber 
coding and program certifications. The cyber career field is continuing 
to recruit talent at colleges, universities, and other targeted events 
with desired skill sets. The intern programs are still attracting 80-
100 applicants per year. Additionally, the DAF is participating in the 
DOD Cyber Scholarship Program and the DOD Cyber Information Technology 
Exchange Program. The department is working with DOD CIO to determine 
other positions that can transition to the Cyber Excepted Service. 
Furthermore, the DAF is taking advantage of the hiring authorities and 
flexibilities like the Direct Hiring Authority and Targeted Local 
Market Supplement to attract and recruit cyber talent.
    Cyber position coding is being accomplished through applicable 
manpower and personnel systems for civilian and military personnel. The 
DAF is working to develop a Joint Talent Management Framework that will 
address the recruitment, training, and retention of cyber personnel to 
include a skills assessment to determine gaps and identify strategies 
to fill those gaps. This framework will sync with the Defense Cyber 
Workforce Framework to easily identify work roles and assigned cyber 
codes leading to targeted recruitment and deliberate training and 
development. This information is currently being ingested into the 
ADVANA Cyber Workforce Use Case led by DOD CIO and is being utilized to 
catalogue the cyber workforce and generate key statistics and key 
performance indicators for the DAF. Finally, the career fields 
anticipate that career field health and talent management systems will 
be enhanced so career field managers can more easily track and 
effectively measure what matters for recruiting, retention, training, 
and talent development/management--notable solutions may include 
digital badges, Retention Early Warning System, and modernized systems 
that automate career field statistics with granularity down to specific 
skill area and weapons system qualification.
    Ms. Houlahan. Is the cyber training, completed for military roles, 
transferrable to the commercial sector? How can this be improved?
    Ms. Mulcahy. Cyber training for USAF and USSF military roles 
requires the same core competencies and underlying skillsets found in 
the commercial sector. For example, Security+ is a commercial 
certification that is granted to a large portion of the cyber workforce 
at Initial Skills Training. Alternatively, digital badging would also 
improve the portability of military training and skills to the 
commercial sector (if implemented). It should be noted that in many 
cases, the USAF and USSF rely on commercial sector experts to provide 
expert technical training in IT security, cyber defense, penetration 
testing, malware reverse engineering, malware analysis, etc.--this can 
then be repurposed and used specifically for military applications. 
These skills remain relevant to the commercial sector. Skills may also 
flow in the opposite direction through corporate fellowships and other 
partnerships, as well as the natural transition of military personnel 
to the private sector.
    Ms. Houlahan. The Department of Defense recently released its 
Software Modernization. The use of commercial cloud solutions to 
address the challenges of tracking and managing enterprise-wide 
educational requirements represents an opportunity to implement this 
strategy. The Air Force's implementation of the Air Education and 
Training Command's student lifecycle management program is an 
outstanding example of how a military service can utilize a commercial 
cloud solution to address a military requirement. Given this, I would 
appreciate if the witnesses from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and 
Space Force may provide specific examples of how their services seek to 
adopt this new strategy and utilize commercial and commercial off the 
shelf solutions to support enterprise-wide education management in the 
future.
    Ms. Mulcahy. The Space Force currently uses the same commercial 
cloud systems as the Air Force and benefits from the implementation of 
Air Education and Training Command's student lifecycle management 
program. Additionally, with the stand-up of Space Training and 
Readiness Command, the Space Force is exploring opportunities to 
leverage more commercial solutions as the Service institutionalizes 
governance and processes. An example of leveraging commercial and 
commercial-off-the-shelf solutions for education tracking is using 
commercial course content to upskill Guardians' digital fluency within 
the Digital University platform.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies such as Defense Health Agency 
(via Workforce 3.0) and Space Force (outlined in the Guardian Ideal) 
are exploring workforce strategies that have been used extensively 
within industry to identify siloed or otherwise hidden pools of talent 
in order to immediately identify and deploy talent when and where it's 
needed. Delivering on this concept requires changes in culture, 
assignment and procurement policy, and investment in workforce 
marketplace technology. Would this body entertain the development of a 
workforce strategies, supported by an engagement platform that would 
seek to identify hidden or siloed talent, identify, and address crucial 
talent gaps, and support joint deployment of talent when and where 
needed?
    General Kelly. Yes, the Air Force is constantly exploring new ways 
to use current authorities to increase career flexibility for Airmen 
and leverage our workforce's specialized skills, talents, and 
capabilities. The Air Force is leading an effort called ``myLearning'' 
that aims to digitize how we capture skills and certifications many of 
our Airmen have earned through their Air Force-provided specialty 
training or other means. As we continue to stand-up full implementation 
of our myLearning platform, we will be able to connect Airmen who have 
certified skills to crucial talent requirements across the Air Force 
and our joint/combatant commanders. With this new platform, we see ways 
to deliver our Airmen's specialized talent to National Defense 
requirements at speed and scale we have never done before. 
Additionally, the Air Force has the longest history among the services 
using our modern ``Talent Marketplace'' to connect military Airmen with 
assignment options and duty requirements across the globe. This has 
proven to be an invaluable workforce management experience that 
balances Airmen and family needs and our service's workforce planning 
priorities. We welcome all additional authorities and resourcing that 
could further advance our ability to employ continued agile expansions 
to the Talent Marketplace and other Personnel IT Systems platforms.
    Ms. Houlahan. Government agencies have numerous systems that are 
outdated, and often used for single purposes, but house useful data. 
Having too many disparate systems that do not integrate well with other 
systems prevents automation that could drive tremendous time and cost 
savings. It also complicates the ability to achieve data transparency, 
so that all the data you need is in one place, enabling true analytics 
to drive automation or business decisions. Modern talent platforms can 
house many single-purpose tools within the same platform and can serve 
as a hub to ingest external data into one place for data transparency 
and automation purposes. Would the witnesses recommend exploration of 
talent technology platforms that promote data transparency and 
efficiency?
    General Kelly. Yes. We are currently modernizing the Air Force 
Human Resource systems with the same goal of promoting data 
transparency and efficiency. We are actively working to consolidate 
systems into modern platforms. This is a multi-year project, and we are 
proceeding with care to ensure we maintain system capabilities while 
modernizing.
    Ms. Houlahan. The military provides the training and experience 
that provides individuals with broad skills and talents. As individuals 
progress within their careers, either in other assignments within the 
Military, or in the private sector, it would provide tremendous mutual 
benefit to the government and the individuals to be mutually aware of 
new opportunities to use their various capabilities. Would the 
witnesses consider creation of a CRM (``candidate relationship 
management'') tool that would continually engage and nurture talent, so 
that the demand and supply of talent are aware that opportunities 
exist?
    General Kelly. MyVector is an existing platform that actively 
manages force development, talent management, mentoring relationships, 
and assignment matching across the Air Force. Talent Marketplace is an 
application within the platform that allows hiring authorities to 
identify and match qualified officers based on their training, 
certifications, and experience. We are also adding a Talent Marketplace 
capability to areas of our enlisted assignment system. MyVector is one 
of many tools Airmen and Guardians use to document, advertise, and 
enhance their career development.
    Ms. Houlahan. Many former Military members who leave for the 
private sector express an interest in continuing to serve their 
missions. While the reserves are an option, many would prefer 
opportunities more in line with a private sector career. How would this 
committee outline a plan to compete for private sector talent to ease 
the bureaucracy around serving after leaving full-time service?
    General Kelly. In addition to marketing the DAF civilian workforce 
as a potential employer through our transition assistance programs, DAF 
leverages special Veteran and Direct hiring authorities (DHAs) to 
recruit veterans into civilian positions quickly without having to go 
through the traditional recruitment process.
    Transition programs also include information about the 180-day 
waiver process. We brief those retiring that if they are selected for a 
civil service position within 180 days, they will require a 180 day 
waiver (virtually all are approved). The DAF average time-to-hire 
without the required waiver approval process is 85 days, and with the 
waiver requirement 139 days (increase of over 50 days).
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the recommendations from the Audit of the 
Department of Defense Recruitment and Retention of the Civilian Cyber 
Workforce report been completed as due in 2021? if no, why don't the 
other branches just follow the Army's working lead?
    General Kelly. As of 29 July 2021, the audit was completed and 
released to DOD CIO. DOD CIO has not formally tasked DAF on overall DOD 
audit recommendations; however, the DAF stands ready to support DOD CIO 
in addressing recommendations from the audit report. The Department of 
Defense's 2018 DOD Cyber Strategy emphasizes the importance of 
developing the DOD cyber workforce. The strategy includes identifying, 
recruiting, and retaining cyber personnel. It also calls for 
collaborating with industry and academia to establish standards in 
training and education to facilitate workforce growth. A key first step 
is to identify cyber talent. Whenever the official task is released 
regarding the audit recommendations, DAF recommends DOD CIO include the 
Army's plan of action as a benchmark. In the meantime, DAF Civilian 
cyber workforce coding has been partially completed and there are on-
going efforts to complete the coding while ensuring accuracy. Coding is 
being accomplished through applicable manpower and personnel systems 
for civilian [and military] personnel.
    Ms. Houlahan. Do you agree that a software automated workflow and 
management system is necessary to track, manage and report on Cyber 
Workforce Compliance adequately? The Army has a practice that seems to 
be working well. Are you aware of what cyber workforce compliance 
systems they are using? Is there a reason other services can't 
replicate the process?
    General Kelly. A software automated workflow and management system 
is necessary to track, manage, and report on Cyber Workforce 
Compliance. However, based upon the clearly defined set of 
requirements, an analysis would be required to determine whether or not 
current IT systems can be modified to meet compliance-related mandates. 
Notionally, this system would also track cyber training and development 
so that the DAF can readily identify specialized skill sets as emergent 
needs evolve. The Department will investigate what the Army is doing 
for their soldiers consider its feasibility in light of DAF-specific 
requirement(s), and build/integrate the solution.
    Ms. Houlahan. How will the cyber workforce roles be codified and 
cataloged? Will this cover the entire cyber workforce: including 
contractors, civilians, and military? What are the challenges you're 
facing getting this initial inventory completed? (i.e., Why is this 
taking over five years to complete?)
    General Kelly. DAF civilian cyber workforce coding has been 
partially completed and there are on-going efforts to complete the 
coding (while maintaining accuracy). Coding is being accomplished 
through applicable manpower and personnel systems for both civilian and 
military personnel. Current coding efforts between the USAF and USSF 
have resulted in primary work role coding for approximately 72% of the 
1B4, 1D7, and 17X career fields. Initially, system owners were awaiting 
guidance to implement the proficiency levels as described in DOD 
Directive 8140. Additionally, manpower and personnel systems are being 
updated to now track cyber codes and proficiency levels. One of the 
challenges with this effort is that it requires distributed effort by 
hundreds of individual squadron commanders to properly update their 
manpower documents--but through an old, bureaucratic change request 
process. To remedy this, the DOD Cyber Workforce Framework codes need 
to be displayed in standard Unit Manpower Document reports; and DAF 
must provide standard guidance and emphasis to commanders to bring 
their units into compliance.
    Ms. Houlahan. The NIST NICE framework's adoption codifies the cyber 
workforce and increases interoperability. Will this initial inventory 
be interoperable between components, or is there an alternative plan in 
place to enable training and rotation? Are there plans to align the 
cyber workforce to national standards?
    General Kelly. Yes, the DOD Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) is 
based upon NIST NICE and DOD Joint Cyber Training and Certification 
Standards. Additionally, the DAF is adopting the DOD version of the 
NIST NICE Framework to code, track, and train the cyber workforce based 
upon the published DCWF. Lastly, the DAF plans to align the cyber 
workforce to national standards and only make adjustments as DAF 
missions dictate. Through the DCWF standards, the DAF implementation 
will be aligned with the rest of DOD. Currently, there is no 
alternative plan in place to enable training and rotation, though the 
DAF is willing to assess other potential courses of action.
    Ms. Houlahan. Cyber continues to be a recruiting/training/retention 
struggle across the country. Do we believe we have an accurate picture 
of our force levels? If not, what is the major obstacle?
    General Kelly. We have an accurate picture of our force levels, and 
we track cyber expertise among our Airmen. Active Duty Airmen who have 
held cyber AFSCs currently retain at 97% with retention continuing to 
grow. Each year the Air Force evaluates Cyber specialties to determine 
the need for selective retention bonuses in accordance with manning 
levels and mission needs. Based on market factors and current manning 
levels, DAF pays Cyber Airmen Special Duty Assignment Pay. The major 
obstacle that we face, due to highly specialized training and 
specialized skills gained while serving with the DAF, is direct 
competition with other government agencies and civilian employers who 
offer lucrative opportunities to our mission-ready cyber warfare 
operators.
    Ms. Houlahan. Have the branches improved the recruiting and 
tracking of cyber workforce? (Re: DOD IG finding that the accuracy and 
consistency is not yet there. In the IG Report, there were action items 
listed--seeking to follow up on that, due to be completed by 2021) How 
do you plan to keep this critical workforce cataloged and the skill 
sets up to date? Where and who is this tasked to?
    General Kelly. The DAF has developed several creative efforts with 
existing resources to enhance cyber workforce recruiting and tracking. 
The DAF utilizes bonuses and incentive pays for recruiting and 
retention of talent; each pay or bonus is targeted to a critical need. 
In the Cyber workforce, recruiting services target careers for enlisted 
accessions (e.g., Cyber Transport, Cyber Systems and Crypto Language 
Analyst). To capture this talent pool, a variety of approaches have 
been applied from periodic posts highlighting cyber to a presence at 
major cyber events like Major League Hacking (MLH), the official 
student hack-a-thon league. Financial incentives, in the form of 
initial enlistment bonuses, ranging from $12,000 to $20,000 for 
recruiting have also been offered to applicants with various cyber 
coding and program certifications. The cyber career field is continuing 
to recruit talent at colleges, universities, and other targeted events 
with desired skill sets. The intern programs are still attracting 80-
100 applicants per year. Additionally, the DAF is participating in the 
DOD Cyber Scholarship Program and the DOD Cyber Information Technology 
Exchange Program. The DAF is also working with DOD CIO to determine 
other positions that can transition to the Cyber Excepted Service. The 
DAF is also taking advantage of the hiring authorities and 
flexibilities like the Direct Hiring Authority to attract and recruit 
cyber talent.
    Cyber position coding is being accomplished through applicable 
manpower and personnel systems for civilian (and military) personnel. 
Additionally, the DAF is working to develop a Joint Talent Management 
Framework that will address the recruitment, training, and retention of 
cyber personnel to include a skills assessment to determine gaps and 
identify strategies to fill those gaps. This framework will sync with 
the DCWF to easily identify work roles and assigned cyber codes leading 
to targeted recruitment and deliberate training and development. 
Finally, the career fields anticipate that career field health and 
talent management systems will be enhanced so that career field 
managers can more easily track and effectively measure what matters for 
recruiting, retention, training, and talent development/management--
notable solutions may include digital badges, Retention Early Warning 
System, and modernized systems that automate career field statistics 
with granularity down to specific skill area and weapons system 
qualification.
    Ms. Houlahan. Is the cyber training, completed for military roles, 
transferrable to the commercial sector? How can this be improved?
    General Kelly. Cyber training for USAF and USSF military roles 
requires the same core competencies and underlying skillsets found in 
the commercial sector. For example, Security+ is a commercial 
certification that is granted to a large portion of the cyber workforce 
at Initial Skills Training. Alternatively, digital badging would also 
improve the portability of military training and skills to the 
commercial sector (if implemented). It should be noted that in many 
cases, the USAF and USSF rely on commercial sector experts to provide 
expert technical training in IT security, cyber defense, penetration 
testing, malware reverse engineering, malware analysis, etc.--this can 
then be repurposed and used specifically for military applications. 
These skills remain relevant to the commercial sector. Skills may also 
flow in the opposite direction through corporate fellowships and other 
partnerships, as well as the natural transition of military personnel 
to the private sector.
                                 ______
                                 
                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. JACOBS
    Ms. Jacobs. How much money will the service save if PCS moves to 
four to five years?
    General Brito. Changing PCS moves from the current average 3-year 
cycle to a 4 or 5-year cycle could result in an annual savings of $286M 
or $458M, respectively (only taking into account Operational (CONUS) 
and Rotational (OCONUS) moves). There is currently about $1.1B in the 
budget for Operational and Rotational moves. There are many assumptions 
baked into this. The biggest one is that anyone that leaves early for 
ETS/retirement/PME will likely not be replaced until the normal cycle 
time.
    Ms. Jacobs. In 2019 Congress gave the services the ability for 
lateral move entries to officers of the rank O-3 to O-6. Has any of 
your services executed a lateral move entry under this authority? Not 
including chaplains or doctors; specifically Artificial intelligence 
(AI), Cyber, logistics, or business executives that understand talent 
management. To what extent have you used this authority? Have you 
evaluated how successful it has been?
    General Brito. The Army has implemented both Direct Commissioning 
(Sec. 502) and Brevet Promotion (Sec. 503) authorities given in the 
FY19 NDAA. These initiatives allow the Army flexibility to leverage 
available talent when and where needed.
    While the Army does have the capability to develop talent over 
time, direct commission can fill either quantity or quality shortages 
at a faster pace. There are two broad categories of officers the Army 
seeks to direct commission. The first category is experts in emerging 
fields relevant to future warfare (i.e. Cyber). The second category is 
individuals the Army can commission to fill talent gaps in current 
branches and functional areas. Since 2018, the Army has Direct 
Commissioned 17 Cyber Officers, while 87 candidates (20 Cyber, 1 
Nuclear, 44 Civil Affairs, 3 Force Management, 8 Engineer, 6 Logistics, 
1 Signal, 1 Finance, and 3 Military Intelligence) are currently in the 
approval process.
    Effectively marketing these opportunities to increase lead 
generation and streamline the processes to improve lead refinement is 
essential. While the current focus of Direct Commission is on technical 
capability, there are opportunities within all branches and functional 
areas to take advantage of this initiative and increase lateral 
flexibility. For example, we can change certain prerequisites (i.e. 
constructive credit criteria and key and developmental requirements) 
for functional area selection to open more direct commissioning 
opportunities across the Army.
    Brevet promotions allow the Army to temporarily promote officers to 
the next rank to serve in positions the Secretary of the Army deems a 
critical shortage. These shortages are identified on the Critical 
Position List (CPL) and forwarded to the various proponents. Once 
nominated and approved by the proponent, the officer receives the 
financial compensation of the new rank while in a brevet status. There 
are currently two Brevet promotion lists: the CPL which consists of 538 
approved positions and the alternate list (pending approval) has 136 
positions. To date, the Army has conducted 85 breveted promotions. An 
additional 27 nominations are pending Senate Confirmation.
    To get more from this initiative and to gain greater functionality, 
we must optimize the process of getting a position approved on the CPL, 
gaining Senate Confirmation, and conducting the actual promotion.
    Ms. Jacobs. Culture change: The DOD talks about Talent Management 
as if they are making great changes. Our failures in Afghanistan are 
due in part to our superficial understanding of their society and 
culture. We have not prioritized training our military and civilian 
leaders to think differently, to understand systems, to understand 
bias, or to recognize their own blindspots. This has a real impact on 
our military operations around the world. Let us not make those same 
mistakes moving forward and put all our effort on changing the culture 
in the armed services. What are some key changes that are being made to 
change the culture? How has this impacted military operations around 
the world?
    General Brito. The U.S. Army War College leverages curriculum 
design, professional faculty skill, and international fellows to 
develop graduates' keen appreciation for the role of culture in the 
organizations and strategic environment in which they will advise, 
lead, and fight. Culture is examined as a dimension of strategic 
leadership, as a geopolitical and regional phenomenon, and as a lens to 
understand joint warfighting.
    First, the Strategic Leadership course guides students to 
understand culture from an organizational and behavioral perspective, 
preparing them to lead at the strategic and policy level through 
lessons in systems thinking and leading diverse organizations, ethical 
reasoning, and organizational culture.
    Second, core courses about theories of strategy, policy 
development, campaign planning, and regional studies address culture as 
a lens to understand international and regional systems. In the core 
Regional Studies Program, all students examine a specific region in 
depth, focusing on its culture, geopolitics, and relationships to U.S. 
security concerns.
    Third, the culture lens is infused throughout the curriculum, 
thanks to the deliberate distribution of 80 foreign officers across the 
student body. In each seminar of 16 students, three to four foreign 
officers representing different regions force U.S. students to take a 
global perspective on every issue, policy discussion and joint 
warfighting campaign exercises. These allies and partners act as 
trusted members of their seminars, sharing their understanding of 
strategic issues across the entire curriculum. They challenge U.S. 
students to address previously unexamined cultural assumptions and 
bias, and to deepen their strategic empathy and cultural awareness in 
future assignments.
    Notably, students tailor their own professional development through 
elective opportunities that examine systems understanding and cross-
cultural sensitivity, among these, an advanced regional studies program 
with immersive travel; a noontime discussion series about lessons from 
Afghanistan; and guest lecturers like Carter Malkasian who recently 
addressed war, culture and Afghanistan.
    Ms. Jacobs. How much money will the service save if PCS moves to 
four to five years?
    Admiral Nowell. Permanent Change of Station (PCS) tour lengths are 
based on Sailor development and career progression milestones. 
Extending PCS tour lengths arbitrarily to every four to five years may 
create negative effects. These changes would result in longer tours at 
sea, and Sailor feedback continues to highlight the need for shore duty 
following sea duty tours, all of which are arduous. Universally longer 
tours would also harm leadership development and career progression for 
the entire officer community and for a majority of the enlisted rates. 
These changes in personnel development would harm future Fleet 
readiness.
    Overlooking these important negative effects, the potential cost 
savings consider the direct monetary costs of PCS order issuance. If 
Navy began issuing PCS orders to Sailors every four years in fiscal 
year 2023, Navy could potentially have an average cost savings of $107 
million per year for fiscal years 2023-2027 for a total of $537 
million. If the time between PCS order issuance was increased to five 
years, Navy's average cost savings is estimated at $214 million per 
year, for a total of $1.07 billion for the same time period. While 
these cost savings may appear attractive, the cost for ``Sailor 
replacement'' due to retention and talent management impacts would 
likely far offset these savings.
    Over the past five years, Navy has focused on improving geographic 
stability for Sailors while still supporting appropriate career 
development and optimal Fleet readiness. Currently, 75,444 Sailors have 
been on station for at least 36 months, 42,791 of those 75,444 Sailors 
have been on station for 48 months or more. Additionally, the 
percentage of no-cost, same geolocation PCS moves increased from 24.60 
percent of all moves in fiscal year 2015 to 28.65 percent in fiscal 
year 2021.
    Ms. Jacobs. In 2019 Congress gave the services the ability for 
lateral move entries to officers of the rank O-3 to O-6. Has any of 
your services executed a lateral move entry under this authority? Not 
including chaplains or doctors; specifically Artificial intelligence 
(AI), Cyber, logistics, or business executives that understand talent 
management. To what extent have you used this authority? Have you 
evaluated how successful it has been?
    Admiral Nowell. While the Active Component (AC) Cyber Warfare 
Engineer (CWE) community is authorized to utilize Constructive Service 
Credit for new officer accessions, to date, Navy has not commissioned 
any AC CWE officer under this authority. However, we are ready to 
utilize for the right qualified applicant upon commissioning. The 
Reserve Component (RC) Cryptologic Warfare (CW) community and 
Information Professional (IP) community are both authorized to utilize 
Constructive Service Credit for new officer accessions. To date, 44 RC 
officers were commissioned and given Constructive Service Credit: 14 RC 
CW officers (six LT/O3 and eight LTJG/O2) and 30 RC IP officers (three 
LT/O3 and 27 LTJG/O2). These communities are focused on cyber.
    The Supply Corps community does not utilize Constructive Service 
Credit for the AC or RC. This community is focused on logistics and/or 
business executives.
    The Human Resources community does not utilize Constructive Service 
Credit for the AC or RC. This community focuses on Talent Management.
    Ms. Jacobs. Culture change: The DOD talks about Talent Management 
as if they are making great changes. Our failures in Afghanistan are 
due in part to our superficial understanding of their society and 
culture. We have not prioritized training our military and civilian 
leaders to think differently, to understand systems, to understand 
bias, or to recognize their own blindspots. This has a real impact on 
our military operations around the world. Let us not make those same 
mistakes moving forward and put all our effort on changing the culture 
in the armed services. What are some key changes that are being made to 
change the culture? How has this impacted military operations around 
the world?
    Admiral Nowell. The Navy's assessment to identify opportunities to 
improve or change culture is an on-going process. The Chief of Naval 
Operations (CNO) established and continues to champion the Culture of 
Excellence (COE) to leverage existing best practices and engage current 
Sailors to emphasize Signature Behaviors and mitigating/eliminating 
Destructive Behaviors. The holistic approach to performance 
optimization views the Sailor as an asset with the intent of promoting 
physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. Ultimately, the goal is a 
force with increased readiness rates and improved performance in 
service and at home.
    Navy provides our Sailors and families with the support network, 
programs, resources, training, and skills needed to overcome adversity 
and thrive. The importance of emphasizing the Signature Behaviors 
cannot be understated. They represent what we should expect of our 
Sailors, as well as what our Sailors should expect from their leaders 
and the organization that is the U.S. Navy. Living these 10 Signature 
Behaviors fosters a culture of Toughness, Trust, and Connectedness that 
supports both performance and resilience. The Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention has shown that connectedness is a significant 
protective factor against a wide array of destructive behaviors 
enabling Sailors and civilians to live up to their full potential. 
Through leadership and individual behavior changes we all can influence 
a positive command climate that encourages Sailors to live out the 
Signature Behaviors every day.
    Culture of Excellence's Integrated Primary Prevention strategy 
focuses on building toughness and resilience in Sailors, their 
families, civilians, and Navy Commands. Primary Prevention is 
implemented through the Cultural Champion Network and aims to promote 
healthy relationships and decision making by enhancing protective 
factors such as Signature Behaviors and preventing counter-productive 
or destructive behaviors. Additionally, Navy has rolled out the new 
Expanded Operational Stress Control (E-OSC) program, a peer-to-peer 
program that expands on previous OSC efforts using evidence-based 
resilience techniques to teach Sailors how to persevere, adapt, and 
grow through the challenges they face. Navy has engage industry experts 
to develop surveys to gain insight into the levels of Trust and 
Connectedness Navy-wide and unit specific data. These factors are 
proven to help in the reduction of destructive behaviors assisting in 
the overall goal of increased performance and readiness in the Fleet.
    Navy is actively examining measures of effectiveness--specifically 
trust and connectedness within commands--to determine the impact of 
these efforts. A Navy wide focus on Signature Behaviors will continue 
to emphasize the qualities initially explored during the accession 
pipelines. Conversely, identifying opportunities to mitigate and pursue 
reduction in Destructive Behaviors will add to the operational 
readiness via reduced efforts from any negative legal, human capital, 
or mental impact that detract from a unit's readiness. Ultimately, the 
end expected outcome is a more agile Navy ready to fight and win today, 
and well into the future.
    Navy is also educating our leaders at the Navy Leadership and 
Ethics Center to better understand bias and heuristics and how they 
affect decision making. These leadership courses offer high impact, 
professional learning experiences intended to facilitate and foster 
growth of motivated and engaged leaders who are dedicated to building 
effective teams and implementing command vision. Courses emphasize 
self-awareness, decision science, ethical decision making, bias 
awareness, and in-class engagements that develop and enhance the skills 
required to inspire, connect, and strengthen the performance of our 
Navy team. Additionally, the CNO launched Get Real Get Better. This 
initiative is a call to action for every Navy leader to apply a set of 
Navy-proven problem solving best practices to empower our people to 
achieve exceptional performance through transparent self-assessment 
(Get Real) and objective self-correction (Get Better).
    Finally, the Navy's Language, Regional Expertise, and Culture team 
continues to build cooperative partnerships with other cultures, 
training Sailors throughout the world in foreign cultures and languages 
to prepare them to interact with people from other cultures during 
their overseas assignments and deployments. This training is now being 
incorporated into our senior service academies, including both the 
Naval War College and Naval Postgraduate schools, with a heavy focus on 
understanding the cultural underpinnings of geopolitical issues. Navy 
currently has over 200 personnel on exchange assignments with foreign 
militaries to promote interoperability and deep cultural understanding 
of our key partners with many partner nations now assigning senior 
officers to our Naval War College, providing additional opportunities 
for cross-cultural engagement.
    Ms. Jacobs. How much money will the service save if PCS moves to 
four to five years?
    General Kelly. Anytime we extend Time on Station for members there 
is an associated monetary savings. However, the overall objective of 
our assignment policies is to enhance operational readiness by 
stabilizing Airmen and Guardians at their current location, improve the 
quality of life of service members and their dependents by mitigating 
turbulence, as well as reduce PCS costs. Currently, the average 
stateside tour length for the enlisted force (E-8 and below) is 50 
months. The average stateside tour length for officers is 39 months. 
For officers, the DAF is driving to raise the average to 48 month TOS 
and expect to see associated savings from this effort. Increasing the 
average time on station to 60 months will be challenging for the DAF 
because approximately 33,000 members transition each year. Most of 
these transitions leave gaps that--unfilled--reduce operational 
readiness. Additionally, we have key developmental assignments (e.g. 
command, school, Senior Enlisted Leaders, etc.) where we are required 
to rotate individuals on quicker timelines.
    Ms. Jacobs. In 2019 Congress gave the services the ability for 
lateral move entries to officers of the rank O-3 to O-6. Has any of 
your services executed a lateral move entry under this authority? Not 
including chaplains or doctors; specifically Artificial intelligence 
(AI), Cyber, logistics, or business executives that understand talent 
management. To what extent have you used this authority? Have you 
evaluated how successful it has been?
    General Kelly. While the USAF has utilized the constructive credit 
authorities (Section 533 of Title 10, United States Code) in the past 
for USAF cyber positions, we did not use these authorities during 
Fiscal Year 2021. The DAF is working with functional communities to 
identify requirements for their operations and drafting policy the 
facilitate recruiting those talents. New guidelines for cyber 
constructive credit will enhance the DAF's ability to access civilians 
in corporate America which is a talent rich pool.
    Ms. Jacobs. Culture change: The DOD talks about Talent Management 
as if they are making great changes. Our failures in Afghanistan are 
due in part to our superficial understanding of their society and 
culture. We have not prioritized training our military and civilian 
leaders to think differently, to understand systems, to understand 
bias, or to recognize their own blindspots. This has a real impact on 
our military operations around the world. Let us not make those same 
mistakes moving forward and put all our effort on changing the culture 
in the armed services. What are some key changes that are being made to 
change the culture? How has this impacted military operations around 
the world?
    General Kelly. The DAF's 2020 Racial Disparity Review and the 2021 
DAF Disparity Review reports highlighted disparities in military 
discipline and career developmental opportunities for our Airmen and 
Guardians from underrepresented groups. These reports underscored the 
significance of our strategy; to address these blind spots through a 
holistic approach designed to promote inclusivity and bias literacy; 
key components of the culture we would like to ingrain throughout the 
Department. This shift will take time, but we are committed to a 
training and education architecture that will help us acknowledge bias, 
calibrate our thinking, and transform how we engage with others across 
differences.
    Further, the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC) at Air 
University is responsible for culture and language training and 
education across the Department of the Air Force. The AFCLC is 
prioritizing cultural awareness in order to further develop cultural 
competencies and culture-specific knowledge that meet Chief of Staff of 
the Air Force intent for Action Order A: Airmen and Action Order C: 
Competition, under the strategic initiative ``Accelerate Change or 
Lose.'' Recently, AFCLC launched three culture courses on its mobile 
app: Developing Cultural Competency; Introduction to China; and 
Introduction to Russia. These courses are available to all Total Force 
military and civilian members for greater awareness and understanding 
of our adversaries. The DAF offers 24 culture training courses across 
the Department of the Air Force that Airmen and Guardians may leverage.
    Ms. Jacobs. How much money will the service save if PCS moves to 
four to five years?
    General Ottignon. It is important to note that 75 percent of our 
PCS orders are non-discretionary associated with accessions, Marines 
completing overseas tours, and those moving to replace those Marines or 
those in the training pipeline, like schools. If all remaining 
discretionary Operational (CONUS) assignments expanded to 4 years, the 
Marine Corps could realize a maximum of $27M savings; savings could 
increase to a maximum of $43M if all discretionary PCS orders expanded 
to 5 years. However, we would need to study the impacts of this policy 
on mission, individual professional development, and fairness and 
equity toward service members and families. We only have two major 
installations in large markets with strong spouse employment, school 
choice, medical care, and other quality of life factors.
    It is noteworthy that, since 2019, we have steadily increased the 
number of local moves known as permanent change of assignment (PCA) 
where it made sense in lieu of PCS. Last year, we had an all-time high 
of 22,000 sets of PCA orders. The net result today is 40,000 Marines 
who have been at their duty station for more than 3 years.
    We will continue to seek out way to increase stability for Marines 
and their families, balanced with the needs of the Marine Corps.
    Ms. Jacobs. In 2019 Congress gave the services the ability for 
lateral move entries to officers of the rank O-3 to O-6. Has any of 
your services executed a lateral move entry under this authority? Not 
including chaplains or doctors; specifically Artificial intelligence 
(AI), Cyber, logistics, or business executives that understand talent 
management. To what extent have you used this authority? Have you 
evaluated how successful it has been?
    General Ottignon. To date, the Marine Corps has not executed 
lateral move entries; however, we are exploring this authority in high-
demand technical occupational fields. We believe we can potentially 
bring a renewed perspective into the Service by targeting civilians and 
veterans with special skills critical to sustaining military 
operations. Eligible candidates would access at a pay grade comparable 
to the civilian sector by receiving entry grade credit based on a 
candidate's education, skills, and experience within Title 10 
constraints.
    Ms. Jacobs. The enlisted service limit for Sergeant (E-5) is 12 
years of active Marine Corps Service or 14 years with a waiver. Do you 
believe the Marine Corps is processing out talented Marines that could 
add value to the service because of this policy? It costs a great deal 
of money to train and equip our service members.
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps strives to promote and retain 
the best and most fully qualified Marines. With the average time-in-
service for promotion to E-6 standing at 8 years, and with selection 
opportunities recently as high as 86%, talented Marines are given ample 
time and several opportunities to compete for promotion and continued 
service should they have the ability and the desire for further 
service.
    Ms. Jacobs. Culture change: The DOD talks about Talent Management 
as if they are making great changes. Our failures in Afghanistan are 
due in part to our superficial understanding of their society and 
culture. We have not prioritized training our military and civilian 
leaders to think differently, to understand systems, to understand 
bias, or to recognize their own blindspots. This has a real impact on 
our military operations around the world. Let us not make those same 
mistakes moving forward and put all our effort on changing the culture 
in the armed services. What are some key changes that are being made to 
change the culture? How has this impacted military operations around 
the world?
    General Ottignon. The Marine Corps University has strongly leaned 
into meta-cognition over the past few years, and has elevated its 
importance to an objective in our next Strategic Plan. This will ensure 
instruction across all Marine Corps University programs on bias, 
systems thinking, and the sort of cognitive skills needed to address 
the identified deficiencies going forward.
    Ms. Jacobs. How much money will the service save if PCS moves to 
four to five years?
    Ms. Mulcahy. The small size of the USSF with an end strength of 
approximately 8,400 military servicemembers in addition to the minimal 
geographic locations of Space Force manpower requirements results in 
fewer PCSs costs because of the large number of opportunities our 
Guardians have through permanent change of assignments (PCA) versus the 
requirement to PCS. At this time, the Space Force is in a transition 
period while we are growing our service; throughout the interservice 
transfer period we expect to see more people making moves as they 
transition to Space Force units from their service assignments. We are 
normalizing our summer rotation cycle and developing a battle-rhythm to 
transition from PCSing servicemembers every 4 years (2100 moves) to 
every 5 years (1680 moves), a total reduction of 420 moves per year. 
With an estimate of $12K per move, that is $5M savings per year (420 x 
$12K).
    Ms. Jacobs. In 2019 Congress gave the services the ability for 
lateral move entries to officers of the rank O-3 to O-6. Has any of 
your services executed a lateral move entry under this authority? Not 
including chaplains or doctors; specifically Artificial intelligence 
(AI), Cyber, logistics, or business executives that understand talent 
management. To what extent have you used this authority? Have you 
evaluated how successful it has been?
    Ms. Mulcahy. The Space Force appreciates the ability to execute 
lateral move entries for officers in the grade of O-3 to O-6. While 
have not yet executed a lateral move under this new authority, we 
expect to execute such moves in FY22 within the Cyber functional 
community. We plan to expand to all functional communities in FY23 and 
beyond.
    Ms. Jacobs. Culture change: The DOD talks about Talent Management 
as if they are making great changes. Our failures in Afghanistan are 
due in part to our superficial understanding of their society and 
culture. We have not prioritized training our military and civilian 
leaders to think differently, to understand systems, to understand 
bias, or to recognize their own blindspots. This has a real impact on 
our military operations around the world. Let us not make those same 
mistakes moving forward and put all our effort on changing the culture 
in the armed services. What are some key changes that are being made to 
change the culture? How has this impacted military operations around 
the world?
    Ms. Mulcahy. The Department of the Air Force (DAF) is built upon a 
foundation of trust, reflective in the Air Force core values: Integrity 
First; Service Before Self; and Excellence In All We Do and the Space 
Force core values: Character, Connection, Commitment, Courage. Yet, we 
realize we are not immune to the forces of bias, acknowledged most 
recently within the 2020 Racial Disparity Review and the 2021 DAF 
Disparity Review reports, which highlighted disparities in military 
discipline and career developmental opportunities for our Airmen and 
Guardians from underrepresented groups. These reports underscored the 
significance of our strategy; to address these blind spots through a 
holistic approach designed to promote inclusivity and bias literacy; 
key components of the culture we would like to ingrain throughout the 
Department. This shift will take time, but we are committed to a 
training and education architecture that will help us acknowledge bias, 
calibrate our thinking, and transform how we engage with others across 
differences.
    While the Department does utilize the Defense Equal Opportunity 
Climate Survey and the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to assess 
cultural climate, we do not have supporting data to draw a direct 
relationship between the cultural shift we desire, DEIA education and 
training, and military operations, at this time. However, as we expand 
efforts within the DEIA realm, we expect to develop methods to assess 
impact and progress over time.
                                 ______
                                 
                     QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. KIM
    Mr. Kim. According to a 2020 survey conducted by Blue Star 
Families, as many as 160,000 active-duty enlisted servicemembers 
experience food insecurity. Hunger among military families is most 
prevalent among the most junior enlisted ranks, with 29 percent of 
troops in ranks E1-E4 reporting that they experienced food insecurity 
during the previous year. I believe that no one in uniform should go 
hungry, and that investing in people and sustaining readiness starts 
with making sure that our servicemembers and their families have what 
they need to be healthy. Proposals like the Military Hunger Prevention 
Act, a version of which was passed into law as part of the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, are designed to address 
the immediate problem with a Basic Needs Allowance. Other efforts have 
focused on making more military families eligible for the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by excluding the Basic Allowance 
for Housing (BAH) from income calculations when determining SNAP 
eligibility. Neither of these approaches addresses the underlying issue 
that some servicemembers are not paid enough to feed their families, 
especially among the most junior enlisted ranks. How is food insecurity 
at the lower end of the pay scales impacting your service's recruiting 
and retention, and how do you propose it should be addressed in your 
talent management plan?
    General Brito. Food insecurity related to compensation has not been 
raised as significant barrier in our surveys and other assessments to 
those considering enlistment or reenlisting within the 17-24 age group. 
Recent results indicate that married junior Soldiers are reenlisting at 
a higher rate than unmarried junior Soldiers. As we pursue 
comprehensive talent management through the Army People Strategy, 
compensation meeting the needs of our Soldiers across the pay scale 
will be a focus of both our acquire and retain lines of effort as we 
seek to implement innovative approaches to retain talent and maintain 
the all-volunteer force.
    Mr. Kim. According to the Military Coalition, an estimated 130,000 
National Guardsmen and Reservists do not have health insurance 
coverage. I introduced bipartisan legislation, the Healthcare for Our 
Troops Act, to provide access to no-fee, no-copay TRICARE Reserve 
Select for all National Guardsmen and Reservists, because no one who 
serves our country should be worried about whether they can afford 
health care. As the armed services are reforming their talent 
management practices and recruitment incentives to attract and maintain 
talent in emerging priority areas, do you agree that providing health 
care for the National Guard and Reserves would be an effective 
recruiting and retention tool, or otherwise enhance readiness?
    General Brito. The men and women who serve in the National Guard 
and United States Army Reserve are a critical piece of our National 
Defense and play an increasingly crucial role in keeping us safe at 
home and abroad--pandemics, natural disasters and foreign conflicts. 
Healthcare is an important component of readiness, and in addition to 
all of the readiness-related medical care that these Soldiers already 
receive free of charge, they are also eligible to enroll in Tricare 
Reserve Select. With a reasonable premium and co-pay, this medical plan 
provides comprehensive care to Soldiers and family members of the 
National Guard and United States Army Reserve, and is a strong 
component of our recruiting and retention efforts.
    Mr. Kim. According to a 2020 survey conducted by Blue Star 
Families, as many as 160,000 active-duty enlisted servicemembers 
experience food insecurity. Hunger among military families is most 
prevalent among the most junior enlisted ranks, with 29 percent of 
troops in ranks E1-E4 reporting that they experienced food insecurity 
during the previous year. I believe that no one in uniform should go 
hungry, and that investing in people and sustaining readiness starts 
with making sure that our servicemembers and their families have what 
they need to be healthy. Proposals like the Military Hunger Prevention 
Act, a version of which was passed into law as part of the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, are designed to address 
the immediate problem with a Basic Needs Allowance. Other efforts have 
focused on making more military families eligible for the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by excluding the Basic Allowance 
for Housing (BAH) from income calculations when determining SNAP 
eligibility. Neither of these approaches addresses the underlying issue 
that some servicemembers are not paid enough to feed their families, 
especially among the most junior enlisted ranks. How is food insecurity 
at the lower end of the pay scales impacting your service's recruiting 
and retention, and how do you propose it should be addressed in your 
talent management plan?
    Admiral Nowell. While military compensation compares very favorably 
with civilian compensation, Navy does recognize that there are some 
members that struggle with food insecurity. While the pandemic likely 
added financial stress to our members, Navy believes that the majority 
of these struggling families are relatively junior members that have a 
higher than average number of dependents. Navy is working with the 
Office of the Secretary of Defense to better identify members with food 
insecurity, what is causing the issue, and looking at initiatives that 
might alleviate this issue. The Department of Defense is utilizing 
measures developed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to 
monitor food insecurity in the force. The USDA's methodology identifies 
families who report a lack of access to adequate food sources, not just 
hunger. Navy is also working to implement actions to strengthen 
economic security in the force, as directed by the Secretary of Defense 
in November 2021.
    The Basic Needs Allowance will be very useful in providing extra 
compensation to those families that need it and we are looking forward 
to getting that in place at the end of 2022. Once in place, Navy would 
like to give it some execution time to observe its effectiveness before 
considering changes to it. Finally, Navy continues to look at ways to 
enhance the financial resilience of our members.
    While Navy can't say that food insecurity is impacting our 
recruiting and retention, there is no doubt that the current economy 
and worker shortage is making recruiting and retention more difficult. 
Navy is using targeted incentives, varied by skill, to recruit and 
retain Sailors to meet our needs.
    Navy does not have the necessary data to determine the degree of 
impact that food insecurity has had on accession numbers.
    When discussing military pay with applicants, recruiters typically 
will focus the conversation on the entire compensation package to 
include pay and benefits such as free healthcare for the service member 
and dependents, 30 days of paid leave, tuition assistance and the Post-
9/11 GI Bill, special and incentive pay.
    While Navy junior Sailors are compensated at the 85th percentile 
compared to civilians with similar education and experience, sound 
financial planning and execution is essential to the economic health of 
our Sailors. We focus on educating our Sailors on financial issues 
during a Life Skills course during Basic Military Training at Recruit 
Training Command. Additionally, financial literacy training is provided 
at personal and professional touchpoints across the military lifecycle, 
beginning with the aforementioned recruit training and continuing 
throughout a Service member's career and transition to civilian life.
    We also reinforce a Sailor's financial literacy at our Navy Fleet 
and Family Support Centers (FFSCs) which offer financial counseling, 
budgeting assistance and investment guidance to all Sailors and their 
families. At the command level, qualified command financial specialists 
provide financial counseling, information and referral, and assist 
Sailors in developing personal financial plans, FFSCs also provide the 
Million Dollar Sailor (MDS) course. MDS is a two-day course designed to 
assist Sailors and their families to successfully navigate the 
transitions of Navy life and the financial challenges that accompany 
them, enhance overall quality of life through financial growth, improve 
overall operational readiness and performance, and to enhance 
retention. The course was created to specifically combat the most 
common financial issues facing Sailors by teaching sound financial 
management skills and providing a comprehensive overview of steps to 
enhance personal financial fitness.
    Additionally, we have developed and fielded the MyNavy Financial 
Literacy app for our Sailors to enable easy and quick access to a wide 
range of financial planning tools, courses, information and resources.
    Mr. Kim. According to a 2020 survey conducted by Blue Star 
Families, as many as 160,000 active-duty enlisted servicemembers 
experience food insecurity. Hunger among military families is most 
prevalent among the most junior enlisted ranks, with 29 percent of 
troops in ranks E1-E4 reporting that they experienced food insecurity 
during the previous year. I believe that no one in uniform should go 
hungry, and that investing in people and sustaining readiness starts 
with making sure that our servicemembers and their families have what 
they need to be healthy. Proposals like the Military Hunger Prevention 
Act, a version of which was passed into law as part of the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, are designed to address 
the immediate problem with a Basic Needs Allowance. Other efforts have 
focused on making more military families eligible for the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by excluding the Basic Allowance 
for Housing (BAH) from income calculations when determining SNAP 
eligibility. Neither of these approaches addresses the underlying issue 
that some servicemembers are not paid enough to feed their families, 
especially among the most junior enlisted ranks. How is food insecurity 
at the lower end of the pay scales impacting your service's recruiting 
and retention, and how do you propose it should be addressed in your 
talent management plan?
    General Kelly. The DAF is currently meeting recruiting goals and 
retention remains high. To help our Airmen in need, First Sergeants and 
Airmen & Family Readiness Centers assist with referrals to programs 
such as: USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the 
Federal Subsistence Supplemental Allowance program (for members who 
don't qualify for SNAP but have demonstrated needs), and the AF Aid 
Society (who has expanded the availability of food security related 
grants and loans).
    The DAF is also currently working with OSD to implement new policy 
to promulgate the FY22 NDAA new Basic Needs Allowance legislation. This 
will provide supplemental income for military members and dependents 
whose gross household income falls below 130% of federal poverty 
guidelines; allowance will end once members' income rises above 
established threshold.
    The DAF continues to support Airmen, Guardians, and their families 
through implementation of multiple solutions to promote personal 
financial readiness across the force and address economic security 
challenges faced by some of our Service members and their families.
    Mr. Kim. According to a 2020 survey conducted by Blue Star 
Families, as many as 160,000 active-duty enlisted servicemembers 
experience food insecurity. Hunger among military families is most 
prevalent among the most junior enlisted ranks, with 29 percent of 
troops in ranks E1-E4 reporting that they experienced food insecurity 
during the previous year. I believe that no one in uniform should go 
hungry, and that investing in people and sustaining readiness starts 
with making sure that our servicemembers and their families have what 
they need to be healthy. Proposals like the Military Hunger Prevention 
Act, a version of which was passed into law as part of the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, are designed to address 
the immediate problem with a Basic Needs Allowance. Other efforts have 
focused on making more military families eligible for the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by excluding the Basic Allowance 
for Housing (BAH) from income calculations when determining SNAP 
eligibility. Neither of these approaches addresses the underlying issue 
that some servicemembers are not paid enough to feed their families, 
especially among the most junior enlisted ranks. How is food insecurity 
at the lower end of the pay scales impacting your service's recruiting 
and retention, and how do you propose it should be addressed in your 
talent management plan?
    General Ottignon. We believe that military pay according to the pay 
table is very competitive, especially once you take into consideration 
all of the accompanying benefits such as housing and medical care. We 
appreciate Congress' passage of the new Basic Needs Allowance to 
supplement those junior service members with lower incomes who may have 
large families or otherwise are eligible. We are implementing this new 
authority and believe that we should wait to see if it alleviates any 
food insecurities as it was designed to do. Any large across-the-board 
changes to the pay table should be first studied to determine costs and 
impacts. Any changes should be narrowly tailored to identify areas of 
need.
    We know that military life comes with unique challenges: young 
service members do not live close to family support; training pipelines 
and moves challenge spousal employment; and training and deployments 
further stress the spouses' employment or childcare requirements. We 
attacking these challenges with efforts to reduce PCS moves, expand 
parental leave, and grow CDC capacity. Better financial education is 
another area where we can make a difference now. We continue to 
collaborate with the Department of the Navy and the Office of the 
Secretary of Defense on economic insecurity mitigation initiatives.
    Mr. Kim. According to a 2020 survey conducted by Blue Star 
Families, as many as 160,000 active-duty enlisted servicemembers 
experience food insecurity. Hunger among military families is most 
prevalent among the most junior enlisted ranks, with 29 percent of 
troops in ranks E1-E4 reporting that they experienced food insecurity 
during the previous year. I believe that no one in uniform should go 
hungry, and that investing in people and sustaining readiness starts 
with making sure that our servicemembers and their families have what 
they need to be healthy. Proposals like the Military Hunger Prevention 
Act, a version of which was passed into law as part of the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, are designed to address 
the immediate problem with a Basic Needs Allowance. Other efforts have 
focused on making more military families eligible for the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by excluding the Basic Allowance 
for Housing (BAH) from income calculations when determining SNAP 
eligibility. Neither of these approaches addresses the underlying issue 
that some servicemembers are not paid enough to feed their families, 
especially among the most junior enlisted ranks. How is food insecurity 
at the lower end of the pay scales impacting your service's recruiting 
and retention, and how do you propose it should be addressed in your 
talent management plan?
    Ms. Mulcahy. While the Space Force has not seen any impact to 
recruiting and retention due to food insecurity at junior enlisted 
ranks, we are closely monitoring the situation, particularly in light 
of recent inflation concerns. We appreciate the recent Congressional 
authority to pay a Basic Needs Allowance in the FY22 NDAA in order to 
address the concern with food insecurity among military Service 
members. DOD is working with the Services to field guidance.
    The Space Force is actively engaged in this effort and looks 
forward to implementing the allowance based on DOD guidance. We are 
also engaged with Congress, DOD and our sister Service counterparts in 
exploring other potential methods of addressing compensation-related 
retention and recruiting impacts among junior enlisted members, 
including: targeted pay raises, reduction in members' out of pocket 
housing expenses, greater use of CONUS COLA, and increased dislocation 
allowance. Finally, the Service has a wide range of special and 
incentive pay and bonus authorities that it can use to address 
recruiting and retention issues. We plan to use these as necessary to 
ensure that concerns about economic insecurity among junior Guardians 
do not drive their decision to join or remain with the Space Force.

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