Moldy and pest-infested housing. Lack of affordable childcare. Food insecurity.

According to a report from the House Armed Services Committee’s Quality of Life panel, all of those challenges are hurdles members of our armed services are facing every day.

“We talked to people who wanted to serve, but couldn't anymore because the military wasn't making accommodations for their family — and there are so many stories like this of people who want to serve, who want to keep serving, but we make it so hard for them to do it. And so this is really a readiness and recruitment issue,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., who serves on the panel.

Jacobs represents San Diego, which houses Naval Base San Diego, the U.S. Navy's largest base on the West Coast. About 20,000 military personnel and 6,000 civilians call the base home — not to mention those who live off base. 

“This is deeply personal to me and to the community that I represent. My community loves our country and serves our country. And I have to say, our country and our government has failed them,” Jacobs said.

Across 40 pages, the HASC Quality of Life panel, which is bipartisan, outlined recommended steps to improve life for members of the armed services and their families, including an increase in basic pay by 15% for junior service members within the E-1 and E-4 rankings, removing requirements for referrals when it comes to health care specialists such as physical therapy, optometry, women’s health and a basic housing allowance that covers 100% of the estimated costs.

A 2023 Rand report requested by Congress found that about 25% of service members are facing food insecurity. Shannon Razsadin, CEO of the Military Family Advisory Network — a nonprofit that helps to identify the needs of military families — says having a military force that has to worry about basic needs is a national security issue.

“When you think about the most basic need, like food, we have to make sure that people can put food on the table, put a roof over their head and not have to worry about that,” Razsadin said. “When we think about national security, when we think about force readiness, we know that military families have a lot on their plates. And we also know that we cannot expect readiness when we have a family who might be struggling to make ends meet.”

Razsadin said she and her team have been working with lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee to share research and insight into what service members and their families are facing. Razsadin, the spouse of a former service member and a mother herself, said she understands the challenges these families are facing.

All of it, Razsadin points out, goes back to compensation. 

“A lot of the well-being of military families is incumbent on their financial health and so seeing things like that, that pay increase, it will make a big difference for families,” Razsadin said. “And so when we look at the compensation package and we look at how military families are faring, the reality is that there are these nuances that military families must navigate, like frequent moves, challenges with military spouse employment. And so when we look at the pay parity and we also look at household income, it's more than meets the eye.”

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., has committed to making the Quality of Life panel’s report part of this year’s defense appropriation bill. The appropriations process is ongoing and is expected to take the better part of the summer to complete. Both Jacobs and Razsadin said they are hopeful due to the bipartisan nature of the report that it will be able to be enacted by Congress and give service members a much needed pay raise.

“While we know we have failed them for too long, there are many of us here who know that, who see them, who hear them, and we are working hard to fix it. And this report will go a long way, and then we have more work to do after that,” Jacobs said.

You can read the panel’s full report here.