Military Residency Choice Act

Mr. Speaker, my legislation gives military spouses the choice to establish the same State of residency as the servicemember, giving them the benefit of retaining the same State of residency for voting and tax purposes.

As the proud Representative of Fort Drum and the Navy site at Kesselring, which I visited just this past Friday, I have heard firsthand about the challenges that military families face, and I have the highest respect for the sacrifices these families make to help protect our Nation and safeguard our freedom.

Military families must relocate every few years due to their spouse's responsibility to meet the requirements within the military. They sacrifice a great deal during these relocations, uprooting their lives and disrupting their families, all while serving as the critical support system for their loved ones. This is often a difficult and challenging time, with the heaviest burden falling upon military spouses.

Current law allows Active-Duty servicemembers to maintain one State of legal residence for tax and voting purposes, even when servicemembers receive military orders requiring them to relocate, but this does not apply to the servicemember's spouse. Essentially, this loophole requires spouses to establish residency every time the servicemember receives a new assignment, adding undue stress and anxiety to military families already under the pressure of managing their relocation. This legislation fixes this inconsistency.

Military spouses serve, too, and this bill eliminates the daunting task of documenting multiple tax jurisdictions and helps reduce instances of military spousal unemployment.

Traveling across the north country in New York, I have listened to the sacrifices our military families make to keep our Nation safe. We have a duty to reduce these burdens they face.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill on a bipartisan basis.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 282) to amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to authorize spouses of servicemembers to elect to use the same residences as the servicemembers.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 282, the Military Residency Choice Act. The Military Residency Choice Act would change the way military spouses claim State residency by allowing a spouse to claim the same State of residence as their servicemember spouse, even if they have never physically lived in that State.

I want to commend Representatives Stefanik and Wittman for their work on this bill, and I will allow them to describe it in greater detail in a moment.

Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 282, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Stefanik), coauthor of the bill and my colleague on the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I encourage all Members to support this commonsense legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 282. This is a commonsense bill. It has received bipartisan support as it moved through the committee. It simplifies the process for a spouse of a servicemember to choose and change their State of residency for tax and voting purposes.

The bill is about removing additional headaches from servicemembers' lives and doing right by them. There are enough issues being a member of the military and for spouses and family. We don't need to add more to it.

This is a smart piece of legislation. It does exactly what it says it is going to do, and I support and encourage all Members to join me in support.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I again urge Members to support this smart piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.