Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin will journey Friday to Maxwell Air Drive Base, Alabama, the place he’ll announce new targets to decrease dwelling prices and enhance the standard of life for service members and their households.
Austin will be a part of first girl Jill Biden, who’s touring the bottom to convey consideration to a common pre-kindergarten program put in place for colleges run by the Protection Division.
The Pentagon is branding the journey round “Taking Care of Our Folks,” the secretary’s plan to unravel points reminiscent of little one care and low pay for service members. Austin issued one other memo outlining the trouble Friday morning.
The memo included a listing of seven new steps to assist service members, from making it simpler for army households to maneuver to providing extra army spouses cash to pursue their very own careers. In sum, the Pentagon hopes these concepts will assist ease urgent challenges for personnel, from housing high quality to little one care.
The measures embody:
Versatile spending accounts for lively responsibility troops and sure reservists to carry as much as $3,200 pretax for certified medical expensesExpanded WiFi entry in barracksIncreasing the variety of days to expense non permanent lodging throughout army strikes from 14 to 21 daysMaking extra army spouses eligible for funds to assist prepare for their very own careersHelping recruit and retain extra little one care workersStudying three distant posts subsequent yr to enhance the standard of life at such installationsReviewing the standard and price of uniforms
Even so, most of the targets listed are both tweaks to previous bulletins or lack particular timelines. When requested whether or not the Protection Division was holding tempo with service members’ wants, a number of senior protection officers briefing stories earlier than the journey have been indirect.
“There’s a stability right here between ensuring that we’re addressing the short-term wants and the quick acute wants with setting up some longer-term packages,” mentioned one official, who just like the others, spoke anonymously per Pentagon coverage.
There’s additionally a stability dictated by funding.
As a result of a deal struck to keep away from a authorities default final yr, protection spending is capped at a 1% enhance in fiscal 2025. The restrict is forcing members of Congress right into a bind: renege on the deal or find yourself having to decide on between funding huge weapons packages or pay raises.
Completely different committees within the two chambers have chosen completely different paths, with the Home Armed Companies Committee proposing an nearly 20% pay increase for junior enlisted members and a 4.5% increase for different ranks. The Senate’s invoice, in the meantime, would skirt the caps altogether and surge protection spending.
The eventual invoice will want the backing of the Home and Senate appropriations committees, which truly management authorities funding.
Whatever the eventual deal, due to the presidential election, Congress will nearly definitely begin the yr in a short-term funding invoice often known as a seamless decision. These measures freeze authorities spending on the earlier fiscal yr’s stage, a headache for the Pentagon because it manages rising prices and new packages.
“As a result of the baseline price range wouldn’t change, that may drive us to offset the prices of those well-deserved pay raises, and it might minimize into different packages and accounts at probably damaging ranges,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder mentioned in a Thursday briefing.
One other protection official, talking earlier than the journey, mentioned restricted funds affected their alternative on how far to increase the My Profession Development Account, or MyCAA, workforce growth program that gives tuition help for army spouses.
“Now we have a certain quantity of {dollars} that may be put in direction of MyCAA, and we needed to begin with these ranks that have been going to have the best influence,” the official mentioned.
The Pentagon’s four-year report on army pay is due early subsequent yr, and whereas the officers wouldn’t supply specifics on what it might cowl, they mentioned that the Fundamental Allowance for Housing could be a key half.
BAH compensation covers the housing prices of lively responsibility troops stationed within the 50 U.S. states who don’t stay on government-owned property. BAH charges, which goal to cowl 95% of housing prices, are linked to native rental markets and differ based mostly on a service member’s pay grade, responsibility station location and whether or not they have dependents.
Nonetheless, given how briskly housing prices are rising in some areas, holding tempo with business rents close to army websites may be difficult.
“There’s been a number of progress, and I believe it’s progress that we’re pleased with, however with the popularity that we’ve much more work to do,” the primary official mentioned.
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Protection Information. He beforehand coated nationwide safety for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s diploma in English and authorities from the Faculty of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
