It Takes a Family: How Military Spousal Laws and Policies Impact National Security

ARTICLES

It Takes a Family: How Military Spousal Laws and

Policies Impact National Security

Caitlin Dunham*

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

I. UNDERSTANDING THE MILITARY SPOUSE EDUCATION AND CAREER

PROBLEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

A. The Legal and Policy Changes Must Be Inclusive, Flexible,

and Widespread: Inclusivity Stems From an Increasingly

Diverse Military . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

1. Flexibility is a Necessity for Military Spouses . . . . . . . . 297

2. Solutions Need to Incentivize Change among Different

Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

B. Tackling Education Barriers and Underemployment . . . . . . . 298

1. Military Spouses Want More Educational Opportunities . 298

2. Spousal Underemployment: A Continuing Problem . . . . 300

II. CONGRESSIONAL AND EXECUTIVE ACTION ADDRESSING MILITARY

SPOUSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

A. Congressional Action: National Defense Authorization Acts. 301

1. 2005 – 2018 NDAAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

2. 2019 NDAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

a. § 551: Permanent Career Intermission Program . . . 302

b. § 579: Assessment and Report on Small Business

Activities of Military Spouses on Military

Installations in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

c. § 573 Temporary Expansion of Authority for

Noncompetitive Appointments of Military Spouses by

Federal Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

d. Section 575 Assessment and Report on the Effects of

Permanent Changes of Station on Employment

Among Military Spouses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

3. The 2020 NDAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

a. §§ 575, 576, 577, 580F, and 580G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

B. Executive Action on Military Spouses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

1. Actions by the Obama Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

2. Actions by the Trump Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

* © 2021, Caitlin Dunham.

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III. ANALYSIS OF CURRENT GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES AND

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NEXT STEPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

A. The Effectiveness of the NDAAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

1. Risks of Ineffective Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

2. Analyzing the 2020 NDAA’s Potential Impact . . . . . . . . 310

B. Implementation Issues and Potential Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . 310

C. Compliance, Communication, Coordination: Learning from

Past Implementation Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

D. Policy and Legislative Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

1. Making Education Affordable and Accessible . . . . . . . . 314

a. MyCAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

b. Working with Online Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

c. Creating Financial Incentives to Work with Military

Spouses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

2. Reducing Underemployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

a. Military Spouse Employee Tax Credits . . . . . . . . . . 317

b. Expanding on existing programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

E. Occupational Licensing Restrictions and Military Spouse

Attorneys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

APPENDIX A: OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING REGULATIONS FOR MILITARY SPOUSE

ATTORNEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

INTRODUCTION

Military spouses play a crucial role in military readiness. The military cannot

preserve U.S. security and peace without adequate personnel, and so must culti-

vate and retain talent among its ranks. Military spouses and the professional and

educational opportunities available to them while their spouses are active service

members, strongly inf‌luence service members’ decisions to stay or leave the

armed forces.

1

In this paper I analyze how the opportunities and resources avail-

able to military spouses affect military readiness and preparedness. The lack of

educational and professional opportunities currently available to military spouses

negatively impacts military readiness by prompting members to leave the service

to seek benef‌its and resources elsewhere for themselves and their spouses.

2

The

military and other government institutions must address the factors that are

1. In a study conducted on the factors affecting retention of naval aviators, there were clear

indications that an aviator’s career intention was signif‌icantly dependent on the spouse’s occupational

status. See Gerald D. Gibb , Tatree Nontasak & Daniel L. Dolgin, Factors Affecting Career Retention

Among Naval Aviators, 2 J. BUS. PSYCHOL. 321, 322 (1988). See also, Lisa Wood, Family Factors and

the Reenlistment Intentions of Army Enlisted Personnel, 21 INTERFACES 92, 104 (1991) (discussing a

study examining the reenlistment intentions in the army which found that “the probability of the spouse

being unemployed is a statistically signif‌icant and negative factor in member reenlistment intentions”).

2. Because this paper addresses spouses of current service members, I use the term “military spouse”

in lieu of dependent, though the def‌inition of a dependent expands beyond spouses. 50 U.S.C. § 3911(4)

(def‌ining “dependent” with respect to a service member to include a spouse, a child of the service

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restricting military spouses’ ability to work in the jobs they seek.

3

For military

spouses to reach their full potential in obtaining education and work opportuni-

ties, it is necessary to enact certain legal and policy changes.

4

To understand what changes will adequately address the needs of the military

spouses, it is necessary to understand what characteristics these changes must

entail. In Part I, I explore the challenges that exist for military spouses, why they

exist, and why they are important. I describe the changing demographics of the

military and how this must lead to a change in the government’s understanding of

how military families function. I also explore why increasing opportunities for

military spouses will require change among a variety of different institutions, not

just the military itself.

In Part II, I examine the congressional and executive actions that address

opportunities available to military spouses. Past years’ versions of the National

Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) have addressed the educational and profes-

sional struggles of military spouses, but none as much as the 2019 NDAA.

5

The

FY2019 NDAA has several provisions directly addressing the employment land-

scape for military spouses.

6

I also assess the FY2020 NDAA and discuss the most

recent executive actions regarding education and professional opportunities for

military spouses.

In Part III, I provide my analysis of the actions taken to help military spouses,

as well as provide recommendations for next steps. I analyze the effectiveness of

the 2019 NDAA and earlier iterations of the Act. I also address provisions of the

2020 NDAA that will impact military spouses going forward. Ultimately, I deter-

mine that the NDAA will have a positive impact on military spouses and is a step

in the right direction of achieving better career and educational opportunities for

member, or an individual for whom the servicemember provided more than one-half of the individual’s

support for a certain amount of time).

3. The employment opportunities available for military spouses directly impact their satisfaction with

military, and the likelihood that the service member spouse reenlists. One study found that “the reenlistment

intentions of husbands whose spouses are very satisf‌ied with military life (7 on a scale of 1 to 7) are highest

(8.52) [out of 10], and those of husbands whose spouses are dissatisf‌ied (2 on a scale of 1 to 7) with military

life are lowest (6.95) when compared to all other levels of spouse satisfaction with military life.” Wood,

supra note 1, at 100. The probability of a military spouse being unemployed is “a statistically signif‌icant and

negative determinant of spouse satisfaction,” and that “unemployed wives are less satisf‌ied with the military

as a way of life.” Id. at 102-03. The study also suggested that military spouses’ attitudes are responsive to

changes in employment status, and a program “aimed at increasing employment opportunities for army

wives would be expected to increase army wives’ overall satisfaction with the military.” Id. at 107.

4. The role of the military spouse became signif‌icant in terms of military readiness after the creation

of the All-Volunteer Force in 1973. Lifestyle and opportunities afforded to military members and their

families were important factors, and the Commission sought to “improve the non-monetary conditions

of military life and thereby help increase the attractiveness of military careers.” BERNARD ROSTKER, I

WANT YOU! THE EVOLUTION OF THE ALL-VOLUNTEER FORCE 82 (2006).

5. John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, Pub. L. No. 115-232,

132 Stat. 1636 [hereinafter NDAA 2019].

6. See, e.g., id at §§ 551, 579, 573, 575.

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