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Military Spouse Employment and Economic Opportunities

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Key Message

Many military spouse professionals must relicense each time they transfer with their active-duty spouse. As states implement the provision of the Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act, they can help military spouses maintain professional and financial stability by enacting licensing compacts and ensuring that licensing agencies make their application processes accessible to military spouses.

Analysis

Occupational licensure compacts provide consistent rules for licensed practitioners to work in other states. The military provisions added to most of these compacts assist military spouses by establishing a home state for them to hold a license and granting them the privilege to practice in all other compact-member states.

Statistic

On Jan. 5, 2023, President Joe Biden signed into law the Veterans Auto and Education Improvement Act of 2022 (H.R. 7939). Section 19 contains the Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act, which intends to provide for licensure portability among all 50 states for all service members and military spouse licensed professionals, except for the practice of law.

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