Last week I had to privilege to accompany two of my favorite Army Wives to Frankfort, Kentucky and appear along with our State Representative, Tim Moore before the Labor Committee of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Our purpose was to support through testimony the change in the unemployment compensation provided to military spouses who have to voluntarily leave their place of employment to follow their spouse to a new duty station. Specifically, if you are interested, to changes in the language of KRS 341.370 in Section 1.
Currently, if a spouse married to a soldier who is stationed at Fort Knox and is transferred to Fort Campbell, both of which are located in the Commonwealth, then she or he may be deemed ineligible for benefits.
One of our former Resource Coordinators, Kerri fell into this gap. Her soldier-husband received permanent change of station (PCS) orders from Fort Knox, Kentucky to Fort Campbell, Kentucky and after arriving, getting the house unpacked, (across the state line in Tennessee) she begin looking for work and after applying for unemployment benefits found out that she was ineligible.
The reason they gave her was that she had “voluntarily left her employment and had left the state, then later the state of Tennessee included in their denial the rationale that moving as part of a PCS did not constitute a valid reason for voluntarily leaving employment”. The current Kentucky statue will not support an unemployment claim in states that do not have similar statues. In other words, Kentucky will only provide unemployment benefits to spouses who move to a state that will reciprocate in kind.
Another Resource Coordinator, Christin, is facing the same issue, only her husband is being PCSed from Fort Knox to Fort Drum, New York where they don’t honor the unemployment benefits clause from Kentucky, so again, the military spouse is treated especially unfair.
During our testimony, I asked Christin where her husband was, the answer was Kandahar, Afghanistan, ending up his fourth combat tour. I asked the same question of Kerri, and her similar answer was that he was at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, Louisiana, preparing for deployment to Afghanistan this summer, which will be his fourth combat tour.
During his testimony, Rep. Moore, a former Air Force Officer and C130 pilot with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan reminded the committee of the sacrifice that the families are already making, and that as a part of helping shape Kentucky to be a “military friendly” state that this was a gap in the law that should be addressed quickly. Earlier this year, the legislature had passed a bill that ended state income taxes from being withheld or paid from Kentucky citizens who are serving on active duty.
Rep Moore also brought to light that Kentucky is not the only state that doesn’t recognize the situation of spouses moving with their servicemembers and that Kentucky could help set the right example for other legislatures to do the right thing. I agree with him, hopefully some of you might call and ask your elected officials how military spouses are treated in similar situations.
Several of the committee members expressed their appreciation for the service of the families of the two Army Wives, and even went so far as to apologize for this obvious unintended effect of the current law.
The Chairman of the Committee came up to us after the session ended and was very emphatic that he would push to get the bill to the floor where he felt very confident that it would pass overwhelmingly and correct the situation in the favor of military families that serve in the Commonwealth.
I was very proud of the two ladies for standing up and telling their stories. I was also proud of our legislative process and our Representative for doing the research and taking the appropriate action to make the lives of our military families just a little bit better. Often when USA Cares is working a case there is an issue with one or both of the breadwinners being unemployed and not receiving benefits that they might or should be entitled to be receiving.
USA Cares does not lobby for any particular bill or party or any individual, but what we have done in the past is to highlight issues that should be reviewed and possibly acted on, and provide background information as requested to support changes in laws and attitudes. This opportunity was no different.
I would ask anyone that reads this blog to ask their State Representative about the Unemployment Benefits and Entitlements to military spouses for their states, and if it doesn’t seem fair, then ask “why not?”
I will post a note when we find out what happened here in the Commonwealth, and I would be very interested to find out what you have learned about your state’s attitude toward these very special families who serve our nation so proudly.
Roger Stradley
Radcliff, Kentucky
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