Pentagon officials intend to review the services’ guidance and formulate new regulations accordingly. Image: Joni Hanebutt/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffService members and their families would be subjected to permanent change of station moves less frequently, under a directive put forth by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“We understand how disruptive PCS moves can be,” said Tim Dill, who is heading the Pentagon’s personnel and readiness office. “There are many aspects to that challenge and that disruption. One of the biggest ones is military spouses’ employment – when they often have the need to find a new job at their gaining location and sometimes, they end up underemployed at that location.”
The potentially adverse effects on families who must set up new households and place their children in different schools also played a role in the decision, Dill said.
Hegseth’s directive calls for the services to each take for months to review how they would change their PCS budgets and alter career paths for service members whose advancement tracks hinge upon PCS moves. The plan also calls for each service to reduce its PCS budget by as much as 50 percent by fiscal year 2030. In essence, the budget reduction would mean fewer moves for military members and their families.
Those in uniform whose career tracks require obtaining certain training and accreditation in order to gain promotions still might be called upon to move, as would people in mission-critical jobs that must be fully staffed. The new directive would identify exceptions. Some 80 percent of all PCS moves may not be necessary, Dill said.
“What we’re directing the departments to do is purely to examine potential reductions in things that would be defined as discretionary,” Dill said. “So if they see as mandatory for mission need, we’re not even asking them to come back with a plan to reduce it. We want them to continue that course of action and do the mandatory moves.”
Pentagon officials intend to review the services’ guidance and formulate new regulations accordingly.
“On top of being efficient from a fiscal perspective, the other goal of this policy … is to ensure that this works well for service members and their families,” he said.
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