20250430: MLP Hearing: Military Department Personnel Chiefs: Personnel Posture
House Subcommittee on Military Personnel
2025-04-30
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
The subcommittee will come to order. I ask unanimous consent that the chair be authorized to declare a recess at any time. Without objection, so ordered. I want to welcome everyone to this hearing of the Military Personnel Subcommittee. Today's hearing is focused on the personnel policy makers who are charged with developing the policies, guidance, and programs that affect the strategic objectives for accessions, recruitment and assignments, benefits, career development, and much more. That is to say, you are largely responsible for developing the tools that shape the total force in each of your services. This is no small task. We are here to hear from you on the effectiveness and consequences of all of these policies, which makes what we are going to discuss here today so important. First and foremost, I wanted to congratulate all of you on the turnaround in recruiting. This is a testament to the hard work and focus that the services, the recruiters on the ground, this committee and the administration have invested in making sure we are a fully manned, lethal and ready force. However, with the danger from China increasing, we need to make sure we keep our focus. I also wanted to hear from you how the implementation of the fiscal year 25 NDAA quality of life provisions are going. Are the dining facilities getting better? Are you doing a better job at making sure our service members and families have access to safe and affordable housing? Are service members seeing doctors they need to see in a timely manner and getting their prescriptions filled? Do our military children have access to quality child care? Are military spouses gainfully employed and pursuing careers they want? These are just some of the questions I hope we can answer today. Because if we don't ensure that our service members and their families are prioritized, our excellent recruiting will dry up and we may very well have retention problems. I want to thank all of our service members, active duty, reservists, and guard members who are serving our great nation around the world as we speak. You and your families are really the subject of this hearing as the policies and regulations controlled by these senior officers profoundly affect your lives and your very decisions to stay in the service.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses, Lieutenant General Brian Eifler, United States Army Deputy Chief of Staff, and Vice Admiral Richard Cheeseman, United States Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Personnel, Admiral Cheeseman, I know this is your last hearing. I want to thank you for your dedicated service to the Navy. I know you've made the Navy a stronger, more lethal fighting force as CMP, and your replacement will have big shoes to fill. Lieutenant General Caroline Miller, United States Air Force, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel, and Lieutenant General Michael Borgschulte, United States Marine Corps, Deputy Commandant, Manpower and Reserve Affairs. Ms. Catherine Kelly, Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Human Capital.
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Unknown (SPEAKER_05)
Before hearing from our witnesses, let me offer ranking member Houlihan an opportunity to make any opening remarks. Thank you. I really appreciate you being here today so that we can have this conversation. And thank you very much to all of you all. It was a pleasure to talk to you earlier this week or actually last week on the phone. I look forward to the conversation with you too.
Without soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and guardians, we can't man military weapon systems, deliver humanitarian assistance, or effectively respond to security challenges around the globe. And yet, The declining propensity for military service among America's youth is a cause for deep concern for me. I come from a military family where several generations, including myself, opted to serve, but that exposure to a military lifestyle is decreasing across our nation and parents and teachers and counselors and coaches are less and less likely and willing to recommend military service to young people in their spheres of influence. This is compounded by the fact that according to Blue Star Families, 2024 Military Family Lifestyle Survey only 32% of active duty families would actually recommend military service to a young family member. I'm also concerned that we might have instituted unintended barriers to service that may be preventing those who are willing to serve from joining the military. So I'd like to partner with my colleagues and services to identify ways that we can actually widen the pool of applicants from which we draw our all-volunteer force. I'm interested in how the Army and the Navy's prep programs, which help potential recruits overcome physical fitness or academic barriers, might expand the pool of applicants. It will be important to understand the long-term impact of these kinds of efforts on first-term attrition and retention. We have seen awe-inspiring technological advances in these last 50 years, which suggests that the jobs of the military must evolve to meet the future fight. That's why I also want to hear from you in the services, and particularly from the Navy, about examples of new occupational specialties that might help our military keep their tactical edge in warfighting. We ask a lot of our service members We ask them to risk their lives to protect our country, and in turn, we must make sure that we have their backs in support of them and their families. And I'm afraid that we don't always live up to that, and we need to do better.
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