For military spouses, that service involved a lifetime of sacrifices: frequent moves that reset careers, years of underemployment and the inability to vest in their own retirement.

When a tragedy occurs, the benefits provided to the surviving spouse are not a gift; they are an earned benefit and recognition of that collective sacrifice.

This isn’t abstract to me — it’s the life I was raised in.

Both of my parents served — my father in the Army, my mother in the Air Force. My mom made the difficult decision to leave her military career because she understood what it would take to hold our family together while my father continued to serve.

She tried to keep a foothold in the workforce, taking part-time jobs where she could. But my dad’s deployment schedule of six months gone, three months home, made stability impossible.

Childcare costs outweighed any income she could earn, and when my middle brother was diagnosed with severe disabilities requiring constant care, the choice became even clearer. She stepped away from work to raise us and be there every time the Army needed my dad.

For nearly a decade, she poured everything into raising us, into being present for every move, every absence, every demand the Army placed on our lives. Then, at 38, with all three of us finally in school, she began again. Starting over.

She found work on base, running the Exceptional Family Member Program – the very program our family had relied on. It wasn’t just a job; it was a calling. She was determined to improve the system for families like ours, to make it easier for others walking the same difficult path.

And then, just months later, everything changed.

I came home from fifth grade to find two service members at our door. In an instant, my childhood split in two — before and after. My mother became a widow, left to raise three children ages 10, 8 and 5.

Just days after my father died, my mother sat through the briefing every military widow receives: Here is your flag, here are your benefits — and a quiet but unmistakable warning to not remarry.

Remarrying was the furthest thing from her mind, from any widow’s mind. She wasn’t thinking about a future without him; she was trying to survive the present without her soulmate. He died just 13 days shy of their 10th wedding anniversary — the man she had built her life around, the man she believed she would grow old with.

Two weeks later, I came home from school with a “contract” I had written, asking her to promise she would never date again. That’s how deeply I believed in their love. They were the kind of couple that made you roll your eyes and smile at the same time. They danced in the kitchen while dinner burned and laughed constantly, only “arguing” over who would get to dress the other when they were old.

She didn’t sign it. Instead, she told me something I didn’t understand then: She didn’t know what the future would hold, but she hoped that someday, love could be part of it again.

But for my mother, that future never came.

Maybe she would have tried, if the cost of love hadn’t been so high. If choosing companionship didn’t mean risking the financial security that kept our family afloat. If she hadn’t been forced to weigh her own happiness against our stability.

She chose us every time.

And in the end, the weight of that choice — the grief, the pressure, the isolation — became too much to carry alone.

She died by suicide at 47 years old, on what would have been her 19th wedding anniversary.

Under current federal law, the government imposes an arbitrary “remarriage penalty.” If a surviving spouse under the age of 55 chooses to find love again and remarry, they lose access to their survivor benefits.

My mom did not divorce my dad; she dedicated her life to being the perfect mom and Army wife. She made every sacrifice the Army threw at her, including sacrificing her soulmate. She put her career on hold to support the mission.

The benefits our family earned were not given out of pity or to offset the loss of my dad’s income, but to offset the decade my mom was out of the workforce.

There is a persistent and damaging misunderstanding that survivor benefits are a form of government-funded alimony intended to support a spouse until a new “provider” comes along. This could not be further from the truth.

These benefits are intended to offset the lost earning potential of the survivor. Because of the military lifestyle, most military spouses never have the opportunity to vest in their own retirement. Their “retirement” was the promise of the survivor benefit.

My mom’s story is not uncommon. It is the story of military spouses, caregiver spouses and surviving spouses across the country. While military spouse employment may be on the rise, most military spouses are still massively underemployed.

The current law also creates a bizarre and often heartbreaking waiting game.

The law says if survivors wait until the age of 55, they can remarry and maintain their benefits. Many survivors simply wait out the clock to remarry, living in a state of financial and legal limbo just to retain the benefits they earned. For those who remarry earlier — often for religious reasons — the loss of benefits can be devastating.

The current law does not acknowledge the true service and sacrifices our surviving spouses have made. They are not property. They are not divorced. They are people who had their futures taken from them, people who would give anything to have their loved ones back.

What they are doing is not “moving on.” It is surviving. It is rebuilding from the worst day of their lives.

At TAPS, we serve more than 120,000 surviving families. We see the daily reality of these policies, which is why our legislative team is working on Capitol Hill, meeting with lawmakers to explain that this is a matter of equity and honor.

The Love Lives On Act is about more than just a check in the mail; it is about respecting the sanctity of the military family. It recognizes that while a service member’s life may have ended, the nation’s debt to their family does not. We owe it to our survivors to ensure that their love can live on without the threat of financial insecurity.

Ten-year-old Ashlynne did not want to think about her mother moving forward after her dad died, but as an adult, I see it differently.

I wish my mom had been free to open her heart again to someone who could have respected the amazing man my father was while teaching my brother how to tie a tie. To someone who could have loved my mom and given her a chance at happiness.

While it is something my brothers and I will never have, it is something I hope other surviving families have in the future: The chance to move forward and find happiness without having to fear for the financial consequences of doing so.

It is time for Congress to pass the bipartisan Love Lives On Act and ensure that these benefits remain with surviving spouses, regardless of their marital status.

Ashlynne Haycock-Lohmann is the Director for Government & Legislative Affairs for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) and the Surviving Daughter of Army SFC Jeffrey Haycock and Air Force Veteran Nichole Haycock.

The Military Spouse Small Business Recognition Act was influenced by the high unemployment rate for military spouses and the rate of spouses that are self-employed small business owners or are interested in entrepreneurship, according to a Thursday media round table.

“Spousal employment and financial stability are among the top factors for service member retention, and when military spouses can’t build businesses, that retention suffers and our war fighters suffer, and our national security posture suffers,” Eliza Levy, ELPR’s founder and CEO, said to reporters.

If passed, the act would waive Small Business Association loan fees up to $1 million; reduce equity injection requirements; designate military spouse-owned businesses as an 8(a) Disadvantages Category; and require the SBA to track military spouse participation in loan programs.

Patricia M. Barron, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Military Community and Family Policy, said to reporters that the biggest link between military spouse employment and military readiness is retention.

She highlighted how aspects of military life, such as frequent moving or career gaps, make it difficult to retain employment as a spouse.

Barron noted that after constant moves and unemployment, spouses and their military counterparts begin to think about leaving the force, especially if it makes more sense financially.

“If we want to keep this volunteer force, that retention piece is incredibly important,” said Barron. “And the Department of War and the Congress, they have made military spouse employment a mission readiness issue.”

“It is no longer just a quality of life issue, and that’s why it’s so important,” Barron continued.

Military spouses have an unemployment rate of around 22% according to a 2024 Department of Labor fact sheet — approximately five times higher than the national average, which sits at roughly 4.3% as of March.

In addition, 48% of military spouses are either self-employed or are interested in being, but a lack of access to capital is a barrier that this act hopes to remedy.

The act has not yet been introduced to Congress as the coalition is still gathering support from members. Stephanie Brown, CEO of the Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce that is leading the charge for the act, said they are hoping to announce the two co-sponsors of the bill by late Thursday.

If deemed the best way to propel this bill forward, the coalition intends to attach it to the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act.

Reps. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., and Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., both retired U.S. Army veterans and members of the House Armed Services Committee, are advancing a bill they dubbed the MISSION RX Act.

Their proposal is designed to allow Tricare beneficiaries and Department of Veterans Affairs patients to pay for prescription drugs at whichever is the lower of two prices: the rate negotiated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, or the cost offered through their existing coverage.

The bottom line, the congressmen say, is that anyone covered by Tricare or the VA would pay the lowest government-negotiated price.

Right now, only people enrolled in Medicare get to pay the rate for certain drugs set by the CMS.

This option does not automatically extend to those who are part of other federal health programs. The basic framework to lower drug costs for Medicare recipients was part of the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden.

“After serving 25 years in uniform, I know firsthand the sacrifices our service members, veterans and military families make every single day,” Vindman said in an exclusive statement to Military Times. “The last thing any of them should have to worry about is whether they can afford the prescription drugs they need.”

“The veterans and service members I represent in Virginia’s Seventh District have earned every benefit this nation can give them. That’s why I’m leading this commonsense effort to reduce the crushing cost of prescription drugs for those who have served and sacrificed,” he added.

Vindman and Ryan’s push faces an uncertain future in the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority. The bill has four co-sponsors so far, all of whom are Democrats: Reps. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Bill Keating of Massachusetts.

It also has the support of a number of key organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Marine Corps League, the Fleet Reserve Association, Air Force Sergeants Association and Commissioned Officers Association Public Health Service.

Before they entered Congress, Vindman and Ryan built their careers in the Army during the post-9/11 wars, each deploying to Iraq. Vindman began as a paratrooper and infantry officer, before going on to serve as a Judge Advocate General’s Corps attorney. Ryan, for his part, worked as an intelligence officer, earning two Bronze Star Medals.

“Military families have sacrificed so much for our country — it’s absolutely unacceptable that they’re being forced to pay more than other Americans for the same medication,” Ryan said in a statement.

“Our bill corrects this egregious oversight by ensuring that military families have access to the same lower drug prices that others do. Especially amid rising healthcare costs nationwide, leaving military families to bear the burden is simply un-American,” he continued. “They’ve stepped up and sacrificed for us — now we need to do right by them.”

The legislation, if enacted, would boost the savings for American taxpayers from lower drug costs. CMS already estimates that the original Biden-era measures could save $6 billion annually.

In a short statement, the Defense Commissary Agency said only that the change took effect Wednesday and applied to commissaries worldwide. Commissaries in states or localities that mandate bags fees would still have to comply with those laws.

“The policy, introduced on April 6, which required commissary patrons to pay for single-use plastic and paper bags, has been rescinded,” the statement reads.

In a separate statement, Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., a former Navy helicopter pilot, took credit for the reversal, saying the commissary agency’s decision followed months of advocacy.

Kiggans penned a letter to Anthony Tata, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and she spoke about the issue directly with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee last week, she said.

“I was deeply frustrated when DeCA announced it would impose a charge for paper and plastic bags — an added cost that complicates a benefit intended to support our service members, retirees and their families," Kiggans said in a statement. “I appreciate Secretary Hegseth for listening to my concerns and taking swift action to eliminate this fee.”

The policy required commissary customers to pay 5 cents each for plastic bags and 10 cents for paper bags.

Providing the single-use bags costs the commissary agency $17 million per year, spokesperson Keith Desbois said when the agency announced the policy in March.

The commissary agency receives about $1.5 billion per year in taxpayer dollars to operate these discounted grocery stores as a benefit for the military community.

The Defense Department’s goal is an overall savings of 25% compared to commercial stores outside the gate.

Military Times reporter Karen Jowers contributed to this story.

The Department of Defense uses location-specific surveys and price and military spending data to set cost-of-living allowances, known as COLAs. In a report released on Thursday, the Government Accountability Office found that the department used a mix of unsound sampling practices and inconsistent processes to set COLAs, raising questions about whether payments reflect local expenses.

Service members stationed in places like Hawaii, Japan, Alaska, Germany and Virginia — where the cost of living is often higher — receive COLA, or additional payments, to help offset costs. The total amount a service member receives is also based on the number of dependents in the household.

The vast majority of those payments, the GAO said, are sent to soldiers stationed outside of the continental U.S., or OCONUS, versus those stationed inside the continental U.S., CONUS. The watchdog highlighted inconsistencies between how the department calculated COLA payments for OCONUS versus CONUS duty locations.

The auditors also found discrepancies in the amount of and type information local commands provided soldiers in areas that receive COLA, and in some cases, service members reported confusion about what they were entitled to or why it might change.

In the report, investigators noted that some Defense Department personnel said changes to COLA payments made it hard for them to budget for their households.

“In nine of the 17 discussion group summaries we held in locations that receive a COLA, participants mentioned that COLA fluctuates so much that they cannot rely on it as part of their budgets,” the report said, later giving an example where a high-ranking officer in Japan linked issues with COLA to problems with readiness.

“Eating a beans and rice diet has a direct impact on our ability to fight,” he told auditors.

The office included several recommendations for the Defense Department to fix its findings, including aligning the CONUS and OCONUS payments for dependents and applying its processes for location-specific costs more consistently.

The Defense Department concurred with both recommendations, but did not agree with a separate suggestion to use random sampling for service member’s shopping patterns.

The auditors also recommended requiring local commands to give information about COLA to service members, a suggestion the department only “partially concurred with,” arguing that the Defense Travel Management Office maintains publicly available information and that the department does not have a central point of contact for COLA inquiries.

Former Army telecommunications technician Ronald Christoforo, along with Michele Christoforo, filed suit Monday in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut, alleging that the VA discriminates against thousands of disabled children of Vietnam veterans by providing compensation to those whose mothers served but not their fathers, with one exception: children born with spina bifida.

In the suit, the Christoforos note that Michele’s birth defect, which causes dwarfism, is specifically covered by the VA for the children of female veterans who served in Vietnam.

Ronald Christoforo applied for VA Agent Orange-related disability benefits for Michele in 2022 but was denied. According to the suit, the VA told Christoforo that Michele’s mother would have had to serve in Vietnam or Korea to qualify.

The Christoforos argue that the decision was unconstitutional because it is based on sex discrimination.

“When the VA rejected my claim, they didn’t say my condition wasn’t real or that it wasn’t caused by Agent Orange. They said my father’s service didn’t count the same as a mother’s would. How can that be legal?” Michele Christoforo said in a statement Monday.

According to the suit, roughly 200 children were born with birth defects to female Vietnam veterans, while an estimated 350,000 children of fathers who served have birth defects.

The VA began awarding disability benefits to the children of Vietnam veterans born with spina bifida in 1996, and four years later, expanded the list of eligible conditions for the children of women Vietnam veterans to 18. The expanded list includes achondroplasia, the defect that caused Michele Christoforo’s dwarfism.

The Christoforos, represented by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic, want the courts to declare the VA’s sex-based disability awards as unconstitutional and provide disability benefits to all children who qualify, regardless of whether their mother or father served in Vietnam.

“All other circumstances equal, if Mr. Christoforo were female, he could rely on the benefits provided under [the law] to ensure his child would receive the medical care, educational benefits and income support she needs. The only difference in his ability to have this assurance is his sex,” the lawsuit noted.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., has sponsored legislation that would increase research on birth defects in veterans exposed to environmental pollutants, such as Agent Orange and the burn pits used in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere to dispose of waste.

On Monday, Blumenthal said children with a disability related to their parent’s service-connected exposure “deserve equal benefits without exception.”

“Michele’s condition is real, her father’s service is unquestionable, and the damage caused by Agent Orange is well-documented. Denying her VA benefits solely because her father served rather than her mother is both unjust and cruel,” Blumenthal said.

Linda Schwartz, a Vietnam veteran and adviser to Vietnam Veterans of America, added that research does not “justify this distinction” between maternal or paternal exposure and birth defects and she supports the suit.

“Our members came home from Vietnam carrying wounds that didn’t always show up right away, and some of those wounds were passed on to their children. … It is long past time it does the same for the children of the men who served alongside them,” Schwartz said in a statement.

Agent Orange is the name given to defoliants used in Vietnam and elsewhere to strip combat zones of vegetation that could be used by enemy forces for camouflage. The herbicides contain a type of dioxin that is a known carcinogen linked to cancers, chronic conditions and birth defects.

The Justice Department, which represents the VA, did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

For fiscal year 2026’s aviation bonus program, the force is offering the monetary incentive to select aviators in exchange for an active-duty service commitment, according to a Wednesday Air Force release.

The statement lists specific eligible pilots: remotely piloted aircraft pilots, air battle managers and combat systems officers among those the service wishes to “decisively shape and retain” with the bonus opportunity.

“The aviation bonus is an incentive that helps us retain expertise and ensures we have the right mix of experienced aviators to meet warfighting demands today and into the future,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach said in the release.

The fiscal 2026 aviation bonus program allows for the increase in monetary compensation to align with shorter contract lengths, especially within the fighter, bomber and U-2 groups, according to the statement.

The bonus rates depend on the aviator’s career field and experience level, but they can receive up to $50,000 a year with a minimum contract of three years and maximum of 12 years, the release reads, making a total of up to $600,000 under the maximum.

To be eligible for this bonus program, airmen need to be ranked as lieutenant colonels and below, be qualified for operational flying duty and be entitled to monthly aviation incentive pay, per the release.

The program is designated for active-duty airmen and Air Reserve Component Airmen that are serving in the Voluntary Limited Period of Active Duty Program.

“Airmen applying for these bonus programs should expect to see payments within three weeks after final approval of their application and processing by the Defense Finance Accounting Service,” according to the statement.

Eligible airmen were able to begin applying for the bonus on April 1 and have until May 31 to submit their application.

In the proposed budget for the Department of Defense, released this week, all troops ranked E-5 and below would receive a pay raise of 7%. The budget also allots 6% pay bumps for military personnel ranked E-6 to O-3, as well as 5% raises for those O-4 and above.

“The Administration recognizes the importance of America’s warfighters and their families,” the budget request reads.

Junior enlisted service members typically serve in pay grades E-1 to E-4 for their first enlistment term, which usually lasts four years. Mid-level noncommissioned officers include those E-5 to E-7, but the officers would receive different raise increases based on their rank. The proposed budget lists those ranked E-5 and below to receive a 7% boost, while E-6 and E-7 ranks would receive a 6% raise.

Across the military, troops received a 3.8% pay increase in fiscal 2026. Traditionally, the annual pay raise for troops ranges from roughly 3% to 5%. But in 2025, junior enlisted service members saw a large 14.5% pay hike, adding between $3,000 to $6,000 to their basic pay.

Prior to that increase, the annual base pay for junior enlisted service members could be less than $30,000, but with the raise, it brings the base pay to around that figure before housing stipends and other pay incentives.

As of September 2025, there are around 540,000 active-duty junior enlisted service members E-4 and below across the branches, making up 50% of the enlisted military, according to a 2026 Congress Defense Primer.

There were approximately 378,000 personnel ranked E-5 and E-6 across the military in September 2025, per Congress’ report.

“This enduring investment, far above the standard annual military pay raise, builds on the President’s recruiting and retention success, by doubling down on the Administration’s goal to restore America’s fighting force,” the proposal says.

The White House proposed the fiscal 2027 budget on April 3, outlining the Trump administration’s requests to Congress for federal spending beginning on Oct. 1, 2026.

President Donald Trump is requesting $1.5 trillion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2027, a 44% increase from the already historic amount of nearly $1 trillion requested in fiscal 2026, per the proposal. The budget allocates $1.1 trillion in “base discretionary budget authority” for the DOD, the proposal says.

Before the upcoming fiscal year, presidents are required to submit their budget recommendations no later than the first Monday in February, but usually that deadline is missed. Congress then works to pass its own budget resolution after hearings. That can prove to be a challenge, as past stalemates in federal funding negotiations have led to government shutdowns.

If approved, the new budget, including the pay raises for lower-ranked service members, would begin Jan. 1, 2027.

“All the cumulative policies” Trump has promoted, including tax cuts and deregulation, “can’t be upended by a temporary Middle East skirmish,” Hassett said on Fox News. “This is really an economy that can’t be slowed down” added Hassett, director of the National Economic Council.

Hasset spoke as air raid sirens once again sounded in Israel and across the Gulf States to guard against another round of drone and missile strikes from Iran but before reports from the region said that a U.S. warplane had been shot down over Iran and the fate of the crew was unknown.

Later reports from several outlets said that one of the members of the two-member crew had been rescued by U.S. forces and a search was continuing for the second.

Hassett’s rosy analysis was prompted by the monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that U.S. employers added 178,000 jobs in March, blowing past estimates that about 60,000 jobs would be added to payrolls.

In a post on X, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, “The March jobs report blew out expectations with strong construction job growth and a surge in manufacturing job creation as trillions of dollars in investments begin to materialize.”

However, the March jobs report was based on BLS data collected by mid-March, which was before the Feb. 28 start of the Iran war, and did not gauge the impact of $4 gasoline, $104 crude or wild swings in the stock market indexes. The markets were closed Friday, and so the impact of the BLS report on the markets would have to wait for them to re-open Monday.

The jobs report also showed that the national unemployment rate ticked down from 4.4% in February to 4.3% in March, while the jobless rate for all veterans came down from 4.1% in February to 3.9% in March.

The closely-watched unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans also came down from 4.8% in February to 4.5% in March.

Health care added 76,000 jobs in March, construction added 26,000 and manufacturing added 15,000, while federal government employment continued to decline in March, losing 18,000 jobs, the BLS said. Since October 2024, the number of jobs in federal government has declined by 355,000, or 11.8%.

Justice officials allege that S & K Towing Inc., of San Clemente, California, violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by selling or disposing of as many as 148 vehicles without a court order, even when they knew, or should have known, that the vehicles were owned by military members.

Some of the vehicles were registered to addresses on Camp Pendleton, including rooms in the barracks. In other cases, the company auctioned off vehicles even after being told the owner was in the military, according to Justice officials. Some of the vehicles contained military equipment, uniforms and awards.

The lawsuit, filed March 25 in federal court in the Central District of California, alleges that S&K Towing Inc. towed hundreds of vehicles from the base from Aug. 28, 2020, through at least April 15, 2025, under a memorandum of agreement with the base to respond to calls for towing services made by the base police department. The alleged illegal auctions or disposals of the vehicles also occurred during that time frame.

Justice officials asked the court to rule that the company violated the SCRA; to award appropriate monetary damages to the service members, and take other steps needed for restitution; to order the company to take steps to eliminate future illegal conduct; and to assess civil penalties.

CarMax to pay at least $420K to settle allegations of illegal repossessions of troops' cars

According to California law, when law enforcement or a governmental agency directs the removal of a vehicle to a storage facility, the receiving facility holds a garageman’s lien against the vehicle.

The facility may enforce its lien by conducting a public sale of the vehicle or by disposing of the vehicle to a licensed dismantler or scrap iron processor. While operating its business, S & K Towing — which also operates a vehicle storage facility — regularly enforced its liens by selling motor vehicles through public lien sales or to dismantlers or scrap iron processors, according to the lawsuit.

“Towing companies must respect and abide by the federal laws that protect members of our Armed Forces,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in the announcement of the legal action.

“Service members are often absent for extended periods due to training and deployments and may not know that their vehicle has been towed,” she stated. “The SCRA plays an important role in providing these service members with adequate legal protections, including notice and the opportunity to have towing and storage fees adjusted in light of their military service.”

When reached by telephone, S & K Towing declined to comment about the allegations in the lawsuit, nor did they have any comment about whether S & K Towing still has an agreement with Camp Pendleton to provide towing services. Information was not immediately available from base officials about whether that agreement is still in effect.

The agreement required S & K Towing to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, but Justice officials said the company had no SCRA policies or training materials and took no steps to verify owners’ military status before selling or disposing of the towed vehicles.

An automated database run by the Defense Manpower Data Center and provided by the Defense Department is intended to help lienholders and others check whether individuals are protected by the SCRA.

A military legal assistance attorney at Camp Pendleton notified S & K Towing by letter and by phone in May 2024 that they were violating the law by selling or disposing of service members’ vehicles without a court order. The person who identified himself as a manager/owner of S & K Towing responded by saying, “We do this all the time,” according to the lawsuit.

Then, Justice officials contend, after that notification, S & K Towing continued to sell and dispose of service members’ vehicles without getting court orders.

Justice officials urge service members and dependents who believe their SCRA rights have been violated to contact their military legal assistance office. Contact information can be found at legalassistance.law.af.mil/.

Defense officials are specifically interested in issues where state governments are the primary agents for positive change, according to the request for information posted in the Federal Register on Tuesday by the Defense Department’s office of the deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy.

They’re asking for input on what should be considered for 2028.

Submissions are due by April 23. Information on how to submit the input can be found in the Federal Register notice. The notice includes information that should be included, such as a title for the issue; the description of the issue with a problem statement about who is affected and whether the issue could be solved by change in state procedures, state regulations or state laws; a description of a potential solution; a description of the current status of the issue; and contact information for any needed follow up.

“The proposed solution should positively impact the quality of life of service members and their families, positively contribute to readiness, or both,” according to the Federal Register request for information.

Each year, officials in DOD’s State Liaison Office choose policy priorities for states to consider that cause barriers because of the mobility and uncertainty of military life. They’ll consider the public’s input in crafting their priorities.

Over the years, DOD’s State Liaison office officials have worked to inform state legislators and others about steps they could consider to help ease burdens related to a number of issues, such as easing the transitions of military children into new school schools and military spouse employment, including the transfer of professional licenses when spouses move to a new permanent duty station.

For 2026, the DOD State Liaison’s Office priorities for states to consider are:

• Exempting DOD-certified in-home child care providers from state licensure requirements.

• Speeding up the adoption and implementation of professional licensure compacts to ensure seamless portability, reduce financial strain and support long-term military family stability.

• Including military clauses in state family leave laws to help spouses address urgent family needs without risking income or job insecurity — when the service member is activated or in training, for example.

• Providing solutions for military homeschoolers, such as expanding access to school extracurricular activities and sports.

• Improving local implementation of policies that support military-connected children, and help families by clarifying requirements and streamlining access to information on state and local education websites.

• Providing state support for military families with special needs, ensuring timely establishment of services when families relocate and reducing procedural burdens.

• Providing open enrollment so that students can remain in their current school in spite of moving from temporary to permanent housing.

• Adopting policies that facilitate concurrent juvenile jurisdiction between the military and civilian authorities.

• Enhancing state laws to further protect victims of interpersonal violence by increasing access to civilian protective orders for victims, and mandating required sharing of information between military and civilian law enforcement authorities.

• Establishing statewide military-focused councils that consider military family readiness and dedicate at least one seat to member of the military community.

There’s not enough data to determine the risk of long-term health effects caused by exposure to that kerosene-based aviation fuel, known as JP-5, according to the report, which was based on research conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The authors did find “limited, suggestive evidence linking jet fuel exposure to short-term respiratory, gastrointestinal, skin and mental health symptoms,” which many military families experienced early on after the fuel leak.

The researchers cited the dearth of information and data about the detection, treatment and long-term effects of exposure to jet fuel in the 282-page report, titled “Clinical Follow-up and Care for Those Impacted by the JP-5 Releases at Red Hill.”

The research was sponsored by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

In a Thursday webinar, researchers said the limitation of data needs to be addressed so that long-term health effects can be better understood. They recommended various long-term research efforts.

Meanwhile, medical providers caring for people who were potentially exposed to the contaminated water should document exposure history, carefully evaluate and document symptoms and ensure continuity of primary care, the researchers recommended.

About 93,000 people were affected by the Navy’s two accidental releases of JP-5 in 2021. The fuel releases contaminated the drinking water supply for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the Aliamanu Military Reservation.

Immediately after the contamination, Navy officials told families it was OK to drink and bathe in the water. Some families experienced severe rashes, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems, as well as respiratory problems, mental health symptoms and other issues.

Military officials later gave families the choice of moving to hotels while the fuel was being flushed from the water distribution system and paid their expenses.

'Why weren't you there to protect us?' Hawaii families grill Navy leaders about toxic water

More than four years later, families continue to be concerned about their long-term health, including their children. Many babies were bathed in the contaminated water. Some people have had persistent, continuing symptoms. About 2,000 military families have filed lawsuits against the government alleging negligence and harm to their health.

There are no diagnostic or screening tests to determine past exposure, and there are no specific laboratory tests for detecting JP-5 in blood or urine. The report recommended research to develop and validate biological markers of petroleum associated with exposure to jet fuel, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, DOD and VA.

There are no known medical procedures that can detox or neutralize the effects of JP-5, the researchers stated.

In addition to their extensive review of available scientific evidence, the researchers visited Red Hill and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and held 15 meetings with those affected in the community, including service members, military families, civilians and other Oahu residents. They also held additional in-person and virtual listening sessions.

A central theme that emerged from these community interactions was the breakdown of trust between residents and the medical system, researchers found. Families reported repeatedly trying to seek help for themselves and their children, while their conditions worsened.

Those individuals who were affected by the fuel leaks have been encouraged to sign up for registries, including the University of Hawaii Red Hill Independent Health Registry and, for the DOD population, the Red Hill Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System (DOEHRS) Registry.

But the researchers recommended that DOD link their Red Hill registry with patients’ electronic health records and claims data. Many in the mobile military community who were affected have relocated, and their electronic health record follows them.

Researchers recommended that DOD maintain this registry and expand it to include all individuals who lived or worked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam or Aliamanu from May 6, 2021 to March 18, 2022.

Based on their review, the Academies researchers recommended other actions that could make a positive impact on the lives of people who are affected by these incidents in the future, such as developing a standardized environmental sampling and chemical analysis methods to test for petroleum contamination in drinking water.

“For military families, the event was experienced as a breach of trust, while for many civilians and Native Hawaiians, it confirmed enduring concerns about military activities and their impact on land and water,” the report stated.

“The contamination of drinking water at Red Hill stands as a defining environmental health event for Hawaii and for the nation,” the report continued. “It reveals how deeply the safety of water, the health of communities and the integrity of institutions are intertwined.

“For thousands of families the crisis raises serious questions about drinking water safety and breached trust with institutions.”

Commissaries will soon start charging shoppers for paper and plastic single-use bags.

Starting April 6, customers will pay 5 cents each for plastic bags and 10 cents for paper bags. The move will save the commissary system money, officials stated in their announcement about the change.

It “will allow the Defense Commissary Agency to continue to offer its eligible patrons significant savings while strengthening its fiscal stewardship and reducing operating expenses,” officials stated.

Providing the single-use bags costs the commissary agency $17 million a year, said commissary spokesman Keith Desbois.

The commissary agency receives about $1.5 billion per year in taxpayer dollars to operate these discounted grocery stores as a benefit for the military community. The Defense Department’s goal is an overall savings of 25% compared to commercial stores outside the gate.

Officials encouraged customers to bring their own reusable bags, or purchase them from the commissary. Those stores sell a variety of reusable bags, including hot/cold special bags at different prices, with one basic option listed at 44 cents.

This change doesn’t apply to commissaries in Guam, Hawaii, California and Washington, because of local, state or territorial laws banning single-use bags.

Shoppers who use the commissary’s Click2Go curbside or delivery service will have the option to purchase bags online when checking out. According to the commissary website, customers can also note at the end of their Click2Go order that they will be bringing their own bags.

Those customers using the self-checkout lanes will be prompted to enter the number of single-use bags used at the end of the order, as many commercial grocery stores do in areas where customers are charged for bags.

With the U.S. and Israel attacks against Iran in their third week, Americans’ thoughts and actions have been turning toward sending care packages with various hygiene products, snacks and a host of other items.

But according to the U.S. Postal Service, there are currently 28 ZIP codes where mail services have been temporarily suspended, all of which appear to be Army or Air Force post offices. No ships are currently listed, although mail service is sporadic in many locations because of operational needs and restrictions. There are also 17 Diplomatic Post Office (DPO) suspensions.

The U.S. Postal Service doesn’t share exact locations associated with APO, FPO or DPO ZIP codes with the public, said David P. Coleman, a spokesman for the Postal Service. The decisions about suspensions of service to military and diplomatic post offices are made by the Military Postal Service Agency and the Department of State.

The Military Postal Service Agency serves as an extension of the U.S. Postal Service and provides postal services to Defense Department personnel and their families at locations around the world.

What happens to those care packages if they can’t be delivered?

Packages that were accepted before their particular ZIP code suspension took effect are held for future delivery after the suspension is lifted, Coleman said.

“No packages are being returned to sender at this time,” he said.

If a customer takes a package to a postal counter for mailing, the automated system will inform the postal employee that mail services have been suspended for that ZIP code, and the representative will hand the package back to the customer. If the customer drops off the package in a receptacle, the package will be held for future delivery after the suspension is lifted.

Scott Raab, director of operations for Troopathon, a nonprofit charity that has sent over 1,000 tons of hand-packed boxes of items to troops over the past two decades, said he sent 1,000 boxes to the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford on March 12, and another 2,000 boxes to troops elsewhere that week.

The organization always checks to make sure service members’ ZIP codes are not on the suspension list, he told Military Times. He urges others to check the U.S. Postal Service’s suspension list, which is updated frequently, and has been updated daily this week.

While Troopathon primarily uses the Postal Service, they also have contacts within units, where they can find additional ways to get boxes to troops to fulfill their needs. There’s a form for requesting a care package at Troopathon.org. Troops can request the packages, and families can request them for their deployed service members.

The Troopathon boxes are always free to the troops or their families who request them, and they contain a couple hundred dollars’ worth of items, Raab said. Troopathon also raises money for postage, which is generally about $15 to $20 for each 12X12x6 box. Popular items include basic hygiene products, snacks, cookies, coffee and socks.

One military mother posted on social media about the needs of her son’s squadron at his base in the Middle East after their military exchange had to close. That post quickly spread to other spouse groups, and Amazon found out about it — and contacted her about sending items.

“Now all of these people from all over the world are sending his base thousands of dollars of goodies like protein bars, cans of coffee, energy drinks, tampons, toilet paper, body wipes and toothbrushes,” she told Military Times.

“I don’t know when they’re ever going to get it because they’re not delivering mail, because they have more important things to deliver, but when they do deliver, they’re going to have a whole lot of goodies coming their way,” added the Air Force mother, who asked to remain anonymous.

“I told my son, ‘I understand that you guys aren’t getting any mail, but there’s going to come a time when your people get tired and they’re going to need some care packages just for morale.’”

Those civilians, who aren’t eligible beneficiaries of military medical care, include a variety of people, from Department of Defense civilian employees to other civilians who received emergency and trauma treatment at any military treatment or clinic, both overseas and stateside, since June 21, 2023.

Military medical facilities can provide care to individuals who aren’t eligible beneficiaries in certain circumstances, by law, usually on a reimbursable basis. But the high cost of medical care was putting some of these civilians in financial distress. So Congress passed a provision in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that gave DOD the authority to protect patients from financial harm, to apply a sliding fee scale and catastrophic fee waiver.

The billing was paused in June 2023 in order for DOD to develop the new Military Health System Modified Payment and Waiver Program, to help these civilians who face financial difficulty.

Once the patient receives a medical bill, if they face financial harm, they are encouraged to apply for the program, officials stated in an email response to questions.

“We encourage all non-beneficiary civilians who received treatment in an MTF or clinic after June 21, 2023 to take full advantage of this program to see how much financial relief they may qualify for when they receive their bill,” officials stated.

While officials did not provide a timeline for the bills, a Feb. 6 Federal Register final rule implementing the program stated it became effective March 9. Information was not available about the estimated total amount of the billing. Each individual bill will vary and is determined by the length and type of treatment.

According to the Military Health System, if patients have other health insurance, the military hospital or clinic where they received care will file medical claims on their behalf. The patient will be responsible for copays, coinsurance, deductibles, nominal fees and non-covered services.

Those without health insurance will get a bill from the military hospital or clinic where they received care.

Each bill will include instructions on how to apply for financial relief through the program.

All complete applications will be evaluated based on the standards outlined in the final rule, applying a sliding fee scale and catastrophic waiver benefits, officials said. The final rule also guarantees flexible installment plans to allow patients to spread out their payments over up to 72 months.

The Federal Register rule outlines an initial process for determining the sliding fee discount and catastrophic fee waiver, using the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Those whose annual household income is at or below 100% of that year’s Federal Poverty Guidelines may receive a full discount on their bill; others receive discounts based on the sliding scale. Those federal guidelines are based on annual household income and family size.

For example, for those in the U.S., except for Alaska and Hawaii, a household of four people with an annual income of $32,150 would be at 100% of the federal poverty level in 2026.

Instructions for applying for financial relief are also available at the MPWP web page. Patients can also contact the Defense Health Agency’s Debt Adjudication office for assistance, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Standard Time at 210-295-3344, or by email at DHA-MPWP-Inquiries@health.mil.

The center – and two others like it in the pilot program under contract with the nonprofit Armed Services YMCA – are being opened with “lightning speed,” said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Christopher J. Mahoney, at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the center, expected to open by the end of March. The power of the partnership between Armed Services YMCA and the Defense Department helps empower military families, increasing readiness and resilience, he said.

The Arlington center encompasses the third floor of the St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church, located in a civilian area a few minutes from Fort Myer and the Pentagon. It was built out to meet the requirements of the Defense Department, including special ramps on either side of the building to facilitate the evacuation of mobile cribs and buggies.

The first center in the pilot program opened in Norfolk in May 2025 and is at 100% capacity.

The last of the three centers, opening in Virginia Beach this summer, will open just 28 months after the contract was signed. Military child development centers built in the military construction process can take upwards of five years before opening.

Between the National Capital Region and the Norfolk area, the waiting list has grown to about 2,000. The three centers will reduce that waiting list by more than 600, each with a capacity for 216 children. Families can request spots for their children in the centers at www.MilitaryChildCare.com, the portal for requesting all types of military child care. As of publication, 99 families had requested immediate spots at the Arlington center, with 260 requesting care in advance as they plan for the summer moving season.

More than 600 child care slots coming to these military families

Under the pilot program, parents pay the same fee they would at any DOD-run child development center. It’s based on total family income and the same for children of all ages. Armed Services YMCA bills DOD for the difference in what it costs them to provide the care.

DOD provides subsidies for child care in many settings, including their child development centers, where DOD typically covers about 50% of the cost of child care, with family fees covering the remainder.

Care is available for infants up to age 5, with 19 separate rooms featuring age-appropriate learning programs, toys and activities for each. Miniature stationary bikes for pre-schoolers and a sand table with colorful swimming fish and dinosaurs projected from above onto the sand are just two examples.

Among the many features are storage areas for car seats, as well as extra rooms that focus on gross motor skills that can also provide therapy for children.

Diapers, infant formula if requested, meals and snacks, and all other accoutrements, are provided at the child care centers.

The Arlington child development center will be licensed in Virginia and nationally accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Staff members undergo background checks and are trained with the same methods used in DOD child care centers. The center is inspected by local, state and DOD officials on a regular basis.

DOD runs the largest network of child development centers in the world, with 27,000 staff members caring for 172,000 military-connected children every year, said Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. That includes 739 child development and school-age centers, 148 youth and teen centers, and more than 800 family child care homes, he said.

Yet, he said, “We know there’s a gap in child care ... It’s partners like Armed Services YMCA that help close that gap,” Tata said.

DOD is trying to get the persistent 20% rate of spouse unemployment down to the national average of about 4%, he said. “Undergirding all of that is affordable, accessible child care.”

Over the years, DOD and the services have embarked on a number of efforts to increase the availability of child care. Information was unavailable from DOD officials about any other new initiatives underway to address child care shortages, or the number of children on waiting lists overall. There was no timeline available for when DOD expects to decide whether to expand these pilots to other areas.

”There’s no more important time for us to worry about child care than now," said retired Navy Vice Admiral William French, president and CEO of Armed Services YMCA. That 165-year-old nonprofit has a number of different programs focusing on young enlisted families at its 12 branches and 29 YMCA affiliates serving more than 104 military bases.

“But the one program that has the biggest impact on families is child care,” he said.

The Trump administration’s tax and spending package, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law last summer, “was significant tax legislation,” Susan Mitchell, executive director of the Armed Forces Tax Council, told Military Times.

“It’s vital that service members understand these tax changes, especially because many deal with the unique circumstances of military life, and there are unique tax rules that apply to them,” she said.

Mitchell highlighted some of the changes that will affect service members and their families.

Trump Accounts

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, beginning July 5, parents of children 18 years old and younger with a Social Security number can open up a Trump Account — a tax-deferred savings account — in their child’s name. For children born between 2025 and 2028, parents can claim a one-time $1,000 seed contribution, provided by the U.S. Treasury, via IRS Form 4547 to establish the investment account.

Contributing to the child’s account is optional, but parents, grandparents, friends and employers can contribute up to a combined total of $5,000 each year to the child’s account. The money can’t be withdrawn before the child turns 18, at which point it can be used for qualified expenses like education, purchasing a first home and starting a business. After 18, the standard rules for traditional individual retirement accounts apply. For more information, visit trumpaccounts.gov.

Other One Big Beautiful Bill Act changes

Many of the changes under OBBBA are in effect for tax years 2025 through 2028. Among them are:

New car loans: Interest is tax deductible on car loans used to buy a new vehicle, as of Jan. 1, 2025. It must be for personal use, and the final assembly must have been in the United States. The maximum annual deduction is $10,000. The deduction phases out for single filers with modified adjusted gross income over $100,000 and joint filers over $200,000.

SALT deductions: The deduction allowed for state and local income taxes, property taxes and real estate taxes has increased from $10,000 to $40,000 for most taxpayers.

Tips tax deductions: Employees and self-employed individuals may deduct qualified tips that are received in occupations listed by the IRS. The maximum annual deduction is $25,000. For those self-employed, the deduction can’t exceed the individual’s net income. The deduction phases out for single filers with modified adjusted gross income over $150,000 and joint filers over $300,000.

Overtime tax deductions: Those who receive qualified overtime compensation may deduct the premium pay that exceeds their regular rate of pay — such as the “half” portion of “time-and-a-half” compensation. The maximum annual deduction is $12,500 for single filers and $25,000 for joint filers. The deduction phases out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income over $150,000, and over $300,000 for joint filers.

Deduction for seniors: Those who are age 65 and older may claim an extra deduction of $6,000, or $12,000 for a married couple where both spouses qualify. The deduction phases out for taxpayers with modified AGI over $75,000 and joint filers over $150,000. Your Social Security may be taxable, depending on your total income and filing status.

Standard deductions: The standard deduction has increased to $15,750 for single filers or married couples filing separately; $23,625 for single heads of households with dependents; and $31,500 for married couples filing jointly.

Mortgage interest: The mortgage interest deduction is still capped at $750,000 of indebtedness, and the law makes that permanent. This amount won’t increase in future years because of inflation.

Income from payment apps: The OBBBA repeals the requirement for 1099K forms for people who received a minimum of $600 for goods and services through payment apps like PayPal and Venmo. It raises that threshold to $20,000 in gross pay, and 200 transactions. Mitchell notes it applies to payments for goods and services, not money sent to family members, splitting rent or other personal, nontaxable transactions. But any income will still be taxable; the law just cuts down on the paperwork.

Earned Income Tax Credit: This applies to eligible low- and moderate-income workers. You may qualify for the EITC even if you can’t claim children on your tax return. The credit could reduce the amount of taxes owed or increase your refund. For example, for tax year 2025, a married couple filing jointly with three qualified children, with a maximum adjusted gross income of $68,675 might qualify for a credit of up to $8,046. There are special EITC rules and considerations for military members who receive nontaxable combat pay.

Child and dependent credits: The child tax credit is up to $2,200 per child under age 17 at the end of 2025. It’s phased out for single filers starting at $200,000 and for joint filers at $400,000, so it will apply to most of the military population, Mitchell said. To qualify this year, at least one parent and the child must have a valid Social Security number.

In addition, you and your spouse may be able to claim the child and dependent care credit if you paid for the care of a child under age 13 in order to work or actively look for work. It also applies to care for a disabled dependent. For 2025, the credit is a percentage of the child care expenses up to $3,000 per child with a maximum of $6,000 for two or more qualified dependents. The more you earn, the less the percentage of employment-related child care expenses that are allowed. But the OBBBA enhanced the credit — it now decreases more gradually as income rises. For more information, see IRS Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses. Those who have the dependent care flexible spending accounts can’t use the same child care expenses for this credit. Any money you contribute to a DCFSA reduces the amount of eligible expenses you can claim for the tax credit on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

Adoption of a child: Taxpayers can receive a credit of up to $17,280 of qualified adoption expenses. The full credit is available for a special-needs adoption. For joint filers with a modified AGI over $259,190, the credit begins to phase out.

But $5,000 of the credit is also refundable, meaning that taxpayers could get back more than what they owe in taxes.

529 plans: Effective Jan. 1, 2026, there have been significant enhancements, Mitchell said, including doubling the annual tax-free withdrawal allowed — from $10,000 to $20,000 — in connection with the beneficiary’s enrollment or attendance at an elementary or secondary school. Also, a lifetime maximum of $35,000 per beneficiary may be moved from a 529 plan to a Roth IRA tax-free and penalty-free.

Also of note

Unreimbursed moving expenses: Active-duty service members can still deduct unreimbursed moving expenses related to permanent-change-of-station moves. While DOD covers many expenses, there still may be some that aren’t fully reimbursed. Use IRS Form 3903 to deduct those. The OBBBA added the intelligence community to those eligible for this deduction.

Reserve component members who stay overnight when they travel more than 100 miles from home can deduct their unreimbursed expenses related to their duty. These expenses are limited to rates federal employees receive, including per diem.

Capital gains taxes: Military homeowners get an extra benefit when it comes to tax exclusions of profit from the sale of their residence. Generally, taxpayers avoid paying capital gains taxes on the sale of their home as long as they’ve owned and used it as their principal residence for at least two of the five years before the sale. The amount of profit that can be excluded from taxes is $250,000 for single taxpayers, and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly.

But military taxpayers can extend that qualifying time period by 10 years, up to 15 years, if they’re assigned to a duty station at least 50 miles from the house for a period of 90 days or more.

Military spouse residency for tax purposes: Under the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act, as amended by the Veterans Auto and Education Improvement Act of 2022, military spouses may elect to use one of three states for purposes of taxation: the military member’s domicile, the spouse’s domicile or the permanent duty station of the service member, regardless of which state where they currently reside. Additional info is available at militaryonesource.mil.

Filing taxes

Troops stationed outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico can qualify for an automatic extension to file and pay taxes until June 15, but will have to pay interest on any taxes not paid by the regular due date. Those overseas, as well as those in the U.S., can also request an additional extension to Oct. 15 using Form 4868.

Tax-filing deadlines for service members deployed to combat zones are extended for the period of their service in the combat zone, plus 180 days.

Most allowances, such as the Basic Allowance for Housing, aren’t taxable, but there are exceptions, such as the Basic Needs Allowance. The IRS has ruled that the Warrior Dividend payments of $1,776, sent to all service members in December, are not taxable.

When service members are serving in a combat zone, or in direct support, their income for any month in the zone is generally tax-free.

Defense officials began offering flexible spending accounts for dependent care and out-of-pocket health care costs in the last few years, allowing service members to contribute set amounts of pretax earnings to help defray their costs by reducing their taxable income. Service members have an additional grace period, through March 15, to incur eligible child care expenses, that can be reimbursed from the previous year’s contributions to their dependent care flexible spending account.

Free tax prep and filing help

Service members and their families have access to free, military-specific tax software and consultants, offered exclusively through Military OneSource’s MilTax resources. This is the only free tax preparation software designed for the military and the unique tax rules that apply to the military, guiding you through preparing and filing your federal tax returns and up to five state returns. Filing electronically is the fastest and most reliable way to get your taxes done, and to get your refund, Mitchell said.

According to the IRS, most refunds are issued within 21 days for taxpayers who file electronically and choose direct deposit. The IRS has a tool for checking on the status of your refund that you can find here.

Your eligibility for MilTax is verified through the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, widely known as DEERS. You get access to the MilTax free tax preparation software through militaryonesource.mil.

Connect with MilTax consultants by calling 800-342-9647. There are also overseas dialing options. Or you can log in to your Military OneSource account to start a secure live chat and schedule a consultation. They’re available 24 hours a day. These are experienced tax preparers who have certifications in their field, such as enrolled agents or certified public accountants. These MilTax consultants are available to those eligible for Military OneSource regardless of whether you use the separate MilTax software.

Also, some U.S. installations operate a volunteer income tax assistance tax center with tax preparation services. Check with your military legal assistance office or Military OneSource locator.

All DOD tax statements, including W-2s, are available through the military’s myPay site at mypay.dfas.mil.

Avoid common mistakes and scams

According to the IRS, the most common mistakes people make when filing their taxes are the wrong Social Security number, mathematical errors and omitting an item that an employer had already submitted with income.

“Make sure you’ve received all the income documents. If you receive something later, you can and should submit an amended return,” Mitchell said.

You should use the same number that’s on your Social Security card. If you use the electronic tax preparation software, you can usually avoid math mistakes, Mitchell said. She also advises printing out your return before filing it electronically to check for possible errors.

Scammers usually target people by impersonating the IRS to try to get you to share personal information. They try to scam people through mail, telephone, text, email and social media; the IRS doesn’t initiate contact with taxpayers in these ways, Mitchell said.

Among the warning signs that it’s a scam: the message is unexpected, rushes or threatens you; offers refunds, credits or deductions; pressures you for personal or financial information; tells you to “pay now or else”; or they don’t let you question or appeal the amount of “tax” you owe. Odd or misspelled words in web links can take you to harmful sites instead of IRS.gov.

If you choose to pay to get your taxes done through a paid preparer, be aware that if you borrow the money from that preparer that you expect to get as a refund, then you’ll pay a portion of that refund to the preparer for their fee. And they typically charge interest. By law, these loans, called tax refund anticipation loans or refund advance loans, can’t charge more than a 36% annual percentage rate.

For students in universal pre-kindergarten through grade 5, the lunch price will be $3.75. For those in grades six through 12, it will be $4. Breakfast for all grades will be $2.25.

Families who qualify for free meals based on federal guidelines receive lunch and breakfast at no cost. Children of families who qualify for reduced-price meals will still pay 40 cents for lunch and 30 cents for breakfast.

The DOD school meal programs are operated by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the Navy Exchange Service Command and the Marine Corps Community Service. The programs are subsidized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to AAFES officials, their lunches are priced, on average, about $2 below the actual cost of $5.50 per plate. The Department of Defense Education Activity and USDA reimburse the exchanges for the direct costs not covered by sales.

By law, DoDEA schools, as participants in the U. S. Department of Agriculture meal program, must raise paid student lunch prices to a level comparable to the rates used for USDA reimbursement.

The DoDEA Student Meal Program meets the same USDA guidelines as schools in the continental United States, providing nutritional meals that contain whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and milk to students.

In 2025, AAFES provided 3.6 million meals at more than 70 schools in Europe and the Pacific.

For two years during the pandemic, parents didn’t have to pay for the meals, which were provided at grab-and-go locations.

According to the consent agreement, CarMax repossessed the vehicles of “at least 28 service members who were in military service or had been called to military service,” during the period from March 1, 2018, through at least Oct. 24, 2023. Each service member will receive $15,000, plus any lost equity in the repossessed vehicle.

CarMax will also pay a civil penalty of $70,380 to the U.S. government.

Hyundai subsidiary reaches settlement over troops’ repossessed cars

“The Department of Justice is proud to defend the rights of those who serve in our military and will continue to vigorously enforce the laws that protect them,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in the announcement about the settlement.

Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, businesses are prohibited from repossessing service members’ vehicles without a court order, as long as the service member made at least one payment on the vehicle before entering military service. This allows a judge to consider the factors involved, such as deployment, and possibly delay action against the service member.

Justice officials allege that in some cases, CarMax repossessed some vehicles even after the owners told CarMax that they were in the military. The company also allegedly failed to extend the SCRA protections to reservists who had received orders to report for active duty.

According to the consent agreement, CarMax neither admits nor denies the allegations.

In a statement emailed to Military Times, CarMax officials stated, “CarMax Auto Finance has cooperated fully with the DOJ to reach a resolution to the allegations and has further strengthened our existing compliance program. The resolution between the DOJ and CarMax Auto Finance does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by CarMax Auto Finance.”

Since 2003, CarMax Auto Finance has provided relief to more than 26,000 service members and dependents, in line with the SCRA, in the form of finance charge reductions and protection from vehicle repossession, CarMax officials stated.

Troops to receive $3.5 million in settlement over vehicle leases

The company has taken action to enhance its processes for complying with the SCRA, expanded proactive screening and outreach and reinforced employee training, officials said.

CarMax is required to notify each affected service member by letter within 30 days, and must establish and maintain multiple cost-free methods for affected service members to contact them, including an email address, a website and a toll-free phone number. CarMax must also request that all the credit bureaus delete the negative information for accounts belonging to affected service members.

The settlement agreement also requires CarMax to send Justice officials its proposed SCRA policies and procedures for motor vehicle repossessions, including the review of military service information provided by borrowers, and searches of the Department of Defense Manpower Data Center database.

The agreement, which will be in effect for four years, lays out additional reporting requirements for CarMax.

Tricare Prime beneficiaries who see a primary care manager at a military hospital or clinic may be able to get a virtual appointment for urgent care if their local military treatment facility is booked, Tricare officials announced Thursday.

Patients can contact the Military Health System Nurse Advice line online or by phone at 1-800-TRICARE (874-2273). A nurse will assess whether they can get a virtual appointment that day or the following.

“This is part of the Defense Health Agency’s effort to improve health care access,” said Army Lt. Col. Ryan Shubat, chief of the Defense Health Agency’s primary care and mental health health care optimization, in the announcement.

The service is offered in the United States for eligible beneficiaries aged 12 and older, but not overseas or in U.S. territories.

Providers can address common urgent care issues, officials said, such as sinus congestion and infections; coughs; allergies; sore or hoarse throat; rashes; acne; muscle and joint pain; and headaches.

The nurse will ask about a patient’s symptoms, and decide whether the symptoms can be treated virtually. If it works for the patient, the nurse will set up the virtual appointment with a health care provider. Appointments are available from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Providers can write prescriptions and send them directly to the patient’s pharmacy.

All virtual urgent care providers meet high standards for patient care, officials said. Each provider has credentials and privileges at a Defense Health Agency military hospital or clinic.

The visit is recorded in the patient’s electronic health record.

During a hearing on quality-of-life issues before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe cited a lack of available appointments for health care, and problems with Tricare’s reimbursement rates for health care providers in communities.

“What we’ve all seen over the length of our careers is a gradual erosion in the availability of that health care for our service members and their families,” Wolfe said.

This has been an issue for years, and problems with health care access have been exacerbated by new Tricare contracts implemented last year.

In spite of the time, effort and money spent on improving quality of life for service members and their families, “when you get down to the tactical level, there’s a gap,” said Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna. “They’re not feeling it day to day. They’re not feeling it around the kitchen table. They’re not feeling it when they call to get an appointment. They’re not feeling it when they try to get child care.”

The enlisted leaders talked about a range of issues, including their concerns about suicide and mental health, improvements to barracks, child care availability and uncertainty about pay related to federal shutdowns.

The services and the Defense Department have been working to increase child care slots. But Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised concerns about the persistent and long waitlists for military child care, citing waitlists of 7,800 children at the end of 2025.

“When I come back to ask these questions a year from now, are we still going to have a waitlist that’s 7,800 babies long?” she asked.

Warren contends the services haven’t done enough to attract and keep child care workers. The attrition rate is about 50% for child care workers in military child development centers, Warren said, and she criticized the Army, Navy and Air Force for not upgrading the pay scales by April 2025 as required by law.

When asked why they leave, workers say it’s low pay, according to Warren.

“You have the tools from Congress. We’ve already given them to you and you haven’t picked them up and used them,” she said.

However, Wolfe and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman said they’ve been told that their services have already upgraded their pay scales, and it has made a difference in the staffing.

“We have moved out with [using] the authorities. We are making significant progress in reducing our waitlist,” Perryman said, while noting it’s not okay to have 1,400 children still waiting for care.

“Right now, we’ve got about 2,700 [children] with unmet need across the Air Force. And that’s absolutely not where we want to be,” Wolfe said. “We are committed to making sure that this number goes down over time and does not creep back up.”

But Warren said parents don’t have time to wait. “They don’t have a year that they can just set aside while they’re waiting around on a 1,400 or 2,700 waitlist. They’ve got to have child care now.”

To the Space Force and Marine Corps, she said, “You nailed it. And let’s keep it up because that’s what we’ve got to do.

“We can’t say that we are a military that cares about our families if we pretend to provide child care and then we’ve got a waitlist that’s got 7,800 babies waiting on it.”

“Senior commanders own the stick on this one,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, commanding general of Army Materiel Command, which is spearheading the effort to improve food for soldiers. Mohan said he expects beer and wine to be a point of discussion with Lt. Gen. Kevin Admiral, the commanding general of Fort Hood, Texas, where 42 Bistro, the first of five pilot locations, will bring the new campus-style dining beginning on Feb. 18.

The contract for the pilot locations allows for the option of selling beer and wine in these venues. Mohan said his advice to Gen. Admiral will be to look at the feedback from soldiers and the data about the usage. He also noted that they will want to consider what this does to the family environment, as the pilot plan hopes to attract families to dine in.

Decisions on beer and wine will be a deliberate process, Mohan stressed. “The key thing I’m focused on is breakfast, lunch and dinner for those soldiers who don’t have another option, who live in the barracks.”

During a media call with reporters about the new pilot venue, Mohan laid out some examples a commander might consider, such as selling beer and wine on Friday nights.

The decision will involve a negotiation between the local dining venue contractor and the senior commander, with AMC having a role, Mohan said.

The contractor, Compass Group, is processing the appropriate paperwork needed for selling beer and wine, “if and when that senior commander wants to cross that rubicon,” Mohan said.

Taxpayer funding will not be used, with the contractor paying a fee from the sales to the Morale, Welfare and Recreation fund.

“I know this has been an emotional topic for some, but we serve beer and wine at the bowling alleys that could be right next door,” Mohan said, as an example of other locations on bases that sell beer and wine.

“We trust our soldiers and we tell our soldiers, ‘Hey look, go carry a rifle, but on Friday night you can’t have a beer in a restaurant.’ I think we have to take a step back and trust our soldiers... Put bumpers on it, but let’s trust them.”

The 42 Bistro, named after the 1942 establishment of the camp, is scheduled for a grand opening on Feb. 18 and will be accessible seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Soldiers on the Essential Station Messing program — especially those in the barracks using a meal card — will have an entitlement of $39, or “freedom dollars,” per day to use at the dining facility. Those not on the meal card program will pay for items separately.

There have long been complaints about the quality and accessibility of food on certain installations. The Army’s campus-style dining initiatives are aimed at providing a remedy and helping soldiers who may not have the resources to go elsewhere.

The Fort Hood venue will be operated by Compass Group, which has a long history of providing food for airport lounges and select Division I universities, said Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, commanding general of the Army Materiel Command.

“We owe it to soldiers to get this right,” Mohan said in a call with reporters, adding that there have been no changes to the food service program in about 20 years.

The 42 Bistro is slated to offer more than 3,000 recipes spread across seven food stations. Each venue will have an executive chef and registered dietician on staff.

Compass Group will also offer a food truck that will shuttle 42 Bistro options to different locations on the base.

Following the Fort Hood opening, Army and Compass Group officials plan to open four more pilot venues, starting with Fort Carson, Colorado, in March or April.

Venues at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Drum, New York, are expected to open this summer, with one more expected to open at Fort Stewart, Georgia in 2027, according to AMC spokeswoman Kim Hanson.

The Army will collect customer feedback on the five pilot programs to inform the next stage of expansion, Mohan said. Depending on results, other installations could follow, though overseas bases will be harder to bring online because of host nation agreements, Mohan noted.

Senior commanders will determine which dining facility will be converted, Mohan added, using criteria such as proximity to barracks.

The $39 entitlement, meanwhile, includes $9.57 for breakfast, $15.86 for lunch, and $13.57 for dinner. If the soldier does not use the allotted amount for a certain meal, it can carry over to another meal or snack that day.

However, if the soldier has not used the entire $39 that day, it does not carry over to the following day. The entitlement will update after each transaction.

If troops go over the $39 entitlement, they will have the option of using another payment method for extra costs.

Mohan praised the effort and noted that it has been a three-year journey, during which the Army “fought the monster of bureaucracy.”

A House subcommittee on Tuesday discussed proposed legislation on illnesses linked to service-connected exposures as well as extended benefits for spouses whose veteran dies from service-connected conditions.

The legislation discussed by the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs included:

• H.R. 5339: A bill that would expand health care and compensation to service members who reported to duty on and after Sept. 11, 2001, through November 2001, when the building was declared safe.
• H.R. 4469: A proposal that would prohibit the Department of Veterans Affairs from requiring veterans to provide a documented dosage amount for radiation exposure.
• H.R. 1685: A plan to extend compensation to surviving spouses of veterans with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

If approved, the bills could provide thousands of veterans and spouses with access to VA health care and disability compensation.

The Pentagon 9/11 bill, known as the Susan E. Lukas 9/11 Servicemembers Fairness Act, would extend PACT Act benefits to those in the building in the weeks following the terrorist attack.

Lukas, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, has chronic respiratory issues and fibromyalgia linked to exposure to asbestos, dust and other matter dispersed during the impact and fireball when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building’s E Ring.

During an interview with Military Times on Wednesday, Lukas recalled going into work on Sept. 12 and leaving footprints in the fine dust distributed throughout the building by the ventilation system.

“We obviously understood, there was the fire, there was the jet fuel, there were the plastics, there was the asbestos,” Lukas said. “We did realize that there were things burning, but we really didn’t think about toxic exposures, whether we should be wearing masks.”

The bill, which has bipartisan support from six lawmakers, would provide affected veterans an expedited pathway to receive VA health care, if they don’t already have it, and disability compensation for conditions connected to exposure.

The cohort of service members, which Lukas estimates number roughly 10,000, do not qualify for compensation under the World Trade Center Health Program or the PACT Act, the landmark legislation that extended health care and benefits to more than a million veterans exposed to hazardous materials while serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas.

The bill that would prohibit the VA from requiring veterans to provide a dose estimate for their exposure to radiation, the PRESUME Act, is sponsored by Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev.

Geared toward veterans of the Cold War who participated in classified testing, the bill would eliminate the requirement that these “atomic veterans” prove a certain radiation dose to access benefits.

“Veterans were often exposed without their knowledge and today they are asked to furnish documentation that is controlled entirely by the government,” Titus said during the hearing. “When the government controls all the evidence, veterans shouldn’t bear the burden of proving the impossible.”

The Justice for ALS Veterans Act, H.R. 1685, would extend VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation to surviving spouses of all veterans who die from the devastating disease.

According to bill sponsor Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., service members are twice as likely as the general population to get the illness and die within two to five years of diagnosis — short of the eight-year disability threshold required to receive DIC from the VA.

“It’s imperative we close this loophole that has prevented surviving families from obtaining support,” Fitzpatrick said during the hearing.

VA officials at the hearing addressed the legislation. On the Justice for ALS Veterans Act, the VA supports it, provided there is a way to pay for it, according to Jennifer Bover, executive director of the Veterans Benefits Administration.

But, Bover added, the department takes issue with part of the bill that would provide DIC benefits for other unnamed conditions with mortality rates similar to ALS.

“The concept of ‘high mortality rate’ lacks a standardized government definition as there is not a universal set of metrics to define this concept,” Bover said.

The VA also does not support the PRESUME Act, because, officials said, proving dosage is not a requirement for the VA to grant service connection.

According to James Smith, the VA’s deputy executive director for policy and procedures for compensation service, a veteran who can prove they participated in a radiation risk activity and has a diagnosed radiation-related illness would qualify.

The VA also does not support the Pentagon 9/11 exposures bill, according to Smith, because the covered conditions listed in the legislation are “too broad.”

“We could be more specific with the conditions that potentially have been caused by whatever toxic [substances] may have been present ... in that space,” Smith said. “As an organization we support identifying those exposures and making sure we are taking care of veterans. However, there needs to be more research in this area.”

Subcommittee chairman and former Navy SEAL Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, noted that the PACT Act spells out a list of illnesses that are connected to airborne environmental hazards.

“I expect movement on this one,” Luttrell promised. “This is absolutely ridiculous, first and foremost. As far as the Global War on Terror, they were the first ones to feel it. And for them to not be included...”

The pieces of legislation debated by the subcommittee on Tuesday have a way to cover their costs. Luttrell promised to work with the sponsors to offset cost so they could advance the bills to the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

The Winter Olympics will begin with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6 through Feb. 22, with more than 2,900 athletes from 92 countries and territories competing across 116 events.

Those eligible can stream the full coverage if they have an active ShopMyExchange.com account. Live streams of some practice and warm-up sessions and additional video content including event recaps, highlights, viral moments, interviews and more are included, officials stated in their announcement.

For those who don’t use the free service verified through ShopMyExchange.com, the streaming service through Peacock costs $10.99 per month, with advertising, or $16.99 per month, without advertising, according to the Peacock website.

To access the free streaming from computers or personal devices, viewers can visit NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App, in the U.S., and choose the Exchange as their service provider. The ShopMyExchange.com site will verify those with an active account.

Content rights restrictions will apply to overseas locations where on-base residents must subscribe to internet service through an authorized provider, officials stated.

For more information on the free viewing, visit the Exchange’s Olympic Hub page, and the NBCOlympics information page.

This partnership between AAFES and NBCUniversal began in 2016, and has alternated between the summer and winter games every two years, with the exception of the Tokyo Games, which were delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said AAFES spokesman Chris Ward.

In the announcement, AAFES director and CEO Tom Shull described the free offering as a “quality-of-life multiplier so the games can be viewed wherever service members and their families are called to serve.”

“We believe moments like the Olympic Games have a unique power to connect people across the world,” Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics, added.