Latest executive order establishes military spouse commission

(The Center Square) – The latest executive order signed by President Donald Trump establishes a military spouse commission to address quality of life issues for military families. 

War Secretary Pete Hegseth and wife Jennifer Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and 18 military wives joined the president for the signing in the Oval Office on Monday.

The commission is expected to develop recommendations on various issues impacting military families’ well-being, including housing, employment, health care, education and child care. 

“We say often, and we mean it: No soldier, no marine, no member of the joint forces serves alone,” the secretary said. “If [the] warfighter knows that their family is good to go, they will go the extra mile, which is what our nation asks.”

“This is not a window dressing effort,” he added. “This is going to be full speed ahead to address the quality of life issues we can.”

Jennifer Hegseth will chair the commission, and membership will include the spouses of senior military leaders, including the Army, Navy and Air Force secretaries, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Coast Guard commandant and others.

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Trump said the order was long overdue “by decades” and highlighted that service members received a “warrior dividend” of $1,776 and a pay raise in 2025. The secretary said that the $1.5 trillion in military funding the administration has requested from Congress would include a “generational investment” in things like barracks, military housing, healthcare and pay. 

Since 1983, federal law has required an annual adjustment to military basic pay. By default, the adjustment is tied to the Employment Cost Index, though the president or Congress can enact a lower or higher raise. Basic pay increased by an unusually large 4.6%, 5.2% and 4.5% over the past three years. Before 2023, the last time the annual adjustment approached 4% was in 2009, at 3.9%. 

The administration's fiscal year 2027 request is the largest defense budget request ever submitted to Congress.

The White House appointed Desiree Sayle, who has worked as a deputy assistant to former President George W. Bush and to Trump, among other roles, as the commission’s executive director.

Sayle said the military wives gathered in the Oval Office had “over 400 years of experience” as active duty military spouses and had “probably moved over 300 times.”

“If you can imagine that level of experience coming to this commission and solving real problems for the future of our military spouses and families – it’s just an incredible thing,” Sayle said.