JUST IN: Sparks Fly During Heated Armed Services Committee Hearing About 'Wokeness' And Recruiting

a recess at any time without objection so ordered I want to welcome everyone to this hearing of the military personnel subcommittee today's hearing is focused on recruiting shortfalls and growing mistrust perceptions of the US military I want to thank our Witnesses for being with us today I hope this hearing provides an opportunity for the members to have a productive exchange with our Witnesses and provide answers to their questions by all by all metrics the all volunteer Force has been a success it is the most highly trained proficient military force in the world but at 50 the all volunteer force is at a Crossroads in 2023 all military services except the Marine Corps and space force miss their recruiting goals although none of the three largest Services the Army Navy and Air Force are are healthy recruiting shortfalls are particularly troubling in the US Army last year the Army wanted wanted to recruit 65,000 active duty troops but ended up falling 15,000 troops short to Stave off worse losses the Air Force and the Navy offered extensive Financial bonuses and took a wide range of other one-time measures the Navy increased the maximum enlistment age from 39 to 41 in the Air Force to age 42 the recruiting crisis has multiple underlying causes not least of which is the proliferation of bad news stories about military life what parent or teacher would recommend military service to their son or daughter when the overwhelming perception is that there are rats in the barracks suicide rates are climbing opioids are everywhere the food options are terrible or inaccessible and there's a risk that your child could be raped or murdered and there's the administration's Pet Project focusing or forcing the military to be the guinea pig for their next social justice experiment even now when we see that the Dei has failed across the country increasing Division and hate ignoring Merit and now fostering rampant anti-Semitism this Administration still elevates social justice over our national security and the result is a steep loss in institutional trust in the services and recruiting numbers at their lowest point in 50 years there is one service that hasn't tried to bend to the culture wars the Marine cores the Marine Corps stayed out or stayed on message and has met their recruiting goals year after year the Marine success where every other service has failed is an indictment of this administration's failed social justice experiments from today's panel I want to hear how dod and the military services will provide a consistent message that emphasizes service and commitment and doesn't cater to woke theories I want to understand how each service plans to update their recruiting strategy to address gen Z expectations to familiarize a distant public with the military service and to improve service members quality of quality of life let me introduce our Witnesses The Honorable Ashish vasr Deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and Readiness The Honorable Agnes uh schaer assistant Secretary of the army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs The Honorable Franklin Parker assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs and The Honorable Alex Wagner assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs welcome but before we hear from our Witnesses let me offer ranking member Kim an opportunity to make any opening remarks ranking member Kim yeah thanks chairman thank you good morning everybody uh I absolutely agree look our military is facing its greatest recruiting shortfall since the Inception of our all volunteer force over 50 years ago so I'm glad we're holding a hearing on this very important topic there is no doubt that the dwindling connection between our nation's younger generations and knowing family or friends who have served in the military are influencing their willingness to put on America's in uniform so I'm interested in hearing from our Witnesses how they are engaging with Gen Z as well as on how they are being Innovative in recruiting practices to convey the value of service both in the military and throughout civil Civil Service also whether it's re-examining the medical standards or ensuring the right bonus structures are in place I want to know how the services are measuring the effectiveness of these efforts in ensuring we are able to recruit the best and the brightest we know there is a challenge we know this is a challenge money alone cannot solve so today I would like to hear how you're thinking out of the box to attract a generation of people who don't know of a world without iPhones or the internet regardless of what's in the news I believe all of us in this room want the same thing we want the strongest possible military to defend our nation and we should work together to foster a culture that encourages and Rewards Excellence creativity Innovation and critical thinking so our military can continue to meet emerging challenges around the globe I for one value the importance of Public Service be it in active duty or through Civil Service the brave men and women of our armed services are an inspiration and I know we need to support them and Military leadership to invest in our people and fully recognize who it is that keeps us safe thank you to the witnesses again for being here and I'll yield back the balance of my time I thank the ranking member each witness will have the opportunity to present his or her testimony and each member will have an opportunity to question the witnesses for five minutes we respectfully ask the witnesses to summarize their testimony in five minutes or less your written comments and statements would be made part of the hearing record with that Mr vas Rene you may make your opening statement morning chairman Banks ranking member Kim and distinguished member MERS of the subcommittee I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you this morning along with my colleagues to discuss the Department's efforts in this challenging recruiting environment and the need for a whole of government approach to increase the propensity of Young Americans to pursue service to the nation particularly through the military the nation's armed forces staffed by military professionals who choose to enlist or commission is the greatest fighting force the world has known and is the Bedrock of our national security we are here today because the all volunteer Force faces one of its greatest challenges since Inception in fiscal year 2023 the military services collectively missed recruiting goals by approximately 41,000 recruits and that number understates the challenge be before us as the services lowered end strength goals in recent years in part because of the difficult recruiting environment the causes of the recruiting challenges we Face are complex and multifaceted some contributing factors are shifts in the nation's economy and population others are unique to the military military recruiting is more difficult when the economy is strong because young adults have many more options we are also recruiting from a smaller eligible population 77% of today's youth would not qualify for military service without some form of waiver in addition more broadly members of Generation Z have low trust in institutions and are decreasingly following traditional life and career paths the military is not alone in navigating these challenges other national service programs for example americore and Peace Corp have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels College enrollment has also declined according to a recent Wall Street Journal norc poll 56% of adults said four-year College was not worth the cost from a uniquely M military consideration the creation of the all volunteer Force 50 years ago set in motion a decades long shift in who serves in our Armed Forces for example in 1995 40% of young people had a parent who served in the military by 2022 that number was down to 12% this has led to a disconnect between the military and a large share of society about 20 years ago just over a quarter of Youth had never thought about serving in the military in recent years more than half of Youth have never thought about serving in the military youth of today are not saying no to what the military has to offer they simply don't know much about military service while the picture of the current recruiting environment is acutely difficult the department and the military services are working together to resolve issues improve process es and expand awareness of the many opportunities military service offers with the support of and authorities provided by this subcommittee the US military offers an unparalleled value proposition for military service we provide our members with competitive pay and benefits prepare prepare them for Career Success in the military and Beyond and offer a meaningful and motivating Mission our messaging must convey that value proposition of military service beyond the tangible benefits that aligns with the career values of young people in the labor market we must reach today's youth where they are with a message that resonates with them and motivates them to act our marketing campaigns are more complex than in the past we are constantly refining to adapt to the everchanging digital landscape across different media and social media platforms beyond that we need the help of leaders Across the Nation including members of of Congress to make a national call to service especially for military service but also for National and public service we need leaders to talk about military service with their youth in their communities and ask them to learn about and consider serving in the military overcoming our recruiting challenges requires a national response with contributions from across government and the private sector over the last 50 years the all volunteer Force has proven itself to be the best way to maintain a force capable of defending our nation and with our combined efforts I am confident we will remain as such for the foreseeable future in closing I want to thank you and the members of this subcommittee for providing the opportunity to address this critical issue I would also like to thank you for your continued advocacy on behalf of the women and men of the Department of Defense and their families I look forward to your questions and working with the subcommittee to advance our shared goals chairman Banks ranking member Kim distinguished members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to appear before you on behalf of the men and women of the United States Army I look forward to our discussion today regarding the multifaceted root causes of our recruiting challenges as well as the datadriven plan that the Army is implementing to address those root causes and to transform our recruiting Enterprise while the efforts of the Army's great recruiting Workforce and the initiatives put in place over the last 18 months such as the Future Soldier Prep course and the be all you canb campaign have ensured that our FY 23 recruiting numbers were better than our fy2 numbers there is still work to be done in the early summer of 2023 the secretary of the Army and the chief of staff of the army established a team to conduct a 90-day study to identify ways to transform and modernize the Army's recruiting Enterprise the study looked at 25 years worth of recruiting data identified external and internal root causes of the recruiting crisis examined the recruiting structure and performance of our sister Services as well as best practices from the private sector and developed recommendations for how the Army could transform its recruiting Enterprise to better position itself as an employer of choice the study team identified the following external causes of our current recruiting challenge many of which factor into propensity to serve declining familiarity with military service declining eligibility lower propensity to serve in the military declining trust in institutions a strong civilian labor labor market uh labor market partic participation rates that are dropping uh higher numbers of Youth are enrolling in college right out of high school which is shrinking our Traditional High School Prospect market and covid-19 caused lower productivity for our recruiters due to loss of access to schools and also caused learning loss for students which decreased eligibility the study team also identified the following internal causes of the recruiting challenge the focus and practices of army recruiters have not adjusted to fundamental shifts in the US Labor Market and the talent needs of the of the army currently army recruiters are not selected incentivized managed developed veloped or employed in alignment with proven work workforce management practices the Army has historically prioritized meeting current year production targets at the expense of adopting uh to fundamental Trends in the labor market this has inhibited the development of new markets methods and Technology to compete for talent the Army has historically not Incorporated data collection and program evaluation design into recruiting policy planning and implementation and the Army's recruiting enter Enterprise contains multiple levels of hierarchy and lacks a single point of accountability for marketing and recruiting based on the study's findings and recommendations in October 2023 the secretary of the Army and the chief of staff of the army announced their decision to transform the transform the Army Recruiting Enterprise in five key ways the Army first the Army will expand the prospect Market that it focuses on and adjust the me methods used to engage with prospects second the Army will transform transform how it selects trains and manages recruiters by beginning a multi-year transformation third the Army will create an experimentation capability within our Army Recruiting Command to drive Innovation generate evidence-based insights and scale successfully Innovations across the the command fourth the Army will establish an evidence-based learning capability and the headquarters that will incorporate more data collection and program evaluation design into a sessions policy and planning and imp implementation and lastly marketing functions and the entire recruiting Enterprise will be Consolidated and realigned as a proposed Three Star Command that reports directly to the secretary in the Army Secretary of the Army and the chief of staff of the army chairman Banks ranking member Kim distinguished members of the subcommittee thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you and share with you how the Army is leaning forward to change its recruiting Enterprise I look forward to our discussion and your questions chairman Banks ranking member Kim and distinguished members of the subcommittee I appreciate this opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the Department of the Navy to discuss recruiting shortfalls in perceptions of the US military today we are facing our generation's biggest challenge to recru Sailors and Marines Co protocols and closures kept our recruiters out of schools for the better part of two years denying our access to the most productive recruiting venue now low unemployment a historically competitive labor market and a shrinking pool of eligible candidates makes recruiting even more difficult data shows young people are increasingly unfamiliar with military service and do not recognize it as a building block to a future career or as a potential career in itself we must reverse this trend friend we must better communicate the value of military service how we Empower our members to become the most successful versions of themselves and how we imbue them with technical professional and Leadership skills that will benefit them throughout their lives and their careers today's youth seek careers with purpose and opportunity a work environment that is comfortable and respectful and benefits such as work life balance job security and high income much of today's El population is focused on building a career Foundation early obtaining higher education gaining job experience and becoming financially stable these aspirations align well with military service in addition to the intangible benefits of military service a feeling of patriotism a sense of duty honor selfless service camaraderie purpose and character development military service offers many more tangible benefits stable employment in any economy compensation higher than 90% of Civilian peers of similar age and education competitive benefits packages a portable retirement program housing full medical coverage access to quality affordable child care morale welfare and Recreation programs Fuller part-time opportunities extensive travel opportunities education benefits both during and after service loan repayment programs college credit for completed training transferable skill sets and Leadership experience the department of of the Navy already offers generous education benefits via the 911 GI Bill tuition assistance and loan repayment programs recently we also established the United States Naval Community College to bring accessible Naval focused education to Navy Marine Corps and Coast Guard enlisted personnel enabling our enlisted service members to earn associate degrees and stackable professional certificates and enhancing the resources available to them we find the greatest atten to military service revolve around concerns about deployment service commitment and perceive negative impacts on physical and mental health many of these concerns reflect the inherent characteristics of military service and Maritime service in particular we ask our Sailors and Marines to carry out difficult stressful and potentially dangerous missions and deploy with their units and commands around the world to do what Their Nation needs when and where it is needed to ease this burden we Endeavor to provide Geographic stability limit limit permanent change of station moves and offer dual military Co oblation to the maximum extent feasible while incentivizing and rewarding those who take on our most challenging assignments however none of these efforts matter in a recruiting context if we do not effectively tell our story and communicate the value of the benefits of military service and our unwavering commitment to our people we Face a significant challenge but we are tackling it head-on as we do with any Mission I remain inspired by the exceptional and exhaustive work of our Navy amarine Corps Recruiters but they cannot do it alone we need your support both in Congress and in your districts to communicate the value of military service as an unmatched opportunity for life skills leadership development and a well-earned sense of Pride and accomplishment that positions our members for successful lives both professionally and personally on behalf of secretary Del Toro and the senior leadership of the Department of the Navy the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corp po thank you for helping us address these challenges I look forward to working with you to meaningfully support our service members and their families to communicate the value of military service and to Foster an environment where Young Americans can see a future for themselves through service thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and I look forward to your [Music] questions chairman Banks ranking member Kim distinguished members and staff of the subcommittee I'm I'm proud to testify today about the department of the Air Force's efforts to inspire and attract Talent from across the United States in order to remain the most lethal effective and collaborative Force possible one that deters our adversaries and inspires the confidence of the American people today's youth must view us as an employer of choice as well as recognize that service in the air and space forces offers a rare value proposition it provides opportunity it provides community and it provides a sense of purpose after 22 years of war with that sacrifice borne largely by those who fought and their families the vast majority of today's youth are unfamiliar with the military as Mr vasani noted 30 years ago when I was in high school uh 40% of Youth had a parent that served but today that number is under 133% along with the lack of awareness of the benefits and opportunities of military life this combined with historically low unemployment a strong private sector wage growth concerns about the risks of military service CO's impact on school access all has turned into a perfect storm creating the most challenging recruiting environment for our high-tech service since the height of the do com boom nearly a quarter of a century ago we consider fiscal year 22 our first postco recruiting year and although both the air and space forces met their active duty in listed recruiting goals the Air Force did so by borrowing into our delayed entry program known as our de as a result we recognized that we'd be relying on a lower de to start fiscal year 23 and so we took decisive action in January we convened a cross functional team to look under the hood and understand where our policies could be brought into better alignment with either updated DOD assession standards or the successful policies of our sister services with a Northstar principle of maintaining top quality Talent we sought to ensure we were in sync with our rapidly changing population examples include aligning our body composition standard with the dod standard allowing in recruits with small hand and neck tattoos for the first time and taking a fresh look at our forever ban that kept recruits who tested positive for THC from reapplying after evaluating the Army's experience with THC retesting the daf authorized a 2-year pilot program and Par it with heightened academic requirements in some these and other efforts resulted in approximately 2,900 new enlisted accessions in FY 23 that's 2900 highquality individuals with a propensity to serve that would have otherwise been excluded let me State unequivocally that the daff has not changed our high standards nor compromised the caliber of our applicants what we have done is simply expand the opportunity for qualified individuals to join our ranks these efforts allowed us to begin fiscal year 24 with an active duty Air Force dep that exceeded our goal the strongest of any service paired with filling 100% of our weekly basic training slots I can say that we are cautiously optimistic that we will achieve our active duty Air Force and space Force enlisted assession goals in FY 24 but to continue that momentum now and into the future we're going to need your help as trusted leaders in your communities we ask that you ramp up your efforts to engage your constituents and advocate for the opportunities that military Serv service provides the community that awaits and the sense of purpose that lasts a lifetime a stronger partnership will go a long way to shift the narratives away from the perceived risks of military service supercharging our recruiting efforts and grow Young Americans interest in the military with your support we will continue to build a team of teams taking advantage of the dynamic fabric of our nation and Transforming Our young women and men into Airmen and Guardians who exemplify and defend the ideals and freedoms upon which our country was founded with that I'm looking forward to your questions thank you to all of you um for your opening testimony I yield myself five minutes uh to begin questions uh in February the Associated Press obtained a summary of the Army's pulse survey which ranked the top barriers to recruitment based on public polling representative Waltz and I asked the Army to send us the underlying data and we never got it the Army said that they'd hired an outside polling firm with confidential methods so instead of the actual pull they sent us a vague summary Dr Schaefer what's the point of paying for a poll about recruiting if you can't share the data with the policy makers who are trying to actually fix the recruitment crisis I'll look into that I I wasn't aware that you didn't receive it okay we app we appreciate you looking into that and as I said we've asked for it we never got it uh Dr Schaefer I don't think the Army's survey was actually meant to fix recruiting though I I think it was a PR stunt Congress got the survey summary after the Associated Press reported about it and here's the associated press's headline quote Army sees safety not wokeness as top recruiting obstacle so it really feels like it's this is a PR move not a move in good faith working with the committee of jurisdiction and oversight that has tasked with helping you address this this major issue of the day so I wasn't surprised to find the actual polling data uh recently um that actually tells a very different story from the polling data that you guys released and worked with the AP to publish and to be trans AR I'm going to enter uh the findings and the cross tabs from a nationwide poll of military veterans by the American principles project into the Congressional Record so that you and anyone else in the public can actually access these results this poll which we can all read found that 73% of veterans believe that the US military has become too political regarding race gender and sexuality even worse a quarter of the veterans would tell a young person not to enlist and when those veterans were asked to explain why in their own words the most common reason was politics so why do you think those results are so different between the Army poll survey and another publicly available uh survey why why would it tell a different story I I'm not familiar with the survey that you're referring to it may be S sample size questions I'm I'm just not sure but but I will say that um we're looking across these surveys and I'm I'm worried about all of those barriers that they site um and so I don't think we should again this is a multifaceted issue and I think we need to have a multi multifaceted solution that addresses those concerns or misperceptions that people have um so I welcome any additional so this really recent survey says it clearly politics Dei wokeness is a problem problem um what's the Army doing to change that perception about politics being a a recruitment barrier well I think all of us um you know in in the military um all of us share this responsibility to be a political what what's the Army doing about it so I think I mean we we are demonstrating that we are being apolitical um I think our policies are are really centered around our service members um maintaining ready first and foremost quality of life issues um and trying to really get the message out about again the value of service so you're telling us that you're trying to express that the Army is apolitical but how are you doing it how are you doing that differently how are you doing that to to um address the issue that so many people are claiming is a is a real reason that people aren't joining the Army because I'm not sure why there is an underlying perception that we are political um I I don't know what that is and I think we need to dig into that more interesting um Dr schaer four out of five recruits come from military families and these veterans are saying the military is too left-wing and political and they're and they're telling their Rel relatives not to enlist because of it I mean would you disagree that wokeness is a top recruiting obstacle for the Army I if if people have that perception I think that we need to address it again the data that we have seen indicates that it's not one of the top concerns the top concerns remain uh concern about injury but you just said you agree that if it is a perception we have to address yeah I I I mean I think that if there are if there are issues out there that people are concerned about this gets at this the this gets at the sort of disconnection between the the country and the military right now which I am extremely concerned about I I talked about this sent my confirmation two years ago confirmation hearing we need to find ways to reestablish those ties to the country and if people are have concerns I think that we need to address them okay I I ask for unanimous consent to include into the record the on message survey to make it publicly available and without objection so ordered I yield to ranking member Camp yeah thank you Mr chair I mean look I agree with you Mr chairman about the need for data and I hope to be able to work with you all in terms of be able to get that and try to make sure we're being thoughtful and pragmatic but I I'll be I'll be honest with you Mr chair just dropping a survey that we've never seen before into a public hearing uh you know give us an opportunity to to really think this through and figure out what kind of message and and what kind of information we're providing to the American people and making sure that it is rigorous and credible uh so I just hope that going forward we can try to do that together and I'm willing to work with you and work hopefully with uh with the dod to make sure we have that kind of information that we know uh we can go off of and make real determinations on rather than just uh trying to trying to drop things at the last second here going forward uh look uh assistant secretary Schaefer uh I appreciate your testimony you talked through Five Points uh you said that that you're trying to change going forward and and that's something I wanted to dig at a little bit more because look we're seeing uh the challenges across all sectors of the workforce right now in the country all Industries right now about uh Recruitment and and being able to bring people in so I I guess I want to ask you in terms of those you know what are you learn and what specifically are you drawing from in terms of best practices whether they are from other government agencies but also from the private sector and in order to understand how we're going to be able to take on new Innovative uh uh practices when it comes to recruitment I I appreciated some of the details you provided but I want to just know you know what specifically uh can you layer on top of that to give us us an understanding uh of best practices here thank you for that uh question so we we did look at um uh best practices from industry um we met with large companies small companies to get a sense of how they are recruiting and how they are connecting with Gen z um and I think we we have done a lot of work on kind of the expectations that that gen Z has um and so clearly they are looking for purpose in their careers um that's what we keep hearing and we have that in Spades um they're looking for flexible career paths um which would cause us to sort of shift away from our hierarchical siloed career paths that we currently have um to more of a jungle gym model which is what they're they're looking for um so we are trying to infuse some more of that flexibility um they talk about the importance jenzie is very um interested in the relationship with their recruiters that's very important to them so we are making a shift towards a professionalized recruiting Force which is an industry standard right now we are are working off of a borrowed um Manpower model in which we pull people from different Specialties to become recruiters um and um we are we we're looking actually at the other services as well and and um one of the things that that makes the Marine Core um so effective in recruiting is that recruiting is um a path to leadership in the Marine Core you have to be you have to be a recruiter in order to um you know become the commant or the acmac yeah um and so that's how you bring in your best and brightest and so we are we are working on revamping the career paths for recruit recruiters as well thank you um assistant secretary Parker and Wagner I I want to ask you a lot of it we talking about bringing in new people into the full but what we know is that a lot of people join the services uh have family members uh or from military fam so I guess I want to just ask you what specifically are are you all doing in terms of that kind of Outreach and communication uh to military families to try to address some of these concerns that they may or may not have so we'll start with Mr per Mr Parker thank you R ranky member um we are definitely trying to reach out to families and to influencers influencers being teachers and Coach is there a particular cohort a particular section of the recruitment element that is specifically for military families um that's an area that we're definitely trying to reach into both through digital media and also with increasing access to schools as well which helps us get access to those influencers also and so we're trying to you we're trying to reach out in every way that we can we recruit in every zip code and so that allows us to provide recruiters but just just to my point like is there a specific team there's a specific component of recruiters that are specific to military families you know I'm not aware of a specific team of recruiters that that are focused on military families but I know it is an effort that we're trying to reach into to make sure we're helping to inform military families and also those other influencers yeah look let's let's follow back up I know I'm out of time but I'll follow back up with each of you because I I think that that's really critical in terms of how we engage thank you and I'll you back Mr Gates secretary Wagner I want to start by commending you you on the waivers that have allowed 2900 Americans to express their patriotic service in the military and not allowing one instance of THC use or one positive test result to Forever impair that service it's something I've worked on in a bipartisan way with members of this committee and frankly I don't even know that it should necessitate a waiver I hope that the good results you're getting from those Airmen will allow us to make even more progress on on that front thank you congressman uh we didn't do this in a vacuum the Army commissioned a ran study to make sure the quality of those who they assessed as a result of their waiver process uh was still high we put on additional restrictions during our pilot program the Navy is also using a similar OSD Authority in order to wave uh yeah I get the sense that these aren't that it's not being implemented exactly the same way in every service Branch I don't know if that should concern us maybe best practices will emerge but I do want to move on years will have really solid data and we'll definitely come back to you in this I look forward to it so there's this September 5th 2023 piece in Aaron space force magazine and it's titled in part whyde diversity should scare the hell out of our adversaries and uh I've never seen uh the the fear in someone's eye when they're confronted with diversity but um you're quoted in that piece saying that you don't think the military is political and we just heard chairman Banks go over this feeling in the veteran Community which is such a critical referral source that the military is political so I'll give you the opportunity to address the question that was uh that was asked to miss Schaefer right so congressmen members of the committee come to work every day politics is partisan politics never figures into any okay never is a hold on never is a strong word go ahead and put up the the text from Min not Air Force B I'm sure you're familiar with this in Minot Air Force Base this message goes out and service members are told that if they go to a turning point conference that uh that could jeopardize their continued service in the US military doesn't strike me that it's never political because that seems like a blatantly political threat against people's service Congressman so the good news is uh this was looked into and as I understand the fact and I believe a letter was delivered to you yesterday from the commander of Air Force Global strike command first this was based on on a incorrect information from a master sergeant that sent a text in unofficial channels to his peer group the text was then forwarded to the medical Squadron within an hour within an hour of that text being forwarded the unit the squadron commander first corrected it second noted it was a local political fundraiser third clarified that there were issues I've been to these they're not really fundraisers they're they're conferences for people who want to come to together and share their their views on politics I believe the Patriot the Patriot rally was a fundraiser there was a the Turning Point who was at the I mean that you're not saying that service members impair their their opportunity to be in the Air Force by going to a turning point action event right absolutely not and I fact so your argum rally was speaker a master sergeant who put out this text message improperly right based on incorrect information right that that was then corrected immed immediately by by by Squadron leadership that that that is a success story except in in so much as it creates this Theory or that people might not get formally reprimanded under some formal rule but that there's a cultural shift right now in the military that would that would even have someone think they could send a threat like this out I mean so don't you think I mean because when you say it's never political that seems to run a foul of this there are times when these this politics emerges and we kind of got to play whack-a-mole to ensure that we have an apolitical fighting force but I mean doesn't that concern you the way I read the text Congressman it appears that the security Force Master Sergeant was acting on incorrect information didn't F thoroughly how does that happen how does someone end up acting on that incorrect information and then disseminating a message like this well as I understand it was an informal text sent to members of his peer group um do are you familiar with the matter of Oscar Rodriguez who goes to a retirement ceremony he wants to reflect on God and faith in that retirement ceremony uh with the US Air Force and then is removed um forcibly from the ceremony for making mention of God is that something case you're familiar with Congressman I'm sorry this is the first time okay great well I seek unanimous consent to enter this bright part reporting into the record on on the matter Mr chairman and again you know just another example where I know we got to play whack-a-mole but when people feel as though attending a turning point event or referencing God might bring some punishment on them uh that can impact some of the recruiting we're talking about without objection thank you Mr chairman Neel back thank you uh for the opportunity to speak about this subject I think for the third time this committee has spent time on this issue of recruitment but really the the conversation is about the politization of the military when I served in the military I was a registered independent because I had been raised by my father and my grandfather to not express or articulate my political views in any ways while serving an active duty and the thing that I'm struggling with right now is the fact that we've been given this piece of um of of survey uh with unknown Providence and uh with 50 plus questions to be able to process without any advanced notice I had the opportunity to read a few of these questions and I would question the interpretation of said questions an example would be question number 14 in your own words why wouldn't you encourage a young person to join the military only 3.8% of the responses were wokeism uh the chairman indicated that there was an indication that that was somehow connected with politics or political climate that was a separate response and that response was indeed 16.7% that doesn't reflect anything about a person's political affiliations whether maybe they're a Democrat a republican an independent I can tell you that while I served active duty I felt as though the military my peers were too political as well so I would have responded in that way to this question another question was question 15 please tell me if you agree or disagree with the following statement recently the US military has become too political with regard to things like racial equity and gay and trans issues I also would have responded to this as a Democrat yes it was too political because leaders like these are standing in places like these and politicizing our military rather than really thinking about the service and the requirements the quality of life of people who are raising their hand to protect and defend another question question nine says in your opinion what is the single most important issue facing the military today the single most important issue if you summarize is leadership and Recruitment and Retention that would comprise about 28% of the responses if I look for those things that this panel on the right side is looking for 1.7% 1 7% said Joe Biden 3% said Democrats 3% said liberal issues 3% said requiring vaccination so if we're really going to hone in on these 50 plus questions of information we need to be thoughtful in the way that we interpret the data as somebody who not only served in the military but is also an engineer and a stem professional it really matters what questions we ask it really matters how we interpret those questions and I'm kind of sickened by the fact that we're now at the third time having this conversation about recruiting and rather than actually listening to the genu genuine experts here who are saying it's complicated because indeed it is complicated we are still marching out these kinds of bright Bart you know uh the Providence unknown uh questionnaires I am enormously frustrated that this committee has not spent its time really thinking about the quality of life issues that our men and women and and those who are thinking about being uh part of the service are facing um and I I have have no questions I'm just going to yield back the remainder of my time thank you Mr chairman um today's kids are glued to their phones they receive their news from social media apps YouTube Tik Tok Facebook Snapchat Etc uh if these apps use algorithms that send these kids down rabbit holes uh showing Non-Stop videos of let's say mold infested barracks barracks and other failures of our milit uh I'm going to ask you to take this for the record what steps are each of the services taking to basically combat the issue of the let's just say misinformation for whatever reason it's Mis some some of the younger generation think it's entertaining this is the entertained generation and we can't expect anything different but I'd like to know what steps you are using if any and the answer might be no to combat the negative press if you will the negative influence that the the young um age eligible military uh potential military uh uh accessions might be consuming now during the senior enlisted uh perspective hearing on March the 9th we discussed the lack of PR pensity to serve I mean there's enough data out there says okay there's there's a lower number of young people being you know and in and influencers who say you should you know at least spend a little bit of time in the military at that hearing I had asked each service to take for the record if their recruiters are being welcomed uh by the schools and we're largely talking high schools here not colleges high schools um by the Board of Education the teachers the counselors the coaches Etc uh um assistant secretary Parker uh the response I received from Department of the Navy was some high schools only allow access once a year uh again how many high schools in the Navy's recruiting locations are restricting access and we're going to take this across again take it for the record because you I'm and you don't have those numbers at your fingertips how many high schools uh uh in the Navy's recruiting locations or however they're spread out because your recruiters travel um are restricting access and what can we do to ensure that you and every Service uh have as much uh access as possible this when you look at the total number of of of a sessions officer and enlisted is it a fair statement to say that if you got 100% of the the numbers you're trying to recruit the majority of those are enlisted is that a true statement we don't have to say just ahead not it'll be fine so when you think about that we can or you can develop the tactics techniques and per procedures as we would say [Music] to focus on that and I'm I'm guessing you're probably talking anywhere after the age of 16 or 17 uh to get into the the minds of those fine young men and women who quite honestly at that age really are clueless about how the big world really works and what op opportunities could be good bad or indifferent for them After High School uh I believe we're missing a great opportunity here to focus our resources and where we can help especially you know under chairman bank's leadership uh this this subcommittee has for the past year tried to work with the Department of Defense and all the services to see what we can do to help you get the job done and not only get the numbers up but get the it's it's it's yes it is about the number but if you assess the wrong people they're not going to make it through MPS they're not going to make it through basic training they're not going to go on so it is about lighting the fire uh inside those those hearts and minds of those young people um so that they will say h I think I'd like to talk to the recruiter again I believe we are missing an opportunity here to work together and I I time wasted is is time lost with that Mr chairman I yeld back good morning and many thanks to our panelists for all of your work for the time that you've taken to uh assess how to best meet the challenge that we face today and for articulating just how complex and multifaceted this issue really is I want to associate myself with the comments that my colleague Miss hulahan made this is my third term in Congress and I have been privileged to serve on the house arm Services committee for each one of those terms and I've served on this subcommittee from the beginning of my tenure in Congress I long for the days that we really collaborated and worked together on addressing the real issues that are facing the United States military and our active duty service members but as Miss holahan stated instead there this seems to have become a vehicle for promoting Breitbart News and uh agendas around politics it really is no wonder that so many people think that Congress can't get anything done for the for the last year we've not been addressing real issues in fact that may be why the chairman had to create a separate quality of life panel so that we could try to get our work done through that vehicle I will say Miss Schaefer thank you for the time that you've spent talking to me I I am so privileged to represent Fort Bliss and am in frequent communication with our uh Army leadership and with active duty service members um and we've had great conversations around how to address this challenge that we face it is no doubt a real challenge but I think a couple things that I want to remind us of number one uh as a member of armed the armed services committee I've had an opportunity to travel abroad and as I've talked to our friends and allies uh uh around the world they too are facing recruitment challenges this is not an America only issue and and frankly the more time we waste on the bizarre Focus uh uh that we've seen this Congress the the less time we have to truly think through real answers um miss schaer you and I just so that I can articulate this publicly you and I had conversations about how to really connect with younger people what I hear in my district especially when it comes time for uh uh my conversations with high school and younger people they frequently tell me I wish I had known about the military sooner and I know there are limitations around Recruitment and age but there are really creative ways uh that I have seen employed by military leadership in my community uh ways to really connect with grade schools um with younger students so that they get a glimpse of what their future could look like and the options that do exist Because unless they are familiar and and many of you uh talked about familiarity as an issue unless you are familiar unless you have a relative unless you have friends unless you are exposed to the opportunities around military service frequently it just it's not a consideration and um I look forward to those continued conversations I don't have a question this is the third time we do this so that we can talk about wokeness in the military uh we will continue to have our one-on-one conversations and through the quality of life panel so that we truly can uh be successful in this Arena thank you all for all of your work and service thank you Mr chairman um you know often folks from Guama recognize for their unusually high rates of military service and young people continue to enlist and a large portion of my constituents are also veterans and I myself am a product of the University of Guam army RC program which really helped me out by the way so despite we have some great enthusiasm for enlistment uh for our services there are opportunities shortfalls that we experience from our perspective recruits in Guam for example historically Guam was only able to submit four nominees for our serviceis uh compared to five nominees in other jurisdictions are entitled to so I had a build out there it's called the Guam service Academy equality act which I'm very happy and pleased that it was incorporated into the ndaa as a fix uh so this issue gives Bright Young students from Guam a fair opportunity to serve in the military which I continue to advocate for uh there's other opportunities out there uh especially regarding the um for military services especially regarding the Army's Future Soldier Preparatory course so secretary Schaefer you mentioned briefly about it and I just want to hear you expand upon this as well for the Future Soldier Preparatory course how it helps the army recruit new soldiers and is the op and my biggest question is the opportunity available for students at Guam thank you for for that question sir um so we we instituted the Future Soldier Prep course as a way to sort of open the aperture um we realized that there were eligibility issues and we wanted to help um more folks meet our standards um and so there's a physical piece as well as an academic piece um um and we have seen um it it's been very successful so far we've had about um 10,000 participants so far there's been a 95% graduation rate um and we have seen both um B body fat composition decrease so they can make our physical standards as well as ads VAB score scores increase um so this was originally a pilot um it was only offered at uh Fort Jackson um and earlier this year we expanded it to Fort Benning so those are the only two places right now where it's available but it's available to anyone um who's eligible uh it's very I think it's very helpful especially for those that want to um increase their their testing results and look at other other things they could qualify for it and especially moving it up through the uh senior ranks but more importantly get them into the officer core as well with the academy so we want to recruit as we heard here to recruit the best and the brightest is and want to advocate for these opportunities that are available so we can strengthen our forces so I thank you all for being here today thank you thank you Mr chairman i y back thank you very much m m Mr chair um in reviewing the testimony today it was not a imely obvious to me that the department and the services are uniformly recruiting in a way for the service members that we need for the battlefields that we expect in the future the perception of military service and what it means to be a service member seems to be based on what was very different from what it means to serve today and especially going forward into the future um that includes service members that not only reflect the diversity of our country but also the interests and the skill sets that will allow us to fight more effectively across all domains including intelligence space and cyber I'm also worried that given the past and current challenges in meeting our recruitment goals uh coupled with attrition that we are facing a growing Gap in our ranks and that will overall impact our Readiness posture especially as we enter critical periods of intense strategic competition and potential campaigns amongst multiple theaters uh to the entire panel today would you please elaborate on how your department is thinking about recruitment in the long term especially to ensure that we are going to be bringing on the type of recruits that can can meet the challenges we will face in the future and are we seeking to fill the gaps through potentially untraditional recruiting methods or recruits you mentioned a few but for example older recruits college graduates working Americans looking to upskill or res skill um so you can elaborate on that please representative if I may start um uh you we as as we look at uh building for our National Defense we recognize that people really at the core they're the foundation of Our National Defense and we continue to look for the best and the brightest um and so the Way That We are continuing to expand that um is is thinking about one how do we appeal to those young people who have these varied interests um to continue to have programs that develop the workforce so we have programs that are developing stem for example Starbase uh programs which help to develop the stem field and grow that part of the workforce um we we also look to create greater levels of thought diversity Geographic diversity racial diversity gender diversity so that we can draw from the best and brightest of America and so in doing that we've expanded our Outreach and the work that we do through our marketing programs to connect with young people with authenticity in a transparent manner that requires multi-channel marketing it requires a level of frequency that will break through the noise that many of these young people and we heard from from a number of the the uh committee members that there's a lot of uh that H how young people gather their information all of that noise so we have to break through that and by doing that we have to spell out the value proposition of how young people can start a profession in the military the military is a great opportunity to either start a career carry out a career or launch a career because many people develop through the military whether it's getting technical skills or leadership skills so that's one of the things that we're doing from an OSD perspective and that feeds into the way the services engage with young young people as well and I'll defer to my colleagues to talk specifically about what each military service is doing thank you so much for that question so when I started at ran 16 years ago I um started out as a strategist and I bring that I'm at I'm at my core of strategist so I'm thinking about the long game on this um and right now I am building the army of 2030 and the TW and 20 240 and so I am thinking about the skill sets that we need as we pivot to multi-domain operations and how do we effectively maintain our Readiness as we do that um so we are opening our one of the things in our transformation is that we are opening the aperture um on our Prospect Market because we realize that we need higher level skill sets for cyber and these kinds of things we have a cyber jrc pilot in which we are trying to um help citizenship um and also expose folks to the opportunities in the Army for things so those these are the kinds of things we're doing thank you um and I appreciate I'm sure I'll get the responses from the others perhaps later at another time but in the interest of times I completely agree with you miss Schaefer we are looking for higher leval skill set so I do think we need to expand our Market not just to high school students which I think is important and college students but also those that have perhaps left higher education are now in the workforce because those are valued skill sets and individuals that could really start to fill the gaps that we are seeing now I did want to touch upon one more thing in the testimony it was noted that 33% were disinterested in military service due to the possibility of sexual harassment and assault one in three discrimination we look back at old records 2017 31% of black service members 25% of Asian service member said that they had been harassed or assaulted during their service time this is something we can control we can't control whether they think they're getting paid enough or they're worried about physical or mental harm but not being assaulted discriminated sexually abused that is something within our purview so I would like to know exactly what we are doing to eliminate this as one of the deterrence we are facing to recruiting people into our military service thank you Mr chair yield back thank you Mr chair for uh for again digging into this important topic and I think we've heard uh some I don't know some statistics some some grumbling on the other side of the aisle that you know we're we're having another wokeness hearing um I just want to restate again uh that when Cadets military families active duty members stop bringing us these issues then we'll May then we'll stop talking about it but as long as they are we have a we have a duty to to uh to address these issues so I want to just talk about data and what data you have or don't have um because what I'm looking at uh just along those lines that I just discussed is poll nearly seven and a 10 active service members have witnessed politization in the military uh we have uh another poll from Heritage that 68% uh have witnessed significant or somewhat political activity uh in uh the military we have 63% of active duty members say they would not recommend their uh their child to join that's a double hit that could be a retention issue isue and uh a recruiting issue we have a report on the national independent panel of mil of military service and Readiness we have the Reagan Institute where the Secretary of Defense and chairman just spoke perceived politization drives declining confidence in the military the top response is military leadership becoming military leadership becoming overly politicized with 62% this includes 60% of registered Democrats 60% of Independents 65% of Republicans saying that this leadership is overp politicizing what should be an apolitical body that's an issue we have to address that issue so I asked last year all of the vices many of them now are the Chiefs uh and all of the senior enlisted uh advisers if they had any data pulling uh focus groups for recruits and why they're not joining and and what's going we have a lot of narratives that you've all espoused covid declining uh uh declining bodies or what have you but does anyone disagree with the vice Chiefs that they that you don't have uh regular polling and regular focus groups representative Walt uh we we do regular polling um through our Jammers uh we look at and we engage with young people to understand what drives propensity and why they would not serve um for for example for reasons why they serve they they they join for pay and for money and for education and for the benefits and for travel and for health benefits all of those positive things but the reasons why they do choose not to serve is fear that's pulling people that join I'm looking at a recruit that may have signed up may have clicked may have talked and then didn't representative that's we're actually looking at the the community of people who are um that were going out to recruit and trying to understand what drives them as well and so why why are reasons not to join fear of injury and death uh the risk of post-traumatic stress um and is that what what day does this poll because all your Vice Chiefs now Chiefs said we don't do it so so and now I've got think tanks that are doing it so sir chairman i' I'd be h i mean represent Waltz I'd be happy to come and brief you on this research it's research that we do annually and continuously in Geographic markets but why is the military leadership unaware of it why can't they speak to it including the senior enlisted advisers you know representative I will take that on that that should be my respons so let me ask you this just in the in the little bit of time I have remaining I don't mean to uh to cut you off uh why do we have with the Army in a recruiting crisis 50-year low what drove what data drove um the uh excuse me the um the calling which was a cartoon of a young lady with two moms that basically you know uh said you know and then she and then she joined is there a is there a body of lgbtq or of service members with lgbtq parents that that we were targeting and if so what was that target audience and how many then joined Miss Schaefer sir this predated me I'm familiar with the commercial but I I don't know the Genesis of it or why they wasn't that the main recruiting effort for the Army for at least a year because it's now shifted the the calling was was before me Congressman if I could jump in on this two years uh 2022 and 2021 of gallop polling nationally shows that 20% of Young Americans under 25 consider themselves part of the lgbtq community that's exactly the market that we're looking for do you collect then I mean Air Force or Army do you know how much of the Air Force or how much of the the Army identifies as lgbtq what percentage uh I'll I'll take that for the record so you don't know I don't know off hand but U you knew the gall Pole but you don't know within your service do you collect that data I don't believe that we actually ask I don't you do minors uh within our was there a body within the military that then you know that you wanted to be sure felt comfortable because this was the main effort from the Army and they're 45,000 short Congressman our recruiting is trying to reach the broadest swath of the American people possible when large percentage as identify we want them to see wag not working gentle it's not working and now the Army is has had a wholesale shift back to jumping out of planes and kicking indoors which I would argue historically is what soldiers want to do so I'm trying to get at what data is driving this shift thank you Mr chairman for your Indulgence Mr Horford thank you chairman Banks ranking member Kim thank you to our Witnesses uh for appearing before the committee I want to bring this back to um what I think the issue is at hand which is to support our service members their families and to recruit uh qualified and capable individuals to help protect our national interest and our defense I'm proud to represent a district that includes Nellis Air Force based cre Air Force Base the Hawthorne Army Depot and I've met with service members and I know just how honored they are to serve our nation what I want to see happen is that they feel proud proud of their service that they spread the word and that they continue to add to your Recruitment and ret retention efforts and so I appreciate first of all uh all that you are doing not only uh in recognizing the shortfalls that we're facing but some of the actionable solutions that we uh hope to discuss today so for the panel can each of you tell me what your number one recruitment is issue is very briefly representative Horford the the number one recruiting challenge is is that we there's a disconnection with the military there's a lack of familiarity young people who uh are qualified to serve just don't know what the options are in the military and so we need to do a better job collectively not just the department not just the services but collectively all of government uh leaders in the community so lack of awareness lack of awareness the the same with us and in our case it's historical um we had a lot of our installations in the northern part of the country bracked in the 80s and so we have huge swats of of the country where there is no Army presence and folks don't see people in uniform walking down the street they can't answer ask them questions about what it's really like lack of familiarity awareness and fil familiarity okay absolutely and the answer is the same for the Department of the Navy as well that lack of awareness that lack of familiarity and that's part of the reason a lot of this Outreach is so important because that enables us to help educate the public on the value of military service and what it can offer them thank you Congressman I'll associate myself with my colleague's remarks lack of familiarity is the most important thing but but what what's important to realize is that once people become familiar they want to join they understand the benefits of service they understand the opportunities whether they be educational Financial they understand the community that being part of a team but also being part of a bigger team a team of teams as I mentioned in my opening statement and why that matters and the data proves it we've got historically High rtion you I I have a limited amount of time uh honorable Wagner I did want to follow up to your opening statement where you discussed a variety of improvements how will the recruitment strategy for the Air Force evolve over the years to attract candidates to meet uh those goals Congressman what we want to do is we want to optimize what we've done but we can't take our eye off the ball what we know is that gen Z gets their information from very different sources than we do so what are we doing about it we're trying to meet them where they are we're right now leveraged across a whole swath of streaming uh streaming video channels Netflix Hulu HBO now Paramount plus first second we're also working to advertise and streaming music whether it be sound SoundCloud or Spotify third we're even looking at interactive gaming activation activation blizzard we're looking at uh twitch and other platforms where young people are spending the majority of their time and finally we're leveraging influencers that young people want to be like want to mimic and tune into whether it be on YouTube or other places thank you Dr schaer in today's testimony you discussed your services new recruitment strategy by identifying shortfalls I especially I especially support the idea of having a specialized recruitment arm to focus on that priority can you discuss any special programs or incentives that are in place or will be in place to attract recruits with unique skill sets like stem or language proficiency thank you for that question sir we we've already put some in place um we have given a bonus for those who want to raise their hand um and volunteer um to to join this new recruiting Force um and I think uh uh we we talked a little bit earlier about the fact that we are um establishing a new Workforce and a new Pipeline and a path to leadership with this and that I think in itself is going to be an incentive thank you I just had uh my interview session for our military academy uh recruits uh over the past weekend and this is what we talked about exposure awareness connecting them to people who represent uh those Services I'm proud of those who seek these opportunities and I think we should spend more time trying to break down those barriers rather than creating more cultural Wars that divide us thank you and I yield back thank you Mr chairman you know we talk about the various reasons for our recruitment shortages and we continue to list CO as one of those key examples even though the dod Inspector General has released a report saying that Co can no longer be utilized as a reasoning for the recruitment shortage so I want to make everyone to be a little bit more mindful in your statements when you're actually continuing to utilize this unless you disagree with the Department of Defense inspector General's report you know I I'm I'm looking at where we're at and I think that it's unavoidable when I'm talking to many service members who are currently in the military and those who are leaving that have expressed concerns over the military's use of Dei initiatives uh do you think these service members in the 9000 who were in my unconstitutionally purged out for refusing the covid vaccine would speak positively and uh help with recruitment efforts whenever they feel that this is actually an issue for them representative Mills I I uh first of all I just want to um focus on that you know the service members that we have in today um you know the value proposition that we offer them today seems to be sticking because we we don't have a retention issue uh with with respect to service members who were discharged for refusal of covid vaccine I I wouldn't want to speculate on what they would say um I'm I'm sure that if for as many people that were discharged they we would have as many different perspectives on on what their view of their military service was well I appreciate that I mean look it it it's not as if that's the only thing that is hinging upon but I just find it a bit odd that we continue to utilize this in our opening statements into some of my colleagues points we brought this up three different times we keep utilizing as excuse for recruitment efforts to go down and I don't think that's actually going to be accurate um I also want to if I can just continue on and by the way um I want to thank you for your service uh in military I know you wore the uniform as well um just out curiosity by show of hands how many of you actually had served in uniform one person you know you talk about the significant importance you give especially you Mr Wagner the raw ra speech of how great serving in the military is yet you've never actually served yourself so don't actually know how far we've fallen from where we actually used to be where we prioritize things like increased lethality Readiness and being properly equipped and instead now focus on the diversity equity and inclusion of our military you know we talk about the fact that we have a great retention but we also don't talk about the fact that we've actually lowered standards and that doesn't actually make us for a fighting in stronger Force when you talk about push-up in two mile standards that's been lowered when we talk about the Navy who's lowered their entrance exam requirements on their aqft test uh now offering various waivers but what I would say is and I agree with one of the key points that you talk about we have to increase and support a better quality of life for our service members we have to ensure that the pay is in line to make sure that they can't make more serving as a waiter somewhere or a waitress somewhere and that they actually have a good quality of life not just for themselves but for their spouse and their families and I think that's a very key issue which is all the more reasons why when we submitted all of our requirements under the ndaa I was shocked whenever the Senate came back who democratically run with only a 5.2% increase in our E1 to E6 knowing that under biomics we have just sitting on the military bases alone a 20 plus% increase in inflation on our quality of life for for basic goods and so I will say that I do agree with you in the fact that we need to do more with increasing the rate of pay to increase quality of life but also the allocation of milcon that would enable our bases to have better affordability and availability of housing but also not having our barracks and our actual buildings who are falling in soldiers especially in areas in Indo paycom that has a level five corrosion level that we see has been completely ignored for quite some time um speaking of the military uh benefits and things do you believe that our military benefits uh and and just going into what I talked about about lowering standards uh do you think they benefit by taking the approach of lowering standards rather than addressing issues headon Congressman I just want to make sure I understand is your question about the benefits or is it no no it I'm just saying do you think they benefit from the lowering of standards that that that's the the question itself Congressman I I I would uh a comment and then defer to my colleagues as well but I don't believe that we're lowering standards um I think that but I actually have examples where we are in fact lowering standards both on the push-up of the two mile standards the aqft test standards where we're actually offering more waivers so I I I don't know that you can say that we're not lowering physical fitness standards when in fact that's exactly what we're proven to have done Congressman just a few weeks ago I I took the Army Combat fitness test it is a very good test of Fitness it tests a range of of uh capabilities and strengths that uh that align with the war fighting that's required so uh sir I'm I'm not sure that we we see that uh change in the fitness standards the same way well I would argue that whenever you're actually proven to have lowered the push-up in two mile standards adding additional uh minute on the two mile standard lowering push shs by one for example for females in the military but I would also just offer one thing which is that we talk about our actual inability to try and be ready for things but when you're having drag shows and prioritizing Dei and you're thinking about all these types of things and you're ridiculing people for TP action rallies and saying it's apolitical that probably has a big recruitment deficit as well on the way that we actually view our military with that I yield back Miss Strickland thank you chairman and ranking member I serve on the bipartisan and quality of life panel and I appreciate my colleague raising issues around housing pay and also child care and spouse employment all those things contribute to the household income of those who serve and I know we want to collect quantitative information but qualitative information and word of mouth is one of the strongest recruiting tools as well um I want to talk a bit about how you are handling the HR function with recruiting I know that there is an attempt to professionalize it because a lot of people who are recruiters aren't necessarily professional HR people and I think given where we are in this centur and the diverse pool of candidates from which we must pull if we're going to have a strong military is very important so I'm going to start with you miss schaer can you talk a bit about how the Army is professionalizing the HR function and how you think that will better address the recruiting needs we have so we we talked about this a lot um as we were going through the transformation process um and HR really has become so technical at this point um and we have you know a lot of Moss's over 100 um and so we we talked about is it better to have a generalist go out or a specialist um and ultimately we looked again at at industry standards um and they have a professional recruiting Force um and rather than just sending out an email to somebody saying you're going to be a recruiter um we wanted to develop a talent pipeline for that specifically great well thank you and then I would like to ask um each of you could you tell me the one thing that you are doing right now to improve recruiting we'll start with you thank you for that question uh there are a range of things and as we talked about this is a complex problem so there's not a single Silver Bullet right um I'd say the one thing that is critical to what we're doing is this National call to service we do need to increase awareness of the opportunity and options for young people in the military we do need for people to understand all of the benefits of service and the value of service whether that's for a one-term enlistment or for a full career 30 plus years that's an area that we have a great opportunity to help raise that level of awareness if we can get if we can drive that awareness if we can change perceptions and then get some consideration the recruiters the professional recruiters and the recruiters that are out there in the field then have an opport opportunity to then grow into the detail of what particular MOS what opportunities are there for you but this is an area that we need help from Congress from uh our our our sister agencies the Department of Education the Department of Labor from from leaders at the state and local level to talk about and and and in corporations there are a number of of uh employee resource groups that are veterans and to get veterans out there in the community and talk about how did military service change their lives it changed my life it gave me an opportunity to serve in a different way it it helped me to learn how to address problems in a much more structured manner it helped me to build a career uh in in taking advantage of all those skills and then bring all of that back to serving military families and that's an area that I think we need to do more yeah I talk about the friends that I went to high school with who joined the military right after high school served 20 years and now they have another career and they're doing very well financially with Secure Retirement Miss schaer and I've got about a minute and a half left so if you so I would just say it's this this enormous transformation effort um we really wanted to look at ourselves see what we needed to change and move forward on changing it um this is one of the biggest transformations in the Army um at least over my TW my 20 plus year career um and I'm incredibly PL proud of the the systematic way we went about this great Mr Parker I'd say it's various efforts to improve our eligible pool our eligible population of folks to serve um one of the things that we started up this year was a future Sailor Prep course really modeled on the Army model and that's something that's been very helpful and successful to our us and so really looking at various ways to expand that eligible population and then um and then further Mr V rani's Point really kind of reaching out expanding that Outreach as well that's another way really to expand it by recruiting in every zip code and also finding other ways to reach our people and tell authentic stories of what it means to be a sailor or a marine thank you Mr Wagner congresswoman um I think it's a two-prong appro approach first uh we've got to be everywhere in this diverse country including places as far away as Guam and American Samoa to tell stories with targeting targeted uh industry best practices to get out there and to be available and accessible but we've also got to look under the hood as I talked about in my opening statement we took a look at things where we were not optimized and I'll just give you one really quick example our composition standards in the Air Force were different than OSD standards and so we aligned them to meet what OSD allowed then we tracked those recruits who came in under the different standard 1,400 of them of those 1,400 that would have otherwise been excluded only one failed to uh pass their physical fitness test at BMT so this is a su a success story but what we've got to do is look externally to what we can do to reach the broadest proportion of our population and internally where we can update things that we haven't taken a look at in quite some time great well thank you for your comments and I yield back Mr chair uh thank you Mr chairman I first want to Echo our Witnesses statements that uh addressing our military recruitment challenges will take a whole of government approach and we all play a critical role in that I firmly believe that military service is an unmatched opportunity for leadership skills for personal growth and a sense of accomplishment and I take pride in the responsibility of nominating students from my district each year to the militarys and hosting an annual job fair where I encourage all the services to attend and set up tables to inform and to uh provide Outreach as a representative of Alabama's civil rights District I know that we must address today's challenges through a lens of diversity and inclusion because we want to make sure that our military reflects the beautiful tapestry of this nation Mr Wagner I couldn't agree more with your testimony where you state quote if we do not intentionally invest in growing Pro in growing proximity among young men and the nation's young women and the nation's fastest growing racial and ethnical ethnic groups we risk the future of the all volunteer Force diversity and inclusion is not a woke game it is a mission critical to our national security the polarization and attacks on diversity and inclusion from across the aisle all while 41% of our military as part of a minority group hurts our military recruitment efforts and is a distraction from the actual issues at hand to the honorable uh Deputy under secretary do you believe that diversity is America's strength and can you share the Readiness benefits of having a diverse military force representative Su thank you very much uh I do believe the strength of America comes from our diversity um and and that I I I firmly believe that I think I'm an example of that and I think my colleagues are example of that um we are committed to cultivating a force that recognizes and Embraces and leverages the strengths of these different people and different perspective Ives um we also know that by embracing that diversity we will bring in Talent from the breadth of America what that requires is that we then need to focus on equity and inclusion which will then enable those service members to perform at their best and that will improve our war fighting capability we have seen and there are studies out there that say that that the lack of diversity actually degrades B Battlefield performance and so it's critical that we have a breadth of talent and a breadth of capability and that we integrate that talent and that those people who serve Bel feel that that that sense of belonging to that greater purpose and that mission so ma'am I firmly believe that that the diversity is our strength thank you sir um to you Mr Wagner I think that if communities of color saw more diverse more diversity within our leadership uh POS positions in the military then they would be more likely to serve what steps is the Air Force taking to recruit diverse candidates into the officer position and how are you utilizing our rooc programs especially those at HBCU to create a pipeline of diverse candidates who can rise through the ranks congresswoman what we know is you can't be it if you can't see it and so last year we took steps to update a 2014 document which went to how are we putting our resources to recruit officers into our force uh we were looking at expanding the applicant pool of people who were interested in applying whether it to be the service Academy or through RC which is a non-traditional way of applying as you know it requires the nomination of members of Congress Etc this resource drill designed to appeal and enhance and increase familiarity will help us Target communities that have often been ignored and so we are focused on expanding the pool of qualified applicants let me be absolutely clear Merit Merit is the sole qualification for admission to the US Air Force Academy it's the sole qualification for an rooc scholarship but if we don't intentionally set aspirational goals to try to recruit a diverse office officer Corp we're never going to start that pipeline so one day someone can get through the system and become the first black Chief of Staff of any Military Department uh and military service like General Brown was before he was confirmed as chairman we're never going to have a chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force like Joanne bass we've got to start early we've got to have people see that you can be it and then we have to take proactive steps to get our message out and not only a message but fund that message with resources consistently amen I yeld back the balance of my time I want to thank all of our Witnesses and committee members for for participating today this is a very important hearing a very important topic we all agree a 50-year um on the 50th anniversary of an all volunteer Forest a recruitment crisis that we've never seen before some of my colleagues complained a third Committee hearing talking about the same subject well I guarantee you next year we're going to dive into the subject even more than we already have because it is just that important that we solve it and what we're doing right now is failing as we've talked about before and as I said before uh the all volunteer force is at a Crossroads we we if we continue down the same path EV valuing radical ideologies like Dei over National Security the recruits will continue to dwindle um these are the real issues one of my colle colleagues I think Miss holahan uh said the focus is bizarre to talk about it but in fact accusing our veterans and new recruits real concerns as bizarre is offensive and it's offensive to anyone that wants to address these recruitment issues with wars in the Middle East and Europe and China seeking a strangle hold on the Pacific America's national security is in real danger and we don't have the luxury to keep failing at communicating a message that resonates with the Americans who want to serve our country and that's what this is all about so thank you very much for your time the important service that you provide to our country the committee is adjourned

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Length: 93min 6sec (5586 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2023