Attention Military Spouses:Congress needs to hear from you!

Attention Military Spouses!

YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED IN CONGRESS IMMEDIATELY.

The House of Representatives recently passed the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. This bill, if it passes the Senate, will apply the same rules of residency to military spouses that currently apply to their active duty service member (so you would no longer have to worry about changing your driver's license, vehicle registration, voter's registration, etc., every time you move). The idea that we should be penalized for these moves WHEN IT IS THE MILITARY that is choosing to move us is ridiculous. Military spouses, like service members, simply go where the military tells them to go. The hardships associated with these frequent moves should be ALLEVIATED by Congress, not perpetuated.

Shockingly, the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act is currently BEING CHALLENGED by the DoD as it is being considered by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. If this bill does not get approved by the VA Committee, it will never get voted on in the Senate and thus never become law.

This is your chance to make a difference and to be heard. You need to call the Senators that are sitting on the VA Committee. Ask to speak with their legislative aide about the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act. Tell them that "the committee needs to support the Carter Military Spouse language." For some reason, the DoD does not believe that military spouses should have the same residency protections that service members do. Obviously, Military Spouses for Change disagrees with the DoD on this.

It will not cost the federal government anything to make this bill a law. It will not cost the Department of Defense anything. All we are asking for is a reprieve from the practical and financial burdens of having to change our state of residence every time the military decides to move our family. Either that or the military should start giving our married service members the option of staying at one duty station for his or her entire career. Since the latter is unlikely to happen, then the federal government should at least move to provide us with the same legal protections it provides our service members since we are no more immune to the change of duty stations than he or she is (absent divorcing or separating).

Print out the numbers below and take the time to call each office and tell them that military spouses deserve the same legal protections that their service members get when it comes to state residency laws. They say that the military recruits a service member but retains the family, well this is a step the federal government can take toward doing that.

Please forward this email to other military spouses you know and/or post on message boards and blogs!


Akaka, Daniel K.- (D - HI) (202) 224-6361
Aide: Lisa F.

Brown, Sherrod- (D - OH) (202) 224-2315
Aide: Diane Wilkinson

Burr, Richard- (R - NC) (202) 224-3154
Aide: Kevin Tuess(??)

Craig, Larry E.- (R - ID) (202) 224-2752
Aide: Patrick (Nielman??)

Graham, Lindsey- (R - SC) (202) 224-5972
Aide: Adam Brake

Hutchison, Kay Bailey- (R - TX) 224-5922

Isakson, Johnny- (R - GA) (202) 224-3643
Aide: Lauren Walter (along with Houston Ernst)

Murray, Patty- (D - WA) (202) 224-2621
Aide: Joshua Jacobs

Obama, Barack- (D - IL) (202) 224-2854
Aide: Ruchi Bhowmik

Rockefeller, John D., IV- (D - WV) (202) 224-6472
Aide: Clete Johnson or Barbara Pryor

Sanders, Bernard- (I - VT) (202) 224-5141
Aide: Janko Mitric

Specter, Arlen- (R - PA) (202) 224-4254
Aide: Will Wagner

Tester, Jon- (D - MT) (202) 224-2644
Aide: James Wise

Webb, Jim- (D - VA) (202) 224-4024
Aide: William Edwards

Wicker, Roger F.- (R - MS) (202) 224-6253


Your ally in progress,

Carissa Picard


--
Carissa Picard, Esq.
President
Military Spouses for Change
P.O. Box 216
Copperas Cove, TX 76522