[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

                              ----------                              
                                                                   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).