Under the new memorandum of understanding, VA and HHS plan to increase clinical trial participation, train therapists, nurses and doctors to administer psychedelic medications if they receive federal approval and collect data and evidence to support patients, physicians and federal regulators in considering such treatments.

The agreement follows an executive order signed in April by President Donald Trump that directed the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate its review of several psychedelic treatments for mental illnesses.

The order largely addressed research for ibogaine, a hallucinogen derived from an African shrub, that some veterans have found helpful in ameliorating anxiety, PTSD and depression symptoms. It commits at least $50 million to increase research on ibogaine therapy.

Studies on PTSD in the general population have shown that a third may be resistant to traditional treatments, with up to 50% not responsive to psychological therapy and 40% untreatable with common medications.

An estimated 4.8 million American veterans have used psychedelic drugs, according to a study released last month by the think tank RAND.

Included in Monday’s message was the announcement that the VA signed an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration to increase collaboration to support the development of therapies for treating serious mental health conditions.

“President Trump opened up a world of possibility for treating veterans and others with mental health conditions, and VA is proud to be part of this important work,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. “Today’s MOU ensures effective cooperation with HHS as we try to turn research into life-changing treatment.”

VA researchers are involved in more than 20 research trials on the use of psychedelics like MDMA and psilocybin for treating severe post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse and other mental health conditions.

Studies also are underway in the Defense Department: a $4.9 million research study is ongoing at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on the effectiveness of MDMA — known commonly as Molly or Ecstasy — for the treatment of mild to moderate PTSD.

According to RAND, the most common hallucinogens used by veterans across their lifetimes were LSD, with 19.6% reporting its use, followed by psilocybin, or magic mushrooms at 18.6%, MDMA and mescaline, both at 7.7%.

Fewer than 2.9% reported using another type of hallucinogenic drug such as ibogaine, ketamine or ayahuasca.

The study also found that veterans were more likely to support the legal use of psilocybin mushrooms and LSD — 23% for mushrooms and 11% for LSD — but support for MDMA, at 9%, was about the same as the rest of the country.

Ron Adkins, an Army Reserve intelligence analyst and veterans advocate who deployed twice to Afghanistan, was on hand Monday for the MOU signing. He said the significance of the agreement lies in exploring new approaches to “the complexity of mental illness.”

“The cognitive space is a very complex environment. We are all very different people, so the treatments that might work very well for one person could be wholly ineffective for another,” Adkins said in an interview with Military.com. “I’m hoping we get better answers on what is effective for [veterans] trying to figure this out.”

U.S. veterans have traveled to Israel, Mexico and elsewhere in the past decade to receive psychedelic treatment for mental health disorders, often paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for the promise of relief.

Adkins said that should not happen.

“We need to continue to innovate as we as a nation does,” Adkins said.

In 2024, the FDA rejected a request that MDMA be approved for treating PTSD in adults, saying more research was needed to determine its safety and efficacy. The VA is conducting such a study in Providence, Rhode Island, with 80 veterans, comparing MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and substance use with a placebo.

VA officials say while the department is studying treatments that use Schedule I drugs prohibited in the U.S. under federal law, veterans are discouraged from self-medicating with these substances or replacing their medical treatment with unprescribed substances.

“Proven, evidence-based treatments, are currently available at VA facilities to treat veterans with mental health conditions. Veterans should always consult their health care providers before making any treatment decisions,” officials said in a press release.

In a letter to one beneficiary dated July 2 and provided to Military Times, TriWest officials said they had discovered a security incident April 16, in which an unauthorized person gained limited, unauthorized access to TriWest information and downloaded it.

“We are unaware of any misuse of your information,” officials stated in the letter, but they went on to say TriWest is offering a free credit-monitoring service for those who feel it’s needed.

The unauthorized person obtained health-related and other personal information, specifically names, Department of Defense Benefits Numbers and beneficiaries’ ZIP codes. Officials said that in fewer than five instances, the information also included Social Security numbers, addresses and dates of birth.

About four million beneficiaries are covered by TriWest, the managed care contractor for the Tricare West Region. Active duty, retired, National Guard and Reserve, and their family members, survivors and certain former spouses receive their health care under DoD’s Tricare program, with eligibility determined by the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, or DEERS.

TriWest is notifying each beneficiary about what information was involved in their specific case.

The timing of the notifications was unclear, since at least one letter was dated July 2, about two and a half months after the incident occurred.

“With regard to timing, as soon as the incident was discovered, TriWest took immediate action to prevent any further unauthorized activity and worked diligently with the government to notify affected individuals, consistent with applicable law and notification timelines,” TriWest officials said in an email response to Military Times.

The company hired a third-party forensic expert to review what information was accessed during the incident.

Beneficiaries who want to use the free credit-monitoring service, offered through Experian for 24 months, should enroll by the deadline provided in their notification letter, using the activation code and instructions included in the letter.

Those who find suspicious activity should notify the TriWest Healthcare Alliance Breach Response Line, at 1-833-918-1296. Beneficiaries who believe they are victims of identity theft should file a report with the Federal Trade Commission at identitytheft.gov.

The company has taken steps to prevent any other such incidents, officials said, including increasing security controls related to password resets, strengthening system access monitoring tools and providing additional employee education on identifying and mitigating the different types of cyber attacks.

William G. “Bill” Fitzhugh, who has served as the agency’s deputy director since June 29, will transition to the new position when the current director, John E. Hall, retires.

Most recently, Fitzhugh served as acting principal deputy for the assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs, where he was instrumental in advancing the commissary’s supply chain transformation, officials said. He has held various leadership positions at the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Bill Fitzhugh is the right executive to continue transforming DeCA, finding ways to better serve our military community and protect valuable commissary benefits for the next generation,” said Anthony J. Tata, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, in the July 1 announcement.

The Defense Commissary Agency operates 235 stores worldwide, with a congressional mandate to save eligible customers in the military community at least 25% on groceries compared to civilian stores outside the gate.

Its annual budget is about $1.5 billion.

“I am honored to lead DeCA at a pivotal time,” Fitzhugh said in the announcement. “I thank John for his leadership in transforming the agency’s business practices so that we can offer a competitive and attractive shopping experience to our patrons. As director, I look forward to continuing the positive momentum he built and contributing to the readiness of the force.”

Hall became director of the commissary agency in June 2023, and is credited with a number of improvements, including increasing the availability of grocery stock to hard-to reach locations. He modernized the shopping experience for customers by expanding the Click2Go curbside program and the doorstep delivery programs. He has also led a pilot program granting commissary access to DoD civilians in certain locations.

Hall praised the dedication of the commissary agency’s work force.

“Their unwavering commitment to the eligible patrons, military families, and service members they support is truly inspiring,” he said in the announcement of the transition.

In 2025, Fitzhugh served as acting assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs. Since 2021, he has held various executive roles in that office, which oversees a large portfolio of programs, ranging from the commissaries to Department of Defense Education Activity, to military and civilian personnel policies, Total Force planning and requirements, military community and family policy, and reserve integration.

Fitzhugh entered the Army in 1988 and retired after 23 years.

Over the years, the commissary agency has been led by a mix of military retirees or civilians with backgrounds in DoD leadership.

The report also showed an increase in the unemployment rate for all veterans from a remarkably low 3.2% in May to 4.1% in June, despite the continued strong showing of women veterans in the labor market.

The BLS data showed that the jobless rate for women veterans has come down from 7.1% in March to 4.4% in April and 3.3% in May before ticking up to 3.6% in June, which was still well below the month’s unemployment rate for the general population (4.1%).

For many analysts, the most concerning figures in the BLS report were the weak numbers on job creation. Total nonfarm payroll employment changed little in June by adding 57,000 jobs, about half of what analysts predicted.

A main concern was the hiring slowdown in the healthcare sector, which has consistently been setting the pace for adding jobs through both the Biden and Trump administrations.

The BLS report said that employment in healthcare added 22,000 jobs in June, “but at a slower pace than the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months of 38,000.”

Leisure and hospitality employment, meanwhile, usually a strong performer, declined by 61,000 jobs in June, “reflecting weaker than usual seasonal hiring,” the report said. Thus far in 2026, “employment in the industry has shown little net change.”

Overall, “it’s a pretty disappointing jobs report,” Heather Long, chief economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union, told Military Times in a phone interview.

“Tech is still strong,” she said, “but healthcare has cooled off a little bit,” and “wages are not keeping up with inflation.”

Long noted increases in the unemployment rates for veterans but added that the data is from a relatively small sample.

“That’s why you see a lot of movement” in the numbers for veterans, she said, adding that the “verdict is still out” on whether artificial intelligence will be the major job killer that many expect.

The AI impact on the jobs market is “not showing up in the data yet,” Natasha Sarin, a former assistant secretary at the Treasury Department under the Biden administration, told MS Now, which could be the result of new research showing that the expected impact of AI on white collar entry-level jobs may have been overstated.

The Trump administration sought to put the best face on the BLS report, showing a weakening labor market. Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, posted that the report “reinforces that the American labor market remains solid thanks to President Trump’s economic agenda.”

He called attention to the report that the nation added 3,000 manufacturing jobs in June, although that was down from 7,000 manufacturing jobs added in May.

New acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling stated that “Manufacturing employment, which was devastated under the Biden Administration, continues to grow as we secure historic investments and reshoring of critical industries,” despite the loss of 4,000 manufacturing jobs cited in the BLS report.

“President Trump’s America first agenda continues to provide greater wages for workers and certainty to the sectors which will fuel the next 250 years of U.S. economic security,” he added.

Despite the claims, the BLS data showed that wages were not keeping up with inflation. The report showed that wages rose 3.5% in June, while the annual inflation rate through May noted in a separate BLS report (the Consumer Price Index) rose by 4.2%.

The U.S. Army is moving ahead to meet the Defense Department’s direction to cut the number of military moves.

Army officials announced they’re cutting more than 12,000 relocations in fiscal 2026 and more than 13,600 in fiscal 2027, in an effort to provide more stability to soldiers and their families.

The Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force haven’t established specific numbers of military moves targeted for reduction in 2026 or 2027, service officials told Military Times. All noted that their reviews are ongoing, and key milestones for the Navy and Marine Corps are tied to implementation in 2027.

Pentagon officials ordered the military service branches in May 2025 to cut by half the amount of money spent on Permanent Change of Station, or PCS, moves by fiscal 2030. DOD spends about $5 billion every year on these moves, which include the physical moves of household goods, as well as allowances and other entitlements related to moving.

It’s not just DoD that spends money on PCS moves.

Many service members face financial burdens every time they move, and they’re generally uprooted every two to three years. A recently released Military Family Advisory Network survey conducted in late 2025 found that 60% of active duty families who had made a PCS move in the previous two years paid more than $1,000 out of pocket, above what they were reimbursed. That was an increase over the survey conducted in 2023, when 45% reported paying that much out of pocket.

Half of those reported the extra cost was attributed to re-purchasing consumable supplies that couldn’t be shipped. They also cited utility deposits, rental deposits, hotel stays, rental cars and new vehicle purchases.

Pre-move costs like house hunting and preparing their home for a move added to the burden, said Gabby L’Esperance, vice president of research and evaluation for the Military Family Advisory Network.

The financial burden is just one consequence of being uprooted, with moves contributing to spousal unemployment and difficulty finding child care, in addition to other challenges.

‘Much-needed predictability’

Defense officials outlined that the services will target “discretionary moves,” such as PCS moves within the United States, overseas and individual service member travel. The services are directed to reduce these discretionary move budgets by 10% in fiscal year 2027, 30% in fiscal 2028, 40% in fiscal 2029 and 50% by fiscal 2030. The reductions will be based on the fiscal 2026 budget, adjusted for inflation.

DoD specified the percentage of reductions in the budget, not the number of moves.

Do military families really need to move so much?

In announcing the relocation reductions on June 15, Army personnel officials said various efforts are underway, such as incentives for stabilization to reduce unnecessary moves. Some pilot programs, like the Armor Crewman MOS (19K) stabilization at Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Bliss, Texas, offer bonuses for certain soldiers to remain at their current locations.

Among other things, Army officials are undertaking a broad review of professional military education to find ways to reduce PCS requirements. Their effort emphasizes expanding distance learning options and using options to allow soldiers to complete courses without having to relocate.

Their PCS reduction efforts are part of their larger Human Resource Continuous Transformation initiatives. The shift will keep warfighting formations intact longer, officials said, and will help them build “more lethal, cohesive teams, boost overall readiness, and provide much-needed predictability for soldiers and their families.”

The Army’s long-standing High School Stabilization program, which allows families to stay at one duty station through a child’s senior year, benefited about 4,000 soldiers in the past year, officials said. Another program, the Stabilization Retention Option, allowed about 6,200 soldiers to stay at their duty station in fiscal 2025.

The Navy recognizes the importance of reducing PCS costs while maintaining sailor well-being and operational readiness, said Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Stuart Phillips. Officials are “reviewing policies, procedures, and efficiencies to maintain lethality, readiness and overall effectiveness” in line with the DoD’s direction to reduce the amount of money spent on PCS moves, he said.

The Marine Corps’ ability to reduce moves “is constrained by the need to ensure the right Marines are in the right billets at the right time,” said Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Jacoby Getty.

“Every PCS move is tied to a validated operational requirement, including unit readiness, force distribution, professional military development, and global mission demands,” Getty said. “The Marine Corps operates with a highly specialized force structure and limited personnel inventory, which requires deliberate movement of talent across the force to meet operational requirements worldwide.”

Air Force officials said they are reviewing their internal assignment policies to identify efficiencies. They added that their objective is to “optimize resources without compromising our global power-project, space operations and mission-generation capabilities.”

And for those experiencing issues, there’s a direct line to DoD’s new Personal Property Activity, where service members can ask for assistance. Since that call center was set up in August of last year, the volume has reached 20,121 calls and emails, said Army Maj. Matthew Visser, spokesman for the Personal Property Activity.

That includes calls received into the center, as well as calls made from the center.

“We often see issues arising, and we can be proactive at reaching out to folks who we know may be impacted,” Visser said.

That number has increased by about 4,000 since March.

“The feedback we get from the families and the people we talk to, is that they like the fact they’re talking to another service member who understands what they’re going through, and they call them back if they can’t immediately answer the question,” said Army Col. Mike Ashton, director of operations for DoD’s new Personal Property Activity.

As of June 30, there had been 138,570 pickups of household goods in 2026, compared to 134,282 at this time in 2025, Visser said. This year, because of PPA changes, service members could start booking their summer moves as early as March, if they had PCS orders in hand.

The change was designed to help service members in their planning and preparation — and to help spread the load for moving companies during the peak season, which generally runs from mid-May through August.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the PPA as a special activity in January, giving it the authority to take action to improve the household goods process for service members.

For decades, military families have complained about broken, damaged and lost belongings, delayed pickups and deliveries and onerous claims processes. Families have complained there’s nowhere to turn for help with these problems.

Mold, broken furniture -- just a start to this family's PCS nightmare

This moving season marks a stark departure from last year, when a number of moving companies were considering getting out of the business of making military moves because of the U.S. Transportation Command’s effort to privatize the management of military moves.

Movers complained about the amount of compensation for moves, among other things, and were turning down shipments, leaving military families to scramble at the last minute. DoD terminated the Global Household Goods Contract in May 2025.

“This peak season, movers have done a really good job of saying, ‘All right, we’re going to step up to the plate. ... We are bringing our best drivers, our best crews.’ They’re working really hard to make this summer successful for service members,” said Katie McMichael, executive director of Movers for America, a coalition of over 1,000 moving professionals and independent owner-operators who haul household shipments for military families.

PPA has improved DoD’s relationship with moving companies to the benefit of all, especially service members, according to those in the industry.

The PPA and the actions of its commander, Army Maj. Gen. Lance Curtis, have been “a breath of fresh air,” said Ryan McConnell, president and chief operating officer of Atlas Van Lines. PPA has worked to better understand the military moving industry and to build better communications, he said.

“In the end, this is all of us getting the business component lined up with PPA so that we can provide that service to families,” McConnell said. “Ultimately, that’s what this is all about.”

'Purge parties' and more tips from the real PCS pros

This season, movers have seen an earlier start to the peak season, beginning in early May, said Steve Weitekamp, president of the California Moving and Storage Association.

“We’ve been talking since the beginning of time almost, to try to spread out the peak season from such a short period of time to a longer period, which we’ve kind of seen this season,” he said. “I think it’s been to the benefit of both military members and moving companies.”

A few tips

Weitekamp’s advice to service members: “When you get your orders, you should book your move early to ensure the best possible service. … The sooner the military member gets in the queue, the more apt they are to get the top quality service.”

Because installation security has been tightened because of what’s happening in the Middle East, movers urge families who live on installations to be aware of some of the consequences, said McMichael. Movers are trying to prepare families for the reality that getting on base is going to be difficult this year.

“We’re not the only tractor trailer truck coming through the gate. There are lots of deliveries. ... In a lot of cases it’s not necessarily because our trucks can’t get on base,” she said.

If they’re behind other trucks that are having issues, she added, “the only thing we can do is sit there. This is for everyone’s safety. But please be mindful that for pickups and drop-offs, there are going to be some circumstances where there will be delays.”

More suggested tips for easing military moves include:

• Checking out PPA’s new website, www.ppa.mil, where they’ve consolidated a patchwork of different websites to support service members and families, DoD civilians and industry. It offers a link to start setting up the move, step-by-step guidance through the move process with checklists for every stage, as well as tips for overseas shipments, filing claims, shipping personally owned vehicles and other topics.
• Doing what you can to prepare early. For example, start clearing out items you don’t want to go to your new location.
• Organizing your items and make sure you separate important documents, medicines, uniforms and other items that you want to carry with you.
• Asking questions of the movers. If you don’t get an answer, take it to someone else, including your local transportation office on base. You can contact the PCS call center at any time with questions or problems at 1-833-MIL-MOVE, operated 24/7 during peak season. Or email pcscallcenter@mail.mil.
• Fill out the customer-service surveys to provide feedback to help DoD decide whether a company gets more business in the future.

Have you made a military move this year and want to talk about your experience with Military Times? Email staff reporter kjowers@militarytimes.com.

These are the first payments for settlements resolving about 3,600 claims resulting from the poisoned water, which caused numerous health problems for military families living in military housing, and for other civilian families in Hawaii whose water was provided by the Navy.

Another 3,000 people haven’t accepted the government’s offer, which their attorney describes as “paltry.”

And service members affected have received no payments, said Kristina Baehr, attorney for the plaintiffs in two federal court cases filed against the government. That issue is on appeal to the Ninth Circuit.

‘A step in the right direction’

Service members and family members reported numerous health problems, including diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems, rashes, neurological issues, burns, lesions, thyroid abnormalities, migraines and neurobehavioral challenges.

“The United States’ settlement payments to hundreds of Red Hill families are a step in the right direction,” Baehr said. “Every dollar paid represents some measure of accountability for families who were exposed to fuel-contaminated water in their homes, suffered injuries, and then were forced to fight their own government for recognition and relief.”

The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in Hawaii, alleged negligence in at least two separate events — in May and November 2021 — at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, which contaminated the Navy’s water distribution system.

Some 9,715 households in Navy, Army and Air Force neighborhoods were affected by the November spill. Those storage tanks have since been drained.

'Why weren't you there to protect us?' Military families grill Navy leaders about toxic water

The first wave of these settlements for the 629 plaintiffs was approved by the Hawaii court on May 19, and their payments were issued on June 22, Justice officials said.

Justice officials have reached settlements with about 3,600 plaintiffs in the two lawsuits following a federal judge’s orders in 2024. Payments for those settlements are in various stages. The two lawsuits include about 6,500 people.

“This Justice Department is proud to announce the efficient resolution of claims relating to the Red Hill jet fuel spills that harmed American service members and their families,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in an announcement of the payments. “These latest settlements prove our commitment to ensuring justice for our nation’s heroes who repeatedly risk greatly to safeguard our freedoms.”

Baehr questioned that statement.

“No dollars are going to America’s heroes,” she said.

“This Department of Justice proclaims that it is ensuring justice for America’s heroes by way of these paltry settlements,” she said. “[It] doesn’t mention that they have paid zero dollars to service members. [DOJ] argued in court that service members should be dismissed from their Red Hill contamination claims because when they bathed their babies at home and bathed themselves naked in their showers, those were incident to military service because they occurred in military housing.”

3,000 fight for higher settlement

All of the 629 people received payments of about $27,000, she said.

“The government undercut the court’s order” on the amounts of damages in its offers to the plaintiffs, Baehr continued. “The government is legally permitted to do that, but it can’t then proclaim they’re ensuring justice for America’s heroes when they’re avoiding the court’s order on damages.

“The government had an opportunity to settle all claims in this case, if they had made an offer within the court’s order on damages. Instead they made this lowball offer,” she said.

The remaining 3,000 who declined the offer “wanted to make sure there is accountability in this case, and are going to hold the government to the court’s order.”

Justice officials are making “good faith efforts” to resolve the more than 6,500 claims from the Red Hill spills, said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The settlements represent a fair and just resolution of claims and we look forward to paying additional claims once they are approved.”

The Red Hill disaster wasn’t just about an environmental failure, Baehr said. Rather, “it was failure of trust between the government and the military and civilian families it is obliged to protect.”

The Navy initially told families the water was safe to drink, and families allege they weren’t provided adequate medical care. The Navy later moved families to hotels while they worked to flush the system. Navy officials acknowledged their operator error caused the problem.

“Until every affected family is treated fairly, until injured service members have their day in court, and until the full consequences of Red Hill are acknowledged, this matter is not over,” Baehr said.

In the last month, the government has settled with two of her clients with numbers that are within the court’s order — one at $45,000 and another at $50,000.

“We’re thankful for it,” Baehr said. “We believe the justice system can make it right, and we believe they will, but it’s not yet.”

“We learned and found that there was nobody interested in taking a 24% haircut right out of the gate,” in order to provide the 24% saving for military customers, said Anthony Tata, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Tata spoke during a Wednesday meeting on Capitol Hill of the American Logistics Association, a nonprofit trade association representing businesses supplying products and services to the military marketplace.

In September, the Pentagon issued a public request for information to find out whether any entities were interested in taking over the operation of the 178 commissaries in the United States.

The RFI was issued following DoD’s April 7, 2025, memorandum, directing that all functions that are not inherently governmental would be prioritized for privatization. The order specifically cited retail sales.

Prices are the determining factor that drive people to the commissary, Tata said. “Families go there because they know they’re going to save 24%-plus.”

That said, if commissaries aren’t providing a user-friendly benefit, people will go elsewhere, he said, and efforts are underway to use technology and other tools to help bring shoppers into the stores.

In an April 3 letter, defense officials notified lawmakers they had decided not to pursue privatization of the military resale system, which includes commissaries, exchanges and other retail outlets. They said they had determined that “privatization would create an unacceptable risk to the readiness and well-being of service members and their families.”

Military family advocates applauded the decision.

“We’ve always questioned whether a private entity could operate the commissary system profitably while still delivering the savings that families rely on,” said Eileen Huck, director of government relations for the National Military Family Association. “The response to the administration’s outreach isn’t surprising. We’re pleased that the administration recognizes the importance of the commissary benefit to military families.”

In addition to the savings, Huck said, she’s spoken with families in remote areas who rely on commissaries for items like Kosher and Halal foods, as well as dietary items for family members with special needs.

DoD’s analysis concluded that “the potential cost savings of privatization are unlikely to be realized without severely degrading the benefits these programs provide,” stated the letter, signed by Sean O’Keefe, deputy under secretary for defense for personnel and readiness.

How far will DoD take privatization on military bases?

In recent years, DoD’s efforts to privatize military housing and the process for household goods have resulted in problems for military families.

The Defense Commissary Agency operates 235 stores around the world with about $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars annually.

DoD’s analysis confirmed that a for-profit operation can’t deliver “the tangible, non-negotiable benefits these programs provide, including vital savings for families, a sense of community and enhanced readiness.

“Performance data shows the current system delivers significant savings.”

The department also noted that a private entity “would face significant challenges operating profitably in remote, overseas, and strategically vital but low-volume locations, such as Naval vessels and forward deployed sites, without substantial government subsidies, that would negate potential savings to the taxpayer.”

These shipboard and forward-deployed retail activities are operated by the military exchanges.

In shifting to look at ways to improve efficiency in the commissary system, officials are addressing supply chain issues. But the supply chain initiative that the commissary agency is implementing threatens the viability of the benefit, said Tom Gordy, president of the Armed Forces Marketing Council, which represents more than 400 national brand manufacturers and firms that supply consumer products to military resale activities worldwide.

The commissary agency’s direct relationship with manufacturers allows them to deliver over 25% savings on an average market basket of groceries, and this initiative will not maintain that direct relationship, Gordy said. The plan hasn’t undergone an analysis to determine whether it will be able to continue to offer low prices, he said.

“There remain more questions than answers related to how the program will be implemented,” he said, and how the agency “will ensure mandated savings for military families if there are increases in cost of goods under the new model.”

“The data continue to show that military moves create disruption across nearly every aspect of life. ... A military-directed move shouldn’t be creating avoidable expenses that military families must absorb,” said Shannon Razsidin, chief executive officer of the Military Family Advisory Network.

MFAN, nonprofit advocacy organization that fielded the online survey, has conducted military family surveys periodically over the past decade.

More than 10,000 people responded, and 71% were currently serving families, including 80% enlisted families.

Three out of four active-duty families who responded to the survey said they had moved in the previous two years.

The Defense Department should “completely modernize the Permanent Change of Station experience,” the MFAN researchers recommended. “The [PCS] process was designed for a different era of military service. Today it has become one of the most consistent drivers of instability for military families.”

“The data continue to demonstrate the connection between frequent relocation and negative family outcomes,” researchers stated.

Last year, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the services to review the frequency of military moves.

DoD can take steps to provide more predictability in moves, said Stephen Simmons, deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy, during a Monday event releasing the survey results. Everyone should have orders to move six months ahead of time in order to start planning their move and the many elements associated, he said.

The survey was fielded from October 2025 to February 2026. While the government shutdown and the emergency responses at that time may have influenced the results, especially regarding stress levels, that timing “added a critical layer of context to our findings,” said Shanna Smith, associate director of research for MFAN.

The MFAN findings across a wide range of issues show that families who have recently moved are more likely to experience financial strain, food insecurity, challenges accessing health care and disruptions to employment, and these effects are compounded over time.

The survey results showed some “concerning outcomes” said Razsidin.

The researchers recommended that the military begin treating military spouse well-being “as a national security imperative,” rather than a quality-of-life issue, Razsidin said.

“It is a readiness issue, a retention issue, and ultimately a national security issue,” the report concluded. Economic security “has emerged not just as a matter of household welfare, but as the foundational infrastructure for readiness.”

More than a third of active duty families — 34% — have less than $500 available in an emergency fund. Those funds are critical in a financial emergency to avoid using credit cards or loans. And half of the respondents overall reported having a financial emergency in the previous two years.

The amount of families without that buffer has increased since 2023, when 25% said they had less than $500 available for an emergency.

The survey also shows a jump in unemployment among active duty spouses — to 29.9% from the 21.8% reported in the 2023 survey. Until now, most other sources have reported the unemployment rate of military spouses hovering around 21%, about four times the national average.

Among active duty spouses who had moved within the past year, 40% were unemployed and seeking work.

Nearly 60% of active-duty family respondents reported that insufficient child care affected their employment opportunities.

In 2025, more than 89% of active duty families surveyed reported facing a burden with housing costs. Of those, nearly 59% reported facing severe housing burdens.

Nearly 60% of active-duty families reported paying more than their Basic Allowance for Housing for monthly housing and utility costs, and about 28% reported paying up to $400 per month over BAH.

Researchers found that while out-of-pocket housing costs were lower in 2025 than in 2023, the proportion of those reporting housing burdens increased.

About two-thirds of military families live in the civilian community. Simmons said he is concerned about the distance service members are choosing to live from their installation. Not only are they paying more, but they are driving more. He said officials are now working to help engage local communities to make it more feasible for service members to live closer to their installations.

Food insecurity increased from 2023 to 2025 among currently serving families, which include active duty as well as Guard and Reserve families.

In 2025, 47% of currently serving families reported low or very low security, up from 21.5% in 2023. That reflects, in part, the period of time when the survey was fielded, during the government shutdown when many members of the military community were concerned about getting their next paycheck.

Nearly 58% of the respondents in the survey reported rising grocery prices as the top barrier to saving money. Some reported using credit cards to cover food costs. Nearly half of the currently serving population who said the commissary is their primary grocery choice were identified as being food insecure.

Both provisions are among the 62 consolidated in the Take Care of America’s Veterans bill proposed June 10 by the Republican chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees to address several top priorities.

The legislation includes the Maj. Richard Star Act, which would give 54,000 wounded veterans who are eligible for combat-related special compensation their military retirement pay and VA compensation without offsets, and the Love Lives On Act, which would let surviving spouses keep VA and Defense Department benefits if they remarry.

Sponsors Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said they worked with veterans and advocates to find a “path forward” to pass the legislation — particularly the Major Richard Star Act, which, despite having broad bipartisan support, has been blocked by members over cost concerns.

“Over the past few months, we have heard from the thousands veteran voices who want to see Congress pass the Major Richard Star Act to grant thousands of disabled veterans the benefits they are eligible for,” Bost said in a statement while introducing the bill.

“It takes hard work and consensus building to pass legislation that meets the needs of veterans and has the ability to become law. This is not just like a symbolic thing that we are ‘with our veterans.’ it’s how do we make something that matters so greatly to them [into] actual law,” Moran said June 9 in remarks on the Senate floor.

Paying for it

The Star Act has the support of 336 House members and 79 senators. But since the bill did not include proposals for covering the estimated $11 billion cost over the next decade, it has been blocked by lawmakers who said it must have a mechanism for paying for it.

To address that issue, the Take Care of America’s Veterans bill would accelerate updates proposed in 2022 to the VA’s ratings schedule to update sleep apnea and tinnitus standards.

Under the bill, veterans with asymptomatic sleep apnea or a mild case controlled by treatment would receive a 0% to 10% disability rating.

Similarly, tinnitus, which currently receives a 10% disability rating, would be treated as a symptom of another condition, such as hearing loss or a traumatic brain injury, and would no longer get a standalone rating.

While the changes would affect only veterans who apply for disability compensation for these conditions moving forward, the approach has rankled several veterans service organizations and lawmakers.

Disabled American Veterans National Commander Coleman Lee noted that the change could affect 1.5 million veterans and reduce disability compensation over the next 10 years by $57 billion.

“While we appreciate all good faith efforts to develop and enact a package of positive veterans legislation, we reject the premise that the only way to fulfill the promises made to the men and women who served in the past is by cutting benefits for veterans in the future,” Lee said in a June 10 statement.

“The VFW strongly opposes the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act as currently drafted because it asks future disabled veterans to bear the cost of expanding benefits through changing the VA rating schedule for tinnitus and obstructive sleep apnea which are common conditions associated with combat poly trauma,” VFW National Commander Carol Whitmore said June 11.

“We have long maintained that veterans’ benefits are an earned obligation of the nation, a promise made through the military service contract, and should not be financed through offsets, fee increases or reductions that place additional burdens on veterans, military families and survivors,” Whitmore added.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has called on Congress to pass the Major Richard Star Act unanimously, because, Blumenthal said, the Defense Department could cover its cost by using funds from the $1.7 trillion Military Retirement Fund.

The method of payment proposed in the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act is “wrong and must be stopped,” Blumenthal said in a statement.

“Correcting this injustice for combat-injured veterans should be done without depriving other veterans of benefits they need and deserve which this Republican package would do,” Blumenthal said.

Roughly 1.3 million veterans receive disability compensation for sleep apnea while more than 1.5 million veterans currently receive disability benefits for tinnitus.

A ‘pragmatic path’

Some major veterans organizations said the proposal is needed to move forward on the widely supported legislation that will help thousands of veterans.

“Critics may focus on trade-offs, but the alternative is continued gridlock on major reforms in an increasingly challenging budgetary and political environment. Legislative success requires a pragmatic path forward, not just good intentions,” American Legion National Commander Dan Wiley said in a statement.

In May, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he supported the Richard Star Act but did not make any recommendations on covering the cost.

Other provisions in the 554-page bill include: the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, which would raise disability compensation for families of veterans with catastrophic injuries by $10,000 a year and increase payments to survivors by 1%; increases in VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation for the survivors of veterans with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; authorization for the VA to send traveling physicians to U.S. territories and Pacific Island nations to treat veterans; and grants for mental health professionals to provide treatment to veterans.

The bill also would require several studies, including an annual VA report on the causes of death among veterans; a study on access to rural care to veterans; a Government Accountability Office review of hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment for traumatic brain injuries; and an Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry on health conditions affecting the descendants of veterans exposed to toxic substances.

The House is expected to consider the legislation, H.R. 9237, this week. The Senate has not yet placed the bill on its calendar.

Lawmakers must soon hammer out the differences in their proposals for fiscal 2027 military pay raises, as the Senate has rejected the Trump administration’s request for higher, tiered pay raises — a proposal agreed to by a House committee.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has proposed a flat 3.6% pay raise for all troops, instead of the administration’s request for raises between 5 to 7%, depending on pay grade.

The proposal passed by the House Armed Services Committee aligned with the administration’s request. Under that measure, junior enlisted service members would receive larger percentages of raises. Those in pay grades E-5 and below would get a 7% raise in 2027; those in grades E-6 through O-3 would get a 6% raise; and those in grades O-4 and above would get 5%.

“Our service members and their families deserve significant improvements in their quality-of-life benefits as well as a pay raise. Through their service, they’ve earned both,” the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a statement to Military Times. “That’s why we supported a 3.6% pay increase while also investing funds to address pressing quality-of-life challenges that military families consistently identify as their highest priorities. Those include access to healthcare services, childcare services, education support, funding suicide prevention efforts, and more.”

The committee “recognizes the importance of maintaining competitive compensation for members of the Armed Forces and notes that Congress enacted a targeted 14% pay increase for junior enlisted service members” in 2025, the senators wrote in their report accompanying the proposed legislation.

In explaining senators’ reasoning for the lower pay raises, they noted that the Defense Department’s Fourteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, released in early 2025, had found that junior enlisted pay is well over the 90th percentile of civilian pay, even before the targeted 14% pay increase for junior enlisted members in 2025.

The QRMC recommended benchmarking military compensation against the 75th percentile of civilian earnings for individuals of comparable age and experience.

Military pay raises, changes to housing allowance included in House-passed $1.15 trillion defense budget

The QRMC also raised concerns about the long-term effects of disproportionate pay increases within a single part of the DoD basic pay table, to include the potential for increased compression across enlisted pay grades.

Compression happens when there is little to no difference between pay grades.

“Pay compression matters because it can affect performance incentives,” the QRMC report stated.

In addition, pay compression in early grades can also affect retention by reducing incentives for the most talented and qualified members to stay in the military and perform at higher levels that could result in a faster promotion, according to the report.

Instead of spending the estimated extra $2.3 billion for raises above the 3.6% mark, which is part of their $1.15 trillion in defense spending authorizations, the senators recommended putting that money into other areas of the budget marked for quality of life and readiness, expressing concern about inadequacy in these areas.

Of that, an extra $1.77 billion would go to the Defense Health Program, which senators noted “has experienced chronic underinvestment in recent years, contributing to persistent challenges related to health care access, staffing, and long-term readiness.”

They pointed to testimony in February by the senior enlisted members of the services, who raised concerns about access to quality health care for service members.

Citing ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining civilian personnel in certain high-demand fields and geographic areas, the committee proposed an extra $250.9 for civilian personnel compensation.

Among other things, they’re also proposing an extra $126.9 million for military special and incentive pays, and an extra $28.3 million for tuition assistance and credentialing assistance programs.

An extra $38.7 million for military child and youth programs would be set aside, as well as another $20 million for the Military Entrance Processing Command to support recruiting operations. The Defense Suicide Prevention Office and for the Defense Commissary Agency would get an extra $10 million each.

The service, through the Commissary Click2Go program, has been offered at 70 commissary locations since January.

Starting June 22, the Defense Commissary Agency will begin rolling out the delivery service to the remaining 108 stores, reaching all stores by the end of September, officials said. That includes stores in Alaska and Hawaii.

Commissary officials advise customers to check with their local store for specific dates about when the service will be available, or check their commissary store’s online page for more information.

The service will be available to customers living within a 20-mile radius of their commissary. Customers are charged a delivery fee that is based on the distance from the store. Customers can also include an optional tip for the driver.

Currently, the delivery fee for all commissaries will be $17.75 for customers within 10 miles and $31.25 for those within 11 to 20 miles. The fee is set by the contractor. The commissary agency does not have the same flexibility in pricing delivery fees as commercial retailers because of their limitations in marking up prices.

Groceries can be delivered to the customer’s home or workplace.

Commissary officials have hosted focus groups with customers, including new, young, enlisted service members and disabled veterans and their caregivers. They heard about concerns related to convenience and accessibility in being able to take advantage of the commissary savings benefit.

“We’re excited about expanding to everybody in the U.S.,” said Todd Waldemar, founder and CEO of OnPoint, the company contracted to handle the deliveries.

Under the system, customers order groceries online, and they are retrieved by commissary store employees who pick up the items and hand the orders over to OnPoint. OnPoint then delivers the groceries to the customer’s location. The delivery can occur as soon as three hours after the order is submitted, depending on the location, because commissaries need the time to pack the order.

Commissary officials have provided an online ordering with curbside pickup service for years, and have been working to provide a delivery service. Officials have said the service can be especially helpful for families with young children, service members living in the barracks and disabled veterans and their caregivers.

Commissary officials are not currently considering doorstep delivery for overseas commissaries because of overseas regulatory constraints.

It’s the standard that leaders cite, programs are built around and progress is measured against. But a recently published report reveals that the Department of Defense has been calculating unemployment differently from typical benchmarks, overstating unemployment rates and obscuring how many military spouses may have stopped looking for work entirely.

A March 2026 report revealed that the DoD calculates unemployment differently than the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, counting some spouses as unemployed who would typically be seen as out of the workforce.

The Pentagon attributes these differences to unique military lifestyle factors. However, according to economist and professor Amy Burnett Cross, this difference in calculation “makes these measures not comparable.”

In fact, if the Pentagon mirrored federal standards, the military spouse unemployment rate would drop from roughly 20% to 14% — still significantly higher than the national average, but lower than the figure cited for years in congressional testimony, policy discussions and news coverage.

Cross believes this “structurally inflates” military spouse unemployment while simultaneously reducing the number of spouses categorized as no longer participating in the workforce, a group rarely highlighted in DoD programming efforts and reports.

“I remember penny pinching so, so much in those days,” recalled Army spouse Elizabeth Mays of her husband’s first duty station in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. “I ended up taking a job making minimum wage at Sears in the shoe department, just to help us make ends meet.”

This was the first of many times Mays worked outside her field to remain employed. Subsequent duty stations yielded similar employment choices.

“Between commuting and then the workday, you’re spending 13 hours a day away from your newborn baby, and your husband is deployed and not even there at all. It’s just me,” said Mays.

She did the math and realized that after child care and transportation costs, her income wouldn’t cover her expenses. In fact, remaining in the workforce would “cost” her family $50 a week. “Those decisions did not make sense, and that was the point where I chose family.”

Mays’ experience is familiar to many military spouses, but it is an experience that is not well understood. Mays is not part of the roughly 20% of military spouses who are unemployed, those who are looking for work but not finding it. She is part of the roughly 36% of spouses who are not in the workforce at all.

“Anecdotally, I would say that we have a pretty large percentage of spouses that have removed themselves from the workforce,” said Eddy Mentzer, who oversaw child care family programs and spouse employment for the DoD. “They’re not captured in any way whatsoever.”

The lack of information on military spouses who have stopped looking for work may undercut the programs designed to help them.

Patricia Barron served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Military Community and Family Policy under President Biden from 2021 to 2025. Her office oversaw military spouse employment programming and collaborated with the Pentagon’s Office of People Analytics to survey military spouses.

“A question that I have always had to our researchers at DoD ... ‘Are we asking the right questions?’” said Barron.

The answer she often received was that changing survey questions would hamper the department’s ability to track trends over time.

“There’s always, I would say, good reasoning for the pushback [to update surveys], but it keeps us stuck where we are,” she said. “There’s got to be a new way to think about the [spouse survey], and maybe it’s time to blow it up.”

For many military spouses, cycling in and out of the workforce is expected, even if it isn’t clearly documented or understood.

Upon discovering she was pregnant with their first child, Navy spouse Melinda Estrada made a plan to navigate her budding career in tech. She would work on her graduate degree while staying home with her new baby.

“And then once that’s done, then I’ll jump from my graduate degree, hopefully, to a full-time position,” said Estrada.

Because her husband’s assignment to attend school in Monterey, California, was only supposed to last 18 months, she didn’t see a point in looking for a job only to have to step away without the accrued work time required to be entitled to maternity leave.

A second child and increasing demands from her husband’s job delayed her graduate degree further, extending her time out of the workforce.

Mays, too, struggled to reenter the workforce.

“In Germany, I tried to go back to work,” said Mays, whose husband received overseas orders in 2014, moving her and her two children, ages two and four, far from family and friends.

Because there were limited jobs available overseas, she applied for a job outside her field, at a bank on the installation.

“They told me that they chose another candidate because they were going to be there longer than me,” she said.

Undeterred, she applied to work in merchandising at the Army Exchange and was hired after having to wait 15 months for her daughter to be old enough to be eligible for a spot in daycare.

“I came back from my first day on the job with training, and my husband said, ‘So, I have news.’ Our favorite phrase,” Mays recalled. “‘I have been selected for a job in D.C., and we have to move in 90 days.’”

Mays wanted to work, but resigned the following day, exiting the workforce.

Historically, DoD surveys have asked spouses if they “wanted to work.” As of 2019, the vast majority of those spouses, 85%, responded yes, but only 43% were employed.

This question was not included in the 2021 or 2024 surveys. However, recent DoD surveys have asked why spouses are not looking for work, allowing them to select only one answer. The Number 1 answer (30%) cited child care responsibilities.

Child care scarcity is a reality for all Americans, and military child care is no different.

According to a 2025 report by RAND, military child care programs are not keeping up with demand, leaving tens of thousands of military families without care.

The availability of affordable child care has a significant impact on military spouses’ participation in the workforce. According to a 2016 Health and Human Services report, a 10% reduction in the price of child care could increase maternal employment as high as 11%.

Despite the documented need for improved child care access, most military spouse employment solutions have focused on reducing unemployment through personal development and employment partnerships.

“The DoD has thrown money at trying to find employers who are willing to hire military spouses because people don’t want to hire people who are moving all the time,” said Maria Donnelly, the co-founder of the Military Family Foundation, a nonprofit that has helped military spouses navigate federal employment policies.

Donnelly was referring to one of the DoD’s employment solutions, the Military Spouse Employment Partnership, or MSEP, a membership-based program that encourages civilian employers to hire military spouses.

Since MSEP was launched in 2011, “more than 220,000 military spouses” have been hired. While the initiative requires its partners to document those they hire and retain, this data has not yet been publicly reported.

Both Estrada and Mays reported taking advantage of DoD-sponsored career development programs and internships. Neither walked away with jobs as a direct result of participating, but both formed networking connections that ultimately led to employment. For Estrada, another workforce departure followed.

In January 2026, the DoD announced an effort to reduce military spouse unemployment by 5%, increase Military Spouse Employment Partnership retention to 100% and establish a new military spouse unemployment office.

If experts are correct that the military is measuring unemployment differently than the rest of the country, it raises questions about whether current policies are targeting the right problem.

“I try not to should myself,” said Mays, who is currently employed by a military spouse-owned business that offers flexible remote work, a job she is thankful to have. “But I have this feeling and that I could and should be like at a director level or a management level, given my level of experience.”

Estrada is still looking for work.

The jobless rate for all veterans fell from 3.7% in April to 3.2% in May. The rate for the post-9/11 veterans ticked up from 4.0% in April to 4.1% in May but was still down from 4.5% in March, the bureau’s report said.

One trend in the report was the continuing improvement among the nation’s 2.1 million women veterans, as shown by a three-month surge – from an unemployment rate of 7.1% in March to 4.4% in April and 3.3% in May.

The last time the unemployment rate for women veterans was less than the rate for male veterans was in January 2019, when women veterans had a jobless rate of 2.7%, compared to 3.0% for male veterans.

However, the BLS has issued occasional cautionary notes on the data for women veterans, stating that the data comes from a much smaller sample than for male veterans and was thus susceptible to greater fluctuations.

One reason women veterans may be doing better on the jobs market is that more employers are realizing that “women make excellent employees,” said Heather Long, chief economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union.

In her estimation, the latest jobs report showed that the market’s recent “low hire, low fire” environment had come to an end. “The hiring recession is over,” Long said in a phone interview Friday.

She also noted that wages were not keeping up with inflation – the BLS said that wages were up 3.4% in May while the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in a recent report projected that Consumer Price Index for May would come in a 4.2%.

“It’s a split-screen economy,” Long said, noting that job growth was continuing while the nation was at war in Iran, the Strait of Hormuz was closed, inflation was ticking up, the nationwide average for a gallon of regular gasoline Friday was $4.24, and the main concern of voters in numerous surveys was “affordability.”

The improving performance of women veterans was unsurprising to Kevin Rasch, the Warriors to Work regional director at the Wounded Warrior Project.

“Employers recognize the value of having veterans” on the payroll, Rasch said. “They bring a lot of value to the table,” he said in a phone interview Friday - and that recognition was now being given to women veterans.

Rasch recently returned from a trip to Germany where he visited U.S. bases to speak with active duty troops to learn of their concerns about transitioning back to civilian life in the states.

“AI is one of the hot topics” for those transitioning troops who feel that they could be at a disadvantage in the civilian jobs market, Rasch said. His team was prepared to coach those transitioning veterans on coping with AI, Rasch said, but he also said that “AI is not going away.”

Rasch said job seekers should not automaticall blame AI when they lose out on a position because “someone learned how to use AI better than you.”

The predictions ahead of the release of the BLS jobs report suggested that AI would be a factor in job losses. “AI is now the leading reason companies give for cutting jobs and the primary industry citing it is technology,” Andy Challenger, labor and workplace expert and chief revenue officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement prior to the release of the BLS report.

The BLS report said that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 172,000 jobs in May, which was similar to the gain of 179,000 jobs in April.

“Leisure and hospitality added 70,000 jobs in May, well above the average monthly gain of 14,000 over the prior 12 months,” the BLS report said. Food services and bars added 48,000 jobs, health care added 35,000 and manufacturing added 7,000.

“This is about the strongest market of my lifetime,” Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told CNBC of the job gains.

He attributed the gains to President Donald Trump’s policies, including the tax cuts he enacted last year.

The Government Accountability Office looked at the Tricare Extended Care Health Option, known as ECHO, and its ECHO home health care benefit, known as EHHC. Military families may face challenges getting access to these services, which help individuals keep, learn or improve skills and functioning for daily living; provide durable medical equipment and incontinence supplies; and offer caregiver support, such as respite care.

Families with special needs may have difficulty getting access to the services they need, especially because of frequent military moves.

The coverage may be outdated, with the amounts at the same level since 2009, auditors noted in a GAO report published Monday.

Because of rising health care costs, the Defense Health Agency “lacks reasonable assurance that ECHO benefits, including EHHC services, are fully meeting the program’s purpose of mitigating the disabling effects of a qualifying condition,” auditors stated.

The coverage limit for the ECHO program has remained at $36,000 per enrollee per calendar year since 2009, when lawmakers last authorized an increase.

Auditors said that with inflation, that equates to about $24,000 in 2025 dollars.

About 27,000 eligible dependents were enrolled in ECHO in 2024, according to DoD. Most of these are children with intellectual, developmental or physical disabilities or other significant health needs.

Eligibility and other requirements and coverage vary between the service branches. Of the total ECHO population, about 1,000 were homebound with complex medically complex conditions and qualified for the ECHO home health care benefit.

But out of those 27,000 enrolled, only about 4,235, or 16%, used the ECHO services, auditors stated.

In their response to a draft report, DoD disagreed with the GAO recommendation to assess whether the coverage limit of $36,000 is enough.

They stated that in 2024, the 4,235 enrollees had an average total government expenditure of $6,600. That $36,000 coverage limit is set by law; those who require the ECHO home health care services aren’t subject to the cap. Auditors noted that a review could provide information for any potential congressional action.

Lawmakers required GAO to conduct this review of the coverage for nursing care, habilitative programs and respite care through Tricare ECHO and other federal programs.

ECHO respite care services must be provided by a Tricare-authorized home health agency, to provide a short-term break for the usual caregiver. The ECHO program allows up to 16 hours per month.

The auditors also reviewed state Medicaid home- and community-based services, such as skilled nursing care and respite care, in seven states with high military populations.

Military families may be eligible for this care, which in some cases may offer more benefits than ECHO, but access can be limited. Auditors cited a study that found in 2025, it took about 32 months to move from a waiting list to enroll in one of these state programs. Families have said that by the time they can receive the services in a state, it’s time for them to move.

DoD is in the process of standardizing its eligibility requirements, and the number of respite care hours offered across all the military service branches through the Exceptional Family Member Program. DoD officials told GAO auditors that they expect to fully implement standardization of the respite care services by October 2027, and those with profound need would be eligible for up to 32 hours of respite care per month.

Of all the services GAO auditors reviewed, respite care was the most frequently requested from 2022 through 2024, according to data from one of the Tricare managed care contractors.

But about 68% of the authorizations for services weren’t used by the families. Defense Health Agency officials told auditors shortages of respite care providers may contribute to unused services. The shortage can also delay or limit access to nursing care services for military families.

Low respite care hours and low reimbursement offered by ECHO may also contribute to challenges in getting providers, according to the GAO report.

Two ECHO case managers told auditors that even if the respite hours increased to 32 hours per month, it would still be hard to find providers, since respite care providers want more hours than that.

For the second year , no VA hospitals received a one-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that publishes quality assessments for U.S. hospitals based on mortality rates, patient safety, hospital readmissions and other measures.

CMS began rating VA hospitals in 2023. That year, of 114 facilities that were evaluated, nearly 30% received five stars; 37% received four stars; 15% were awarded three stars; 11%, two stars; and 8% -- or nine facilities -- one star.

In 2026, 45% of VA facilities received five stars, 33% earned four stars, 16% received three stars and 6% were given two stars.

Since the first assessment, the percentage of VA facilities that have earned four or five stars rose from 67% to 78%, despite dipping to 58% in 2024.

The assessments compare favorably against more than 4,600 hospitals reviewed by CMS nationwide. Roughly 12% of U.S. hospitals received five-star ratings, 30% were awarded four stars, 31% received three stars, 21% earned two stars and 6% were given one star this year.

Officials said the new ratings mean VA hospitals account for nearly 15% of the country’s five-star rated hospitals.

“The Trump Administration has a proven track record of improving Veterans’ care, and these ratings underscore that success,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a release. “We look forward to continuing to deliver the results veterans have earned at VA facilities across the nation.”

The list of high- and low- performing facilities at the VA has fluctuated over time, with some marked improvements in facilities that received one star in 2023.

For example, the VA Pittsburgh Health Care System, Providence VA Medical Center in Rhode Island and the Bronx VA Medical Center in New York City each received one star in 2023 but earned four stars in 2026.

Two facilities that earned one star each in 2023 continue to be among the VA’s list of facilities performing under national averages on several measures. The Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the San Juan Medical Center, Puerto Rico, are among the seven VA facilities that received two stars.

The VA maintained its own internal star ratings and began publishing them in 2017 following a series of news reports. In late 2019, the department dropped the effort because VA leaders said it provided little value to veterans.

Twenty Veterans Health Administration medical centers were not rated because they did not meet the criteria for inclusion. CMS does not rate facilities that have a low number of cases or incidents that are specific to its assessment criteria.

It also does not rate specialty hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and some inpatient care facilities, such as psychiatric hospitals.

The CMS star ratings can be found on Medicare’s Care Compare website.

For military spouses, that service involved a lifetime of sacrifices: frequent moves that reset careers, years of underemployment and the inability to vest in their own retirement.

When a tragedy occurs, the benefits provided to the surviving spouse are not a gift; they are an earned benefit and recognition of that collective sacrifice.

This isn’t abstract to me — it’s the life I was raised in.

Both of my parents served — my father in the Army, my mother in the Air Force. My mom made the difficult decision to leave her military career because she understood what it would take to hold our family together while my father continued to serve.

She tried to keep a foothold in the workforce, taking part-time jobs where she could. But my dad’s deployment schedule of six months gone, three months home, made stability impossible.

Childcare costs outweighed any income she could earn, and when my middle brother was diagnosed with severe disabilities requiring constant care, the choice became even clearer. She stepped away from work to raise us and be there every time the Army needed my dad.

For nearly a decade, she poured everything into raising us, into being present for every move, every absence, every demand the Army placed on our lives. Then, at 38, with all three of us finally in school, she began again. Starting over.

She found work on base, running the Exceptional Family Member Program – the very program our family had relied on. It wasn’t just a job; it was a calling. She was determined to improve the system for families like ours, to make it easier for others walking the same difficult path.

And then, just months later, everything changed.

I came home from fifth grade to find two service members at our door. In an instant, my childhood split in two — before and after. My mother became a widow, left to raise three children ages 10, 8 and 5.

Just days after my father died, my mother sat through the briefing every military widow receives: Here is your flag, here are your benefits — and a quiet but unmistakable warning to not remarry.

Remarrying was the furthest thing from her mind, from any widow’s mind. She wasn’t thinking about a future without him; she was trying to survive the present without her soulmate. He died just 13 days shy of their 10th wedding anniversary — the man she had built her life around, the man she believed she would grow old with.

Two weeks later, I came home from school with a “contract” I had written, asking her to promise she would never date again. That’s how deeply I believed in their love. They were the kind of couple that made you roll your eyes and smile at the same time. They danced in the kitchen while dinner burned and laughed constantly, only “arguing” over who would get to dress the other when they were old.

She didn’t sign it. Instead, she told me something I didn’t understand then: She didn’t know what the future would hold, but she hoped that someday, love could be part of it again.

But for my mother, that future never came.

Maybe she would have tried, if the cost of love hadn’t been so high. If choosing companionship didn’t mean risking the financial security that kept our family afloat. If she hadn’t been forced to weigh her own happiness against our stability.

She chose us every time.

And in the end, the weight of that choice — the grief, the pressure, the isolation — became too much to carry alone.

She died by suicide at 47 years old, on what would have been her 19th wedding anniversary.

Under current federal law, the government imposes an arbitrary “remarriage penalty.” If a surviving spouse under the age of 55 chooses to find love again and remarry, they lose access to their survivor benefits.

My mom did not divorce my dad; she dedicated her life to being the perfect mom and Army wife. She made every sacrifice the Army threw at her, including sacrificing her soulmate. She put her career on hold to support the mission.

The benefits our family earned were not given out of pity or to offset the loss of my dad’s income, but to offset the decade my mom was out of the workforce.

There is a persistent and damaging misunderstanding that survivor benefits are a form of government-funded alimony intended to support a spouse until a new “provider” comes along. This could not be further from the truth.

These benefits are intended to offset the lost earning potential of the survivor. Because of the military lifestyle, most military spouses never have the opportunity to vest in their own retirement. Their “retirement” was the promise of the survivor benefit.

My mom’s story is not uncommon. It is the story of military spouses, caregiver spouses and surviving spouses across the country. While military spouse employment may be on the rise, most military spouses are still massively underemployed.

The current law also creates a bizarre and often heartbreaking waiting game.

The law says if survivors wait until the age of 55, they can remarry and maintain their benefits. Many survivors simply wait out the clock to remarry, living in a state of financial and legal limbo just to retain the benefits they earned. For those who remarry earlier — often for religious reasons — the loss of benefits can be devastating.

The current law does not acknowledge the true service and sacrifices our surviving spouses have made. They are not property. They are not divorced. They are people who had their futures taken from them, people who would give anything to have their loved ones back.

What they are doing is not “moving on.” It is surviving. It is rebuilding from the worst day of their lives.

At TAPS, we serve more than 120,000 surviving families. We see the daily reality of these policies, which is why our legislative team is working on Capitol Hill, meeting with lawmakers to explain that this is a matter of equity and honor.

The Love Lives On Act is about more than just a check in the mail; it is about respecting the sanctity of the military family. It recognizes that while a service member’s life may have ended, the nation’s debt to their family does not. We owe it to our survivors to ensure that their love can live on without the threat of financial insecurity.

Ten-year-old Ashlynne did not want to think about her mother moving forward after her dad died, but as an adult, I see it differently.

I wish my mom had been free to open her heart again to someone who could have respected the amazing man my father was while teaching my brother how to tie a tie. To someone who could have loved my mom and given her a chance at happiness.

While it is something my brothers and I will never have, it is something I hope other surviving families have in the future: The chance to move forward and find happiness without having to fear for the financial consequences of doing so.

It is time for Congress to pass the bipartisan Love Lives On Act and ensure that these benefits remain with surviving spouses, regardless of their marital status.

Ashlynne Haycock-Lohmann is the Director for Government & Legislative Affairs for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) and the Surviving Daughter of Army SFC Jeffrey Haycock and Air Force Veteran Nichole Haycock.

Reps. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., and Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., both retired U.S. Army veterans and members of the House Armed Services Committee, are advancing a bill they dubbed the MISSION RX Act.

Their proposal is designed to allow Tricare beneficiaries and Department of Veterans Affairs patients to pay for prescription drugs at whichever is the lower of two prices: the rate negotiated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, or the cost offered through their existing coverage.

The bottom line, the congressmen say, is that anyone covered by Tricare or the VA would pay the lowest government-negotiated price.

Right now, only people enrolled in Medicare get to pay the rate for certain drugs set by the CMS.

This option does not automatically extend to those who are part of other federal health programs. The basic framework to lower drug costs for Medicare recipients was part of the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden.

“After serving 25 years in uniform, I know firsthand the sacrifices our service members, veterans and military families make every single day,” Vindman said in an exclusive statement to Military Times. “The last thing any of them should have to worry about is whether they can afford the prescription drugs they need.”

“The veterans and service members I represent in Virginia’s Seventh District have earned every benefit this nation can give them. That’s why I’m leading this commonsense effort to reduce the crushing cost of prescription drugs for those who have served and sacrificed,” he added.

Vindman and Ryan’s push faces an uncertain future in the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority. The bill has four co-sponsors so far, all of whom are Democrats: Reps. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Bill Keating of Massachusetts.

It also has the support of a number of key organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Marine Corps League, the Fleet Reserve Association, Air Force Sergeants Association and Commissioned Officers Association Public Health Service.

Before they entered Congress, Vindman and Ryan built their careers in the Army during the post-9/11 wars, each deploying to Iraq. Vindman began as a paratrooper and infantry officer, before going on to serve as a Judge Advocate General’s Corps attorney. Ryan, for his part, worked as an intelligence officer, earning two Bronze Star Medals.

“Military families have sacrificed so much for our country — it’s absolutely unacceptable that they’re being forced to pay more than other Americans for the same medication,” Ryan said in a statement.

“Our bill corrects this egregious oversight by ensuring that military families have access to the same lower drug prices that others do. Especially amid rising healthcare costs nationwide, leaving military families to bear the burden is simply un-American,” he continued. “They’ve stepped up and sacrificed for us — now we need to do right by them.”

The legislation, if enacted, would boost the savings for American taxpayers from lower drug costs. CMS already estimates that the original Biden-era measures could save $6 billion annually.

In a short statement, the Defense Commissary Agency said only that the change took effect Wednesday and applied to commissaries worldwide. Commissaries in states or localities that mandate bags fees would still have to comply with those laws.

“The policy, introduced on April 6, which required commissary patrons to pay for single-use plastic and paper bags, has been rescinded,” the statement reads.

In a separate statement, Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., a former Navy helicopter pilot, took credit for the reversal, saying the commissary agency’s decision followed months of advocacy.

Kiggans penned a letter to Anthony Tata, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and she spoke about the issue directly with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee last week, she said.

“I was deeply frustrated when DeCA announced it would impose a charge for paper and plastic bags — an added cost that complicates a benefit intended to support our service members, retirees and their families," Kiggans said in a statement. “I appreciate Secretary Hegseth for listening to my concerns and taking swift action to eliminate this fee.”

The policy required commissary customers to pay 5 cents each for plastic bags and 10 cents for paper bags.

Providing the single-use bags costs the commissary agency $17 million per year, spokesperson Keith Desbois said when the agency announced the policy in March.

The commissary agency receives about $1.5 billion per year in taxpayer dollars to operate these discounted grocery stores as a benefit for the military community.

The Defense Department’s goal is an overall savings of 25% compared to commercial stores outside the gate.

Military Times reporter Karen Jowers contributed to this story.

As first reported by Stars and Stripes, Army and Air Force budget request breakdowns describe increases to the extra pays earned by troops in harm’s way. Service members can earn either hostile fire pay or imminent danger pay, but not both. The payments are based on location and are calculated by the day — $7.50 per day up to a maximum of $225 per month.

Documents explaining the Air Force budget request describe allocations for “increases for military special and incentive pay, including hostile fire/imminent danger pay.”

While the service does not further detail the increase within budget justification documents, it does add that the Pentagon has “increased Hostile Fire Pay and Imminent Danger Pay rates to the maximum statutory threshold,” effective as of the start of Fiscal Year 2027.

According to U.S. Code, that maximum for those in hostile fire areas is $450 per month — double the current ceiling of $225.

The Army, in its documentation, describes hostile fire or imminent danger pay that “may not exceed $450 per month.”

A Pentagon official, who asked not to be named, said the Department of Defense had yet to commit to increasing pays for hazardous duties.

“The department continuously evaluates its policies to ensure that they are advancing its mission,” the official told Military Times. “At this time, no decision has been made to increase the current rates for hostile fire event or imminent danger pay.”

Meanwhile, a review commissioned through the last defense budget may result in the designation of even more regions as eligible for the stipend soon.

The Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law last December, mandated a review of the list of areas eligible for danger pay, as maintained by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

At the time, the last updates to the list were made in 2023, when the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, Gaza Strip, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and Ukraine were added.

The NDAA called for a 60-day review to begin no later than March 1, and began, for the first time, a routine review process that will consider the global conflict landscape every five years, beginning in 2031.

The current DFAS list includes 59 locations, some of them permanent and others provisional.

On Feb. 28, the list was updated to add 19 new regions, all of them connected to Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. campaign against the Iranian regime.

An appended note states that all these locations, from Diego Garcia to the Arabian Gulf, will keep their imminent danger designation until the end of the third month following the conclusion of the conflict. The designation could also extend to any follow-on operations directed by the president.

These additions do not appear to be linked to the NDAA-mandated review, however. Defense officials did not provide an update on that effort.

The Department of Defense uses location-specific surveys and price and military spending data to set cost-of-living allowances, known as COLAs. In a report released on Thursday, the Government Accountability Office found that the department used a mix of unsound sampling practices and inconsistent processes to set COLAs, raising questions about whether payments reflect local expenses.

Service members stationed in places like Hawaii, Japan, Alaska, Germany and Virginia — where the cost of living is often higher — receive COLA, or additional payments, to help offset costs. The total amount a service member receives is also based on the number of dependents in the household.

The vast majority of those payments, the GAO said, are sent to soldiers stationed outside of the continental U.S., or OCONUS, versus those stationed inside the continental U.S., CONUS. The watchdog highlighted inconsistencies between how the department calculated COLA payments for OCONUS versus CONUS duty locations.

The auditors also found discrepancies in the amount of and type information local commands provided soldiers in areas that receive COLA, and in some cases, service members reported confusion about what they were entitled to or why it might change.

In the report, investigators noted that some Defense Department personnel said changes to COLA payments made it hard for them to budget for their households.

“In nine of the 17 discussion group summaries we held in locations that receive a COLA, participants mentioned that COLA fluctuates so much that they cannot rely on it as part of their budgets,” the report said, later giving an example where a high-ranking officer in Japan linked issues with COLA to problems with readiness.

“Eating a beans and rice diet has a direct impact on our ability to fight,” he told auditors.

The office included several recommendations for the Defense Department to fix its findings, including aligning the CONUS and OCONUS payments for dependents and applying its processes for location-specific costs more consistently.

The Defense Department concurred with both recommendations, but did not agree with a separate suggestion to use random sampling for service member’s shopping patterns.

The auditors also recommended requiring local commands to give information about COLA to service members, a suggestion the department only “partially concurred with,” arguing that the Defense Travel Management Office maintains publicly available information and that the department does not have a central point of contact for COLA inquiries.

Former Army telecommunications technician Ronald Christoforo, along with Michele Christoforo, filed suit Monday in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut, alleging that the VA discriminates against thousands of disabled children of Vietnam veterans by providing compensation to those whose mothers served but not their fathers, with one exception: children born with spina bifida.

In the suit, the Christoforos note that Michele’s birth defect, which causes dwarfism, is specifically covered by the VA for the children of female veterans who served in Vietnam.

Ronald Christoforo applied for VA Agent Orange-related disability benefits for Michele in 2022 but was denied. According to the suit, the VA told Christoforo that Michele’s mother would have had to serve in Vietnam or Korea to qualify.

The Christoforos argue that the decision was unconstitutional because it is based on sex discrimination.

“When the VA rejected my claim, they didn’t say my condition wasn’t real or that it wasn’t caused by Agent Orange. They said my father’s service didn’t count the same as a mother’s would. How can that be legal?” Michele Christoforo said in a statement Monday.

According to the suit, roughly 200 children were born with birth defects to female Vietnam veterans, while an estimated 350,000 children of fathers who served have birth defects.

The VA began awarding disability benefits to the children of Vietnam veterans born with spina bifida in 1996, and four years later, expanded the list of eligible conditions for the children of women Vietnam veterans to 18. The expanded list includes achondroplasia, the defect that caused Michele Christoforo’s dwarfism.

The Christoforos, represented by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic, want the courts to declare the VA’s sex-based disability awards as unconstitutional and provide disability benefits to all children who qualify, regardless of whether their mother or father served in Vietnam.

“All other circumstances equal, if Mr. Christoforo were female, he could rely on the benefits provided under [the law] to ensure his child would receive the medical care, educational benefits and income support she needs. The only difference in his ability to have this assurance is his sex,” the lawsuit noted.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., has sponsored legislation that would increase research on birth defects in veterans exposed to environmental pollutants, such as Agent Orange and the burn pits used in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere to dispose of waste.

On Monday, Blumenthal said children with a disability related to their parent’s service-connected exposure “deserve equal benefits without exception.”

“Michele’s condition is real, her father’s service is unquestionable, and the damage caused by Agent Orange is well-documented. Denying her VA benefits solely because her father served rather than her mother is both unjust and cruel,” Blumenthal said.

Linda Schwartz, a Vietnam veteran and adviser to Vietnam Veterans of America, added that research does not “justify this distinction” between maternal or paternal exposure and birth defects and she supports the suit.

“Our members came home from Vietnam carrying wounds that didn’t always show up right away, and some of those wounds were passed on to their children. … It is long past time it does the same for the children of the men who served alongside them,” Schwartz said in a statement.

Agent Orange is the name given to defoliants used in Vietnam and elsewhere to strip combat zones of vegetation that could be used by enemy forces for camouflage. The herbicides contain a type of dioxin that is a known carcinogen linked to cancers, chronic conditions and birth defects.

The Justice Department, which represents the VA, did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

In the proposed budget for the Department of Defense, released this week, all troops ranked E-5 and below would receive a pay raise of 7%. The budget also allots 6% pay bumps for military personnel ranked E-6 to O-3, as well as 5% raises for those O-4 and above.

“The Administration recognizes the importance of America’s warfighters and their families,” the budget request reads.

Junior enlisted service members typically serve in pay grades E-1 to E-4 for their first enlistment term, which usually lasts four years. Mid-level noncommissioned officers include those E-5 to E-7, but the officers would receive different raise increases based on their rank. The proposed budget lists those ranked E-5 and below to receive a 7% boost, while E-6 and E-7 ranks would receive a 6% raise.

Across the military, troops received a 3.8% pay increase in fiscal 2026. Traditionally, the annual pay raise for troops ranges from roughly 3% to 5%. But in 2025, junior enlisted service members saw a large 14.5% pay hike, adding between $3,000 to $6,000 to their basic pay.

Prior to that increase, the annual base pay for junior enlisted service members could be less than $30,000, but with the raise, it brings the base pay to around that figure before housing stipends and other pay incentives.

As of September 2025, there are around 540,000 active-duty junior enlisted service members E-4 and below across the branches, making up 50% of the enlisted military, according to a 2026 Congress Defense Primer.

There were approximately 378,000 personnel ranked E-5 and E-6 across the military in September 2025, per Congress’ report.

“This enduring investment, far above the standard annual military pay raise, builds on the President’s recruiting and retention success, by doubling down on the Administration’s goal to restore America’s fighting force,” the proposal says.

The White House proposed the fiscal 2027 budget on April 3, outlining the Trump administration’s requests to Congress for federal spending beginning on Oct. 1, 2026.

President Donald Trump is requesting $1.5 trillion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2027, a 44% increase from the already historic amount of nearly $1 trillion requested in fiscal 2026, per the proposal. The budget allocates $1.1 trillion in “base discretionary budget authority” for the DOD, the proposal says.

Before the upcoming fiscal year, presidents are required to submit their budget recommendations no later than the first Monday in February, but usually that deadline is missed. Congress then works to pass its own budget resolution after hearings. That can prove to be a challenge, as past stalemates in federal funding negotiations have led to government shutdowns.

If approved, the new budget, including the pay raises for lower-ranked service members, would begin Jan. 1, 2027.

“All the cumulative policies” Trump has promoted, including tax cuts and deregulation, “can’t be upended by a temporary Middle East skirmish,” Hassett said on Fox News. “This is really an economy that can’t be slowed down” added Hassett, director of the National Economic Council.

Hasset spoke as air raid sirens once again sounded in Israel and across the Gulf States to guard against another round of drone and missile strikes from Iran but before reports from the region said that a U.S. warplane had been shot down over Iran and the fate of the crew was unknown.

Later reports from several outlets said that one of the members of the two-member crew had been rescued by U.S. forces and a search was continuing for the second.

Hassett’s rosy analysis was prompted by the monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that U.S. employers added 178,000 jobs in March, blowing past estimates that about 60,000 jobs would be added to payrolls.

In a post on X, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, “The March jobs report blew out expectations with strong construction job growth and a surge in manufacturing job creation as trillions of dollars in investments begin to materialize.”

However, the March jobs report was based on BLS data collected by mid-March, which was before the Feb. 28 start of the Iran war, and did not gauge the impact of $4 gasoline, $104 crude or wild swings in the stock market indexes. The markets were closed Friday, and so the impact of the BLS report on the markets would have to wait for them to re-open Monday.

The jobs report also showed that the national unemployment rate ticked down from 4.4% in February to 4.3% in March, while the jobless rate for all veterans came down from 4.1% in February to 3.9% in March.

The closely-watched unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans also came down from 4.8% in February to 4.5% in March.

Health care added 76,000 jobs in March, construction added 26,000 and manufacturing added 15,000, while federal government employment continued to decline in March, losing 18,000 jobs, the BLS said. Since October 2024, the number of jobs in federal government has declined by 355,000, or 11.8%.

Justice officials allege that S & K Towing Inc., of San Clemente, California, violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by selling or disposing of as many as 148 vehicles without a court order, even when they knew, or should have known, that the vehicles were owned by military members.

Some of the vehicles were registered to addresses on Camp Pendleton, including rooms in the barracks. In other cases, the company auctioned off vehicles even after being told the owner was in the military, according to Justice officials. Some of the vehicles contained military equipment, uniforms and awards.

The lawsuit, filed March 25 in federal court in the Central District of California, alleges that S&K Towing Inc. towed hundreds of vehicles from the base from Aug. 28, 2020, through at least April 15, 2025, under a memorandum of agreement with the base to respond to calls for towing services made by the base police department. The alleged illegal auctions or disposals of the vehicles also occurred during that time frame.

Justice officials asked the court to rule that the company violated the SCRA; to award appropriate monetary damages to the service members, and take other steps needed for restitution; to order the company to take steps to eliminate future illegal conduct; and to assess civil penalties.

CarMax to pay at least $420K to settle allegations of illegal repossessions of troops' cars

According to California law, when law enforcement or a governmental agency directs the removal of a vehicle to a storage facility, the receiving facility holds a garageman’s lien against the vehicle.

The facility may enforce its lien by conducting a public sale of the vehicle or by disposing of the vehicle to a licensed dismantler or scrap iron processor. While operating its business, S & K Towing — which also operates a vehicle storage facility — regularly enforced its liens by selling motor vehicles through public lien sales or to dismantlers or scrap iron processors, according to the lawsuit.

“Towing companies must respect and abide by the federal laws that protect members of our Armed Forces,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in the announcement of the legal action.

“Service members are often absent for extended periods due to training and deployments and may not know that their vehicle has been towed,” she stated. “The SCRA plays an important role in providing these service members with adequate legal protections, including notice and the opportunity to have towing and storage fees adjusted in light of their military service.”

When reached by telephone, S & K Towing declined to comment about the allegations in the lawsuit, nor did they have any comment about whether S & K Towing still has an agreement with Camp Pendleton to provide towing services. Information was not immediately available from base officials about whether that agreement is still in effect.

The agreement required S & K Towing to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, but Justice officials said the company had no SCRA policies or training materials and took no steps to verify owners’ military status before selling or disposing of the towed vehicles.

An automated database run by the Defense Manpower Data Center and provided by the Defense Department is intended to help lienholders and others check whether individuals are protected by the SCRA.

A military legal assistance attorney at Camp Pendleton notified S & K Towing by letter and by phone in May 2024 that they were violating the law by selling or disposing of service members’ vehicles without a court order. The person who identified himself as a manager/owner of S & K Towing responded by saying, “We do this all the time,” according to the lawsuit.

Then, Justice officials contend, after that notification, S & K Towing continued to sell and dispose of service members’ vehicles without getting court orders.

Justice officials urge service members and dependents who believe their SCRA rights have been violated to contact their military legal assistance office. Contact information can be found at legalassistance.law.af.mil/.