The Pentagon suspended CAA enrollments last week, citing concerns about
the potential cost because much larger-than-expected numbers of spouses
were enrolling.

Congress authorized the CAA program last year to authorize financial
support to help military spouses with education, training, and
certification/licensing expenses needed to offset career disruptions
caused by military-directed relocations.

The suspension has left 38,000 applicants hanging, with no viable
alternative. The abrupt suspension jeopardizes the tremendous goodwill
and appreciation engendered among spouses for this extremely important
program.

Additionally, my spouse is one of the 38,000. She was entering her class
codes into the system to complete her application at 5 pm one evening and
saw that they had shut down the program only 1 hour earlier. We couldn’t
believe it – she had already been told by program officials by email that
she had been approved for the program. She is concerned, as she has
already enrolled in the courses and will have to pay, regardless of how
the program turns out. In fact, she is concerned that the University will
collect and then by her paying, will make her ineligible for MyCAA funding
which is to be handled directly between the Federal government and the
University.

Please ask your members of congress to contact the offices of the Caucus co-chairs, Reps. Sanford Bishop
or Cathy McMorris-Rogers by noon Monday, March 1 to join in signing the
Caucus letter.