- President Trump signed an executive order on August 3, 2026, creating the President’s Military Spouse Commission.
- The commission is chaired by Jennifer Hegseth and will include 22 members representing service secretaries, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and senior enlisted advisers across all branches.
- Key focus areas include spouse employment, housing, childcare, healthcare, education, and deployment-related support.
- Military spouse unemployment remains one of the most documented challenges in the armed forces community, with recent surveys placing the rate as high as 29.9% among those actively seeking work.
- The commission is designed to give the White House a direct line to the challenges military families face on the ground.
- The order directs all executive departments and agencies to cooperate with the commission and provide requested information and assistance.
- What Is the President’s Military Spouse Commission?
- Who Leads the Commission?
- Why It Matters: The Challenges Military Spouses Face
- The Employment Crisis in Focus
- Housing, Childcare, and the PCS Cycle
- The Readiness Connection
- What Comes Next
On August 3, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office establishing the President’s Military Spouse Commission — a new White House advisory body aimed at putting military families at the center of national readiness policy. The commission is designed to advise the president on policies affecting military spouses and families.
Trump signed the order to address decades-old, persistent problems facing military spouses and families, calling it “an order that’s long overdue” during a White House signing ceremony flanked by more than a dozen military spouses.
The signing comes as data consistently show that the challenges military spouses face — from chronic unemployment to housing instability — directly affect force readiness and retention across all branches of the armed forces. For the millions of families who serve alongside their active-duty service members, the commission represents a formal acknowledgment that their sacrifices and struggles require a dedicated seat at the policymaking table.
What Is the President’s Military Spouse Commission?
The executive order establishes the Military Spouse Commission to strengthen military readiness by improving the quality of life for military spouses and families.
The commission will advise the president on policies affecting military spouses and families and provide annual recommendations to improve their quality of life while strengthening military readiness, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed.
The order directs the commission to engage directly with military spouses, identify challenges affecting military families, and develop policy recommendations to address housing, employment, healthcare, education, child care, and deployment-related issues.
The commission’s duties will also include connecting with military spouses to determine common areas of concern, according to the executive order.
Each executive department and agency is directed to furnish information and assistance to the commission as it may request. Commission members will serve without compensation but may receive travel reimbursement as allowed under applicable law.
The Department of War will provide funding and administrative and technical support as required, and the commission may establish subcommittees as appropriate to aid in its work.
Who Leads the Commission?
The commission will be chaired by Jennifer Hegseth, the wife of Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Christie Mullin, wife of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, will serve as executive director.
Trump noted that collectively, the commission’s members have more than 400 years of experience as active-duty spouses.
The spouse of the Secretary of Homeland Security and 20 other military spouses — representing the service secretaries, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and each service’s senior enlisted leader — will serve as members of the commission. The inclusion of senior enlisted advisers’ spouses drew particular praise at the signing ceremony. “It means the world to me that you highlight the enlisted corps,” said one senior enlisted member’s wife who spoke at the ceremony.
Jennifer Hegseth expressed commitment to the commission’s mission in remarks reported by Fox News Digital, saying she and her fellow military spouses in leadership would work to dismantle the barriers families face and that “they are often overlooked but we see them and want them to know help is on the way,” and that she is “deeply honored to lead this Commission” and that they “will work tirelessly to dismantle the barriers our families face every single day.”
Why It Matters: The Challenges Military Spouses Face
The creation of the commission comes against a backdrop of well-documented and worsening hardship for military families. As the executive order itself states, military spouses are intrinsically linked to the good order, readiness, and retention of the military, their support and contributions are crucial to mission success, yet they face significant challenges due to the nature of military service.
Blue Star Families reports in its 2025 Military Family Lifestyle Survey (MFLS) that employment remains the top concern for active-duty spouses, followed by military pay, time away from family, housing affordability, and children’s education.
The organization also found that ongoing quality-of-life issues make families less likely to recommend military service to others.
These findings underscore why the commission’s mandate — to produce annual, actionable recommendations directly to the president — is seen by advocates as a meaningful shift.
A Direct Line to the White House
The commission is designed to give the White House a direct line to the challenges facing military spouses, including child care, employment, housing, health care, education, and the demands of repeated deployments. Previous programs and legislative efforts have often faced implementation challenges. Congress has spent more than a decade trying to reduce the employment barriers military spouses face, though a consistent challenge has been in the implementation of various well-meaning federal initiatives.
The commission structure — placing senior military family representatives with direct advisory access to the president — is intended to close that gap between policy intent and on-the-ground results.
The Employment Crisis in Focus
No issue looms larger for military spouses than employment. The Military Family Advisory Network’s 2025 Military Family 360 Report found that unemployment among active-duty spouses actively seeking work climbed to 29.9% in 2025, up from 21.8% in 2023.
The 23% military spouse unemployment rate measured in the Blue Star Families 2025 MFLS represents a rate more than five times higher than the national civilian unemployment rate at the end of 2025.
Blue Star Families’ chief impact officer Lindsay Knight, PhD, emphasized that the 70% underemployment rate among those who are working — meaning the vast majority of employed military spouses are in roles below their skill, education, and experience level — deserves equal or greater focus, as it represents a systematic economic suppression of a highly educated population rather than simply an absence from the workforce.
The Structural Barriers Behind the Numbers
Frequent moves create some of the biggest employment challenges for military spouses. Active-duty military personnel relocate once every two to three years, moving 3.6 times more often than civilian families.
These relocations disrupt employment continuity, making it difficult for military spouses to secure long-term positions, complete educational programs, or establish professional networks. In 2022, military families who moved across states earned 33% less on average than those who remained in the same location.
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) has noted that “employing military spouses is a strategic issue with direct ties to force readiness and the retention of experienced warfighters,” and that “in 2025, having two household incomes is a baseline requirement.”
Existing programs have offered some relief.
Programs like My Career Advancement Account (MyCAA), Spouse Education and Career Opportunities (MySECO), and the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) have offered resources such as tuition assistance, skills training, and resume support. However, advocates say structural barriers — including licensing reciprocity gaps and unpredictable PCS (Permanent Change of Station) timelines — have limited these programs’ reach. For more on spouse employment tools, visit the MySECO portal at Military OneSource.
Housing, Childcare, and the PCS Cycle
Employment is not the only pressure point. Housing costs have become an acute burden for military families. In 2025, more than 89% of active-duty families surveyed reported facing a burden with housing costs, and of those, nearly 59% reported facing severe housing burdens. Nearly 60% of active-duty families reported paying more than their Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for monthly housing and utility costs.
According to Blue Star Families, 50% of active-duty households report spending more than 30% of their monthly income on housing costs, including utilities. The BAH, which is meant to cover most rental costs near a service member’s duty station,
includes a built-in member cost-share, a deliberate policy-driven decision that BAH will cover 95% of a typical local housing cost. When rents rise faster than annual BAH adjustments, the financial gap can quickly compound — especially around PCS moves.
Childcare: A Growing Gap
Childcare access is another front where military families feel the strain. According to a 2025 report by RAND, military childcare programs are not keeping up with demand, leaving tens of thousands of military families without care. The availability of affordable child care has a significant impact on military spouses’ participation in the workforce.
Recent Department of Defense surveys asked spouses why they were not looking for work, and the number one answer, cited by 30% of respondents, was childcare responsibilities.
The President’s Military Spouse Commission will make suggestions for improving quality of life in the areas of spouse employment, housing, education, childcare, healthcare, and deployment-related support. Trump also noted the strains of separation from loved ones deployed overseas and the frequency of PCS moves.
For service members and spouses navigating housing decisions, resources like the Military OneSource Housing Assistance page and the official DoD BAH Calculator can be helpful starting points.
The Readiness Connection
A consistent message from military family advocates — and one that appears explicitly in the executive order — is that spouse well-being is not a separate issue from military readiness; it is part of it. According to a prior White House executive order, one in five military families “cite challenges with spousal employment as a reason when considering leaving active-duty service,” underscoring the undeniable connection between family stability and force retention.
Researchers have recommended that the military begin treating military spouse well-being “as a national security imperative,” rather than a quality-of-life issue, concluding that “it is a readiness issue, a retention issue, and ultimately a national security issue.”
By addressing these challenges, the commission is expected to help strengthen military families, improve retention, and ensure America’s armed forces remain ready to meet any challenge, according to the White House fact sheet.
Fewer than half — 44% — of active-duty families said they are satisfied with the military way of life, providing an important benchmark as leaders assess how persistent financial pressures shape long-term force sustainability.
The impact of military spouse unemployment reaches beyond job placement. Defense and nonprofit surveys consistently link military spouse employment challenges to whether service members stay in uniform.
What Comes Next
With the executive order signed, the commission’s next steps will involve standing up its membership, establishing working subcommittees, and beginning the process of direct outreach to military spouses across all branches and duty stations. The commission may establish subcommittees as appropriate to aid in its work.
The order directs the commission to engage directly with military spouses, identify challenges affecting military families, and develop policy recommendations to address housing, employment, healthcare, education, child care, and deployment-related issues. The commission will then provide annual recommendations to the president — a formal accountability structure that advocates hope will translate engagement into lasting policy change.
For military spouses seeking resources now, several federal and nonprofit programs remain active while the commission develops its recommendations. The Military OneSource portal offers free counseling, career support, and relocation assistance available 24/7. The MySECO program provides career coaching, scholarship information through MyCAA, and job search tools specifically for military spouses. For veteran and military family support organizations, Blue Star Families and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) continue to be leading advocates for policy change.
Military.net will continue to track the commission’s progress, membership appointments, and initial policy recommendations as they are announced. You can also explore our related coverage on military spouse resources, BAH and housing benefits, and career and employment tools for the military community.
The President’s Military Spouse Commission is a White House advisory body established by executive order on August 3, 2026. It is tasked with advising the president on policies affecting military spouses and families, and with providing annual recommendations to improve quality of life and military readiness. Its focus areas include employment, housing, healthcare, education, childcare, and deployment-related challenges.
The commission is chaired by Jennifer Hegseth, wife of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Christie Mullin, wife of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, serves as executive director. The commission’s 22 total members include spouses representing the service secretaries, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and each branch’s senior enlisted leaders.
The commission is directed to develop policy recommendations in the areas of spouse employment, housing affordability, healthcare access, education, childcare, and support during deployments and PCS (Permanent Change of Station) moves. Commission members will engage directly with military spouses to determine common areas of concern before making recommendations to the president.
Military spouse unemployment is driven largely by the structural demands of military life, particularly frequent relocations. Active-duty service members relocate every two to three years on average, which disrupts career continuity, professional licensing, and professional networks. Childcare gaps, underemployment, and the difficulty of maintaining remote work arrangements also contribute to the high rates documented in recent surveys.
According to the text of the executive order, commission members will serve without compensation. However, they may receive travel reimbursement, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as allowed under applicable federal law. Administrative and technical support for the commission will be provided by the Department of War.
While the commission develops its recommendations, military spouses can access a range of resources today. Military OneSource (militaryonesource.mil) provides free counseling, career coaching, and relocation assistance. The MySECO program offers job search tools and the MyCAA scholarship for eligible spouses. Blue Star Families and MOAA also provide advocacy support and community resources for military families.
Military.net is an independent educational resource not affiliated with the Department of Defense, VA, or any government agency. For official benefit information, visit VA.gov.
