Military members should be moving less frequently for greater stability — and to save taxpayers’ dollars, according to defense officials who have set the process in motion for those reductions.
In a memo announced Wednesday, Pentagon officials ordered the military service branches to cut in half the amount of money they spend on permanent change-of-station, or PCS, moves by fiscal 2030. DOD spends about $5 billion a year on these moves, which include the physical moves of household goods as well as allowances and other entitlements related to moving.
The services are required to develop plans within four months to reduce the moves, so it’s not yet clear how many actual moves will be cut to achieve those savings.
Officials will target “discretionary moves,” such as PCS moves within the United States, overseas and individual service member training travel. The services are directed to reduce these discretionary move budgets by 10% in fiscal year 2027, 30% in fiscal 2028, 40% in fiscal 2029 and 50% by fiscal 2030. The reductions will be based on the fiscal 2026 budget, adjusted for inflation.
“Lower-priority PCS moves should be reduced for service members and their families seeking greater geographic stability,” wrote Jules W. Hurst II, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, in the memo.
The services must determine which PCS moves “are most critical to support operational requirements and key professional development,” he wrote.
About 80% of DOD PCS moves are in the discretionary category and 20% in the mandatory category, said Tim Dill, acting deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, in a briefing to reporters.
Reducing the frequency of moves will improve the quality of life for service members and their families, Dill said.
Military families often face challenges related to making PCS moves every few years, ranging from issues with shipping their household goods to securing housing. Families also navigate disruptions in military spouses’ employment, difficulty finding child care, children’s school transitions and finding new providers for special needs family members.
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Military advocates, including the nonprofit Military Family Advisory Network, have argued that the frequency of military moves must be evaluated.
“We have seen the intersection between the frequency of moves and key quality-of-life concerns ranging from food insecurity to loneliness,” said Shannon Razsadin, CEO of the nonprofit Military Family Advisory Network.
“We’re encouraged by the immediate changes outlined by Secretary Hegseth,” Razsadin said, including the Pentagon’s separate effort to temporarily increase the reimbursement rates for families moving themselves amid problems with the new Global Household Goods Contract.
At times, Congress members have expressed interest in reducing the number of PCS moves. Various efforts within DOD have been made to study the issue, but no large-scale actions have been taken. Military officials have argued that the frequency of PCS moves is necessary to meet operational requirements and fill empty jobs.
Hurst’s memo also directs service officials to propose various career path changes for officers and noncommissioned officers in ways that promote geographic stability. The services are tasked with proposing changes that could allow some officers and NCOs “to specialize in lieu of gaining generalized experience across a range of functions,” according to the memo.
The services will consider how they can provide “broadening opportunities and continuing leadership opportunities without the need for a PCS move,” Dill said. DOD isn’t dictating to the services the way they should accomplish the changes, he said, and there will be room for discussion about whether the budget cuts are feasible during the time frame.
“We want them to come back and tell us if that seems like the right number for them,” Dill said. “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.”
The effort is not exclusive to service members with dependents, Dill said, and will not increase the burden on single service members.
“We understand that PCS moves affect everyone and so this is not a policy where we just think we need to take the moves away from the families and put it on someone else,” he said.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
