Blue Star Families Celebrates Landmark Quality-of-Life Gains for Military Families in 2025 NDAA

BSF’s Advocacy Efforts Drive Key Provisions in the Law, Including Pay Raises, Child Care Access, and Spouse Employment Support

Washington, D.C., Jan. 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Star Families, the nation's largest and fastest-growing military-connected organization, marks the inclusion of essential quality-of-life provisions for military families in the newly signed 2025 annual defense law. These improvements, developed with guidance from Blue Star Families’ data-driven advocacy, address the most urgent needs of military families, including cost of living, child care access, and military spouse employment.

Informed by Blue Star Families’ annual Military Family Lifestyle

Survey and extensive engagement with the Congressional Quality of Life Panel, provisions included in H.R. 5009, the “Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025” law are:

• A substantial 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted, which will impact approximately 500,000 service members E-4 and below, and a 4.5% increase for the rest of the force
• Expansion of access to and capacity of military child care programs with child care fee assistance programs and competitive staff salaries
• Increase of the Basic Needs Allowance for low-income families meant to address food insecurity
• Employment support for military spouses including expanding child care for job searches, making professional licensure transfers easier, and codifying the Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot Program.

“Our mission has always been to give military families a seat at the table, voicing their needs and shaping effective solutions,” said Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families. “This year, we are especially pleased to see numerous quality-of-life measures included in the 2025 NDAA. Blue Star Families collaborated closely with lawmakers, particularly Representatives Bacon and Houlahan and the HASC Quality of Life Panel, to ensure the concerns of military families were understood properly and addressed. It’s deeply rewarding to witness such significant progress.”

Since the formation of the Congressional Quality of Life Panel in 2023, Blue Star Families has played a central role in briefing lawmakers, presenting research, and sharing firsthand accounts from military families. This collaborative work has led to concrete progress on pressing issues that directly impact military readiness and retention at a critical time for national defense.

Blue Star Families recognizes and thanks the bipartisan leaders in the House and Senate who championed these quality-of-life provisions to deliver needed benefits to military families through the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 recently signed into law by President Biden.

“Our work is far from over,” said Roth-Douquet. “We remain committed to advocating at both the state and federal levels to further enhance the quality of life and well-being of America’s military families, not only for their sake but to preserve and retain the All-Volunteer Force.”

For more details about Blue Star Families’ advocacy and research, visit www.bluestarfam.org.