Editorial: Washington shouldn't make professional life harder for military spouses

The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press Editorial Board, The Virginian-Pilot on Feb 24, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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Helping military families is an essential element in the readiness of our forces. Those who are making great sacrifices for our country don’t need the added distraction of worrying about how their service makes it tough for their spouse to find and keep a good job.

Two Virginia congressmen — Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican, and Rep. Eugene Vindman, a Democrat — have introduced a bill exempting military spouses from the Trump administration’s mandate that federal employees must work in an office.

As they put forward their bipartisan Support Military Families Act, Vindman and Wittman said they consider exempting military spouses from the return-to-work order as plain common sense and patriotism.

They are right.

It has become increasingly difficult for the services to recruit enough qualified people for our all-volunteer military. It’s also a challenge to persuade those who have fulfilled their initial obligation — those who could become key military leaders — to continue in uniform when civilian careers are more financially rewarding and less demanding for themselves and their families.

If we make it tougher for military spouses to have good jobs, that’s only going to drive the recruiting and retention numbers further down.

When President Donald Trump declared on Inauguration Day that federal agencies should end remote work arrangements, the order offered some flexibility, saying officials can make “necessary” exemptions.

Wittman and Vindman have wisely waded into the confusion this order caused with legislation that says exempting military spouses is necessary — that they should be allowed to continue working remotely.

Those who join our military pledge to do what’s necessary to protect and defend our country. If the family is to stay together as much as possible, they may have to pull up stakes and move every few years. It’s not an easy life.

It’s asking too much for a military spouse to also sacrifice the chance to have a job that helps pay the bills, or to forgo an opportunity to build a rewarding career. But that’s what can happen if the federal and state governments don’t take common-sense steps to help.

Military spouses have trouble finding jobs. In January, the unemployment rate for women nationwide was about 4%, but for military spouses, it has been at about 21% for years.

Military spouses often must settle for jobs with less responsibility and pay than someone with their qualifications should expect. Employers are reluctant to hire someone they know may move in two or three years, and they are even more reluctant to put that person on a good career path.

About 92% of military spouses are women, who, despite laws on the books, often face discrimination in hiring, pay and promotions. Having children makes things tougher. Add the likelihood that they will soon be relocating, and the prospects quickly dim.

Wittman and Vindman also pointed out that exempting military spouses will benefit the federal agencies that employ them. Because they could work remotely while keeping their family together despite relocations, many military spouses have been with federal agencies for years. If they can no longer work remotely, those agencies will lose capable, experienced staff. Virginia, with large numbers of military spouses working federal jobs based in Hampton Roads or northern Virginia, would be especially hard hit.

The bill Wittman and Vindman introduced mandates that the comptroller general of the U.S. report to Congress about how many military spouses the order would affect and the average distance they would have to commute. The report also is to estimate the economic impact of implementing the order, including the cost of filling vacant positions and of lost productivity.

Military families already make sacrifices most Americans take for granted. Those who would be forced to quit their jobs because of this ill-thought-out executive order are people, not numbers in some computer program. Upending their careers and lives would harm them, their families and the armed forces that keep us safe. Congress should pas this common-sense bill promptly