[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.A.S.C. No. 118-51]
QUALITY OF LIFE REVIEW--
PERSPECTIVE FROM SENIOR
ENLISTED LEADERS
__________
HEARING
BEFORE THE
QUALITY OF LIFE PANEL
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
JANUARY 31, 2024
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
55-275 WASHINGTON : 2024
QUALITY OF LIFE PANEL
DON BACON, Nebraska, Chairman
NANCY MACE, South Carolina CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
MORGAN LUTTRELL, Texas VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
JENNIFER A. KIGGANS, Virginia SARA JACOBS, California
JAMES C. MOYLAN, Guam MARILYN STRICKLAND, Washington
MARK ALFORD, Missouri DONALD G. DAVIS, North Carolina
JIM BANKS, Indiana, Ex Officio ANDY KIM, New Jersey, Ex Officio
Ellie Bender, Professional Staff Member
Ilka Regino, Professional Staff Member
Alexandria Evers, Research Assistant
C O N T E N T S
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Page
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Bacon, Hon. Don, a Representative from Nebraska, Chairman,
Quality of Life Panel.......................................... 1
Houlahan, Hon. Chrissy, a Representative from Pennsylvania,
Ranking Member, Quality of Life Panel.......................... 3
WITNESSES
CMSAF Bass, JoAnne S., USAF, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air
Force.......................................................... 9
CMSFF Bentivegna, John F., USSF, Chief Master Sergeant of the
Space Force.................................................... 10
SgtMaj Black, Troy E., USMC, Senior Enlisted Advisor to the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Office of the Secretary
of Defense..................................................... 4
MCPON Honea, James M., USN, Master Chief Petty Officer of the
Navy........................................................... 6
SgtMajMC Ruiz, Carlos A., USMC, Sergeant Major of the Marine
Corps.......................................................... 8
SMA Weimer, Michael R., USA, Sergeant Major of the Army.......... 5
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Bacon, Hon. Don.............................................. 45
CMSAF Bass, Joanne S......................................... 98
CMSFF Bentivegna, John F..................................... 111
SgtMaj Black, Troy E......................................... 49
MCPON Honea, James M......................................... 78
Houlahan, Hon. Chrissy....................................... 48
SgtMajMC Ruiz, Carlos A...................................... 88
SMA Weimer, Michael R........................................ 57
Documents Submitted for the Record:
[There were no Documents submitted.]
Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:
[There were no Questions submitted during the hearing.]
Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:
Ms. Jacobs................................................... 127
Ms. Mace..................................................... 137
Ms. Strickland............................................... 131
QUALITY OF LIFE REVIEW--PERSPECTIVE FROM SENIOR ENLISTED LEADERS
----------
House of Representatives,
Committee on Armed Services,
Quality of Life Panel,
Washington, DC, Wednesday, January 31, 2024.
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in room
2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Don Bacon (chairman
of the panel) presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DON BACON, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
NEBRASKA, CHAIRMAN, PANEL ON QUALITY OF LIFE
Mr. Bacon. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The hearing
will now come to order. I ask unanimous consent that the chair
be authorized to declare a recess at any time and without
objection. So ordered.
I want to welcome everyone here. What a great crowd, and we
are so honored to have all of the Senior Enlisted from all the
various services and from our Joint Chiefs. I welcome everyone
here for the Quality of Life Panel. Today's hearing is the
Quality of Life Review--Perspective from the Senior Enlisted
Leaders.
I want to thank our witnesses for being with us today. I
hope this hearing provides an opportunity for our Members to
have a productive exchange with our witnesses and provide
answers to their questions.
Throughout the course of this Panel, we have heard about
the challenges that service members face regarding quality of
life. And while some progress has been made, much more is
required. Military service is demanding on members and their
families. They make significant sacrifices, dedicating their
lives to our nation. Ensuring our Nation's sons and daughters
are provided with the resources they need to do their jobs
while providing acceptable quality of life is the very least we
can do.
But the work of this Panel is much more than that. It is
appropriate to restate that the All-Volunteer Force has been
the very foundation of America's national defense for the last
five decades. The work of this Panel has revealed an alarming
erosion of military quality of life that, if not addressed
quickly, will place the very existence of our All-Volunteer
Force at risk. I believe that reversing this decline will
require a national commitment to change course while we have
the time.
This Panel is focused on five primary issues: compensation,
childcare, housing, spouse support programs, and access to
health care. These are essential to the physical and mental
well-being of our military service members and their families.
Adequacy of pay and benefits for our most junior service
members continues to be in question. It is crucial these men
and women are fairly compensated for their dedication,
sacrifice, and service they provide our nation.
Further, childcare is an essential service for our military
families. Making sure service members have access to childcare
is not just about supporting military families. It is a key
element in ensuring the readiness of our armed forces. We can't
afford to overlook this service.
Housing has been a key focus of the Quality of Life Panel.
Good, safe housing is a basic right for our military personnel.
It is past time that we prioritize investment into safe and
comfortable living conditions. Last September, the Panel took
testimony from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that
exposed the deplorable and unacceptable state of the
Department's unaccompanied housing, which severely undermines
military quality of life and readiness. The GAO testified that
the Department of Defense (DoD) has chronically failed to fully
fund its facility sustainment requirements, resulting in a
backlog of at least $137 billion in deferred maintenance cost,
including barracks which are generally considered lower
priority and have experienced increased deterioration across
the force.
Military spouses have also faced immense--they make immense
sacrifices for our country. They provide support and stability
in the face of frequent relocations and deployments. We need to
step up efforts to tackle the specific challenges they
encounter via employment opportunities or access to community
networks.
Finally, access to quality health care is a fundamental
need for military personnel. We must continue to improve wait
times for urgent, routine, and specialty care appointments. It
is imperative this need is addressed quickly.
The quality of life of our service members is a reflection
of our commitment to the brave men and women who defend our
nation. We must do more to ensure their fair compensation,
accessible child care, quality housing, spouse support, and
comprehensive health care.
Our distinguished Senior Enlisted Leaders are the voice of
our enlisted force who disproportionately struggle with quality
of life issues. From them, I am looking for the ground truth
and recommendations and for a candid discussion of all these
issues and anything else our service members need.
So I want to welcome our witnesses. We have Senior Enlisted
Advisor to the Chairman Troy Black; we have Sergeant Major
Michael Weimer, Sergeant Major of the Army; the Master Chief
Petty Officer James Honea, the Master Chief Petty Officer of
the Navy; Sergeant Major Carlos Ruiz, Sergeant Major of the
Marine Corps; Chief Master Sergeant JoAnne Bass, Chief Master
Sergeant of the Air Force; and we also have Chief Master
Sergeant John Bentivegna--I have been working on it--known as
B9 in many quarters, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force.
Before hearing from our witnesses, let me offer Ranking
Member Houlahan an opportunity to make opening comments.
Ranking Member Houlahan.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Bacon can be found in the
Appendix on page 45.]
STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISSY HOULAHAN, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
PENNSYLVANIA, RANKING MEMBER, PANEL ON QUALITY OF LIFE
Ms. Houlahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, as
always, for a place where we can come to really dive deep into
some of these really important issues of the quality of life of
our men and women in uniform. And I am really looking forward
to the opportunity to hear from each and every one of you as
the Senior Enlisted Leaders of your respective organizations on
what is on the minds of our service members. And I really also
appreciate that you all made the time to meet us in our
offices, as well, in preparation for this occasion.
We really do ask a lot of our service members, and we ask
them, of course, to risk their lives to protect our country;
and, in turn, we must make sure that we have their backs and
support them and their families. We don't always live up to
that, clearly; and we need to do better.
As several of you alluded in your testimony, you may
recruit the Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airman, or Guardian, but
to retain them you must retain their families. So ensuring that
they have adequate access to quality health care, safe housing,
affordable childcare, and the right pay and benefits package is
critical to making sure that we sustain the health of the All-
Volunteer Force.
Military compensation is a combination of a lot of
different kinds of pays and allowances, some of which that are
taxed and some not. While in Congress, we were able to deliver
an across-the-board pay increase of 5.2 percent to all
servicemembers in this last National Defense Authorization Act
(NDAA), I believe it may be time that we consider reevaluating
whether there are additional ways to help deliver important
support to our service members and to their families.
Like many of you, I am looking forward to the findings from
the Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC). And I
am optimistic that we will be able to address some of these
issues in our Panel's recommendations, as well.
Perhaps as we celebrate the 50th year of our All-Volunteer
Force, we should be asking ourselves if the benefits offered
are the most effective to recruit and retain a new generation,
one that has very different perspectives and priorities about
the kind of work and career they seek than previous generations
have. We must address the multitude of quality of life issues
that impact our service members and their families. And, as I
mentioned at the beginning of my remarks and I heard, as well,
from the Chairman, health care, housing, childcare, and pay and
benefits are critical components of a ready and healthy force,
and I am confident we can find common ground in a bipartisan
way to do what is right for our most important military
assets--our people.
With that, I yield the balance of my time. And thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Houlahan can be found in the
Appendix on page 48.]
Mr. Bacon. Thank you, Ms. Houlahan. Again, as a career
military member and retired military member, we're very honored
to have you all here. So each witness will have the opportunity
to present his or her testimony. And because of the number of
witnesses, we are asking you to keep it within three minutes.
Your written comments and statements will be made part of the
hearing record.
So with that, Sergeant Major Black, you may make your
opening comment. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF SERGEANT MAJOR TROY E. BLACK, USMC, SENIOR
ENLISTED ADVISOR TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINTS CHIEF OF STAFF,
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Sergeant Major Black. Sir, thank you. That works a lot
better than I thought it would. Okay.
Chairman Bacon, sir, Ranking Member Houlahan, and the
distinguished members of this Panel, thank you once again for
allowing all of us to be here to testify on behalf of not just
our enlisted members but our entire organization, the
Department of Defense and individual services. I am honored to
appear before you again, not only in this new role but also
thinking back in my time that I have appeared before these
committees as my time as a Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps
representing the enlisted force of the Corps but now the
enlisted force of the entire joint force and in support of
these great members that are Senior Enlisted Advisors to our
services.
As I stated in previous testimony, through all the
challenges we face, we have remained ready to fight and win. As
such, we must understand the strength of our military relies
not only on advanced technology and capabilities but also in
the well-being and morale of our service members. A service
member who knows that their family is taken care of, their
health care needs are met, and their financial stability is
secure can focus entirely on the mission, which gives them an
edge necessary to be victorious on the battlefield.
In a moment, you will get to hear from the distinguished
Senior Enlisted Advisors to our services about their specific
equities and factors impacting the men and women in uniform.
Before this happens, I want to set the stage with a couple of
strategic thoughts. First, the prospect of equitable pay and
income is the foundation of our All-Volunteer Force and has
impacts to both recruiting and retention. A stabilized,
predictable compensation system safeguards that pathway and
protects the readiness of the force. At this moment, the
Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation is underway, and I
am hopeful that the recommendations you hear from individual
services will be addressed in the QRMC.
Health care. Adequate, consistent, available, and timely
health care for our service members is the minimum standard and
vital to the All-Volunteer Force and plays a crucial role in
not only taking care of the individual service members and
their families but also those forces that go forward and
receive medical care on the battlefield. Family support
networks and quality support networks for them are vital to the
readiness and retention of military families in the All-
Volunteer Force, and they ensure service members can focus on
their duties, enhance their confidence and peace of mind,
increase retention rates, and meet family needs that promote
work-life balance and care for families.
Housing, as we have discussed and will continue to discuss,
we must continue to be committed to ensuring the adequate
modernization of housing and available housing for our service
members and families is always preeminent. I want to thank the
committee for supporting the Secretary of Defense on issues
with regard to Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), increase in
military construction, and focusing on the Facilities
Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization resources to
replace and recapitalize `bachelor housing', as well. When
service members and their families have positive housing
experiences, it reflects on their service and it is peace of
mind for them and our nation.
Separately, as a Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman, I
have a couple of additional focus areas I would like to share.
First is Holistic Human Performance. This initiative is to
interlace the Total Force Fitness programs across the United
States government in order to aid in increasing the qualified
pool for eligible accessions candidates. Failure to meet
minimum standards has and remains one of the largest challenges
to the services with regards to recruiting goals.
Next, and maybe most importantly, is a national Call to
Service. Similarly aligned with Holistic Human Performance,
increasing the ability for our citizens to meet the
requirements of service is to capture those who have a desire
to serve. Again, another nationwide engagement across the
United States government, the media, national leadership,
sports and entertainment industries, public education
institutions, this must occur in order to increase the desire
to serve and further deepen the pool of accessions candidates
that will meet our All-Volunteer Force recruiting requirements.
In closing, sir, I would like to say once again thank you
for the opportunity. I look forward to the questions from the
Panel, and thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Sergeant Major Black can be
found in the Appendix on page 49.]
Mr. Bacon. Thank you, sir.
Sergeant Major Weimer.
STATEMENT OF SERGEANT MAJOR MICHAEL R. WEIMER, USA, SERGEANT
MAJOR OF THE ARMY
Sergeant Major Weimer. Thank you. Chairman Bacon, Ranking
Member Houlahan, and distinguished members of this Panel, thank
you for your invitation to speak on behalf of the Soldiers,
families, and Army civilians of our All-Volunteer Force. First,
I want to express my pride in resilience and dedication of our
Soldiers. America's Army stands as a formidable force, lethal
and ready to surge when called to fight and win and defend our
national interests.
As we speak, over 65,000 Soldiers are deployed across
several areas of operations with another 74,000 on standby for
Immediate and Crisis Response Forces. Behind every one of those
individuals is a family bearing an immeasurable weight, and
this must not go unnoticed.
The $3.4 billion investment made in military housing in
fiscal year '23 reflects your dedication to improving quality
of life for Soldiers and families. Thank you for your support.
We remain resolute and focused on ensuring our Army is
prepared to foster a professional and safe culture. Continuing
this requires improving the quality of life for our Soldiers
and their families, and that requires predictable funding and
pay, and continuous resolutions and flat budgets do not support
predictability for Soldiers and their families and it
exacerbates their quality of life issues.
This starts with quality housing conditions. We are
committed to improving and sustaining quality living conditions
for our soldiers and families, and we have also put an emphasis
on unaccompanied personal housing.
Equally important is spouse employment. Over 431,000
spouses play a crucial role in our Soldiers' readiness and
lethality. The Military Spouse Employment Partnership and My
Career Advancement Accounts are both initiatives supporting
meaningful spouse employment.
Additionally, Child Development Center (CDC) construction
and renovations are underway across Army installations. We are
offering fee assistance to address unmet child care demand and
streamlining hiring process to help maximize capacity.
And, finally, our families must easily navigate the
Exceptional Family Membership Program (EFMP). By the end of
fiscal year '24, the Headquarters Department of the Army's
central office is to be established to ensure consistent
process across the Army.
Moving forward, we are focused on recruiting and retaining
talented Soldiers. Fiscal year '24 will continue to focus on
retaining talent. Programs, like Future Soldier Prep Course,
have proven successful in enhancing the quality of recruits.
In our pursuit to prevent and reduce harmful behaviors, the
Army has taken significant steps, focusing on a public health
approach that emphasizes connecting to protect. The
establishment of the Directorate of Prevention, Resilience, and
Readiness, the Integrated Prevention Advisory Group, our
bimonthly Sergeant Majors Leading Change forums, and our Chiefs
Building Cohesive Teams forums are testaments to our dedication
to eliminating harmful behaviors. Together, we can ensure our
Army remains a lethal force built around a culture of cohesive
teams capable and ready to face the challenges of today and
tomorrow.
I appreciate this opportunity, and I look forward to your
questions.
[The prepared statement of Sergeant Major Weimer can be
found in the Appendix on page 57.]
Mr. Bacon. Chief Petty Officer Honea.
STATEMENT OF CHIEF PETTY OFFICER JAMES M. HONEA, USN, MASTER
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER OF THE NAVY
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Good morning. Chairman Bacon,
Ranking Member Houlahan, and distinguished members of the
Quality of Life Panel, as Master Chief Petty Officer of the
Navy, it is my privilege to speak with you today. I am honored
to represent the 347,000 Sailors serving in our Navy today,
48,000 of whom are currently deployed across 109 ships.
Your Navy, when called upon, delivers. Let us not forget,
however, that delivery is made on the backs of our Sailors and
their families. By meeting their quality of life needs not only
are we honoring their service and sacrifice, we are ensuring
that our warfighters can focus on the mission.
To put it in context, I would like to remind everyone of
the five pillars that the Gates Commission of 1970 recommended
would be necessary to sustain an All-Volunteer Force. It is, in
fact, many of the things we are here to discuss today: military
pay and compensation, quality health care, quality housing, a
retirement plan, and ensuring the military remains a reflection
of our society.
While these five pillars are still necessary and require
some shoring, support to the military family should also
consider a sixth pillar, as well, as we look to address issues
such as spouse employment and child care. As I am sure you
heard during your roundtable with military spouses, their
employment is often hindered by frequent relocations, which can
limit families to a single income and a lesser quality of life
than those with dual income. Similarly, our economic and
security environment today requires childcare community.
Sailors and spouses cannot focus on their careers if they are
worried about the care that their child is receiving or unable
to find or afford it. This means we should consider adding
military family readiness as a sixth pillar.
We are also strengthening the existing pillars. On the
topic of housing, I would like to point out that the Navy is
unique from our sister services and that we don't have the
authority to provide housing allowance to our Sailors that are
E-3 and below currently assigned to ships. While we appreciate
the authorities have provided in the fiscal year '24 NDAA for
those assigned to operational sea duty platforms undergoing a
shipyard availability or maintenance periods, the junior
Sailors who are currently deployed will not be afforded that
same opportunity when they return to homeport from those
deployments. I have spoken to the leadership and the Sailors of
these deployed units, and this is the top quality of life
concern affecting nearly 800 sailors per aircraft carrier.
Additionally, access to timely and quality health care is
another pillar we need to fortify. In March of 2023, I
testified that this was a top concern, and I continue to hear
about it today. What I have assessed from those conversations
is that transformation the Defense Health Agency was built on
the premise of adequate care and services from an extended
health network outside our military fence lines is that is no
longer available or reliable, leading to inadequate and delayed
care for our service members and their families, compounding
the stressors of military life.
Lastly, in order to retain a highly-qualified and
professional force, we must examine how we value the jobs of
our service members. We have junior Sailors in the Red Sea
right now standing watch in combat information centers who are
deciphering which contacts are friendly or pose a direct threat
to their ship or those that they are there to protect. That is
a level of trust and responsibility and expectations that are
placed upon those Sailors today, and I believe that pay and
compensation should be commensurate with that level of
expectation and responsibility.
Although we have work to do in these areas, I am encouraged
by the Navy's holistic approach to quality of service which
looks at Sailors' quality of life and work. And I am proud of
the initiatives and the commitments of our senior leaders in
this venture.
The American people should trust that we have the best
interests of their sons and daughters in mind and that they
will be taken care of while serving their country. I am truly
appreciative of Congress's efforts, and I am of the firm belief
that, with your help, we can make swift improvements in the
quality of life of our service members and their families.
I thank you for your time, and I look forward to your
questions today.
[The prepared statement of Master Chief Petty Officer James
M. Honea can be found in the Appendix on page 78.]
Mr. Bacon. Sergeant Major Ruiz.
STATEMENT OF SERGEANT MAJOR CARLOS A. RUIZ, USMC, SERGEANT
MAJOR OF THE MARINE CORPS
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Chairman Bacon, Ranking Member
Houlahan, distinguished members of the Panel, good morning. I
appreciate this Panel's efforts to address the issues we are
facing as a service and uphold the promises we have made to
those who defend this great nation. The creation of this Panel
is proof of your commitment and creative solutions.
During the past four years and well before that, the Marine
Corps has invested in platforms, systems, and concepts that
advance our technical edge against our adversaries. It was our
people, our Marines, who led us through these innovative
changes that not only created better ways to fight and win but
did so within our own fiscal means.
Through it, your Marines continue to train and prepare for
whatever will be asked of them. Today and every day, Marines
work to ensure that no adversary would dare call themselves our
peer. And let me be clear: the United States Marines have no
peer threats. Marines have been exceptionally victorious in
combat, and we intend to keep it that way.
Your Marines are exactly where they need to be right now.
Many are forward station and deployed around the globe,
exemplifying our values and ready to fight and win. Your
Marines are upholding their rigorous standards of readiness not
only in the face of conflict but also in daily practices,
recognizing that preparedness extends beyond the battlefield
and into every aspect of our lives.
I appreciate this chance to have an open discussion on the
quality of life that your Marines have earned. The quality of a
Marine's home is as essential to the readiness as to the ranges
they train on. The barracks are a physical manifestation of
what we value and prioritize, and our Barracks 2030 Strategy
includes a deliberate investment to improve our barracks within
the Corps. By providing quality living spaces, we are giving
Marines a visible reminder that we are indeed investing in
them.
We are also investing in our Marines as individuals through
Marine Corps Total Fitness, a holistic approach to mental and
physical well-being. By using the lessons we have learned
through the past decades of war, along with scientific data, we
know that mental, social, spiritual, and physical strength
preserves the force and families by consistently teaching life-
enhancing skills.
While our programs and techniques may evolve, Marines
taking care of Marines is nothing new. We have been doing it
for a couple of hundred years now; we will continue to do it
for a few hundred more. This includes our Marine veterans who
remain connected to the service and each other. Our Marines are
America's trusted role models, and many of their voices
continue to echo through these very halls, calling on the
importance of caring for Marines past and present.
I am eager to work toward solutions for this committee and
look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Chief Master Sergeant Ruiz can
be found in the Appendix on page 88.]
Mr. Bacon. Thank you very much.
Chief Master Sergeant Bass.
STATEMENT OF CHIEF MASTER SERGEANT JOANNE S. BASS, USAF, CHIEF
MASTER SERGEANT OF THE AIR FORCE
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Good morning. Chairman Bacon,
Ranking Member Houlahan, and distinguished members of this
Panel, thank you for your commitment to the quality of life of
the men and women who serve our great nation. I am honored for
this opportunity to join my fellow service Senior Enlisted
Advisors, as well as our Senior Enlisted Advisor to the
Chairman (SEAC), to share our thoughts on the things that
impact the lives of our service members and their families.
As you are well aware, we are serving at a time of
consequence where the challenges that we face are far more
complex than when I joined our Air Force 31 years ago. Now more
than ever, we need Airmen and service members across all
branches who can meet these challenges head-on and understand
the complexities of the environment to which they serve.
I am honored to represent over 665,000 total force Airmen
serving in your Air Force, of which 12,954 are deployed across
the globe today defending our homeland. They are ready,
willing, and able to support the joint force to deliver air
power anytime, anywhere. It falls on each of us to ensure that
they remain ready to answer our nation's call.
The work and advocacy that this Panel does with respect to
quality of life and quality of service helps us to retain those
who are currently serving, as well as attract and recruit the
service members that each of us will need. As our Department of
the Air Force takes a holistic look at reoptimizing for great
power competition, one of our lines of efforts is specifically
focused on people. We know that the strategic environment has
changed. As such, there is a race for talent across our nation,
and we must recruit and retain the best that America has to
offer. We can't have service members distracted by whether or
not they are able to live in safe and affordable housing,
whether or not they have access to child care and health care,
or any other challenges unique to serving our nation, to
include pay and compensation.
Last year, as you mentioned, we celebrated 50 years of an
All-Volunteer Force. Our focus on this Panel and for each of us
ought to be ensuring that we are able to celebrate another 5
years, another 10 years, and another 50 years. To that end, we
have the opportunity now to make some real impact on the
quality of life of our service members. America's sons and
daughters are key to our national security and continuing to
ensure our military is a place where people want to serve will
take all of us.
Make no doubt about it, your Air Force is ready. I have
great faith in our Airmen. I have great faith in the leaders
that we have in position. And the help of this Panel, your
influence, as well as the support and the leadership of your
fellow representatives, will, again, help us to recruit and to
retain the force of the future and shape the Air Force for
generations to come.
Thank you again for this opportunity to represent our
incredible service members and their families, and I look
forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Chief Master Sergeant JoAnne S.
Black can be found in the Appendix on page 98.]
Mr. Bacon. Thank you.
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna.
STATEMENT OF CHIEF MASTER SERGEANT JOHN F. BENTIVEGNA, USSF,
CHIEF MASTER SERGEANT OF THE SPACE FORCE
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. Chairman Bacon, Ranking
Member Houlahan, and distinguished members of this Panel, thank
you for your continued support and your dedication to the
quality of life of our Guardians and their loved ones. I am
honored for this opportunity to talk to you about my number-one
priority: the health and well-being of our nation's Guardians,
which is also directly tied to the military readiness.
Thank you for your continued support of the QRMC, as these
reviews allow us to improve the quality of life of our service
members and their loved ones. I want to thank you for your
support with the increase in basic pay, as well as enacting the
Space Force Personnel Management Act. But I believe there is
still work to be done.
The reality of today is not the reality of 50 or even 5
years ago. The Space Force was established in recognition of
the rapidly changing face of warfare. And just as our military
requirements have changed, so, too, have the needs and
motivations of the men and women who join our All-Volunteer
Force and become and remain Guardians.
Optimizing their quality of life begins with a thoughtful
reexamination of the value proposition of military service and
the corresponding regular military compensation models and
assumptions that may be outdated and not aligned with the value
and talent of today's service members. Guardians entering the
service today are more educated, digitally literate, and hungry
not just for a job but for opportunity to solve hard problems
and assume greater responsibilities in a professional
environment that stretches into the far reaches of space.
The Space Force offers tremendous capabilities to the
country, creating asymmetric value for the national security,
but there are increasing concerns that the current value
proposition for Guardians is not sufficient to recruit the
talent we need. Every dollar invested in a service member pays
dividends to the Space Force, the Department of Defense, and
our nation.
This investment is vital to retaining the experience
required for great power competition. It also extends beyond
the uniform, as these principal public servants eventually
transition to civilian life and become leaders in our
communities. For example, today, 18 percent of the House of
Representatives, including many of you on this Panel, have
served in the military. The quality of life of service members'
experience has a direct impact on a continuum to serve others.
Our commitment and action to care for them and their families
protects and ensure their focus, resolve, and willingness to
continue their journey in the Space Force.
This is a value proposition we offer: continuing to make
the experience meaningful and fulfilling and its lucrative
options from others in the other sectors who seek Guardians for
their skills and their talent. The availability of child care,
health care, civil housing, and spouse employment are not
solely quality of life issues. For Guardians with a 24/7
employed-in-place operations, these are not just benefits,
these are readiness issues. In order to develop a combat-ready
space-minded warfighters, our service is not seeking to buy end
strength. Our aim is to reward talent and the propensity to
serve. We are looking at all angles and committed to getting
this right.
The Space Force just turned four, and we are growing. The
decisions we make today will impact future generations of
Guardians. We owe it to them to get these decisions right. Our
investment in them is the greatest leverage to secure our
nation's interests in, from, and to space.
Thank you for your continued support. I look forward to
your questions.
[The prepared statement of Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna
can be found in the Appendix on page 111.]
Mr. Bacon. Thanks to each of you for your opening comments.
I am going to recognize myself now for about five minutes, and
I have about ten questions. I suspect, though, that by the time
we get done with all of our folks sitting up here, we may have
them all asked. But if not, I reserve the right to have a round
two of questions.
My first one is to Sergeant Major Black. We are not making
all of our recruitment numbers that we want in some of the
services, and some of our retention numbers are off. What role
is quality of life playing in our recruitment challenges and
retention challenges?
Sergeant Major Black. Chairman, sir, thank you for the
question. I think, as I mentioned in my opening comments, as
well as every one of the services, there are a couple of major
hurdles that we have. One, a quality life is a pillar of the
All-Volunteer Force. It has been since its inception.
The increasing challenge that we have right now, though, on
the recruiting side, the value proposition of serving includes
quality of life, pay and compensation, et cetera, is the fact
that we draw our service members from our nation's people. It
is the people that live in our nation that are our citizens.
What we have seen over time is that ability for someone to
raise their hand and have a desire to serve, propensity, is
dropping. So call to serve and desire to serve your nation and
defend the Constitution are challenging. And of those, those
that meet the very stringent academic and physical
qualifications for service is also dropping.
And so as I am convinced that every one of the services,
and I won't speak on behalf of my former role as the Sergeant
Major in the Marine Corps, but all the services know how to
recruit the individual they are looking for. The challenge is
the population of those who have a desire and can meet those
qualifications doesn't meet the requirement.
Quality of life is many things that someone looks for when
they want to enter service. And if we cannot maintain and
continue to increase that quality, it will impact that desire,
first of all, and make it even harder to pull those who have
the qualifications to serve into our ranks. Thank you.
Mr. Bacon. Our Service Senior Enlisted Leaders, if you
could rank order number one and number two, what are the
biggest quality of life factors for your service, if you give
us your number one and number two. Sergeant Major Weimer.
Sergeant Major Weimer. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. That
is a good one. You could tell by the look on my face I had to
put some thought into that because there is a few and you and
Ranking Member Houlahan, you touched on all of them.
I would have to put pay and compensation comes up quite
often. I would have to place that at the top. And then it would
directly lead to whether it is unaccompanied barracks or it's
family housing topics. Those would probably be how I would rank
order that. But as this Panel knows, that is an incredibly
complicated and complex question that has a lot of
interconnectivity between each one of those. But you asked me
to rank order them.
Mr. Bacon. I am just trying to get a feeling of where we
should put our emphasis. Chief Petty Officer Honea.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Chairman Bacon, thank you. I
believe that all of the quality of life pillars are equally
important, and it depends on the service member you ask which
of them is going to be the most impactful to them. All of them
deserve our attention holistically.
What I would offer is that a couple of these problems are
so big that, if we don't start taking immediate action on them
now, we are going to miss the curve in the future. We must
start today. Military pay and compensation reform is going to
be one of those big problems that we need to start taking a
bite at today.
I would also offer unaccompanied housing for our service
members, that is also going to be a very big problem, and it is
not going to be solved, you know, by Saturday, it is not going
to be solved by this one year or the next maybe five years
even. So we need to start on that today; otherwise, we are not
going to be in front of this problem as it starts to bend in
that curve. So those would be my top two, but I think all of
them require equal attention.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. Sergeant Major Ruiz.
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Chairman, thank you. I am going to put
pay and compensation aside because I think that is--but if I go
right after that, unaccompanied housing, for us, is number one.
Your support in helping us achieve the Barracks 2030 campaign
is crucial, and I look forward to speaking to you more about
that.
The next part for us is the way that we want to develop the
total force, the way that we want to deliver a human
performance, as you will, to our Marines from the very early
stages of the initial training and training pipeline and
modeling proper and what behavior looks like.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. Chief Master Sergeant Bass.
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Sir, I am going to agree with
my brother on my right, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
(MCPON), with respect to all of our quality of life challenges
and opportunities are all equal, and it depends on who you ask.
I would also offer that the reason why, you know, it
depends on who you ask is today's modern military family looks
very different. The service member looks different today than
it did 30 years ago. You have more single service members, you
have more dual-working service members, more dual military
service members. And to that end, they are all very important.
I will, though, continue to emphasize the pay and
compensation piece. We have an opportunity today to pull some
levers that don't increase the top line because we are all very
well aware of that. And so I hope that we take an opportunity
to look at pay and compensation, especially when you consider
we have not done a targeted pay raise for your military service
members since 2007.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. I want to give Chief Master Sergeant
Bentivegna a chance to answer, and then I will yield to the
ranking member. Go ahead.
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. Thank you, Chairman. I am
going to echo what my teammates talked about. I think it is a
holistic approach. The value proposition depends on the service
member that you ask. So I will take the opportunity to say, for
the Space Force, for the Guardians, with our primarily
employed-in-place operations, most of the Guardians today who
are providing combat capability to the combatant commanders who
are doing so from their installations across the United States.
So the infrastructure, the child care access, access to medical
benefits, the housing that is there, that is where they live,
that is also where they fight.
So, for me, my concern is what are the quality of life
indicated factors that are there, especially for child care,
with 24/7 operations really kind of concerns me because we are
asking young families on the weekends, over the holidays, to do
the nation's business. We have to have the infrastructure that
is there because it is a different model than the other
services. We don't necessarily pick up and deploy to a location
where the services are. We do it from our garrisons.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. With that, I yield five minutes to
the ranking member.
Ms. Houlahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for
being here again. I am going to pick up on what you were just
talking about, which is the issue of child care, and a little
bit about what Chief Master Sergeant Bass was also talking
about, which is the look of the typical military family having
changed and evolved over the last decades.
The demographics of our military community have shifted,
and, obviously, our programs and policies need to, as well. I
am going to focus specifically on the fact that women who serve
are now about 17.5 percent of our service and more likely to be
single parents, as well. And military recruits are more likely
to have children before 25 than their counterparts are. So more
than ever, we need to make sure that we have this quality
affordable child care sewn up, and I know that it is something
that I spoke to each one of you when you came to our office
about child care shortages have resulted in untenable waiting
lists, it has resulted in people who have separated as a
consequence. What are each of these services, you guys, doing
in terms of mitigating child care wait lists and burdens? And
if it's okay, because of the lack of time or shortness of time,
I would like to focus on those of you who included it most
robustly in your testimony. Sergeant Major Weimer, you were one
of them who included it most robustly. Would you be able to
comment on that?
Sergeant Major Weimer. Ranking Member, I would. Thank you
for the opportunity because I couldn't agree with you more how
important this is to readiness and the health of our force.
What we are really finding out, back to, you know, a wicked
problem, this one is if you have seen one installation trying
to address this problem, you have seen one installation. Though
we are absolutely cross-leveling everything we find that works,
for example I was just down at Fort Bliss, and we don't often
get great news in this space because it is usually high wait
times and not enough capacity, lacking the amount of employees
to reach max capacity. But at Fort Bliss, over their five
different CDCs, their average wait time was three to five days,
which is pretty remarkable. That is why I mention it.
And so, again, we are deep-diving that to make sure we are
not missing anything in Wainwright or Moore or Johnson. But
their community with El Paso is a bit different than the
community, let's say, outside of Joint Base Lewis-McChord
(JBLM) as far as competing for employment and looking to hire
people.
And so I will tell you between our efforts for construction
that you have been helping us tremendously, our remodeling, the
latitude to increase pay to incentivize people to come want to
work in our CDCs, incentivizing spouses of family members to
work. I mean, it is really the sum of all those things that I
am finding in places like Bliss that equal a victory, and so it
is trying to make sure we level that across, because some of
those are joint installations, to make sure we are not missing
something somewhere.
Ms. Houlahan. Thank you. And I appreciate that. And,
Sergeant Major Ruiz, you had mentioned, as well, that you had
had some success with turnover in child care providers. Would
you be able to share in the remaining seconds of my time why
you feel as though that that has been a success story?
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Thank you for that. Absolutely, ma'am.
We found that the very people that work inside of CDCs are
spouses, partners, who are dedicated to serving their
communities in this specific area. So how and why are we
transferring service members one place to another and not also
taking a look at who is working at that CDC and how can we move
that person in a transparent way very quickly to the next duty
station, so that way, at least, we don't have two gaps.
So we found that staffing for us has been the issue, and we
have gone from a 48-percent staff turnover at the CDCs to down
underneath 20 percent. So at every level that we can we are
getting after it, ma'am.
Ms. Houlahan. And with my remaining time, Chief Master
Sergeant Bass, would you be able to comment on this?
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Yes, ma'am. Thanks for that
question. What I would say is we have been really busy at work
with this challenge with respect to child care. Our staffing in
the past year has gone up from 65 percent to 81 percent. Our
unmet needs, which are people who have children on the waiting
list, has decreased 31 percent, and I think that is largely in
part because of the 100-percent child care fee that we are
providing to recruit new providers. So if you are going to come
on and serve at our CDCs and our youth centers, we are
providing 100-percent free child care for your first child and
then 25 percent for the other ones. That has really increased
our staffing and helped us greatly, to include the work that
you all have done in helping us to get the Military
Construction (MILCON) and the Facilities Sustainment,
Restoration, and Modernization (FSRM) money to be able to get
after the capacity issues that we have on our installations.
Our installation commanders, every single one of them I talk
to, this is one of their top priorities on increasing capacity
for our service members.
Ms. Houlahan. Thank you. I run out of time, and I yield.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you, Ms. Houlahan. And now are going to
the great Representative of Guam, Mr. Moylan.
Mr. Moylan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sergeant Major Weimer, I
am an Army guy myself and we have a good set of Army reservists
and National Guard members on Guam. We have big
responsibilities there, and the Army is picking up on their
active duty, as well, with the missile defense and we are
responsible for the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) region.
And on Guam, Task Force Talon is responsible for the island's
missile defense, and this unit must work outdoors in muddy
fields and the hot sun. Conditions are more like a battlefield
during peacetime. And it has come to my attention that members
of the Task Force Talon also struggle to access programs which
could boost morale, such as Space-A flights.
What can be done to make the service and the Task Force
Talon more comfortable, and are you aware of this issue, such
as accessing Space-A flights? Of course, we are way out there
in the middle of the ocean, right, and we've got these troops,
and we are going to get more with the 360 missile Defense
System. We want to make it as comfortable as possible. We want
them to stay. We really want to support the Army. They have got
a great mission, but let's make it better for them. So what
have you heard about this, please?
Sergeant Major Weimer. Congressman, thank you for that
question. Great to see you, and I am actually on my way to your
great state. I think I take off Monday and am going to spend
three days there for exactly what you are addressing right now,
and that is to truly understand, with my teammates to my left.
We know the importance of Guam. I'll leave that one alone for
this level. So how are we going to do that without doing any
harm to Guam but also how are we going to make sure we can take
care of our Soldiers, service members, that are there.
And so I am aware of the flight issue, and we are actually
working that. I am going to take a look at that with my
teammates at a certain Component Commands and Combatant
Commands (COCOM) that help with Space-A flights and the
frequency of them. But really I am going to get firsthand
perspective with our National Guard teammates that are there,
including the G-3/5/7 that I am taking folks with me, because
it is a priority.
Mr. Moylan. I appreciate that. Thank you for your continued
support of the island and going back and forth. Your presence
is really welcome. Thank you.
Master Chief Petty Officer Honea, institutions such as Guam
Navy Hospital provide primary mental health care to joint
force. Do recruiting shortfalls limit the number of medical
professionals available to our force and effective access to
health care? What sources, programs, and initiatives are being
used to acquire more mental health and primary care providers
in the INDOPACOM region? And I appreciate your constant going
back and forth, as well, and helping our troops there. But
expand, please.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Hafa Adai. Thank you again, and,
yes, I spend quite a bit of my time over in Guam. It is an area
of concern for me for all the right reasons, as the Sergeant
Major of the Army was just describing.
Recruiting problems are going to cause us issues with our
staffing and our manning across our entire Navy. We are going
to have to make risk decisions about where we place that
manning, where it is going to be the highest priority. I will
tell you today that we are over 90-percent staffed at the
hospital there in Guam. I am confident that we are meeting our
current requirement.
Now, I have a lot of other concerns, you know, when I take
into consideration about our expansion in Guam and if we are
going to be able to meet all those quality of life needs for
that expansion of servicemembers and their families that we are
taking over there, you know, whether that is in housing,
whether that is in expansion of medical care and access to
that. Commissaries is another one that I am paying particular
attention to. But overriding all of that is dependable and
resilient utility services. Our service members and their
families, we could build the Taj Mahal. If we don't have
dependable and resilient electrical power and water available
to those service members, then all the other quality of life
and issues we put in place there will be ineffective.
So I look at all the issues that we have going on over
there. It has a lot of support and a lot of attention. I am
very encouraged that the Undersecretary of the Navy has been
appointed as a coordinating authority for the Department, and I
think we are going to really make some good headway with that
kind of coordinated effort. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Moylan. Thank you. I am looking forward to working
closely with you, as well.
Sergeant Major Ruiz, we just got a couple of more seconds
here. We have got Camp Blaz coming on over, our first Marine
Corps general from Guam, our Marines there, and a lot of troops
are coming on over, too. And we want those troops to be as
happy as possible and stay there as long as possible, too. So
what can we do to make serving in Guam more appealing in your
opinion, please?
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Sir, thank you for that. Very quickly,
we look at overseas assignments, it won't be that much
different in how we try to incentivize Marines and families to
get there. One idea, just really quickly, is from the
commandant, too, it is expensive to get a family back home. So,
once or twice a year, how do we get that into the budget. How
do we get that to those families, so they know a predictable
way that they will have funding to return home and visit
families and friends.
Mr. Moylan. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. I was going to recognize Mr. Davis,
but he lost his voice. So, Mr. Davis, if you find your voice,
let us know and we will get you back in the pecking order.
So with that, we will recognize Ms. Strickland.
Ms. Strickland. Thank you, Chairman. So I want to talk
about the future of the force, and my question is specifically
directed to Sergeant Major Weimer. We know that the Future
Soldier Prep Course, which is a pilot that started in August of
2022, is to help America's youth overcome academic and physical
fitness barriers to service and meet or exceed the Army's
accession standards. Can you tell us how it is going so far and
what key lessons we are learning?
Sergeant Major Weimer. Congresswoman, thank you for that.
And it is actually--I was hesitant initially when we started
this, like everybody should be when we say `pilot' because we
don't want to be too presumptuous. But, currently, we are at
just shy of 15,000 people that have gone through the Future
Soldier Prep Course. I think it is 14,700-ish. And we have had
a 95-percent plus rate of passing and shipping to their
initial, to basic training. We have the analysis, the ongoing
analysis right now because what really I want to know is how
are they doing in their first term of enlistment. I am very
hopeful from what we are seeing, but just a quick story from
going down and visiting that because it was powerful.
In the sawdust pit, 50 candidates that want to join the
Army, asking them how it is going, what is their experience.
They were about 50 percent of the way through, and one stood up
and said--you know, you could tell, struggling a little bit,
these are youngsters--and said this is the first time anyone
has ever cared about me. I don't think I was looking at this
initiative from that lens, but I walked away understanding to
some of what SEAC Black was talking about. We were meeting some
of these youngsters where they were and helping them get to the
standard.
Ms. Strickland. Thank you. And I am going to switch gears a
bit and speak about food insecurity, which really is about
families not having enough resources to put food on the table.
So by the DoD's own estimation, nearly one-quarter of all
Active-Duty service members experience food insecurity at some
point in the last year. This is pretty astounding and
unacceptable, given that they are serving our country. And part
of this may have had to do with the calculations.
So this is for anyone who wants to take it. Do you believe
that excluding the basic allowance for housing from the income
calculations for Basic Needs Allowance (BNA) eligibility can
enable the program to reach the majority of food-insecure
military families and give them the benefits they need? And
then that is the first part of my question. The other part is
what other corrections or improvements to the BNA would you
suggest to more effectively respond to food insecurity? Thank
you for taking that.
Sergeant Major Black. I am the guy who gets the questions
nobody wants to answer. Congresswoman, first, thanks for the
question. As all of us have talked about pay and compensation,
this is one of these compensatory discussions. I think it is
also important to note that, when we are talking about food
insecurity, it is not just does someone have enough to eat, it
is whether they are eating the right things. So this is a
different discussion that Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps
and all the service Senior Enlisted have talked about when it
comes to holistic performance. We also want to get the right
sustenance for both the service member and their family.
I think it is interesting your question. Not to say about
the BAH calculation or the BNA, which is very helpful to those
that qualify for it, but if someone is going to qualify for
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is an
income calculation. It doesn't include other incentive pays and
benefits that come with that. And so in those two calculations,
on one side you could get someone who could otherwise meet the
requirements for SNAP but not meet the requirements for other
incentives that would cover the food insecurity challenges.
I think there is work to be done to understand how the
process works and algorithms we use to get there. But we are
also very thankful on the incentives that we have to be able to
try to get after it, the BNA increase to be one of them. Thank
you, ma'am.
Ms. Strickland. Great. Thank you. Anyone else?
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Yes. Rep. Strickland, MCPON
here. I would like to offer just a few more thoughts on this. I
am joined today with my wife, Evelyn, sitting behind me. We
have been married now for 34 years.
Ms. Strickland. Congratulations.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Thank you. Going back to our
younger life, oftentimes, we would get done with paying our
bills, by bills I mean I'd pay my electric and my rent, and we
would have about $50 to go grocery shopping with for the month.
So I had some food-insecure moments, but that was because those
were choices I needed to make and that is where I could take my
cut was in my commissary bill.
And so Sailors today, service members today and their
families that are stressed with their pay and compensation and
their housing allowance, they are going to make decisions, and,
oftentimes, the places they are going to take those cuts is
going to be in their commissary bills. They are not going to go
look at the rib eye steaks. They are going to go look at the
ground beef, you know. They are going to look at the family-
sized bags. They are going to make decisions in all those ways.
And the more that they are stressed and the more economic times
that are stressing them, that is where they are going to take
their first cuts and that is where we are going to exhibit some
food insecurity.
I would much rather spend our efforts, rather than coming
up with greater algorithms to solve a problem through the Basic
Need Allowance, by more appropriately addressing, you know,
holistic changes to our pay and compensation models so that we
can get after the root problem and give people the money they
need to lead a stable and secure life. Thank you.
Ms. Strickland. Thank you very much. A very enlightened
perspective. And we all know that eating healthy is not cheap,
and so to your point about the quality of the food that they
are getting and what kind of nutrition that they are getting.
So thank you very much for all of your service. I yield
back, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. Mr. Alford, you are now recognized.
Mr. Alford. Thank you, General. I appreciate it. I love
being on this Panel. This is the heart of, I think, a lot of
things in our military that we need to get to the bottom to
make an attractive place for men and women to serve and
sacrifice. You know, we have Fort Leonard Wood in our district,
a great Army military institution, as well as Whiteman Air
Force Base, so these concerns are my concerns because they are
my constituents' concerns.
Sergeant Major Black, I want to start with you because you
talked about the desire, the desire is just not there. Do we
have the recruitment numbers yet for the Army for '23? I hear
they are up a little bit from the year before.
Sergeant Major Black. Sir, I will defer to the Sergeant
Major of the Army to give you specific numbers, but the
understanding is the Army has not met their numbers that they
needed, no.
Mr. Alford. Go ahead, Sergeant Major Weimer.
Sergeant Major Weimer. Congressman, they were up a little
bit, but they are not where they need to be.
Mr. Alford. Right. They were up, like, ten percent from the
deficit that we had before, correct? So we are making some
headway, so that's a little bit of good news.
Sergeant Major Black, why is the desire not there then?
Does it have to do with the quality of life issues that we are
talking about today, or is it some other factor?
Sergeant Major Black. Yes, and others. Obviously, the value
proposition to serve our nation has to be strong enough that it
will draw people into our ranks, and quality of life is one of
those values of service, the education benefit, serving your
nation.
Let me get into specifics: quality of housing, availability
of housing, do I make enough income to balance if I can have
the same type of career in the civilian sector. I mentioned in
my opening comments a much broader view of that, as well. When
you are a young, you know, a young person and you are going
through high school, how much of the job market opportunity you
have is focused on, hey, and serving your nation is also a good
career, or is that seen like, well, if you can't get another
job, then maybe you need to join your military. It's just how
we say it.
Access for recruiters to get into our schools and
universities and colleges right now, in some places, is still
strained. In other words, there are recruiters that can get
after populations that may want to be in the military, but they
don't have access to recruiters because they still can't get
into those places.
I'll go so far as to say, you know, how senior leaders talk
about those who serve in the military. We focus a lot on the
bad things that occur in society, which is also going to occur
in the military, rather than talk about the tens of thousands
of Americans right now that are forward deployed protecting our
national defense is important in defending our Constitution. It
is a very powerful message. Hollywood, media, you name it, the
narrative on service to our nation or service in communities of
any kind, not real popular job opportunities.
So for all of those things to kind of turn and reverse and
think about, if nothing else, the Constitution is worth
defending. It is worth giving a career and a life to or a
portion of that career life span that you have is a valuable
opportunity. Yes, quality of life is part of that, but it is
much more broader on the narrative. Thank you.
Mr. Alford. Thank you, sir. Sergeant Major Weimer, back to
you. You know, we are building a hospital at Fort Leonard Wood.
We are very excited about that. I have heard concerns from
numerous people that we don't have the staffing we need for
that hospital. How do we compete with the private sector and
adequately staff that hospital?
Sergeant Major Weimer. Thank you for that question, and it
is absolutely a concern for us, such a concern for all of us
right now, and it is also a concern for DHA who is responsible
for a lot of that. But it is also, it speaks a little bit to
some of the recruiting. The competitive nature right now to
staff those hospitals, the competition of the talent in the
medical industry, we are trying to surge people into those
facilities. But, for the Army in particular, those are the same
people that are in our combat units, and so there's a bit of--
there's good time for a 68 whiskey, which is a combat medic in
the Army, to spend in the clinic. But then there is just as
good amount of time for them to be with their unit out in the
field training on their basic warfighting skills.
So we are trying to balance that because that awesome
hospital, beautiful, it won't be nearly what it needs to be if
it is not staff properly. It is a little bit of the CDC
conversation a little bit there for the ability to get the
employees in there.
Mr. Alford. Real quick. The Future Soldiers Prep Course. We
hope to visit Fort Jackson coming up soon. Is this program
going to be expanded? We would like to have that at Fort
Leonard Wood. We think we have the perfect setting for an
expansion of this program.
Sergeant Major Weimer. Yes, Congressman. It is going to
continue. The Secretary and the Chief have made the decision
that if we need to expand it, we absolutely will. But right now
we don't have the demand, but we are ready as soon as the
demand, to the other discussion, starts to go up.
Mr. Alford. Thank you. Thank you for all being here. I
yield back.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. Now to the representative from El
Paso, Ms. Escobar.
Ms. Escobar. Thank you so much, Chairman. And thanks to our
panelists. You know, I would like to first remark that I have
been so pleased and honored to serve on this Quality of Life
Panel and so impressed with the leadership by our chair and by
our ranking member. These have been really robust, important
conversations and have been very, very instructive, and it has
been because of the direction of our top two leaders on this
Panel. So I want to shout out and thank you both.
I want to also thank our panelists, the majority of you
all, for visiting Fort Bliss, which I have the incredible
privilege of representing. And, Sergeant Major Weimer, thanks
for your visit last week and the time that we got to spend
together was super helpful and I got to share with you the
roundtable conversations I have been having with our Active
Duty service members at Fort Bliss where we have found some
things that we need to work on that are not unique to Fort
Bliss and challenges and issues that we have faced together on
this Quality of Life Panel, but also some bright spots. And,
Sergeant Major, you mentioned child care. That was an
incredible conversation and a consistent message that I heard
from our Active Duty service members about Fort Bliss. So I
think the deep dive in what is going right can be really
instructive and helpful to all of you for your leadership but
also to us as members of Congress.
And so for those of you who have visited Fort Bliss, what I
would like to do is shine a bright light on the positives and
what you saw and witnessed during your visit there that could
be, that we could replicate or opportunities that we might want
to examine a little bit more closely. And, Sergeant Major
Black, if you don't mind, we'll start with you. I think you
have recently visited Fort Bliss. Any lessons learned? I will
give you a quick example, 3-D printed barracks, which is using
innovative technology, you know. Would love to hear from you
all as we try to focus on the positive, as well.
Sergeant Major Black. Congresswoman, thank you. And a good
majority of the Panel here was in Fort Bliss last week. First
of all, great visit. I have been down there uniquely as a
Marine a couple of times for different reasons not part of this
discussion.
But to your point, I think one thing that I heard a great
deal from mostly the Soldiers but actually all the joint force
members that are there was the connection that they have with
the community. Now, to my discussion about propensity a moment
ago, I am relatively sure that if you are in El Paso you are
very familiar with what is going on on Fort Bliss, and that
connection between community and the base or the installation
is huge because that will increase understanding and knowledge
of what goes on within our U.S. military writ large, though it
will be mostly Army. The point being is that that connection is
huge to the connection that the American people have to our
military.
To MCPON's point about being one of the pillars of the All-
Volunteer Force, that is hugely apparent when you visit not
just Fort Bliss but get outside in the communities, the
connection between the two. Thank you, ma'am.
Ms. Escobar. And it helps increase access to quality of
life assets, which improves quality of life for our service
members.
Sergeant Major Black. I did not know this, but I heard more
about snow skiing in El Paso than I have in Denver, Colorado,
if that makes any sense to you, ma'am.
Ms. Escobar. Thank you. Sergeant Major.
Sergeant Major Weimer. Congresswoman, thank you. Great
visit. I would have to echo the relationship with the
community. So all of us remember before all our installations
had gates and fences, and I am also an Army brat, and so I
remember the pre-9/11. There has been a change there. So when
we shut ourselves in for all the right reasons, and there is
still reasons to maintain some of that, it really changed the
dynamics, which is why I have to give the Garrison leadership a
shout-out at El Paso. Part of it is the deep dive of the CDC,
but part of it, it's bigger than that. Their relationship with
that community in your district, it's something we need to look
at and grow.
Now, we have that in other places, too, so Liberty, the
community at Liberty, down at Columbus, Moore. So we have that.
But there is something special going on down at El Paso to
include agreements with off-installation CDCs to take
military--I mean, there is a lot of little nuance into what we
are talking about here, and we share that across the entire
joint force. So I would give the garrison leadership, that is a
positive thing, and you saw that with those roundtables.
Ms. Escobar. Thank you.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Ma'am, I was not available to
come to El Paso and to Fort Bliss, and one of these days I
will, but I was with my boss, our Chief of Naval Operations, in
the bustling city of Paris for the Paris Naval Conference. So
El Paso or Paris, and I chose to go with my boss. I think you
could understand. I look forward to an opportunity, though,
although we don't have a base in El Paso, I look forward to an
opportunity to come visit and understand that community. I also
look forward to an opportunity to sit down and discuss with
you, we have a lot of our Sailors that come from the great city
of El Paso, a lot of patriots there. As a matter of fact, I
have one of your constituents that works in my office that has
worked with me since 2016. He brags about your city quite a
bit, and so I look forward to it, ma'am.
Ms. Escobar. That's wonderful. And I know we are out of
time. We have plenty of sand in El Paso, just not the water.
But I know we are out of time. I will just close with this: I
have said multiple times from the dais to my colleagues on this
committee many of the challenges facing our service members
around quality of life, housing, food insecurity, access to
world class health care providers, mental health care
providers, child care, those are challenges the entire country
faces. And so as Congress tries to tackle these issues on
behalf of our Active Duty service members, really we should
take a holistic approach and solve these challenges and see
them as opportunities for our nation, for everyone in the
country.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. Now we are recognizing the
representative from Virginia Beach, Mrs. Kiggans.
Mrs. Kiggans. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Such a privilege to be
in all of your presence today. Thank you very much for coming
and for all the work you do on behalf of all of our men and
women who serve.
As a Navy veteran, a Navy wife, a Navy mom now, I certainly
feel like I have a little bit of just a different insight. And
I know I have had different conversations with almost all of
you about the top issues we have been talking about, pay and
compensation always at the forefront. We are dealing with a
defense budget that is inadequate, in my opinion. It is
something we need to continue to put our money where our mouth
is from the Congress side and make sure that we providing that
pay and compensation.
Housing has become a passion project of mine, especially
for the bases in my district. It is inadequate on all fronts. I
know we have made some progress on family housing. I feel like
privatized has been a great model. I would love to see that
expanded into unaccompanied housing. We need to think outside
the box. Again, challenged by an inadequate defense budget, how
can we do things differently. Privatization is one way that we
can provide what our Sailors and Soldiers and Marines and
Airmen need without spending those defense dollars. So we will
continue to work in that regard.
Thank you so much, Sergeant Major Black just for the
reminders of patriotism and of the real reasons that we choose
to serve and how we need to continue to message that
appropriately and make sure that we are attracting good people
to our All-Volunteer Force. Thank you to Sergeant Major Ruiz
about your reminders about leadership and behaviors and how
that is such an important piece. And, Sergeant Major Weimer,
just what you said, just the stories about how, you know, we do
take care of our people and how it is an important part of what
we do.
One of my concerns as a nurse practitioner, and we have
done a lot of work in the mental health space and I know that
we have met with Navy leadership. I met with MCPON Honea and
Admiral Caudle. We have had many meetings and put some
legislation forward just about changes that we can make to
improve mental health care. So I would love to hear from
Sergeant Major Weimer and then Sergeant Major Ruiz about if you
feel like the changes that are being implemented are actually
reaching the most junior enlisted men and women. Do they know
what's out there, what resources are available? We are making
some small changes, and I know MCPON and I talked about it
yesterday, but can I hear from the Army and the Marine Corps
and Air Force, too, if you have anything to add, but just about
if we are reaching our junior men and women.
Sergeant Major Weimer. Congresswoman, thank you for that.
Behavioral health, as we usually refer to it, I would say the
stigma that used to be of avoiding behavioral health, because
that was part of what hindered people from getting to the
resources, so it was a bit twofold. One, it was there's nothing
wrong with seeking behavioral health. That was step one, and I
think we have made tremendous progress on that. I have
witnessed that across the entire Army. The second part was
having the resources available for once that stigma was
removed, and that is where we saw a little bit of the, you
know, the perfect storm, and so we didn't have the resources.
So I do appreciate all the assistance, we all do, for the
increased behavioral health capability and resources. Now we
are trying to ensure that they are being used properly. And not
everything is a behavioral health or a mental health issue, and
so now we are learning how to triage them so that those
valuable resources that you referenced are being used
appropriately.
What we are trying to do with some of our holistic health
and fitness, which you have heard a bunch of my teammates
actually reference to, I personally think one of the most
exciting things we have going on in the Army right now is the
preventive side, the building resiliency to the left. And some
of those behavioral health resources you are talking about, if
they are being overused or misused, they can't actually be used
to teach how to become resilient.
And so that is where we are right now. They know they are
there. They are being used, and now there is an education
piece. Thank you for that question.
Mrs. Kiggans. A step in the right direction. Thank you.
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Ma'am, to continue with that thought,
just imagine a place where you bring together a community of
experts, hired experts, people like strength and conditioning
coaches next to a chaplain next to a dietician or sleep
wellness counselor, all under one umbrella at a common place
where it is okay, this is what happens there. It is a place for
families and Marines and service members to be a part of it. So
as you grow and develop into who you want to be, wow, that
would look pretty awesome.
So all these programs that we have, thank you, appreciate
it, we are working hard to inform the force. But it is the very
beginning of a service member's life. How do we develop that
person?
Mrs. Kiggans. Work in progress, yes. Thank you.
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. For the Air Force side, I would
say we are doing that very thing that Sergeant Major of the
Marine Corps is talking about on targeted care and a holistic
look. You know, what we have been saying in the Air Force is
mental health is health, and so when you can remove that stigma
and actually get after that holistic health model, that is
where we need to be.
One other data point that I offer our service members is,
when I talk to our mental health practitioners, what they
typically share with me is, out of every ten Airmen that come
into mental health, only two of the ten need clinical mental
health support. The other eight just needs to know somebody
cares. And so while the nation might be short on mental health
providers, we are not short of leaders, and so we have got to
make sure that our leadership development and caring and
compassion is strong. Thank you.
Mrs. Kiggans. A hundred percent. Thank you. My time is
expired. I yield back.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. I now yield to the representative
from San Diego, Ms. Jacobs.
Ms. Jacobs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for
being here and for the many conversations I have had with you
all about these issues.
Master Chief Petty Officer Honea, I wanted to start with
you. I was really pleased to hear in your testimony that
Sailors all over the world are going to be benefitting from the
provision I was able to get into the fiscal year 2024 NDAA that
provides the Secretary of the Navy the authority to grant BAH
to junior Sailors assigned to ships undergoing maintenance. I
had heard from many Sailors in San Diego about how much this
authority was needed, and I was grateful we were able to make
it happen.
I was wondering if you could speak to how this provision
will improve quality of life for junior enlisted service
members in densely-populated cities and also when you
anticipate the Secretary of the Navy will first need to make
use of this new authority.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Ma'am, I thank you for making
this change, and I ask for your continued support in furthering
this change to expand across all Sailors who are assigned to
ships, not just those that are going to maintenance overhaul or
an industrial environment. And then it will have even a greater
impact.
The immediate impact that it is going to have, it is going
to give us the ability and the flexibility and the authority to
pay those Sailors to secure their own housing. And then that
will no longer then have to be an afterthought of the
maintenance budget. It will already be programmed into the
manpower count, and it will give those Sailors then immediate
separation from their work life to their home life. Currently,
as it stands or as it stood, we were challenged in that regard,
as much as you saw when we ended up with too many aircraft
carriers and submarines in Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)
a few years ago and we were resource-constrained to be able to
house all those Sailors at one time. With this authority, this
gives our Secretary much more flexibility to make that part of
the manpower count, program this, and allow for those Sailors
to secure housing outside that fence line.
Once we are able to expand this across the entire fleet and
we have that kind of flexibility everywhere, then we will be
able to afford every Sailor that same luxury to have a
separation from their workspace to their home life, which
doesn't currently exist. Somewhere in the neighborhood, on
average, 800 Sailors per aircraft carrier we can't find a bed
for. We don't have barracks space, and we are not allowed by
law to pay them housing allowance for them to go find
themselves an apartment in town. So they live onboard the ship.
That is a number-one quality of life concern of our Sailors
that are currently on deployment that are in that situation is,
when we return from deployment, am I going to continue to live
on this ship or will I be able to find a barracks room and move
into a bed and have separation from this workplace?
I ask you for your continued support. I thank you so much
for listening to your constituents in San Diego and making this
necessary change.
Ms. Jacobs. Absolutely. And we will look forward to working
with you to try and expand that authority in the next NDAA.
Building on Ranking Member Houlahan's questions, we know
wait lists at CDCs are very long. In San Diego recently, we
had, roughly, 2,600 children on the wait list in November.
Sometimes, the wait list has been as long as 4,000. And of
those, over a thousand of them are under the age of 12 months.
I have heard that infant care in particular for my constituents
has been a real issue, and many of the service members end up
needing more leave to care for their infants, but their
parental leave is often exhausted and they haven't yet received
a spot in a CDC or are able to find infant care.
I was wondering if any of you have heard similar stories
about this lack of infant care and if there is anything you are
trying to do to address that situation, whether it is, you
know, extended leave or telework options, anything like that,
to any of you who want to answer.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Ma'am, I will begin with by
saying that is a leadership problem, and the local leadership
needs to be involved in helping solve this problem for that
Sailor that finds themself in that situation. No Sailor should
be felt like they are alone in solving that problem. I will
begin there. That is my expectation of leaders across our Navy.
To address your specific concern, yes, that is our biggest
gap of care are those from zero to five, and so we are
continuing to try to find creative ways to solve that problem.
One of the ways that we are doing is through fee assistance,
especially in our fleet concentration areas and metropolitan
areas like San Diego. So we are making a lot of headway there.
We continue to expel our wait list, and then they repopulate,
but we are continuing to use the assistance so we can secure
child care outside of our military fence line to help solve
this problem.
We even got to the end of that. I have not run out of
money, but I have also not run out of trying to help people
find those places.
Ms. Jacobs. And I am glad to hear your focus on fee
assistance. We have heard some folks having a hard time
actually accessing that fee assistance, so I will look forward
to working with you and your team to see what else we can do to
help make sure that folks are actually able to access that fee
assistance.
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Congresswoman, I will say, on
the Air Force side, you know, capacity is always the challenge.
As much work as we have done to lower those challenges, what we
have found to be really successful is the partnership that we
have with our communities and you all also talking with your
community members to encourage the partnerships with the Boys
and Girls Club, with colleges and universities, and other
things like that. The child care issue is not one that the
military is going to be able to get after by itself. We are
going to need our communities outside the fence line to help
us.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. We are now going to recognize Mr.
Luttrell from Texas.
Mr. Luttrell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I feel like I should
open my statement with a joke, but nothing is more entertaining
than watching the staff behind all of you try to stay awake and
take notes. It is just absolutely entertaining because I was in
that spot at one time or another.
I have been admiring the Space Force's dress uniforms. Very
powerful, sir. Very powerful. Not near as cool as the Marines.
Marines, you guys got it, hands down. The Army had to go back
to World War II; that's a strong statement. But, Master Chief,
we are stuck with the whites. Sad. Air Force, keep going,
you're doing great things.
Sergeant Major Black, my background is in behavioral
health, and you pinged on a narrative that I want to capitalize
on. The narrative for the military is broken. Remember back in
the 1900s when we were born and we joined in, we had Gunny
Highway, we had John Rambo, we had the Navy SEALs. I have been
struggling to find something for the Air Force, and I think I
got Iron Eagle. Iron Eagle, right? That is Air Force?
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. We take credit for Maverick,
too, yes.
Mr. Luttrell. That's Navy, right? All right. We will go
with that. And, you know, Space Force, I didn't want to throw
the Star Trek thing out there.
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. Hey, we are working on
it.
Mr. Luttrell. Okay. That's good. All right. If you can
appreciate what the media or, excuse me, the Hollywood
footprint is doing, they talk about injured brains and bodies.
There is no sexiness in being in the military anymore. You have
said it. We have gotten away from how powerful it is to be a
service member. We have gotten away from the depth of what it
means to us that served in the military, how great that was.
When I talk to the kids in my district, they are like, well, I
don't want to be broken. I don't want to end up like everybody
I see on the movies. We have to work at changing that. That is
a problem. That is definitely, in my opinion, hurting our
recruitment efforts. I think Marines are pretty solid. Marines
are born Marines; that's the thing. But I think we need to work
as a group to change that, and it is up to us, and I don't know
how we do it mainstream where the kids can appreciate it on the
social media platforms they live on. I am trying to figure that
little gem out and how we say that serving our country in the
military is one of the greatest honors and greatest jobs ever
because it is.
When it comes to quality of life and the aspect of when you
onboard in the military and you catch that train at the train
station and you start moving, it never slows down. It is a
bullet train traveling down the road. And I have been sitting
here for the last hour, I have been admiring the pretty colors
on your uniforms. That is a language to me. I know exactly what
every single medal you all wear says. I know what you had to go
through to get those.
What you don't know because you are still wearing them
right now is what I see and what you are going to experience
when you get out because, as you are traveling down that train,
it doesn't slow down at the station when you get off. You jump
and you can get lost.
Sergeant Major, we have to work together in the services to
communicate that baseline assessments are a part of quality of
life. We have to let the service members know that you are
special. We are paying you to--you absolutely could die for
your country. That's what we do. We saw that a few days ago. We
have to make sure that those that we need in the military
understand, when you come in to this organization, you are
different. We will treat you differently. Your assessment
starts from day-one. And then when you leave, we are going to
hand you this package, this is everything that you absolutely
have been through and we will offload you properly because we
don't do that. When I left, my gear is still hanging in my
locker at the team. I said adios. I was like thanks for the
scars, it has been a great story.
There is a miss in there, and, as grand as it is, we have
to start catching up. That is directly your responsibility in
how you communicate with each other. I can't scale that for
you. You can sit here and tell me, hey, it is going to be ten
years before we can start to capitalize on what we need
cognitively and physically to do for our members so, once they
leave, they are okay.
We have to start changing the narrative. Would you agree
with that statement, Sergeant Major?
Sergeant Major Black. I would. And I think this entire
panel would love to sit down and talk to leadership about
getting after all of those things. I think another part of the
narrative is this: and not everyone that leaves service is
broke.
Mr. Luttrell. Correct. Amen. We don't say that enough.
Sergeant Major Black. Yes. I mean, all of us are going to
leave here with something wrong. We have been doing it for 30-
plus years. But, ultimately, when someone serves their nation,
it comes with a cost. I think those that walk in the door that
do meet the stringent qualifications to serve and have that
propensity, they understand that. But how we talk about them
once they leave is a completely different narrative, and I
would also go so far as to say when someone is serving, maybe
more importantly, how we talk about those service members;
that's another part of the narrative.
And so back to my original point in my written statement
and as well as when I made a comment a moment ago, the idea of
how we think about those that serve our nation and defend our
freedoms and protect our Constitution, that narrative
holistically, holistically, you pick the area, it is never a
positive message. Even when it is a successful military
operation that was executed, there will be something that will
be honed in on that went wrong, and that will become the
narrative.
And so I think how we speak about military service is one
thing, but we have to always understand that those that put the
uniform on only do it for one reason: support and defend the
Constitution of the United States of America. And that is worth
every other sacrifice or pain or injury or thought or
consideration you may have when you do so. Thank you.
Mr. Luttrell. Amen to that. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. Before I yield to Ms. Mace, I want to
piggyback on something. When I go back home, I hear from
parents, hey, we don't really think our kid should join right
now because the focus is not on warfighting. I don't believe
that to actually be the case, but that is something that we
can't over-communicate because folks back home hear different
versions of that and people want to join the best warfighting
military in the world. So I just think we have to do a better
job convincing people that is still what we do.
With that, I recognize Ms. Mace.
Ms. Mace. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I do want to say,
Mr. Luttrell, I like the Space Force uniform. It is pretty
awesome. But I have had a chance to tour bases, not just here
but abroad, as well, and seen the work of our Space Force and
it is pretty incredible. So for any young woman or man out
there today who is interested in that sort of thing, interested
in cyber, Space Force is on fire. It is hot, it is cool, and it
is really neat to meet some of the folks who are coming through
the ranks.
Quality of life initiatives are supremely important to our
Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen, and are not only beneficial from
a recruiting and retention standpoint, but they are directly
tied to our military readiness. I come from a military family.
My father served for 28 years, like many of you, retired a one
star; and so I greatly appreciate your time and commitment to
your country and to us today, to everyone who is in the room.
And I know that a lot has changed over the last couple of
decades for a quality of life standpoint, and it pains me
greatly to see the quality of health care go down, the quality
of housing go down. We have housing that Soldiers can't even
live in; it is unlivable. And we have to do better, both of us,
both Congress and our service and DoD. Providing our service
members and their families a high quality of life promotes
their physical and mental wellness, as you all have discussed
today. It reduces their stress and uncertainty in, inevitably,
a very stressful and uncertain environment. And we are seeing
that around the world today.
Not only that, but, simply put, addressing quality of life
issues, as the Chairman has over the last weeks and months, is
supremely important. So I am glad we are holding this hearing
today.
But I am most concerned about, obviously, the 1st
congressional district of South Carolina. We don't go a week
without hearing from a service member or someone locally about
quality of life issues, particularly as it relates to housing.
And about half of all the bases in the state of South Carolina
are in the low country. They are either in the first or in
Clyburn's 6th.
And so my first question is going to go to Sergeant Major
Ruiz. The Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort, I hope you have
been there; I am sure you have been there several times. Not
only is it stunningly beautiful, but we are experiencing a
housing crisis. There is a military population of around 12,000
in Beaufort County. There are only 1,140 units at the Marine
Corps Air Station in Beaufort, and approximately 960 of those
units are occupied, with the rest being either in disrepair or
completely unlivable. These units were built in the 60s. They
have not experienced significant upgrades or increased volume
since construction. And, obviously, it breaks my heart to hear
this, I hear about it almost every week. It is probably the
biggest challenge we have in housing in my district would be
that particular one.
So what can we discuss today that DoD is doing to ensure
our Marines and their families in Beaufort have access to safe
and quality and affordable housing? And thank you. Not to put
you on the spot, but we are.
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Yes. I have been there a few times
throughout my career, and that is since taking the seat. But I
have maintained quite a bit of touchpoints with that command
team because it is close to Parris Island and that is where we
make Marines and there's that Tri-Command thing there.
So in regards to your question, we have a very good
relationship, Marines and the privatized housing Atlantic
Marine Corps Communities (AMCC). They work very hard together
to get after to ensure that the families have the best possible
home. Now, AMCC, doing the best they can. And in that specific
area, ma'am, what we have is overage in inventory, and so, in
the business model, one, I imagine, would have to make a
decision on where to save, and so what empty houses sit and
what do we invest in those. So we are not.
Today, they call them ready rack homes, and so those are
homes that are already available to families or single parents
ready to move in. And so I am not sure that we have a
disconnect with information. I think ----
Ms. Mace. Oh, there is definitely a housing issue down
there. I am not going to accept that there is an issue with
disinformation or misinformation. We are not going to--that is
not happening.
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Yes, ma'am. And so I would just
provide you with additional context. That place is going
places, and what I mean by that is, you know, there is two
Department of Defense Education Activities (DoDEA) schools
there, there's youth programs. We are building a fire station
there.
Ms. Mace. We are talking about housing, the issues with
housing, not with the fire station or anything else. But thank
you for your time this morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I
yield back.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. I have a couple of round-two type
questions here for you. First of all, I want to thank the
Master Chief Honea for talking about a lot of our Sailors have
to stay on ships when they come back to port, so I was going to
ask you about that, but you brought it up earlier. That is
something we all need to realize for quality of life for our
Sailors. Sometimes, they are on ships, and there is welding
going on at night while they are trying to sleep and it is
hard. So we have to find a better way forward working with the
Navy to support those Sailors when they return.
What I would like to do is ask--we will go from the Space
Force over. We will try reverse order because we want to put a
little more attention down on this side of the table. We got a
barracks or dormitory problem. GAO gave us a failing grade.
When I was a wing commander at Ramstein and a wing commander at
Offutt, I would have got fired for what happened. When I asked
at the flag officer level what happened, they said, well, the
culture has changed, we haven't been putting the emphasis on
our base commanders anymore. That doesn't seem right to me.
I would like to get your perspective. When I was in in
2014, we worked hard to have good dorms and barracks. What
happened? I would just like to get your perspective. Thank you.
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. Well, sir, thank you very
much for the question. You know, our junior enlisted members
who live in the dormitories, they are a precious resource. You
know, they are sons and daughters of the nation that are in our
care. They are also the most vulnerable. And I will tell you,
you know, after the report came out, it was not the time when I
took the seat and I had a chance to travel, and I visited the
dormitories at several of our installations. And there are
places where investment needs to be made, but it is also in the
palm. They have plans to make the renovations they have to, but
nothing was unlivable, if you will. But there was expressed
concern about the planning out to do that modernization, you
know, a stable budget is critically important to kind of plan
that out. So that is key for a stable budget. That is where we
need help to do that.
But the leadership team when I was there was very involved,
and the Airmen and Guardians and Soldiers and Sailors and
Marines that lived in the dormitories on the Space Force
installations seemed relatively happy. But what really
impressed me was the professionalism and dedication, so we had
Airmen dorm leaders, you know, Chief Bass. We rely a lot of
support from the Air Force. The Airmen that were committed to
building a relationship with those dorm residents, several of
them were actually government civilians that were dorm leaders
that were there. And I was actually pretty happy with the
conditions that we had there.
But the culture, to your point about the leadership being
involved, that is something that we instill in our commanders
course or Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) courses, and that is a
responsibility of leadership to spend some time in the
dormitories, just like I did when I was coming up. So, you
know, I think a continuous budget is required to make sure we
can continue that modernization and make sure that those living
conditions are sustained.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. Chief Master Sergeant Bass.
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Sir, we are always glad to take
care of our Guardians, and, sir, I would offer nothing has
changed from when you got out in 2014. The priority of making
sure that our service members have a safe place to live is
super important to us, a safe and good place to live.
What is not shocking to any of us is most of our
infrastructure is like antiques, right? You know, built in the
50s, 60s, 70s, and so, you know, how we ensure that we have a
strategy to take care of our infrastructure is important. For
the last two decades, I would offer we have underfunded our
FSRM. However, the strategy right now through this Future Years
Defense Program (FYDP) that the Air Force is putting in about
$1.1 billion to ensure that we can get after this challenge. So
thank you to all of you who help ensure that we are able to do
that. But what we are doing is investing again into old
antiquated facilities.
But the focus from a leadership level has never gone away
to making sure that our Airmen and Guardians and any service
member on this Panel is not living in dorms that are
unsatisfactory. I will say we are using those opportunities
also to partner with our communities to help look at different
models to house our unaccompanied Airmen.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. And I hope that is the case, but,
obviously, the GAO report sure showed somewhere along the line
we have dropped the ball in some places.
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Yes, sir. The GAO report went
to two Air Force locations. I'd offer, I go to dozens of them
every time because it matters. Yes, sir, we have got work to
do.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. Sergeant Major Ruiz.
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Yes, sir. And just to continue the
thought process, it does require a strategy and sustained
funding. And you know this, sir, from your previous life. We
have various pockets where our barracks, they are old, and we
need to knock them down. And I will get on a tram and I will
knock them down myself if we have to in order to take that
money and invest in to the ones that can be saved. I have seen
refurbished barracks. We have quite a few of them. We have done
30 of them in two years, and we plan on doing more. So those
are quick wins, if you will, that we can get after quickly.
The MILCON will come, and we will have--the best thing that
we can provide to our servicemembers still, you know, we can
build them the most beautiful things, if the leadership is not
right, the Marines will leave. So it is about getting the
leadership right and then giving them what they need to serve.
Mr. Bacon. I am a little short on time. Do you have, the
other two, have anything else you want to add?
Chief Petty Officer Honea. I will be real quickly, Mr.
Bacon. I would say, first, thank you for your focus and
attention to understanding the service-specific interest that I
have in the Navy in finding housing for them. I would also like
to recognize Congressman Davis has been sitting there not able
to ask questions, but he sat here through everything. He has
listened to everything intently. I'm impressed by that.
Mr. Bacon. We can make him part of the band.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. I am extremely excited with the
focus that we have from the secretariat level from our
Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) and our service chiefs on
solving this problem. This is one of those problems, as I said
at the beginning of this, it's really big. We are not going to
solve this by Saturday or even by the end of this year. But I
appreciate their focus, I appreciate Rep. Kiggans' focus, and
the rest of this Panel on getting after this. We have 100-
percent funding this year that is fenced off to get after
operations and maintenance of our unaccompanied housing. That
is a good start. And then we have one to end list of all of our
unaccompanied housing of which ones need attention today, which
ones are going to get more attention in the coming years, which
ones, as Sergeant Major said, we need to demo and rebuild, and
what do we got to do to increase our capacity to solve this
problem. And I am very, very thankful for everyone's time on
solving that problem.
Mr. Bacon. Unfortunately, I am out of time, but I can come
back to you. I want to allow the Ranking Member, if she has any
follow-up questions.
Ms. Houlahan. Yes, I do. And thank you. My first question
focused around child care, and these questions will focus
around the rest of the family, specifically the military spouse
and the pressures that military spouses feel to find their
place in their economy and be successful in their own rights.
And so I was hoping that I might be able to get some best
practices again from you all in terms of what has worked. I
know, in some of our one-on-one conversations, we talked about
remote assignments as an example. Would you be able to share
what has worked?
And then I will pepper my second question in with the first
in case you would like to add to that. The Exceptional Family
Member Program is just one example of kind of how we try to
take care of our kids, too. Having been a kid, a military kid,
and having moved 12 times in 12 years, I think a lot about my
experience and whether my father, frankly, made a decision to
separate because of us, I think, has some validity to it. So I
would love to hear what you can say is helpful in terms of
making sure we are taking care of our children, too.
And I will start with Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna, if
you have an answer for either of those.
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. Yes, ma'am. Thank you
very much for the question. And I think it has been said, you
know, we recruit service members but we retain families, and
that is vitally important because it is the experience that
they have that allows them to continue to serve and retain that
talent within the services.
On the spouse employment, there has been a lot of
initiatives, right, with working with states to have licensing,
transportability, and I really appreciate the work that the
committee has done to help support that. But there is more work
to be done there. The states more and more have to be willing
to adopt them and the knowledge and education, not only at the
state level and the community but also across the services.
My wife, Kathy, has had an opportunity to travel with me.
She loves to engage with spouses, and there are so many vast
opportunities and programs at the service level, at the DoD, at
the federal and the community level, it is almost overwhelming
with the knowledge. But one of the successes that Kathy has had
and we have found as she travels around Space Force
installations is leveraging, encouraging spouses to go and seek
the education and take advantage of all those different
programs that help them find employment and find the skills to
get after it.
I think some spouses feel overwhelmed coming into the
community, especially the younger spouses, which are one of the
highest unemployment demographics that we have. But a lot of it
is there is programs out there, but it is the education and
encouraging them to take advantage of them, and that has been
kind of what we have been working on, at least within the Space
Force: leveraging the resources at the installations and the
networks that are there.
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. In addition to what the Chief
Master Sergeant of the Space Force said, Congresswoman, I would
say some wins that the Air Force has done is the Department of
the Air Force reimburses spouses for up to $1,000 on their
licenses as they have to Permanent Change of Station (PCS), and
so $1,000 go toward that. And one of the other initiatives that
we are working on right now with respect to policy is helping
our small business owners and providing $1,000 toward those
start-up costs. And so those are some of the things that have
been extremely helpful. Communicating all of those to every
level is the other thing that we are working hard through our
Military Family Readiness Centers.
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Ma'am, just to add on, yes, to the
reimbursement of licenses, the fees. That has been very
important and is gaining popularity, so we thank you for that.
And the long list of things I can come back to you with, but I
think what is important to relate to you is that the mindset of
the Marine Corps, which is career continuity. So how do we look
at that and take a hard look at why are we moving Marines from
place to place, where is the talent needed, slowing it down
where we need to to allow the spouse to also continue to chase
dreams and aspirations.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Ma'am, I will be real quick. We
had good discussion on this topic. I do believe that remote
work and expansion of that opportunity is going to gain a
greater success in spouse employment. Portability of licenses
and reimbursement of the license fees was a huge win. Thank you
all very, very much for helping us in those regard.
I was also very encouraged in our conversation and in our
discussion about talent management of that family unit and how
some of the other fellow departments solve that problem and
look at that. I am going to bring that back to my department to
see what we can be doing more holistically in moving the
military service member and the spouse and continuing having
them both employed and understanding how is that is valuable to
us as a team.
In the area of child care, the area that I think that we
are making the greatest strides is in fee assistance. That is
really paying us dividends, and I am encouraged in that regard.
Sergeant Major Weimer. Quickly, Ranking Member, without
repeating anything. I think stability. So we are taking a look
at, also being an Army brat, how frequently do we need to move?
And so that really falls into the talent management piece,
which leads to the EFMP centralized location within our G-9
that we are doing with a new app. It is not perfect, and we are
working through that, and I am spending a lot of time and so
are spouses because they are the ones that really end up using
it. But that allows us to better talent-manage the individuals
in which you are talking about that we have invested so much
time in. So if we can see ourselves, we can do that.
And then the last one, I would say, the reciprocity has
been great, greatly appreciate it, but we really need some
states to come alongside to honor that one a little bit more,
although we have made headway. And then your help potentially
with the lapsed authority for spouse employment application for
overseas that just recently lapsed. They would be great help
there if we could get that renewed.
Ms. Houlahan. Am I allowed to--all right. Please.
Sergeant Major Black. Ma'am, quickly, I think there is a
bit of interdepartmental solution to this, as well. And we will
speak specifically inside the Department of Defense, but
sometimes a conversation with the Department of Labor will be
of assistance. It talks about, when you have a transferring
military family, how we provide access to what is available on
the other side, and the Department of Labor obviously has the
touchpoints to do that.
The other thing is, I know Miss Evelyn wouldn't agree, but,
you know, our spouses travel and talk to spouses. It would be
really interesting to see what their thoughts would be, maybe
in kind of a different environment, and just hear from spouses
who hear from hundreds of hundreds of spouses during our
travels. That would be a great opportunity, ma'am.
Ms. Houlahan. And this committee has done that, but we
obviously can't tap into all of the spouses, but I appreciate.
Thank you so much.
Mr. Bacon. Ms. Kiggans has some follow-up questions, too.
Mrs. Kiggans. Just real quick. I wanted to just thank you
about the frequency of moving and looking at that piece. It is
expensive, it is hard on families, all those things. And with
the child care and thinking outside the box, you know, I was in
Futenma Marine Corps Station last week; we were in Japan. And
one of the spouses we met with just said, you know, a lot of
the gyms back home have child care in the gyms, and that was
something they asked for. So just really thinking outside the
box, but child care in military gyms, I have never seen that on
the military side.
But my question, my last question for you guys, I would
just love to start at the end with Sergeant Major Black and
just go down the row and just tell me the top reason that you
see people leaving your branch of service. I know we have
talked a lot about quality of life and how we are attracting
people and keeping people, but we are losing people, and that
is expensive, too. We invest so much money and time, and we
want to keep good people. So what is the top reason in all of
your branches that people are leaving?
Sergeant Major Black. Ma'am, because the Sergeant Major of
the Marine Corps is sitting here right now and it is no longer
me, I will speak more broadly. We could say quality of life,
yes. That has a huge impact. We could also say that there are
other career opportunities. You know, the skills that we give
military service members are highly lucrative on the outside.
And so while we see a challenge of bringing people in and
those things we talked about previously, propensity and quality
being the greater of the challenges, it is equally difficult to
keep people who we give--think about the amount of investment
in resources and capabilities that we give to our service
members. Let me use one and move on, so I don't get too wordy.
If you are an enlisted service member and work in cyber, E-4,
that individual can practice within authorities that no
civilian with a Ph.D. and many zeros after their paycheck can
ever execute. How do you reward that, and where is the
attraction to stay, other than pride of service to your nation?
Those are continuing challenges that I think we are going to
see as we see our military talent leave because there is other
opportunity until there is a time of need, and then they will
want to run back in, by the way. Thank you.
Sergeant Major Weimer. Thank you for that great question. I
would say, first, for context, our retention numbers are
actually really good right now. You notice I hesitated a little
bit before I said that. That is because I want that to
continue, and so I spend a preponderance of my time focused on
retention.
We have done some pretty solid recruiting work here
recently, and the Secretary of the Chief have made some
decisions and we are absolutely getting after that, and that
journey is never going to slow down for us.
But on the retention side, I don't want to come here and
talk about a retention crisis, and so I do drive our G-1 folks
crazy with this topic. But I do think some competition in the
outside world, not to repeat everything the SEAC just said,
that is real. That is not hyperbole. And then there's some
demands on the force. It is not a safe and secure globe right
now, and the commands from the global combatant commanders are
very genuine, and you are well aware of all of them.
And so with the force we have, back to the recruiting, and
then the demand, we are in this space right now. I don't have
Soldiers getting out because of--specifically I am out of here
because of my barracks or because of my motor pool was built in
1952, but I think it is the sum of all those things. When an
individual gets to a point in their life to make a decision
whether to reenlist or not, I think it is probably a little bit
of all those and difficult and unique for each of them. But
that competition pull, that is a real thing. And that is a good
thing, by the way. We want a great economy.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Ma'am, I would offer this for us
to consider. We take their quality of life and we take their
quality of work, and we combine those and we have our quality
of service and what that service member and that Sailor find
that they are getting out of that. But we have high opt tempo,
no doubt about that. And everyone is looking for a way to
improve their station in life, and they want to see a future
that is improving their particular station in life.
Now, along those ways, they are going to be extremely
satisfied with what they are accomplishing in that mission.
Case in point, our Sailors are currently operating in the Red
Sea, in the Bab el Mandeb, they are reenlisting at record
rates. They are very excited and proud of what they are
accomplishing over there, and they want to continue to do so.
If they come back and they don't look at that their quality of
life as improving, their station in life, they don't see a
future in that or they don't see a future that is improving
their station in life and it starts to detract away from their
quality of work and what they are accomplishing, they are going
to make decisions to move on and find something else that does
satisfy them.
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Ma'am, for the Marine Corps, I have
trouble getting them out. They are at 97.6 percent complete,
which is four months into the year. So we have a good thing
going with our culture and retention. Marines get out when we
don't give them the culture that they are expecting or the
vision or what it is like to be a Marine, ma'am.
Mrs. Kiggans. That's great. Good.
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Congresswoman, thank you for
the question. Just like my brother said on the right, the Air
Force retention is high. It is at nine out of every ten Airmen
are staying in, but it is not across the board, depending on
the career field that you might be in. And so, you know, exit
surveys show that, of the folks that are separating, it is
typically squadron-level leadership. However, that is probably
the same whether you are in the military or out.
What I do want to emphasize is the highly-lucrative
opportunities that service members face today. When I talk to
our cyber Airmen or nuclear maintainers, these are young E-4s
that have opportunities where companies are offering lots of
money for the skill sets that we are providing them, which the
help that you all can provide in the sum of fully funding
Military Personnel (MILPERs) accounts, allowing us the
opportunities and authorities to be able to put the money where
we need to to retain that E-4 that might be, otherwise, getting
out would be extremely helpful. Thank you.
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. Congresswoman, thank you
for the question. You know, for the Space Force, as young as we
are and as small as we are, we don't have a recruiting or a
retention challenge. I would say that most Guardians I interact
with when I talk to them after they do leave service do so
grudgingly because they love what they do, but there is
opportunities for them to continue their life and maybe better
their station, if you will. But they miss serving, but they
just have other opportunities.
And we talked a lot about value proposition today. Just as
an example, right, when we look at are some of our models
outdated, 99 percent of enlisted men and women who have
families do not qualify to get reimbursed to have a single-
family home. When you look at the BAH anchor points, the only
grade that is authorized to get reimbursed to have their own
single-family three-bedroom house, single dwelling, are E-9s.
So when you talk about value proposition above and beyond
what it means to serve and wear the uniform and cloth of your
nation, but, from the value proposition perspective, that is
kind of what we are offering them. And I think maybe this Panel
is about to have that discussion and rethink what does it mean,
how do we value the propensity to serve and the immense talent
and responsibility we place among our enlisted corps. Thank
you.
Mrs. Kiggans. Well, thank you for all your responses. And I
appreciate and am so thankful to hear about people being
satisfied with their mission. It really is a mission that we
are all on together. And we will just continue to work on that.
I think that this has given us a lot of direction to follow, so
I appreciate just all of your insights. It is a small
progression, right. That is what they need to see. You
mentioned that they need to come back and they need to see that
we care, that we are investing, that we are building new
buildings, taking care of old buildings, improving, just the
baby steps. But we will continue to work on that. Thank you so
much for being here.
Mr. Bacon. I think we are at the last set of questions
here, but, in the interest of time, I want to ask all of you, I
have got two things I want to drill into. I think it is
ludicrous that we determine what someone's housing allowance is
and then we subtract 5 percent. We have to restore that 5
percent. But every percent is $220 million I have learned, so
it comes with a cost.
Chief Bass, what is the impact if we can restore that 5
percent for the Air Force?
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Chairman, that is a huge
impact, right. Like, that is 5 percent that goes back in the
pockets of our service members so that they can pay for their
housing allowance, you know, fully funded at 100 percent. We
have got to get there, sir. That is, to me, a no-brainer. Thank
you.
Mr. Bacon. Sort of a funny memory. I was giving a speech,
like, and I said who came up with this dumb idea, and somebody
yelled at me Congress. I can assure you it wasn't me. It wasn't
anybody on this Panel up here, but I think it was on the other
side of the building here, but I am not going to point fingers.
But, Sergeant Major Weimer, how about you, what is your
take? Is that 5 percent going to make a difference if we get
that back in?
Sergeant Major Weimer. Chairman, it would make a
difference. It also sends a message. So to the point from
Congresswoman Kiggans, yes, there is a pocketbook impact, but
then there is a demonstration of caring.
Mr. Bacon. We are going to try to work hard. We may not be
able to do it in one fell swoop, but we are going to try to
chip away at this and get it done because I think it is just a
terrible mistake what we have done to the service men and women
by doing that.
My last question is a little tougher. The consolidation of
health care going to the Defense Health Agency, I am going to
ask are you seeing a positive effect or negative? Because I
have got concerns. Master Chief Honea.
Chief Petty Officer Honea. Sir, as I was saying earlier in
my opening remarks, I don't blame the transformation of the
Defense Health Agency for what those stressors are. It is
complicated. It is also that we no longer can depend on the
extended health network outside of our military fence line.
That has compounded that problem. So, they happen together and
so forth, but that is not the root of the problem. The Defense
Health Agency managing our health care benefits, they are doing
just fine. I am excited I have them as teammates. We have to
make a decision can we continue to rely on the extended health
network outside of our fence line, or do we need to figure out
how to better recruit and bring those services back inside our
fence line. That's the position that we are in today.
Mr. Bacon. Chief Bentivegna, what is your take?
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. I want to echo what the
MCPON said. I agree, you know. The strategy, the thought about
leveraging the community, we are always talking about community
partnerships. Unfortunately, with everything that happened,
right, it was the perfect storm where the capacity at the
communities just wasn't there anymore, but it doesn't alleviate
our obligation as services to make sure our members and family
members are taken care of, as well. So I think that a re-look
at that, and I think the Secretary of Defense has looked at how
do we bring some of that talent back into military treatment
facilities to get after it.
The other thing compounding that, you know, we also
transfer to the GENESIS electronic records, which, in the long
run, I think, is absolutely phenomenal for us. But that
compounded, you know, the kind of experience that service
members and their families were experiencing. Though in the
long run I think it is the right away to go with electronic
health records, but it just added to kind to the chaos, a
little bit of the frustration that we are going through right
now.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you. I think, with that, I want to offer
an opportunity for Ms. Houlahan to make any closing comments.
Ms. Houlahan. I don't have any closing comment, other than
to say thank you very much for your service and thank you for
your conversation.
Mr. Bacon. I want to echo that. I appreciate your feedback
from each of you. I have enjoyed getting to meet with all of
you. I know some are getting ready to retire; I wish you well.
I have enjoyed retirement. Sorry. I try to be funny.
But I do want to thank you. I mean, I did 30 years, just
shy of it. I remember being a lieutenant and I had a small
office that I was put in charge of and a staff sergeant took me
under his wing and better taught me how to wear my hat and a
few goodies like that. But I remember also being a two-time
squadron commander. It was a partnership, especially in the
invasion of Iraq, leading a flying squadron. I think the Chief
Master Sergeant in our unit made all the difference for me as a
squadron commander and commanding bases, getting that
partnership with the Senior Enlisted chief for me, and getting
how we could be better leaders in our base, that's the
difference between success or failure. So I just want you to
know how valuable, I know that, but it doesn't hurt to repeat
it. Senior Enlisted leadership made a huge difference to me
over my three decades, so I want to thank you.
We are going to tackle this the best we can. We may not be
able to pay for everything in one budget cycle, but we are
going to work hard with our appropriators and come up with a
strategy to get this right. Nobody should be on food stamps or
SNAP. Nobody should have to go to a food bank, period, serving
our military. Nobody should live in decrepit barracks or dorms.
No one. And no one should have to wait two months for specialty
care. So we know we got to point navigate this and get this
ship pointed the right way. I did that for you there, Master
Chief.
So with that, thank you for being here today. We appreciate
your time.
[Whereupon, at 11:55 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
January 31, 2024
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PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
January 31, 2024
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING
January 31, 2024
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. JACOBS
Ms. Jacobs. A Pentagon official was quoted saying ``The
Department has not made any decision to change the monthly
amount of Family Separation Allowance at this time'' even
though Congress authorized DoD to increase FSA to $400 from
$250. Does the Department plan to increase FSA to the full
$400? If not, why not?
Sergeant Major Black. Defer to OSD
(OASD(M&RA)(MPP)(Compensation))
Ms. Jacobs. What are the impacts to military readiness,
morale, recruitment, and retention when service members cannot
access child care?
Sergeant Major Black. The Department understands that
childcare is a workforce enabler and directly impacts readiness
and retention. Affordable, reliable, and quality childcare is
essential to maintaining a mission ready force. The Department
is committed to providing military families with access to a
range of options that will meet military families' childcare
needs. The Department is taking steps to improve access to
childcare options, such as building more child development
centers, expanding eligible providers that can accept DOD-
subsidized fee assistance, and increasing the amount of fee
assistance available to families.
Ms. Jacobs. What barriers are enlisted service members and
their families facing when attempting to access fee assistance
for community-based child care--especially when they're not
able to access care on base?
Sergeant Major Weimer. The Army offers fee assistance to
all eligible Army Families who cannot access care on the
installation whether it is due to long waiting lists or because
the Soldier and Family are geographically dispersed. The
investment in the Army Fee Assistance (AFA) Program addresses
the availability of affordable care options by buying down the
cost of community-based care. The Family pays what they would
pay on the installation and the AFA amount is the difference of
that up to the provider rate cap, $1,800 per month per child.
There is no waitlist for Army Fee Assistance.
Ms. Jacobs. What are the impacts to military readiness,
morale, recruitment, and retention when service members cannot
access child care?
Sergeant Major Weimer. To mitigate the impact on readiness,
morale, recruitment and retention, the Army provides access to
child care for service members through a continuum of child
care and school age care. The continuum includes not only
traditional child care centers but a 24/7 facility at Fort
Jackson, SC and Family Child Care Homes to support military
connected personal needing child care during atypical hours.
The Army offers both installation and community-based care
options along with fee assistance for those using care off
base. The robust community-based program and Army Senior Leader
support for Army Fee Assistance helps Families find affordable
child care options by buying down the cost of civilian care.
Families pay what they would pay on the installation and the
AFA amount is the difference of that up to the provider rate
cap, $1,800 per month per child. This option for care is
especially helpful to Families who cannot find care on the
installation due to long wait lists or because they are
geographically dispersed. There is no waitlist for Army Fee
Assistance.
Ms. Jacobs. What barriers are enlisted service members and
their families facing when attempting to access fee assistance
for community-based child care--especially when they're not
able to access care on base?
Chief Petty Officer Honea. As of 31 Jan 2024, Navy Child
and Youth program provides fee assistance to 4,945 families and
6,449 children, about 86% of the total population that requires
fee assistance. The current barriers enlisted service members
and their families face when attempting to access fee
assistance for community-based child care include the
following:
LCommunity-based Child Care Providers Waitlist.
Community-based child care providers often have waitlists for
enrollment, and military members do not have priority access on
these waitlists. Waitlists are often longer for care for
children under the age of three.
LLocating Child Care Providers. Military members
may experience challenges locating a child care provider that
meets required quality standards such as accreditation by a
DoD-approved accrediting body or the minimum quality rating for
Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCYN)-PLUS in states
that have implemented that initiative. Approximately 40% of
children participating in MCCYN are enrolled with an exception
to use a state licensed-only provider.
LState Licensure Regulations. Some states only
allow certain child care providers to operate under an
exemption to state licensure. For example, Virginia permits
religiously affiliated child care providers to opt for
licensure-exemption. The military is not permitted to make fee
assistance payments to providers who do not maintain a current
state license, which removes these child care providers as an
option for families seeking fee assistance.
LCost of Service in Certain Locations. In higher
cost locations, child care provider monthly rates may be higher
than the MCCYN monthly provider rate cap (currently $1,800), in
which case parents would pay the overage out of pocket. For
example, in Metro San Diego, when considering child care
providers of children under age 2 currently enrolled in MCCYN,
the average monthly rate for accredited child care is $2,011.
This means that, on average, a family will pay an additional
$211 per month out of pocket, on top of their monthly parent
fee, for child care that meets the DoD requirements. The
additional cost may prevent military members from utilizing
these providers, thus limiting their options.
The Navy remains committed to making quality child care
accessible to our Sailors and their families, and continues to
work with the other services and the community to remove any
obstacles to the access to our service members and family for
fee assistance. There has been a combined waitlist for MCCYN
Fee Assistance for Navy active duty service members and
civilian personnel since 2019. Navy separated the waitlists in
FY24 as a way to better address Navy civilian fee assistance
needs while working to fully accommodate Navy active duty
service members. Metrics are provided below:
LJanuary 31, 2024: Active Duty: 243 on the
waitlist; 3,502 offers for fee assistance spaces were made in
January, batch offers were made every two weeks; Civilian:
1,077 on the waitlist, no offers were made in January
LFebruary 13, 2024: Active Duty: 58 on the
waitlist; 762 offers have been made in February as of this
date, batch offers are made every two weeks
Ms. Jacobs. What are the impacts to military readiness,
morale, recruitment, and retention when service members cannot
access child care?
Chief Petty Officer Honea. High quality, reliably
accessible child care would materially improve retention by
removing a key factor that can lead Sailors to feel they must
choose between their career or their family. Our data shows the
impact on a Sailor's family is one of the most significant
influencers on retention. Improved retention also reduces the
demand for additional recruits and becomes a quality of service
selling point to attract future recruits. Source: Senate Armed
Services Committee Questions for the Record Hearing on 12/06/
23, #23- 70 ``To receive testimony on the status of Department
of Defense recruiting efforts and plans for fiscal year 2024''
Witnesses: Davis, Walker, Bowers, Amrhein. Approved by OMB on
14 Feb 24.
Ms. Jacobs. What barriers are enlisted service members and
their families facing when attempting to access fee assistance
for community-based child care--especially when they're not
able to access care on base?
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Fee assistance is available for
families to use community-based childcare when stationed at
installations with waitlists that prevent them from receiving
childcare from Child and Youth Programs. Families not stationed
near an installation also qualify for fee assistance. The
Marine Corps does not have a waitlist for families requesting
fee assistance. However, there are locations throughout the
United States where there is a shortage of quality, affordable
and accessible child providers; San Diego County is one
example. Some families that have been accepted into the fee
assistance program here may have difficulties securing a
childcare provider in these communities. If so, we will assist
families in locating a childcare provider that meets the
qualifications in their community.
Ms. Jacobs. What are the impacts to military readiness,
morale, recruitment, and retention when service members cannot
access child care?
Sergeant Major Ruiz. We know that morale, retention, and
readiness are likely impacted if we do not provide quality of
life benefits and services, to include childcare. That is why
childcare is a readiness priority for the Marine Corps. At this
time, we do not posses a capability to analyze the correlation
of childcare access on readiness. That being said, childcare is
a readiness priority for the Marine Corps. Our CDCs currently
serve over 30,000 children. While we do have a waitlist for
childcare in a few locations, we have reduced those that have
waitlists over the last few years through creative, aggressive
new policies and programs, such as the non-competitive
childcare employee transfer authority, pay raises, childcare
discounts, and child space priority. Currently, our staff
turnover rate is 20 percent, which is significantly less than
the 34 percent rate last year.
Ms. Jacobs. What barriers are enlisted service members and
their families facing when attempting to access fee assistance
for community-based child care--especially when they're not
able to access care on base?
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. The DAF is not aware of
systemic and reoccurring barriers to accessing fee-based
assistance for community-based childcare. Families may
encounter an extended application process if their chosen
provider does not meet the DoD eligibility requirements or they
submit incomplete packages; however, the MilitaryChildCare team
and the third party administrator works with those families to
resolve issues. The militarychildcare.com website is an
invaluable resource for families to navigate the process and
OSD is continuously making improvements to the site. The DAF
does not operate a fee assistance wait list. We provide fee
assistance to each family who is approved.
Ms. Jacobs. What are the impacts to military readiness,
morale, recruitment, and retention when service members cannot
access child care?
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Military families have unique
child care needs. Providing military families with accessible,
high-quality, and affordable child care is a critical factor in
military family's assessment of quality of life as well as a
critical enabler of the Department's mission. Available,
affordable, and quality child care services allow Airmen and
Guardians to focus on and execute the Department's mission. We
are working hard to deliver enhanced child care solutions to
include expanded traditional, community-based and non-
traditional options, such as increasing the number of FCC
providers through targeted recruitment, and programs such as
Child Care in Your Home.
Ms. Jacobs. What barriers are enlisted service members and
their families facing when attempting to access fee assistance
for community-based child care--especially when they're not
able to access care on base?
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. All families interested
in applying for fee assistance must submit an official child
care request to MilitaryChildCare.com (MCC) and identify the
date they need care. The Department of the Air Force has
authorized Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) to administer
the program. CCAoA is responsible for assisting families with
the application and eligibility process, approving child care
centers for acceptance, and releasing qualified funding to the
centers. Families have provided feedback that the application
process is complicated, repetitive, time-consuming, unclear,
and takes months (sometimes over a year) to complete. Upon
completion, many families must submit additional documents
within a few months of approval, which results in the approval
process starting over. The approval process through CCAoA
relies almost entirely on email and phone calls, which must be
completed during the duty day and does not offer families the
ability to know where they are in the process. There is no
afterhours phone line for those working shifts even if the
military member is conducting combatant command missions.
These families are responsible for covering the fees
associated with their child care provider until reimbursement
from the fee assistance program is issued. This program
requires and limits families to utilize centers with the
highest quality of care if they want approval, yet the fees are
substantially higher. For enlisted members, especially single
parents with limited disposable income, covering care provider
fees upfront while waiting for fee assistance approval has
consistently presented financial challenges. This is seen
through impacts on quality of life, spousal unemployment, and
mission readiness concerns. The disconnect between the family
experience and the promise of the program creates frustration
and weakens Guardian connection to the service. If a family is
unable to obtain a solution that meets their needs as a result
of this process, there is no centralized process to capture
that information or support the family. The DAF has a
representative who routinely meets with the CCAoA
representatives to review the contractor's performance metrics
and is working continually to identify ways to improve customer
service, response times, and develop a more streamlined
application process.
Ms. Jacobs. What are the impacts to military readiness,
morale, recruitment, and retention when service members cannot
access child care?
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. The Space Force is a
primarily ``Employed in Place'' force where Guardians execute
their Combatant Command missions from their permanent duty
locations. Lack of child care options can significantly impact
recruitment, retention, and readiness in the Space Force when
we require them to operate a 24/7 mission for an extended
period. Service members, especially with young children, may be
deterred from remaining in active service if they cannot find
suitable child care arrangements. We have seen similar data on
this when reviewing the Active Duty Spouse Survey from 2021.
According to this data, child care concerns pose a threat to
the experience retained in the Space Force. Improving access to
support in determining reliable and affordable child care for
each unique family's needs will positively impact unit morale
and reduce stress on military members and their families.
------
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. STRICKLAND
Ms. Strickland. Previous NDAA bills have authorized service
secretaries to grant waivers to families applying for the Basic
Needs Allowance who otherwise would not be eligible based on
the inclusion of the BAH. For each of our witnesses, how many
waivers have been issued by your service secretary? Following
the hearing, could you provide details about the waivers
issued:
1. At which bases were waivers issued? 2. What is the rank
and household size for those receiving waivers? 3. What is the
average BNA benefit amount that has resulted from the waivers
to exclude the BAH as counted income? 4. Can you provide
demographic information for households that were issued
waivers? 5. What criteria were used to decide about waiver
candidates? 6. How were the needs of struggling families made
known to leadership? 7. Were there food insecure households
that were denied a waiver? 8. Do these waivers appear to be
effective in ensuring an adequate response to the problem of
food insecurity and economic hardship faced by your enlisted
members?
Sergeant Major Black. Defer to SecDef
(OASD(M&RA)(MPP)(Compensation))
Ms. Strickland. Previous NDAA bills have authorized service
secretaries to grant waivers to families applying for the Basic
Needs Allowance who otherwise would not be eligible based on
the inclusion of the BAH. For each of our witnesses, how many
waivers have been issued by your service secretary? Following
the hearing, could you provide details about the waivers
issued:
1. At which bases were waivers issued? 2. What is the rank
and household size for those receiving waivers? 3. What is the
average BNA benefit amount that has resulted from the waivers
to exclude the BAH as counted income? 4. Can you provide
demographic information for households that were issued
waivers? 5. What criteria were used to decide about waiver
candidates? 6. How were the needs of struggling families made
known to leadership? 7. Were there food insecure households
that were denied a waiver? 8. Do these waivers appear to be
effective in ensuring an adequate response to the problem of
food insecurity and economic hardship faced by your enlisted
members?
Sergeant Major Weimer. The Department of Defense policy
does not authorize the Secretary of the Army the discretion to
grant a waiver for a Soldier applying for the Basic Needs
Allowance who otherwise would not be eligible based on the
inclusion of the Basic Allowance for Housing. In general,
though, the Department does not support granting waivers that
would exclude BAH from the BNA eligibility calculation. BAH is
a fundamental component of military compensation and therefore
should be included in the computation of gross household
income. It is not the equivalent of a federal housing subsidy.
Excluding BAH makes a member appear artificially impoverished
and diminishes the value of a member's hard-earned military
compensation and the value of the member's military service.
Ms. Strickland. One of the issues I've heard is that one of
the major drivers of food insecurity is lack of access. I know
that current standards for unaccompanied housing include
kitchenette but those aren't effective if a servicemember
doesn't know how to cook basic meals. I also know that the Army
was looking at a ``campus-style dining pilot.'' If the issue is
truly about lack of access for servicemembers and their
families, how are your respective services looking at improving
this?
Sergeant Major Weimer. The Army is working diligently to
improve greater access to affordable meals and food on post for
Soldiers and their families. The Secretary of Defense has
already facilitated efforts by directing the full funding of
our commissaries to cut prices at the register for Soldiers and
family members with a goal of reducing their grocery bills by
at least 25% when compared to the local marketplace. To better
improve food access for Soldiers, the Army is also expanding
options like food kiosks in commonly trafficked areas to
mitigate effects of demanding work schedules and supplement the
dining facilities that are available to Soldiers. As of
February 2024, the Army has invested $1 million in 61 food
sealing machines at 19 installations CONUS and OCONUS; this
allows Soldiers to obtain fresh prepared meals during non-
traditional work hours and ahead of time. To help Soldiers and
family members with healthy food preparation, installation
Armed Forces Wellness Centers offer free nutrition and cooking
classes. Efforts are also underway to begin new food pilot
initiatives and assess results of recently executed pilot
programs. For example, the Army is actively working toward a
campus-style dining pilot on installations across the Army that
will allow Soldiers who live unaccompanied in the barracks to
obtain meals beyond those available to them at installation
dining facilities. This initiative will link Soldiers' Common
Access Cards to their meal entitlement, thus enabling pilot
participants to obtain furnished meals at subsidized rates at
Army and Air Force Exchange Service businesses, Installation
Management Command Morale Welfare Recreation sites, and the
Defense Commissary Agency grocery on installation.
Ms. Strickland. Previous NDAA bills have authorized service
secretaries to grant waivers to families applying for the Basic
Needs Allowance who otherwise would not be eligible based on
the inclusion of the BAH. For each of our witnesses, how many
waivers have been issued by your service secretary? Following
the hearing, could you provide details about the waivers
issued:
1. At which bases were waivers issued? 2. What is the rank
and household size for those receiving waivers? 3. What is the
average BNA benefit amount that has resulted from the waivers
to exclude the BAH as counted income? 4. Can you provide
demographic information for households that were issued
waivers? 5. What criteria were used to decide about waiver
candidates? 6. How were the needs of struggling families made
known to leadership? 7. Were there food insecure households
that were denied a waiver? 8. Do these waivers appear to be
effective in ensuring an adequate response to the problem of
food insecurity and economic hardship faced by your enlisted
members?
Chief Petty Officer Honea. The statute establishing the
Basic Needs Allowance (37 U.S.C. Sec. 402b) authorizes the
Secretary concerned to exclude BAH in areas with high cost of
living. The FY24 NDAA added ``demonstrated need'' as an
additional basis for excluding BAH. However, the BNA statute,
in paragraph (i), requires the Secretary of Defense to issue
regulations for the administration of the BNA. DoD Instruction
(DoDI) 1341.15--Basic Needs Allowance, provides the legally
required implementing instructions. The DoDI grants the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs
(ASD(M&RA) the authority to specify high cost of living areas
for BAH exclusion. The Department of the Navy concurred with
the provision of the DoDI designating ASD(M&RA) as the
authority for excluding BAH. Doing so ensures uniformity in
application across the Services and within each military
housing area. To date, ASD(M&RA) has not specified any high
cost areas for exclusion of BAH. The DoDI is currently being
revised to address the alternate exclusion for ``demonstrated
need'' which was added to the statute in December 2023.
Additionally, the primary difference in cost of living in
different geographic locations is housing costs. Because BAH is
based on local housing costs, Service members with dependents
assigned to high cost areas already receive more compensation
than members in low cost areas. Where non-housing costs
significantly exceed national averages, DoD also pays a cost of
living allowance. The Department of the Navy recognizes that
the Federal Poverty Guidelines used to determine BNA
eligibility and payment amounts do not differentiate between
locations within CONUS. While this potentially creates an
inequity, we do not believe this inequity is appropriately
resolved by excluding BAH. The Department would support an
assessment of more geographically specific measures of poverty
guidelines.
No waivers have been issued for any location. The
Department does not support granting waivers that would exclude
BAH from the BNA eligibility calculation. BAH is a fundamental
component of military compensation and therefore should be
included in the computation of gross household income. It is
not the equivalent of a federal housing subsidy. Excluding BAH
makes a member appear artificially impoverished and diminishes
the value of a member's hard-earned military compensation and
the value of the member's military service.
No waivers have been issued for any location. The statute
establishing BNA (37 U.S.C. Sec. 402b) does not explicitly
provide for a process for Service Members to request waivers to
exclude BAH from their gross household income for purposes of
determining BNA eligibility and payment amount. The DoDI grants
the ASD(M&RA) the authority to specify high cost of living
areas for BAH exclusion. The DON concurred with the provision
of the DoDI designating ASD(M&RA) as the authority for
excluding BAH. Doing so ensures uniformity in application
across the Services and within each military housing area.
ASD(M&RA) has not specified any high cost areas for exclusion
of BAH. The DoDI is currently being revised to address the
alternate exclusion for ``demonstrated need'' which was added
to the statute in December 2023.
The DoDI is currently being revised to address the
alternate exclusion for ``demonstrated need'' which was added
to the statute in December 2023. Currently, the waiver process
is not based on requests from individual households. ASD(M&RA)
may designate an area for exclusion of BAH. The primary
difference in cost of living in different geographic locations
is housing costs. Because BAH is based on local housing costs,
Service members with dependents assigned to high cost areas
already receive more compensation than members in low cost
areas. Where non-housing costs significantly exceed national
averages, DoD also pays a cost of living allowance. The
Department of the Navy recognizes that the Federal Poverty
Guidelines used to determine BNA eligibility and payment
amounts do not differentiate between locations within CONUS.
While this potentially creates an inequity, we do not believe
this inequity is appropriately resolved by excluding BAH. The
Department would support an assessment of more geographically
specific measures of poverty guidelines. Generally speaking,
all Service members and family members who seek assistance of
any type at a Navy Fleet and Family Support Center are screened
for potential economic security concerns, including food
insecurity. Individuals who present with concerns are connected
with resources appropriate to their situation, which could
include financial education and counseling, emergency
assistance from Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, or other
local resources.
The Navy does not identify individual households as ``food
insecure.'' Rather, we seek to identify Service members and
families experiencing economic security stressors and connect
them with the appropriate resources to their individual
circumstances.The waiver process is not for individual
households, but for geographic locations designated by
ASD(M&RA). The statute establishing BNA (37 U.S.C. Sec. 402b)
does not explicitly provide for a process for Service Members
to request waivers to exclude BAH from their gross household
income for purposes of determining BNA eligibility and payment
amount. The DoDI grants the ASD(M&RA) the authority to specify
high cost of living areas for BAH exclusion. The DON concurred
with the provision of the DoDI designating ASD(M&RA) as the
authority for excluding BAH. Doing so ensures uniformity in
application across the Services and within each military
housing area. ASD(M&RA) has not specified any high cost areas
for exclusion of BAH. The DoDI is currently being revised to
address the alternate exclusion for ``demonstrated need'' which
was added to the statute in December 2023.
Over the past few years, we have learned that food
insecurity is a multifaceted issue, with BNA being one piece of
the response. We are implementing a broad approach that
includes modernizing our food service operations, nutrition and
human performance initiatives, financial education and
counseling, and benefits adjustments.
Ms. Strickland. Previous NDAA bills have authorized service
secretaries to grant waivers to families applying for the Basic
Needs Allowance who otherwise would not be eligible based on
the inclusion of the BAH. For each of our witnesses, how many
waivers have been issued by your service secretary? Following
the hearing, could you provide details about the waivers
issued:
1. At which bases were waivers issued? 2. What is the rank
and household size for those receiving waivers? 3. What is the
average BNA benefit amount that has resulted from the waivers
to exclude the BAH as counted income? 4. Can you provide
demographic information for households that were issued
waivers? 5. What criteria were used to decide about waiver
candidates? 6. How were the needs of struggling families made
known to leadership? 7. Were there food insecure households
that were denied a waiver? 8. Do these waivers appear to be
effective in ensuring an adequate response to the problem of
food insecurity and economic hardship faced by your enlisted
members?
Sergeant Major Ruiz. Thank you for your continued support
of the Basic Needs Allowance (BNA) program. Currently, we are
awaiting guidance from the Office of the Secretary of Defense
regarding the implementation of a BNA waiver process. . As of
now, no Marines have submitted or applied for a waiver. Once
guidance from OSD is received, the Marine Corps will publish
amplifying guidance to ensure eligible Marines follow
appropriate procedures to benefit from this program. In
general, though, the Department of Defense does not support
granting waivers that would exclude BAH from the BNA
eligibility calculation. BAH is a fundamental component of
military compensation and therefore should be included in the
computation of gross household income. It is not the equivalent
of a federal housing subsidy. Excluding BAH makes a member
appear artificially impoverished and diminishes the value of a
member's hard-earned military compensation and the value of the
member's military service.
Ms. Strickland. Previous NDAA bills have authorized service
secretaries to grant waivers to families applying for the Basic
Needs Allowance who otherwise would not be eligible based on
the inclusion of the BAH. For each of our witnesses, how many
waivers have been issued by your service secretary? Following
the hearing, could you provide details about the waivers
issued:
1. At which bases were waivers issued? 2. What is the rank
and household size for those receiving waivers? 3. What is the
average BNA benefit amount that has resulted from the waivers
to exclude the BAH as counted income? 4. Can you provide
demographic information for households that were issued
waivers? 5. What criteria were used to decide about waiver
candidates? 6. How were the needs of struggling families made
known to leadership? 7. Were there food insecure households
that were denied a waiver? 8. Do these waivers appear to be
effective in ensuring an adequate response to the problem of
food insecurity and economic hardship faced by your enlisted
members?
Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Per DoD policy in DoDI 1341.15,
the authority to designate ``high cost of living areas'' which
exclude BAH from BNA calculations is withheld at the ASD(M&RA)
level; therefore, the Department of the Air Force has not
granted any requests to exclude BAH from the BNA eligibility
calculation. The Department of Defense does not support
granting waivers that would exclude BAH from the BNA
eligibility calculation. BAH is a fundamental component of
military compensation and therefore should be included in the
computation of gross household income. It is not the equivalent
of a federal housing subsidy. Excluding BAH makes a member
appear artificially impoverished and diminishes the value of a
member's hard-earned military compensation and the value of the
member's military service.
Ms. Strickland. Previous NDAA bills have authorized service
secretaries to grant waivers to families applying for the Basic
Needs Allowance who otherwise would not be eligible based on
the inclusion of the BAH. For each of our witnesses, how many
waivers have been issued by your service secretary? Following
the hearing, could you provide details about the waivers
issued:
1. At which bases were waivers issued? 2. What is the rank
and household size for those receiving waivers? 3. What is the
average BNA benefit amount that has resulted from the waivers
to exclude the BAH as counted income? 4. Can you provide
demographic information for households that were issued
waivers? 5. What criteria were used to decide about waiver
candidates? 6. How were the needs of struggling families made
known to leadership? 7. Were there food insecure households
that were denied a waiver? 8. Do these waivers appear to be
effective in ensuring an adequate response to the problem of
food insecurity and economic hardship faced by your enlisted
members?
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna. The authority to
designate ``high cost of living areas'' where BAH may be
excluded from BNA calculations is withheld to the ASD(M&RA) per
DoD policy in DoDI 1341.15; therefore, the Department of the
Air Force has not granted any requests to exclude BAH from the
BNA eligibility calculation. In general, though, the Department
of Defense does not support granting waivers that would exclude
BAH from the BNA eligibility calculation. BAH is a fundamental
component of military compensation and therefore should be
included in the computation of gross household income. It is
not the equivalent of a federal housing subsidy. Excluding BAH
makes a member appear artificially impoverished and diminishes
the value of a member's hard-earned military compensation and
the value of the member's military service.
------
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. MACE
Ms. Mace. The Marine Air Corps Station in Beaufort is
experiencing a housing crisis. With a military population of
around 12,000 in Beaufort County, there are only 1,140 units in
a military housing area called Laurel Bay and about 4.0 miles
from the Marine Corps Air Station, and approximately just 960
units are occupied. The rest unlivable or in disrepair. These
units were built in the 1960's and have not experienced
significant upgrades or increased volume since construction.
What is DoD doing to ensure our Marines and their families
at the Marine Air Corps Station in Beaufort have access to
safe, quality, affordable housing?
Does the DoD, or DoD contractors, engage in a practice
known as ``selective cannibalization'' or ``selective
replacement,'' to inflate the number of livable housing units
at Marine Air Corps Station in Beaufort?
What mechanisms exist for Base Commanders within a private,
public, partnership (P3) arrangement to provide oversight of
the livability of these housing units and hold these civilian
corporations accountable?
Are there plans to increase housing volume at MACS Beaufort
and upgrade housing facilities to improve livability? At Parris
Island, we are experiencing significant healthcare challenges.
Parris Island lacks the on-site medical facilities, personnel
and capabilities required to efficiently treat and return
injured recruits to training. When recruits experience injuries
during training, they often must leave Parris Island to receive
treatment. The longer a recruit is removed from the training
environment, the greater the chances that the recruit will
attrit from service. Further, when the recruit is scheduled to
attend a medical consult, Marine Corps policy requires that
they be accompanied by Drill Instructor. This results in
removing 25%--30% of the drill instructor supervisory training
staff to provide an escort for the recruit. This presents
numerous challenges to the recruits, drill instructors, and
their commands. Years ago, the Naval Hospital at Beaufort had
the capacity to address the majority of Parris Island's medical
needs, but under the Defense Health Agency model, their
capacity has been curtailed--mainly to ambulatory care--and
this is no longer the case.
Does the DoD plan to create on-site medical facilities at
Parris Island to make up for these changes, which resulted in a
lack of capacity for care at the Beaufort Naval Hospital?
If not, how does the DoD plan to address the lack of access
to timely medical care at Parris Island and the strain a lack
of on-site medical consults puts on instructors, and their
commands?
What impact does the limited access to on-base medical
facilities at Parris Island, leading to drill instructors being
required to escort recruits off base, have on training,
retention, and military readiness?
Sergeant Major Black. Defer to OSD for response.
Ms. Mace. In 2021, Balfour Beatty Communities, a contractor
for DoD housing management, pleaded guilty to defrauding the US
Government. This company falsified repair and maintenance
records in order for it to appear they were promptly addressing
unsafe housing conditions such as black mold, rodent
infestations, or asbestos -- while allowing them to fester and
putting the health of military families at risk. A Senate
investigation has indicated that despite this, the fraudulent
behavior persists. This is particularly concerning as I know
that Balfour Beatty manages properties at Joint Base
Charleston.
Why does DoD allow a company that committed fraud, and
actively endangers military families, to continue to contract
for military housing?
Can you provide a report of the livability of housing
managed by Balfour Beatty Communities managed at Joint Base
Charleston?
Was the safety of our servicemembers and their families at
Joint Base Charleston jeopardized by the actions of Balfour
Beatty Communities?
Do they continue to be jeopardized?
Sergeant Major Black. Defer to OSD for response.
Ms. Mace. The Marine Air Corps Station in Beaufort is
experiencing a housing crisis. With a military population of
around 12,000 in Beaufort County, there are only 1,140 units in
a military housing area called Laurel Bay and about 4.0 miles
from the Marine Corps Air Station, and approximately just 960
units are occupied. The rest unlivable or in disrepair. These
units were built in the 1960's and have not experienced
significant upgrades or increased volume since construction.
What is DoD doing to ensure our Marines and their families
at the Marine Air Corps Station in Beaufort have access to
safe, quality, affordable housing?
Does the DoD, or DoD contractors, engage in a practice
known as ``selective cannibalization'' or ``selective
replacement,'' to inflate the number of livable housing units
at Marine Air Corps Station in Beaufort?
What mechanisms exist for Base Commanders within a private,
public, partnership (P3) arrangement to provide oversight of
the livability of these housing units and hold these civilian
corporations accountable?
Are there plans to increase housing volume at MACS Beaufort
and upgrade housing facilities to improve livability? At Parris
Island, we are experiencing significant healthcare challenges.
Parris Island lacks the on-site medical facilities, personnel
and capabilities required to efficiently treat and return
injured recruits to training. When recruits experience injuries
during training, they often must leave Parris Island to receive
treatment. The longer a recruit is removed from the training
environment, the greater the chances that the recruit will
attrit from service. Further, when the recruit is scheduled to
attend a medical consult, Marine Corps policy requires that
they be accompanied by Drill Instructor. This results in
removing 25%--30% of the drill instructor supervisory training
staff to provide an escort for the recruit. This presents
numerous challenges to the recruits, drill instructors, and
their commands. Years ago, the Naval Hospital at Beaufort had
the capacity to address the majority of Parris Island's medical
needs, but under the Defense Health Agency model, their
capacity has been curtailed--mainly to ambulatory care--and
this is no longer the case.
Does the DoD plan to create on-site medical facilities at
Parris Island to make up for these changes, which resulted in a
lack of capacity for care at the Beaufort Naval Hospital?
If not, how does the DoD plan to address the lack of access
to timely medical care at Parris Island and the strain a lack
of on-site medical consults puts on instructors, and their
commands?
What impact does the limited access to on-base medical
facilities at Parris Island, leading to drill instructors being
required to escort recruits off base, have on training,
retention, and military readiness?
Sergeant Major Ruiz. MCRD PI cares deeply about recruits,
Marines, and their families and make every effort to ensure
recruits receive timely medical care. Recruits have on-site
access aboard Parris Island to medical providers and treatment
at Battalion Aid Stations. For specific answers to questions
concerning potential on-site medical facility establishment
aboard Parris Island and how the DoD plans to address this, we
defer to the Defense Health Agency who retains purview of
medical services.
MCRD PI cares deeply about recruits, Marines, and their
families and make every effort to ensure recruits receive
timely medical care. Recruits have on-site access aboard Parris
Island to medical providers and treatment at Battalion Aid
Stations. For specific answers to questions concerning
potential on-site medical facility establishment aboard Parris
Island and how the DoD plans to address this, we defer to the
Defense Health Agency who retains purview of medical services.
MCRDPI is reliant on medical support from Navy Medicine
Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC), Beaufort, SC. Over the
past 10 years, these facilities have experienced a reduction in
Navy medical billets, specifically Corpsmen, at Beaufort Naval
Hospital (BNH) and the MCRDPI Branch Health Clinic (BHC) and a
decrease in the capabilities/services available at the BHC and
BNH. Limited healthcare facilities aboard Parris Island
requires additional manhours to support transport and
supervision of recruits in off-site medical facilities; this
requirement impacts available manhours to support training
requirements.
The Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act
(FY20 NDAA) was essential at increasing oversight of Public-
Private Venture (PPV) family housing. The staffing increases,
Tenant Bill of Rights, quality assurance philosophy, and funds
associated with PPV housing oversight have provided Beaufort's
Military Housing Office (MHO) with the tools needed to monitor
and report PPV partner performance and quality, hold the PPV
partner accountable, advocate for and educate service members,
and provide safe, reliable, quality homes in secure
neighborhoods with outstanding amenities. Three years ago,
Atlantic Marine Corps Communities (AMCC), (the PPV partner that
manages the Laurel Bay Military Housing Area (LBMHA at Marine
Corps Air Station Beaufort)), could not perform Change of
Occupancy (COM) maintenance quickly enough to establish a
``Ready Rack'' of available homes. Further, maintenance quality
was poor and late, community standards were not enforced and
`curb appeal' suffered, the current Work Orders (WO) list
stretched into the thousands, and Marines could not move into
their home on day of arrival because repairs were routinely not
complete. In short, LBMHA was not working well.
Today, AMCC performance has improved in nearly every aspect
of management and operations. They have a ``Ready Rack'' of
available homes for every rank, and these homes are certified
ready by the MHO. This means they are quality homes that are
ready today and fully befitting our deserving service members
and their families. Resultant Work Orders are minimal and
responded to with timeliness and quality, and late service
tickets are now the exception more than the rule. Further, AMCC
is asking for Operational Reserve Account (ORA) funds and
directing them to the right investment areas, such as new roofs
and HVAC units.
AMCC's past practice was to utilize serviceable appliances
or specific parts from vacant homes to make repairs to occupied
homes as a convenience for the family living there. It was good
for the resident, however it only delayed and increased the
investment AMCC would need to make in the future to repair
those vacant homes. At no time was this utilized to
artificially inflate the number of livable homes. However, this
practice has been prohibited for over a year by both Naval
Facilities Engineering System Command (NAVFAC) and the MHO. In
response, AMCC changed their management practices and now
prohibit the taking of parts from vacant homes for repair of
occupied homes.
The PPV housing agreement is between the Department of the
Navy and AMCC/Lendlease. NAVFAC is assigned to manage both the
PPV real estate and business agreements, and MCAS Beaufort is
not a party to either agreement. However, while NAVFAC is
ultimately the enforcer of the Business Agreement, MCAS
Beaufort works together with NAVFAC and has the ability to
provide better local oversight of livability of the homes
within LBMHA. The FY20 NDAA gave MCAS Beaufort was additional
manpower, allowing for increased oversight on a day-to-day
basis of AMCC operations and has been fundamental to ensuring
the livability of our homes. Further, MCAS Beaufort receives
multiple reports (NAVFAC quarterly condition assessments and
AMCC monthly financial reports) that assist in our
communications with AMCC as well as the Commanding Officer
hearing directly from residents via the Resident Advisory
Board, which gives residents a voice and fosters AMCC
accountability.
Currently, the Laurel Bay Military Housing Area has 1140
homes across all ranks in five neighborhoods, the majority of
which are from the 1950s and 1960s. 102 of these homes are not
serviceable currently without significant investment. However,
41 out of the 102 homes should be repaired and put back into
service upon receipt of additional reserve account funds. As
for upgrades, there is a minimum amount of funds required for
roof, HVAC repairs, and sustainment before renovations to
modernize can be completed. Lastly, in 2018, Hurricane Florence
devastated family housing at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. As
a result, many other AMCC MHPI project installations diverted
funds to assist in repairs. LBMHA redirected over $8M from our
much-needed sustainment accounts, reducing the overall impact
of available funds for Laurel Bay. Recently, AMCC has submitted
proposals to upgrade bathrooms of homes at three levels ($500,
$750, $1000).