April 11, 2024

Rep. Sara Jacobs Touts Big Wins for San Diego in Military Quality of Life Panel Report

Rep. Sara Jacobs (CA-51), a member of the House Armed Services Committee’s Military Quality of Life Panel, praised the panel’s report of recommendations to improve service members’ pay and compensation, child care, housing, health care, and spouse support. These improvements will dramatically improve the quality of life of service members and military families in San Diego, the country’s largest military community.

At a press conference today, Rep. Sara Jacobs said:

“I’m incredibly proud to represent the largest military community in the country. San Diego is home to 110,000 active-duty military personnel and more than 118,000 of their family members. 

“My community deeply loves our country and has served and sacrificed so much for all of us.

And yet, we’ve failed them. We’ve failed to live up to our promises to them. Because in San Diego, 45,000 service members go to the food bank every single month to put food on the table. The military child care waitlist recently was 4,000 spots long.

“Service members are living in their cars or on friend’s couches because they can’t afford a place to live. And if they are lucky enough to find housing, it’s not always livable. I’ve seen for myself housing that’s infested with mice and rodents, ridden with mold, has windows that won’t close, or electric panels that aren’t up to code.

“That’s why I can tell you with certainty that our panel’s report will make a difference. It will save lives. It will improve our national security. And it will help the United States maintain its position as the world’s most powerful fighting force in the world. I couldn’t be prouder to have worked on this report and to see all the good that will come from it to help ensure that our military families can find and afford child care, housing, and health care, and pay their bills.”

The Panel’s Recommendations Include:

Pay and Compensation:

  • Increasing the Basic Allowance for Housing to cover 100% of the calculated rate for the military housing area (MHA) 
  • Increasing Junior Enlisted Civilian Pay for E1s to E4s by 12% and increasing the Regular Military Compensation (RMC) benchmarks for enlisted and officer pay to the 80th percentile and the 75th percentile respectively, of comparable civilian compensation
  • Increasing the Basic Needs Allowance to 200% of Federal Poverty Guidelines
  • Expanding the Basic Allowance for Housing Authority for Sailors on Sea Duty who serve in a pay grade below E-4 and whose ship remains in port for an extended period – in line with Rep. Sara Jacobs’ FY2024 NDAA provision

Child Care:

  • Standardizing Benefits for Child Care Staff Across the Services to cover 100% of child care fees for the first child of staff enrolled in a Department of Defense Child Development Program to incentivize and retain child care personnel
  • Requiring Competitive Pay for the Department of Defense Child Care Workers by ensuring they’re paid at rates of pay competitive with market rates for child care workers within the correlating Metropolitan or Non-Metropolitan Statistical Ara, but not below the Department of Defense minimum compensation rates per pay band to acquire a stable and qualified civilian child care workforce
  • Eliminating Child Care Fee Assistance Wait Lists by fully funding child care fee assistance programs 

Housing:

  • Fully Funding the Facilities Sustainment Restoration and Modernization (FSRM) Requirements for Unaccompanied Housing 
  • Increasing Transparency of FSRM Funding to include tracking and providing detailed accounting of how FSRM funds are allocated at the installation level
  • Reporting on Life Cycle Costs for Unaccompanied Housing vs. Basic Allowance for Housing
  • Exploring Alternative Funding Mechanisms to Facilitate Privatized Unaccompanied Housing or Other Unaccompanied Housing Solutions to help validate whether new authorities or payment models can overcome the usual obstacles to UH privatization
  • Reporting on Future Unaccompanied Housing Privatization Projects to detail lessons learned from previous privatized UH agreements, prospective plans for future privatized UH projects, analyze factors associated with the privatization of UH, and examine potential statutory, policy, or budgetary barriers in expanding privatized UH availability. 
  • Studying Additional UH oversight Staff to evaluate the shortage of military personnel housing needs and proposed solutions.

Spouse Support

  • Expanding Child Care Eligibility to Military Spouses Seeking Employment from 90 days to 180 days

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