Trump backs a women's health task force according to his military spouse commission chair

Military Spouse Commission Meeting, Oct. 19, 2026. Good afternoon. My name is Josie Beats and I am the designated federal officer for the President's Military Spouse Commission established pursuant to Executive Order 14417. I hereby call this meeting to order. This meeting is held in full compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. A quorum of appointed commissioners is present and verified. The proceedings are open to the public via our video liveream and teleconference line. I now yield the floor to our commission chair. >> Good afternoon and thank you everyone. Welcome to the second meeting of the president's military spouse commission. I want to start by recognizing President Trump for the big heart he has shown for warriors and their families. Thank you also to Desiree, our executive director, and to all of you for being here. I just came from the Rose Garden where the president and the first lady uh signed a task force for women's health and thankfully they included the department of war and our 400,000 nearly service members, female service members and four million spouses independents where we can start to look at health care specifically for women and where there are deserts and where we are underserving people and balancing the new testosterone with HRT for women and so many things that will affect our um our military families to make them feel healthier, comfortable, and ready. And it all all ends at readiness. So, he just does have a really big heart for for our military families, and he shows that every day. And so, we are grateful to him. Um in our first meeting, we covered a lot of ground. We talked about health care, employment, housing, education, and child care to name a few. As I said, then there will be macro issues and micro issues because we have shared challenges and each branch, region, and family also have specific needs. The Department of War and the White House are working hard to make progress on all of these issues. And I'd like to share some of that progress. Since we last met, we've overhauled what was formerly Spouse Education and Career Opportunities to a one-stop shop called Spouse Works. Now, SpouseWorks recently held its first in-person career readiness event at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, and we have already seen completed job profiles up by 70% compared to last year. So, that just shows that spouses are wanting to work, they're ready to apply, and they just needed the right outlet, and it looks like this is going to be it. So, that's a huge huge win and a huge accomplishment. Uh, we just had a meeting this morning actually, Desiree and I, with the amazing folks at america.gov to create an even faster, more efficient, and user-friendly upgrade to that program. Um, that's kind of a tease. More to come on that, but I think everyone will be very happy with it. We've also expanded child care to add more than 6,000 spaces and we're going to talk about adding even more today and also addressing how that works for the different departments and guard and national guard and coast guard and making sure that child care is available and providers are willing and paid properly to work. So we will talk about all that. Uh this is a big one. We started looking at ways to ease the burden of switching schools during a PCS even if it's in the middle of the year or past an enrollment cutoff date. There are this is one where there are plans in place. There are programs in place but not all are being either utilized correctly or utilized as they were intended by the state. So that's something we're going to look at. We've also worked on a pilot program to reduce the cost of tolls in certain military communities. Um, that one again is is a case-byase situation, but overall tolls affect everybody's cost of living and so we are looking at working with governors on that. Needless to say, this commission has been busy. I'm proud of each and every one of you here. So grateful for your commitment and your service and your willingness. I'm thankful for those of you who called in last time and hopefully you're back on. And we welcome anyone who is here for the first time. We'll discuss some of the things I just mentioned and keep working to identify even more opportunities to make progress for our military families. So with that, let me welcome our honorable Desire Sil and our executive director. Thank you, Jennifer. It is great to be here. It's our second meeting. I'm really excited um to welcome you all to the White House, back to the White House, but I'm especially um honored to um welcome Cindy uh Wilsbach and Donell Wolf. uh they're calling in actually on our live listening line from Masawa Air Force uh air air base in Japan where they've joined their spouses the chief of staff of the air force and the chief master sergeant of the air force on a fivebase visit with air force families serving in Japan and South Korea. So uh in addition to the facilities having conversations about base facilities schools uh child and youth programs clinics housing and deployment readiness they're also doing spouse calls. So, this is great work, Okonus. I think a lot of you are traveling and doing something similar. I would also like to welcome our newest member of the commission, which is Mrs. Shelby Telly, and she is the uh spouse of the um acting director of the United States Army. So, welcome uh to her. We look forward to seeing her in person soon. Um I did want to say over the last month, you all have been traveling and talking uh one-on-one with our military spouses and relaying their concerns and concerns about military life. uh to the commission members and staff. We have been in close contact with each and every one of you and have not only learned more about their spa the spouse's concerns, but about the best practices of your respective military branches. Uh we have all been working on a number of items to address the concerns and look for ways to expand successful programs um service branchwide. And so with that, I'd like to start by thanking each and every one of you um for your hard work on behalf of military spouses and also to share solutions to um and for also sharing solutions to some large um small and large boulders surrounding our five issue areas that the president has tasked us as a commission to address. As Jennifer said, it includes education, employment, child care, health care, and uh deployment related support. So, let me take a moment uh speaking up to thank Jennifer uh for her and her incredible staff actually um for their dedication to this mission. I firmly believe that you're put in the right place at the right time to make a meaningful difference in this life and I feel like President Trump and this commission are meeting the moment with your leadership. So, I really appreciate everything that you're doing. I know that behind every successful man is a powerful woman. I'm looking at them and President Trump has 20 of us um at least I think uh we've got 20 of us together. We're illuminating what it means to be a 21st century spouse. Uh 21st century military spouse. It's not my mom's military but it's my daughter's and she will be stronger because together we will address issues specific to their lives, the lives of her military spouses. So, I just am grateful um on her behalf for your uh your participation on this commission. Thank you. Um we're going to go ahead and start a slideshow where we can talk a little bit about the issues um that we've been working on collectively as a commission uh to advise the president on some things that I think are really important uh and uh so let's go ahead and introduce Spencer O'Reilly. He's a member of our team and will be leading us through the PowerPoint and it's a free discussion. I really would love for you to identify yourself for um those listening as well as um your service branch that you represent. >> Well, thank you Desiree and thank you all for being here and uh sharing your time with us and your expertise. Um as previously mentioned, we're going to go through a few best practices that we've identified from each of the branches of service uh from last meeting, from survey responses, and from individual programs that you all have encountered on your travels. some of you. Um, so we'll begin. We want to talk about spousal employment. Um, there's significant concerns shared by military spouses regarding employment opportunities. We know that as a result of a PCS, oftentimes that is one of the biggest obstacles to a spouse's career. So, not only are we looking for spousal employment opportunities, but we really want to emphasize the difference between having a job in the service and continuing a career and building a career. And so the first program that we've identified actually comes to us from the Air Force and the Space Force and that is this global military spouse connection. So what this does is it identifies spouses before you PCS and it can even do it before you receive your PCS order uh orders. It centralizes your resume and it brokers introductions for you before you arrive at your gaining installation as a result of a PCS. So, it's a full preciring manager matching pipeline. Now, you go on the Air Force Civilian Careers website. You put in either your PCS orders or the location that you know you're going to PCS to, and it brokers these introductions for you before you get there. Now, this is a pilot program. It's still in its early stages. However, it has exceeded expectations. And in the past three weeks, spousal placements are up 60%. Now, this pilot program has been so successful, it's now entering its second phase, um, beginning this past September, uh, which is expanding OKonis as well as in the continental United States to more military installations who are adopting this program. So, we've identified it and we're hoping to expand upon it eventually. Any questions on this? So, one thing I want to point out is that this program really specializes in spouses finding a job. So, that could be at the beginning of the career or middle of the career or a change of career. But this next program that we've identified focuses more on the continuity of career and that comes from the Army. So, the Army's best practice is this voluntary reassignment program or as they refer to it, DAVRAP. What this focuses on is civilian employees that work for the Department of the Army and a lot of them are either civilian or military spouses. Now, this program, it lowers hire to time rates and increases military spouse employment opportunities while supporting a continuity of career during a PCS. So what happens is you go on the portal and hiring managers can quickly identify you and place you in a similar or better position at a gaining installation that you're moving to as a result of your PCS orders. Now the the since the May of 2025 when this program was launched uh the department of the army has kept pretty pretty significant statistics as to who is getting employed how they're getting employed and what the results are. So, one of the things about this program that is very exciting is you can designate yourself as a military spouse and you can go a step further and designate yourself as a military spouse who's received PCS orders and is moving. And since May of 2025, over 11,000 candidates have created profiles. A large portion of these are are spouses with PCS moves, whether military spouses or civilian spouses. And over 12,000 hiring managers are participating all across the army. This is in the continental United States as well as OkonONUS. Any questions on this one? >> M Linda Lee Lande Coast Guard. Um I just want to reiterate um or make sure that we're again looking at DHS as we continue to um join in these programs or as they're you know the pilots are progressing and stuff because I hear that from a lot of our spouses going from DHS um localities or coast guard bases to another Coast Guard base. they often experience this very same problem where they have a job maybe in a child care and then they go to another Coast Guard base and even baseto base for us I think Navy is um a little bit different from what you were saying but um we have these issues so if we can you know I don't know if it's possible for us to get some more of this information so we can possibly learn about this from the DHS standpoint and see how we might be able to implement or even start triing some of this with our Coast Guard. That would be great. So I'm just bringing that >> absolutely and we just want to reiterate that the best practice here while this does come from the Department of Army is the keyword non-competitive internal reassignments. This this concept of not having to restart a job search, not having to look on USA jobs or a job board and the ability to take your career with you when you PCS. So while it does come from the Department of Army, we are looking to standardize this again across the DO as well as DHS and as well for our National Guard families and our reserve families. >> I know that the Department of the Air Force has always already been sorry WH Space Force. Um, I don't know if they're going to kill me for bringing this up because this is a beginning stages, but they are working a similar program to allow spouses to have career progression in the civilian world along with their service members and even potentially have joint assignments. So, um, as we're working this, it'd be great to to talk to them, too, to see where they're at and hopefully combined combinations. >> Absolutely. And that's what a lot of this best practices is that we're talking about is we know that we're not these problems aren't new. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. People like you have been working on them and living them for a long time. And so we just want to find out what's working and try to expand it and maybe get rid of what's not working. To follow on that, I just think having um the mindset that we are allowing spouses to build careers is the key in this. And it's not just we can all get a job somewhere, but building a career is a whole another thing and that's how we retain families, too. >> Absolutely. And and we know that and and I think the commission has has really emphasized that. Um and so to Mrs. Texas point. She brought it up earlier, but these are just some of the changes that are coming to spouse work, some of the overhauling uh and and what what they're looking to do uh in terms of spousal employment and the continuity of career as you pointed out. Um so again, with fellowships, scholarships, the job board that they run themselves, um one-on-one career coaching and resume polishing, all of this is is again looking to get spouses jobs, looking to continue their careers, and and looking to emphasize those Spencer, on the spouse works uh I'm sorry, Trish Smith, the Marine Corps. Um the spouse works scholarship, I believe that has just been expanded to all ranks. >> It has. Yes. Including including Coast Guard. Yeah, absolutely. >> And this is Angela Perryman with the Navy. I just want to uh really emphasize the importance of making sure that we're tracking metrics on how many of these uh military spouse employer partnerships are actually hiring military spouses. It's one thing to say you're hiring military spouses, but I want to see numbers. I want to see how many military spouses have actually been hired into these positions. Um, not just have these partners have the status of um hiring military uh spouses, but then maybe not. So, tracking that closely, I think, is really important. >> Absolutely. And and we're working with spouse works. We're hoping to work with spouse works every step of the way to make sure that these numbers are accounted for because I I believe you're voicing the frustrations of military families all over the country. They hear these ideas of pilot programs. They hear overhauls of things like spouse works, but they want to see the numbers. They really want to see the data. Want to know who's being employed, who's being promoted, who's being retained, whether it relates to a PCS. So, all of these things are of the utmost importance to the military spouse commission and what we're doing here. And that's one of the things in looking at the software for the websites to re retain and follow those analytics that it will have all of that for us to look at even regionally. So we want to keep an eye on it too. >> So another major point of emphasis for this commission is deployment related support. Um what happens to military families and spouses when their service member is deployed? And one of the things that keeps coming up, whether it be through your travels, through your surveys, through feedback we've heard through our online portal, is this issue of personal information. So we know that there are issues where service members may list outdated contact information. They may not list their current spouse or spouses opt out of or do not arrive at you programs for development uh uh deployment related support because they are optional. So we do know that there are a lot of issues in this realm. We have identified a best practice from the air force and the space force in relation to that and that is the commander key support program. So, one of the reasons we are excited about this program is because it uses things that each military branch already has. And this is the PAS system, the personnel accountability and assessment system to connect key support liaison or volunteers very similar to the arms budsman in the Coast Guard and Navy who work with command to notify spouses and military families of things like deployment updates, emergency notifications or PCS changes. And so we want to emphasize that this is not um a way for people to get their notifications um blown up, for a lack of a better word, by these volunteers. So we're not talking about barbecues and ball games. We're talking about serious issues like if, god forbid, the worst happens to your service member. You don't want to hear about all of that on the day it happens. You want to be able to know that somebody can reach you, that they can contact you. And so what's happening in this program that we think is very exciting is that the key support liaison, these volunteers are granted direct but limited system access to these contact rosters from command in order to reach spouses, reach military families in case of emergency. And we think that this could be utilized across all of the branches using their either their volunteer equivalents and also their personnel accountability and assessment systems. Any questions on this? >> I just want to comment that this is brand new. So, I don't want people hearing this online and saying, "Well, why has haven't we gotten access to this?" This is brand new that's just being rolled out and we have really exciting um hopes for it. Um so, for all of our KSLs that are listening, I don't want them to say, "I haven't gotten this yet." Um it's coming. >> Absolutely, it's coming and we're very excited about it. for the Navy. This is something that we've been asking for for a long time with our OMBbudsman program, forbudsmen to have access to those rosters, not for social purposes, but for like you're saying for emergency purposes, deployment purposes, and our Navy system is called INFAS. And so, you know, I I'm pleased to hear this. I'm pleased to hear about potentially rolling this out on a larger scale so that our ombbudsmen can have access to this information which is so vital for we saw it in Bahrain the evacuations when there's emergencies that um that we need to reach out to families for having that information is absolutely paramount and having it quickly I was going to say too that it's paramount but these uh keyport leaison work with um the furs within the units So they have a good pulse on the people. So I just wanted to let let other people know that that that they're working within the with the military members as well, but the but they are the ones that work with them, the forerts. >> Absolutely. And often times these volunteers are military spouses. They are military family members. so they understand the importance of having emergency contact and and and also having deployment related support and being able to deal with these military families uh when they absolutely have to in these emergency scenarios. >> And I just wanted to add that I'm very very proud that the Coast Guard actually has made the budsman per policy. Now we are officially part of the command. So that message has already rolled out. Um there's obviously a lot of training and educating that goes along with that. Um but it's going very well. We're not only utilizing our unbudsman to get that message across to all of our units. Um but we're also using our seells, our our um senior enlisted um service members as well to help make sure they're getting that messaging out to everybody that are on budsman are officially part of the command which gives them access to this. And again to reiterate what you were saying um it they we're giving them the choice of they can be on an emergency only list um which will absolutely be respected or they can get other information if they would like it but they have that choice but it is a policy now with the Coast Guard. So >> and it has been a policy with the Navy for a very long time as well. They're they're commandappointed official volunteers and they still can't get this information. So, um, this is really reassuring. >> I think some of it has to do with priv privacy concerns and the PI that's going to be shared. Um, but again, if they're brought into the command and they're already trusted, um, and they're provided limited access, they don't have to have full access. Um, then I feel like their role is going to be really, uh, much more beneficial. I mean, it'll be so much more helpful for families to, um, have someone to rely on. So, >> absolutely. And just just one more time before we move on, we want to make sure that everybody knows that there's an opt-in process. So, you're opting out of regular communications, whether it be community events or as I mentioned earlier, what I like to call bar barbecues and ball games. Uh, and but you are still able to be reached in case of an absolute emergency. And I just want to back it up for a second of why we're talking about it because it was one of the key issues identified at the beginning as people feeling like they didn't have the deployment related support but knowing that it's available. So trying to make that connection and that's what we're solving for here. >> So I know Mrs. Hexath briefly mentioned this in her opening remarks and I will also uh open the floor to her to comment on this as well, but we understand how big of an issue child care is for military families. We know that the demands of a military family life are very unique and oftentimes call for specialized child care. And so again, we are proud to announce some some major moves that we've made in regards to child care. Um, one thing we want to touch on a little bit is the military child care in your neighborhood expansion program. So we have now ext or secretary hexath I should say at the department of war has extended the fee assistance to faith-based providers who would not normally qualify under uh the requirements for fee assistance. So what this is is it expands child care avail uh opportunities for military families and that really is one of the most important things is the availability of child care is where can we go to get child care and we know that across the branches this problem looks a little bit different for National Guardsmen who often drill on the weekends and so we're addressing those concerns as well. We know it's it's different from DHS to DO and so it's a very nuanced issue but we we do understand that child care for military families is a unique problem and so Mrs. Hexath if you'd like to comment a little bit more on what you mentioned in your opening remarks in terms of the expansion of these child care facilities as well. >> There we go. We do want to identify for the department of war that there's this opportunity for other license exempt care providers, the family, friend, and neighbor care where relatives or neighbors can also apply for this fee assistance. Uh public and private school programs, partday and short duration programs, and government or institutional sites that don't typically fall under it. And that way would expand. Like I said, we added 6,000 uh seats recently and that would increase that tremendously. And as he mentioned, we will look at how that can apply to DHS, Coast Guard, and National Guard and make sure that everyone um is covered. >> Hi, Katrina is from the CAX office. Um, one thing that I've identified with some families is uh when they have multiple children because it's a number things for each of the classrooms that sometimes you can have one space in one for one child but you don't have for the other. So if you know that's something that we can maybe look at of combining that if you have two child we can make room or kind of create a situation better for the families. >> Yes, that's a great point. We will look at that. Thank you. >> So in addition to the accessibility of child care, we also know that cost is a major factor and so we have identified a best practice in the Navy. I know um Desiree Sale will will comment on this a little bit, but this is what the Navy is doing this past year and in this upcoming year to address the issue. So I will open the floor to her speak briefly about that. >> Thank you, Spencer. Um I do I actually think it's quality child care and if you're going to have quality child care you need to pay people appropriately and I think that that is something that just underpins the accessibility I think it you know the number of opportunities and uh kids that are actually accommodated it is really important to make sure we have quality child care providers. It's one thing that we've talked about around um around the table. You know it is really we've got the people that are looking for the jobs. It's just that they're being paid less than what someone working at Panera is being paid on base. So, of course, you would want to go with um you know, the one the one thing that would pay the most. And so, I you know, you have those experiences. I'd like for you to talk about them. I think what's unique about Navy in this particular example is that they're putting the money towards the um foundation, right? And then they're also providing the facilities. So they're looking or among their bases and they're trying to um utilize fully utilize their facilities um buildings that maybe aren't um being occupied and using those as childcare centers. So not only are they finding the people but they're trying to find the places for them while they're also building that infrastructure. So, I think it's a good model of like, listen, let's prioritize these things. And if we're going to prioritize it, take it seriously, and provide support for our families, it will be, you know, it might, yeah, there's going to be money involved for sure. Um, but at the same time, I think it is also going to help us in the long run with retention. And if we're looking at all these programs that we're supporting uh as recommendations to President Trump, I think we have to certainly say that it is because we would like to retain those service members and their families. um they're already trained, they're already, you know, they're they've got the capability, we just need to keep them. And by making their lives easier and not harder is the whole goal of this commission. So that's that's why I thought this one really sort of stuck out. But I know would you guys share with me a little bit about um what you're actually sort of seeing when it comes to finding good child care or child care providers um in your respective uh service branches. >> Um good afternoon. I'm Mrs. with the United States Marine Corps. So, I did some quick re research and from uh MCS Myiramar to Camp Pendleton, we're looking at um around 18 to $19 per hour um for entry- level child care. If you go to PointLoma, which is also in Southern California, a Navy base, they are making $21 an hour. So the disparities between the Marine Corps bases and the Navy bases in the same area is even kind of like a challenge that we're facing. So if we can maybe across the board make it for the area, not necessarily the base, I think that would be really helpful with retaining the right people at our childare facilities. >> You may not know, but have you seen a difference in those two childcare facilities? >> Um I have not for Point Loma. Uh but I can imagine it's sunny San Diego so it might be just as beautiful it as it is. Camp Pendleton we have toured u Mr. Trish and I have toured and uh we are looking the biggest challenge there is um not space at the facility uh it's that the fast food industry in California has the minimum wage much higher than what we have as far as the entry level wages at the childcare facilities uh by $3. Kimberly Wymer with Army. Um, one of the things that we've seen in some of our highcost Army bases is that they're they have built in a locality pay for our child care providers because they can't compete with employment outside the gates and it could be $35 an hour difference. So, if there's a way that I don't know if that's legislative or that's internal to the department to find a way to have that locality pay in high cost of living areas um so that we can keep employees, our military spouses on our bases. And then I also wanted to mention on child care um we have the best child care facilities in the country because we exceed national standards for um our facilities. And so we um I think to offset some of the salary, we we provide certifications and extra training for our providers, but then they can often sometimes take that and get better pay outside the gate. So, if there's I think with the locality pay or stabilizing the the salaries can help with the retention um and still earn those extra certificates and um educational training to you know to build a career um in the child care area. I also think that part of the incentive in the Navy plan in particular is that if you are a childare provider, your child uh allows is allowed to attend the facility for free. So um I think that that's actually a really important incentive as well. So yeah, looking at the childcare provider as a whole person um is really helpful not only ensuring that the pay is complete um but but also to provide you know support to their family as well. And I think it's about increasing the awareness that this program within the Navy even exists that the you know childcare provider can have their first child attend for free and then I think their second child is 25% off or something like that. So, I think it kind of it can kill two birds with one stone when we're talking about the importance and the need for military spouse employment. If you have, you know, you're tackling the child care issue while you're also providing that spouse with a with kind of an entry-level job into like child early childhood development or something like that where they can gain these certifications and take those and continue to, you know, further their career. I just think it's not a well-known thing. um that getting that message out I think is really important. >> Well, and again I think that's the job of this, you know, this commission. As you're traveling, you have the opportunity to meet with spouses one-on-one, highlighting these programs, talking about them within your service branches seems to be just exactly why we're here. Trish Smith, Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is actually doing the same thing um where they do provide 100% for your first child. They're also providing like tuition assistance and showing that it can be a career. It's not just a job. So, they're trying to show people the path to have a career in this field. >> Saying they're offering the the parent/child care provider tuition to further their career career. >> That's correct. Yes, that's great. >> Andrea Ruiz again with the Marine Corps. I had another um I guess issue that I identified that maybe we can expand upon a little bit more. So there is a pilot program out. It expires in um September of 2027. The pilot program allows families who are PCSing um to designate a child care provider to come to, you know, their home and help during a PCS move. And the reimbursement is $500 if you do konis. Um, I was wondering if we can expand on that pilot program to include deployments and, uh, maybe the extended TD trips. Uh, I found throughout my career as a single parent, uh, oftentimes when I had, uh, extended TED trips for, uh, annual training, for sergeant school, for, you know, gunnery sergeant school, uh, deployment specifically. um all that was at my expense to fly my son to my mom or to my sister for the extended period of time um while I was you know serving my country. So can we expand that PCS to include deployments in long-term TED trips? >> I think that's definitely something we can identify and look at. >> Thank you. I mean, I think the one of the things that we've talked about is a support system. And if you're moving a tremendous amount, you do not have the same support system from one place to the next. Whether you were close to family in California and then you move to North Carolina, then, you know, you lose your your, you know, you have to start over from scratch. Oftentimes, you're uh stationed with with um you know, some of the same families, but it still makes it incredibly challenging. So, that's something I feel like is really important to note that if you do need help during a move or a deployment and your family is, you know, back in California, but you're in North Carolina at Camp Lleune, then it makes it very difficult. It would be nice to have some of those resources. And I know that President Trump is really specifically interested in ensuring that families are more comfortable. I think he's talked about his uh the pay raise for um upcoming pay raise in the 2027 budget. We've mentioned that before. We've talked about 1776 as a a you know increased bonus. Um but but these are uh things that we can recommend to him as well. These specific programs, not even just um coming in and saying, "Hey, do we need a flat increase?" Of course we do, but but these are specific things that we can recommend to him as well. >> Could we also add the speed it takes to get our childare workers um certified? I mean, I've talked to a lot of spouses who they would love to work there, but the amount of months it takes to get certified, they have to find something else sooner. Um, >> is that on the state? It's on a state certification for childare. >> It is. It is the federal system of getting them up to speed. >> Federal meaning the service. Um, I don't I'm not sure if it's >> you have to be certified on with your service branch to for the job, >> especially for first time into the program. um it can take months and so they can't wait months. So they start the process and it takes government resources to you know do all the background checks and by then they've already found something else. >> Yeah. I feel like a lot of the things that we've talked about are in silos to those particular service branches which is why again having us in a position where we're representing every aspect of military service from our enlisted to you know our service our reserve uh reserve and coast guard. It's just such a cool opportunity for us to look at like we need to address that. It has to be something that we recommend to President Trump, >> right? And I think that is across that is an issue across services at least in the conversations that I had. >> And then that would if we could universalize that that would address the issue we talked about earlier of if you were switching or PCSing to a base that might be a joint base or not that and you have to start over. So if the background check is consistent and can be exped sped up but then transferred it would encourage people to to fill that role. I wanted to add on to that when we were out we were talking earlier about Alaska and at Jar um they have some beautiful child care facilities but one of the biggest issues that the workers there were telling me about is that when uh the applicants not only the background check seems to be one of the biggest hang-ups but the other thing is getting the medical check. um they're they're having a lot of problems with people being able to get in and get their physical that is required um prior to um hire um just actually getting in and getting that appointment and getting through. So that was apparently hanging a lot of people up there as well. So that might be something else that would be worth looking into. Thank you. >> Um Kathy Benia um my spouse is a chief mar Sergeant of the Space Force. the issue when visiting um CDC's uh one of the you know when I'm asking them what is on your wish list besides all the challenges going on with retention um you know hiring and all that stuff is they said that when their government shut down they don't get paid so you know so they still have to work and they're not getting paid so they're like can you please like advocate yeah >> so thank you >> hi Karen Reigns with the National Guard I appreciate that all of these programs are coming about. We have the weekend drill child care. We have the army fee assistance program, the home community care at no cost for the air force. But those are great for the title 10 and the title 32 over 30day orders. I would like for us to take notice more of the Mday soldiers too that need this help for the weekend child care drills um for the drill weekends. And then if we changed it a lot with our duty status reform so that we're all up under a status that can take advantage of these instead of it being affected due to that. I appreciate it. >> Absolutely. And we are uh working with the de the domestic policy council to try and find solutions to those problems we know that plagues the guard and all their designations. Thank you. >> This is Kimberly Wymer with Army. Again, real quick on the hiring process. Um I was just when we were talking about Alaska just now, it just uh I just recalled uh one of the issues the civilian hiring office that all of these applications go through. Um it does take months and months. and we were visiting, I believe it was J Bear. Um, and there's a a nonprofit that's authorized to operate on the base there. They offer hourly care for free. And we happened to getting uh was getting a brief about that and we asked how long did it take for them to hire. They could hire a childare provider watching our same kids within weeks. whereas we have um you know you go through the USA jobs process and this civilian I can't remember what charara stands for but I just know it's charara um but it takes months and months and and like you were saying spouses can't wait for six months you know and I know some of our CDC's they've they've worked it to where they can our employees um will work in an administrative position and not work with the children yet um but even then it takes too long and if they can get another job again oftentimes off the installation they're going to do that because they have to take care of their own families too. So um just wanted to share that vignette. >> So pivoting from the best practices that we've identified in all the branches of service for this meeting. We're now moving towards some announcements and some further developments. Uh starting with the mature miners policy we mentioned previously in our first meeting. Uh a few developments that have come since then. We have been working closely with the DHA in order to figure out when we could get a set deadline on when the changes are supposed to occur on MHS Genesis. And what I mean by that is for a long time military spouses and families were unable to digitally access any medical records for their children from 13 to 17. Now the DHA has created an opt-in that allows children to go in and approve their parents to access their medical records. So without getting too much into the weeds of the issue itself because again that would require a legislative fix to change the mature minors designation but just the MHS Genesis website has now been changed. So with children's consent parents can access now access their children's medical records and we know that this will be done by the end of November. So the changes are being put in place right now on the website by the DHA. So, that's just a brief update on that issue itself. And then moving forward, we do have an announcement that we're proud to make. I know Mrs. Hexath mentioned briefly in her opening remarks, the tolls issue. And uh we're starting to get toward waving tolls for military families in certain parts of Florida and particularly those that commute to McDill Air Force Base. Uh right now they're experiencing a 50% reduction in tolls if you are an active duty service member or uh their family or spouses. Uh and we're hoping to extend that to 100%. So we've been in talks with the state of Florida and a few others to make sure that we can get this into place because even with that 50% discount currently families are still paying annually $1,500 just to commute to work. So I'm gonna allow Mrs. He said to talk about this a little bit more and then maybe Mrs. Sale as well. >> Yes, this is something that you know I I originally talked about macro and micro issues and this is both. It's micro to dependent on the on the region and macro a lot of people encounter it. And as I said, Florida and um the the toll company has been wonderful in reducing it 50% already. And that's taken off $1,500 annually for service members that have to travel that route. And we are working with them and they are working in good faith to try to get that to zero. and we just would love for that to be the pilot and be able to use that as a template across the country and different areas that need it. Um there are some different challenges with that because toll roads are operated differently in each state or even within a state by some private, some public. Um and of course we need the governor's assistance too. But we are going to work diligently through both of those to try to to get these done. and we I want to give a big shout out to Florida and um the toll provider for working with us already on that. >> So I guess just again to reiterate um the success of this commission comes from its members but also those at home who are military spouses or military family members. Uh feel free to write in feel free to contact us with your issues uh or your testimonies and share with us uh anything that you would like the president to hear. So that's it on my end, but thank you very much for being here. Thank you again for your time. Uh, and thank you for tuning in. For those of you who are watching at home, >> I'd also like to point out that, you know, when you're contacting us, for those that are listening and watching, I first off want to thank you for taking the time to support the commission. I certainly want to thank our commission members. Um, I'd like to tell our audience that if uh if for whatever reason uh email is not accessible for you, you can't go to our portal and fill that out. You can certainly contact um us directly through the White House address. Return address is not required, but you can certainly call us uh send us a a letter and um and share any thoughts with us, anything that you'd like us to know. Um and we'll be happy to take that in account. So, I just want to mention that uh regular White House email or I'm sorry, uh address is where you'll locate us, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. As the designated federal officer, I confirmed that this meeting of the President's Military Spouse Commission has been conducted in full compliance with Executive Order 14417 and the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Meeting minutes will be certified by the chair and made publicly available. This meeting is now formally adjourned.