The Department of Defense today announced a series of new initiatives to improve the welfare and well-being of military personnel and their families.

In a memorandum released today entitled “Our Enduring Duty to America’s Service Members and Their Families,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III announced a series of new initiatives as part of his “Caring for Our People” priority program, which he began three years ago.

The latest initiatives include:

• Establishing Flexible Health Spending Accounts for Military Members
• Providing better access to free wireless internet in unaccompanied accommodation
• Reducing the cost burden associated with constant station changes
• Reducing the cost of purchasing uniforms for soldiers
• Expanding employment and career development opportunities for spouses through the My Career Advancement Account or MyCAA program
• Improving access to affordable, high-quality child care and early childhood education
• Improving the quality of life in remote and isolated facilities

The new initiatives, like those of the past three years, were developed after evaluating Soldiers’ experiences. Taken together, the efforts are designed to ensure Soldiers’ well-being and success so they can better focus on their part of the defense mission.

“From the very beginning of my tenure as Secretary of Defense, I made caring for our people my top priority,” Austin said in the memorandum. “Doing right by our volunteer forces and their families is central to our mission readiness. Caring for our people is fundamental to the Department’s ability to recruit and retain the most talented American patriots and ensure that the U.S. military remains the most lethal fighting force on the planet – and it is simply the right thing to do.”

As part of the focus on the health of military members and their families, the Department plans to offer military members the opportunity to contribute up to $3,200 of their gross income to cover eligible health-related expenses through a Health Care Flexible Spending Account (HCFSA).

The HCFSA allows military members to contribute up to $3,200 pre-tax to their accounts each year and spend that money on things like insurance copayments and cost-sharing, deductibles, braces and other orthodontic services, eyeglasses and contact lenses, prescription drugs, and wellness treatments like acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic. HCFSAs are expected to first be available to military members in March 2025.

To enable young, unaccompanied soldiers to remain connected to the outside world even when off duty, the ministry has instructed military departments to carry out a series of pilot projects to provide wireless Internet access to soldiers housed in barracks.

While wireless Internet access will allow young soldiers to access personal email, banking and entertainment options, the department believes the access can also help soldiers participate in mandatory online training and access other health and life-related resources, such as telehealth appointments, Military OneSource and military and family counselors.

According to the ministry documents, the Defense Department has long-term plans to create a “Wi-Fi connected force.” For soldiers in unaccompanied quarters, access to the internet services provided is expected to be free.

Military personnel often permanently relocate during their careers. To reduce the burden of moving from one military base to another on themselves and their families, the Department is working with partners to adjust the number of days associated with both the Temporary Lodging Expense (TLE) and the Temporary Lodging Allowance (TLA).

The new measure extends the TLE from 14 to 21 days for moves within the continental U.S. For moves occurring outside the continental U.S., the TLA on the departure side is extended up to 60 days to match the already approved 60 days on the arrival side. Both the TLE and TLA allow military members and their families to live in temporary housing, such as hotels, while they search for housing at their new duty station or after they vacate their housing at their existing duty station.

To ensure that soldiers can take the best possible care of their uniforms, the Ministry has ordered a review of the quality of uniforms issued to soldiers and available for purchase by them. In addition, the Ministry has ordered a further review that will examine the annual clothing replacement allowance to determine not only whether it is sufficient, but also whether there are better ways to provide this allowance to soldiers.

New initiatives also include efforts to improve the recruitment, retention and work environment of Department of Defense child development professionals, expanding eligibility for the My Career Advancement Account career development program to spouses of active duty Soldiers at the E-7, E-8, E-9 and W-3 ​​ranks, and evaluating three remote and isolated installations through the On-Site Installation Evaluation process. These three installations will be identified in the fall and evaluations will occur in 2025. This particular initiative furthers efforts to understand the capabilities and needs related to the well-being of Soldiers at remote and isolated installations.

This latest initiative, the third in the department’s efforts to improve the lives of military members and their families, is part of an ongoing, nearly three-year effort that began in 2021.

In November 2021, for example, Austin addressed the economic woes of military personnel. At that time, the department provided relief from high housing costs and housing shortages by temporarily increasing the basic housing allowance in some areas and extending temporary housing allowances in areas where military personnel were having difficulty finding housing due to the housing shortage.

At the same time, the minister also pushed for an extension of the service periods for soldiers abroad and in the USA in order to minimize the hardships associated with permanent transfers.

In September 2022, Austin continued these efforts by ordering a review of the Base Housing Allowance to ensure that payments to military members accurately reflected fluctuations in the housing market. In addition, he ordered an increase in the Base Housing Allowance for active duty military members in 28 military housing areas where rental costs had increased by more than 20 percent on average.

The September 2022 initiative also included a directive to fully fund Department of Defense cafeterias to reduce cash register prices and provide military personnel with a 25% savings over private sector grocery stores. It also ordered the creation of a “basic needs allowance,” to take effect in January 2023, to supplement the income of eligible military personnel.

The cost of relocation was also addressed in Austin’s September 2022 memorandum, which provided a permanent increase in the standard TLE. Also included was an increase in the transfer allowance for military members up to E-6 to offset the personal expenses associated with a permanent relocation.

In a March 2022 memo, Austin ordered the implementation of universal preschool at Department of Defense Education Activity schools and the creation of dependent care flexible spending accounts to allow military members with dependents to set aside up to $5,000 pre-tax through payroll deduction for qualified dependent care expenses such as child care, preschool, before- or after-school programs, and summer camps.

The March initiative also included additional support for those with exceptional family members. As part of this initiative, the department established a standard process for enrolling and de-enrolling families in the program, required that caregivers make personal contact with each enrolled family at least once a year, better coordinated the assignment of caregivers to families, and eased transitions between caregivers.

The department’s March 2022 efforts also addressed the challenge of ensuring that military spouses can find meaningful employment. For example, through the My Career Advancement Account program, eligible military spouses became eligible for up to $4,000 in financial assistance to earn a license, certificate or associate degree.

To advance employment efforts for military spouses, in January 2023 the President signed an amendment to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act requiring that professional licenses held by military members and their spouses be transferable when moving to another state (except for licenses to practice law).