A Letter to President Trump

Dear President Trump,

We write to you as Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Some of us thought America was already great; others hope you will make her great again. Whatever our politics, we are as diverse as our country. But for all that divides us, we’re united in our call to serve our nation. And we write to you as America’s military families. 

Service is a choice, and it’s one that’s costing military families in ways that put our country at risk.

We face staggering rates of food insecurity — a quarter of us are struggling to put food on the table for our kids, and a third of us are just getting by.

For more than a decade, our household income has lagged that of the civilian sector, primarily due to the chronic +20% military spouse unemployment rate.

Military families fortunate enough to have two working parents are then forced to face another disproportionate challenge: childcare. While our nation faces a childcare crisis, military families are in a uniquely challenging situation. Military families live where they’re sent, which is usually far away from family and support networks. 

As a business leader, you know the numbers don’t add up. The future of the all-volunteer force demands that they do. 

As Commander-in-Chief and leader of the free world, we count on you to ensure that our service members and their families are supported by the policies and legislation they need to keep serving our nation, including:

• Implementation of the House Armed Services Committee Quality of Life Panel recommendations in the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act. We are advocating to the current Congress for inclusion of these key provisions in that legislation: 
  • A 19.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5% pay increase for all other ranks
  • Increasing the eligibility threshold for the Basic Needs Allowance to 200% of federal poverty guidelines
  • Restoring Basic Allowance for Housing to cover 100% of estimated housing costs
  • Fully funding the Services’ child care fee assistance programs
  • Bringing military health coverage on par with federal plans by fully covering IVF and other methods of assisted reproductive technology for service members and their families
  • Addressing the challenge of accessing the right health care at the right time by making pregnancy a Qualifying Life Event for TRICARE beneficiaries
• The expansion of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit in 2025 to include military spouses, investing both in the financial security of military families and the success of the businesses who hire them
• The expansion of the Tricare benefit to include full coverage for military children up to age 26 so that military families aren’t forced to spend more money out of pocket to insure their older children

America goes to sleep every night knowing its military has its back, while too many military families go to sleep every night wondering how they’re going to get by. 

The toll of this stress has a long tail. As we continue to bring our total commitment to ending the crisis of veteran suicide, many of the stressors our veteran community faces could be addressed before their uniform ever comes off.

As military families, we see these stressors play out in our homes, all while we juggle military-mandated moves, separations, deployments, and ever-present international geopolitical instability. 

Still, we serve.

If we don’t fix these problems, the well-being and readiness of our All-Volunteer Force and their serving families are at stake.

We’re counting on you.