The newly created Military Spouse Commission held its inaugural meeting at the White House this week, giving military spouses representing senior leaders across the armed forces their first formal opportunity to lay out the problems they’ve heard about from families and discuss potential policy changes.
The Sept. 21 meeting covered some of the most persistent challenges facing military families: spouse employment, access to health care, child care, housing and the difficult transition from military service to civilian life.
The commission was established by President Donald Trump in August to advise and assist him on policies affecting military spouses and families. The order requires the commission to provide the president with a report at the end of each fiscal year while it exists, as well as a final report before its termination. The commission is scheduled to terminate two years after its creation unless Trump extends it. The intention behind the term limit is to enact improvements now, not later.
At the inaugural meeting, commission officials said they had received hundreds of messages from military spouses describing the challenges they face and outlined several policy changes that commission officials attributed to the group’s work.
The commission says its advice helped shape a new executive order
One of the bigger announcements of the afternoon came during a discussion about the transition from military service to civilian life.
Desiree Thompson Sayle, the commission’s executive director, said the group had advised the president on improving the transfer of information between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Trump signed Executive Order “Accelerating Access to Veterans’ Benefits and Employment Opportunities” on Sept. 8. The order directs the secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs to establish updated information technology systems, policy guidance and memoranda for the permanent, prospective and ongoing sharing of all Official Military Personnel Files and Service Treatment Records between the two departments.
The order also requires the Department of Defense to ensure that current service members’ official personnel files, health records and Service Treatment Records are shared with VA immediately when a service member is discharged or released from the armed forces, within 30 days of the order and at all times thereafter.
The EO gives the departments 180 days to create and deploy digital tools using artificial intelligence and other emerging capabilities to streamline veterans’ applications for and access to benefits earned through military service, including job training and opportunities offered by the Department of Labor.
DoD will consult with the Labor and Veterans Affairs departments to update the Transition Assistance Program and other workforce programs within 180 days so that, “to the maximum extent practicable and applicable,” every service member leaving active military service is either connected with specific, open jobs related to their skills and interests or enrolled, at their discretion, in qualifying education, training or apprenticeship programs.
The order further calls for separating service members to be connected with appropriate veterans’ representatives acting on behalf of a federal, state or local government to facilitate applications for health care, disability, home loan, job placement or education benefits.
Thompson Sayle said the order would help ensure families receive benefits and services they have earned by “facilitating and modernizing the transfer of records and personnel data” from the Department of Defense to VA.
While the executive order itself does not identify the Military Spouse Commission as the source of its recommendations. The commission’s leadership, however, presented the order as an early example of how its work had already influenced policy change.
Employment remains one of the commission’s biggest concerns
Employment was the subject of nearly 500 messages submitted by military spouses, according to figures presented during the meeting.
Those spouses described repeatedly rebuilding careers after permanent changes of station, including leaving jobs, losing professional connections and beginning another job search at a new duty station.
For spouses in licensed professions, members said moving across state lines can mean new applications, additional fees and delays before they can resume working.
The issue was illustrated during the meeting by Jennifer Conrad, a Marine Corps spouse of nearly 30 years whose husband retired as a sergeant major last year.
Conrad described the challenges military families can face after a service member leaves active duty, particularly Reserve and National Guard families navigating retirement, VA benefits, health care and employment.
“Families rarely experience these issues in isolation,” Conrad said.
“Deployment affects marriages. Employment affects financial readiness. Healthcare affects transition. Transition affects identity. VA disability affects the entire household.”
Her comments broadened the commission’s discussion beyond active-duty life to the years after military service, when families can find themselves navigating multiple government systems.
The commission also discussed occupational-license portability, remote work, federal hiring and employment fairs as existing tools intended to address spouse employment barriers.
Health care: access, continuity and who gets to be in the room
Health care was the subject of roughly 350 messages to the commission, according to their records.
Military spouses described difficulties finding doctors, therapists, specialists and other providers after a permanent change of station. Members also cited wait lists and administrative barriers involving mental health care, fertility treatment, specialty care and children with complex medical needs.
One commission member, a Navy spouse and licensed health care professional, said she had seen the effects of those gaps firsthand and identified continuity of care, appointment wait times, specialty care and mental health services as priorities.
Another military spouse in attendance described becoming her husband’s caregiver and advocate after he returned from deployment with serious injuries, including a traumatic brain injury and mental health challenges.
She said spouses can become the primary caregiver, transportation provider, advocate, scheduler and emotional support system for injured service members.
“Supporting veterans means supporting the families who care for them every day,” she said.
The commission also discussed an issue it said had surfaced unexpectedly in its work: spouses being prevented from accompanying service members to medical appointments even when the service member wanted them there.
Thompson Sayle said the commission raised the issue with the Defense Health Agency, which subsequently issued DHA Memorandum 26-056.
Thompson Sayle said the memorandum requires military treatment facilities to accommodate a patient’s request for a spouse or other attendant to be present during a medical appointment, subject to the patient’s preferences, privacy requirements and clinical operations.
“We had to fix that,” Thompson Sayle said.
Child care was one of the biggest concerns raised by spouses
Education and child care accounted for 709 messages, or nearly 40% of the commission’s incoming messages, according to details presented during the meeting.
Spouses described long wait lists for military child development centers, expensive off-base care and schedules that do not fit traditional child care hours.
Maj. Sabina Kreitz, an Army reservist married to an active-duty soldier, said she works full time as a contractor, owns a small business and has two young children.
She told the commission that spouse employment initiatives are difficult to use when families cannot secure reliable child care.
“Military spouses are encouraged to build careers, pursue education, and contribute financially, yet many installations have child development center wait lists that stretch months or even years,” Kreitz said.
She called child care “the infrastructure that makes readiness possible.”
The commission said the Defense Department is launching a five-location pilot allowing existing fee-assistance funds to be used with certain faith-based, license-exempt child care providers.
The pilot will be launched in Arlington, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Naval Base Kitsap and Naval Base Point Loma.
Commission members are considering whether the program can be expanded to state-approved child care providers and whether Coast Guard families would be eligible.
National Guard families exposed another gap: traditional military child care programs may not address the weekend and extended-hour requirements of drilling Guard families.
The Navy also described a series of steps it has taken to address child care staffing and capacity, including higher entry-level pay, recruitment incentives, enhanced training, retention incentives and additional child-care positions.
April Cao, wife of acting Secretary of the Navy, Hung Cao said during the meeting that unmet child care needs had fallen more than 27% since the beginning of fiscal year 2025, from about 2,200 spaces to 1,800.
Jennifer Hegseth, Chairwoman of the President’s Military Spouse Commission, said they are looking at both broad problems affecting military families across the force and more specific issues affecting individual branches, regions and communities.
“We have the big bucket issues, but then we have those that are pretty specific,” she said. “And so, I think we’re looking at addressing them all.”
Natalie Oliverio is an independent journalist and Navy veteran who covers military and veterans’ issues. Drawing on her experience as a talent executive and mentor, she writes about the policies, people and programs shaping the military community.
Read the full article here