"An E-1 right now even with the 5 percent raise last year and the 4.5 percent increase in this President's budget request is still $22,000, $23,000 a year."
"If you ask an 18-year-old if he wants to go work at In-N-Out for $22 an hour or join the Army for the equivalent of $12 an hour you are going to get 95 percent of them going to In-N-Out."
"I see our biggest near-term tactical threat is our open southern border, and obviously the biggest strategic threat, which I treat as an existential threat to our country, being China, as well as our ..."
"You all know my number one priority is our troops, especially our junior enlisted, E-1 through E-6. They are the most precious, they are the most potent, and they are the most powerful weapon system t..."
"Last year, we missed our recruitment numbers, retention numbers by a net 41,000 personnel, recruits across all the services."
"I was encouraged that the President signed my military licensing, Spouse Licensing Relief Act, into law, and I think that helps."
"We passed, out of HAC-D, a bill that took the starting salary for an E-1 from $22,000 to $31,000, which is the equivalent of $15 per hour."
"We passed a piece of legislation back in December of 2022, that was actually signed into law by the President in January of 2023 on the Active-Duty side called the Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act..."
"So now you have got an Active-Duty family going down to a single income for 2 to 3 years wherever they are based."
"I would like to expand that and enable that on the authorizing side with HASC to get that to apply to the Reserve side."
"I think getting that dual income, allowing the spouse to be able to stay in the workforce, but then the collateral benefit of also having that community..."
"If we can get the local communities to pay for that second income to augment the total household income and get quality of life above the poverty line, then we can save American taxpayer dollars."