Advocacy
Current Advocacy Initiatives
MSCC is the voice for military spouse owned businesses all over the globe, check out our current initiatives.
It’s Time to Amplify the Voice of Military Spouse Business
Lend Your Influence
We are working on a lot of initiatives ourselves, and in collaboration with a number of organizations. To make positive impacts we believe in “the more the merrier” ideology. There is room at the table for your voice.
Submit Your Ideas
We fly very close to the sun here, sometimes there are issues lurking right under our noses that we may not have thought of. Please email hello@milspousechamber.org to submit your ideas for initiatives we can help you advocate for.
Joining Forces
Joining Forces is a White House initiative to support military families, which includes: families of service members and veterans, caregivers and survivors. A primary focus of the initiative is employment and entrepreneurship for military spouses. We are serving in this initiative as the authority on military spouse-owned businesses.
Uniformed Service Members Absentee Ballot Act
This effort to amend a proposed bill is spearheaded by our friends at MSJDN. The original bill aims to ease the voting process for military service members by way of submitting absentee ballots electronically. However, this bill is not inclusive of military family members. MSCC signed on to support MSJDN’s letter to include military family members.
HR 6347 - Military Spouse Entrepreneurs Act
The bill HR 6347 (if passed) would create a pilot procurement program to recognize military spouse owned businesses with advantage in federal government contracting. MSCC has advised, endorsed, and advocated for this bill from soup to nuts and are hoping for a positive outcome!
Military Spouse Entrepreneur Reimbursement Act
The Military Spouse Entrepreneur Reimbursement Act (if passed) will provide reimbursements for qualified costs directly related to PCS orders including: business licenses or permits, moving services for equipment, equipment removal, new equipment purchases, information technology expenses, and inspection fees. MSCC advised/endorsed, and is hoping for a place in the next NDAA!
2021 Year of the Military Spouse Entrepreneur
The 2021 Year of the Military Spouse Entrepreneur is a social awareness campaign designed to drive awareness and support to military spouse owned business. We are advocating at the highest levels to have “Military Spouse Owned” become a recognized category both in the private sector Billion Dollar Roundtable and public sector for government contracting.
Cal. AB 1179
Employer Provided Backup Childcare Benefits (Carillo). California employers with over 1,000 employees would be required to offer 60 hours of paid backup childcare benefits to employees. This benefit would resolve a major childcare issue, increases employee retention (especially of women), and only costs the employer ~$50 per employee.
HR 4991
Our COO Jaime Chapman is working to include military spouses as a beneficiary of G.I. Bill benefits, unused by the service member, to financially support entrepreneurship ventures. In H.R.4991 the Post-9/11 Veteran Business Acceleration Act, allows service members to elect fincial assistance to establish a business in lieu of educational assitance through the pilot program.
Military Spouse Co-Working Spaces
Our team members Stephanie Brown and Jaime Chapman have been working on an initiative with the Army’s Soldier for Life program to establish co-working spaces on Army installations across the nation. We’re looking at you Navy.
AAFES
Our CEO Stephanie Brown has been working on an initative to get military spouse owned products into AAFES (Army and Air Force Exchange Service). Through The Rosie Network, Stephanie has been working to bring qualified veteran and military spouse-owned products into the AAFES supplier diversity chain and the AAFES National Diversity Veteran Small Business (NDVSB) eMarketplace.
Military Spouse Entrepreneur Task Force
Maria McConville, wife of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, created MSETF to tackle the Home Based Business registration process, and SOFA barriers for overseas military spouse entrepreneurs. Thanks to MSETF, our founding team met and decided to create the Military Spouse Chamber.
Why Advocate for Military Spouses?
The Needle Hasn’t Moved
%
Unemployment remained statistically unchanged from 2012-2019 at a rate of 22-24% before the pandemic with estimates as high as 38% during Covid-19.
Military Spouses Have Spoken
%
Of ALL MilSpouses are Self Employed, Business Owners, or Aspire to Be
%
Of Milspouse Entrepreneurs Feel it's Right for Their Family
%
Of Milspouse Entrepreneurs Would Hire Other MilSpouses
Nearly half of ALL military spouses turn to business ownership or self employment as a viable career option. Of over 2,000 military spouse entrepreneur respondents, 87% believe that entrepreneurship is the right choice for their family.
Not a Small Niche, but a Mighty Force!
There are roughly 12 million military spouses…
Spouses of Current Service Members
Spouses of Veterans in the U.S.
Milspouses who are are Unemployed
Military Spouse Owned Businesses
Breaking Down the Numbers
12.2 Million – Military Spouses in total, defined as the spouse of a veteran or currently serving member of the U.S. Armed Forces.
18.8 Million – Veterans. Nearly 60% are married equating to approximately 11.2 million veteran spouses.
Nearly 1 Million – Spouses of currently serving Active Duty, Guard and Reserve service members.
22 – 24% – Military Spouse unemployment rate — This crisis-level percentage was PRE-pandemic! Estimates for post-pandemic are as high as 35%, but we do not have clear data after the onset of COVID-19.
Currently employed military spouses are related to an increase spousal support to stay in the military.
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