The Military Spouse Residency Relief Act (Senate Bill 475 and House Resolution 1182) has the potential to impact military families in a variety of ways, including several provisions that will have an economic impact. It is coming up for a Senate hearing on Wednesday, April 29th. This would be a great time to contact your legislators and let them know how you feel about this bill. If you are able to call or write, or even attend the hearing in DC on Wednesday, you would participating in our government at the most basic and important level - letting our elected officials know how their constituents feel about the issue upon which they are deciding.
At it's heart, the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act will allow military spouses to choose to maintain a home-of-record like their active duty spouses do - a single place for the entire family to pay taxes, register to vote, and maintain their automobile registration and driver's registration. It will make life more convenient and less expensive for military spouses who move due to their sponsor's reassignments.
I admit, there isn't a lot in this bill that will impact me personally. We've organized most of our affairs such that we don't have too many problems - my husband is the sole owner of both of our vehicles, and I maintain my driver's license and voter registration in his home-of-record state (and haven't run into any problems yet.) If it passes, I will surely be glad to file just one set of income tax documents, and it would be nice to put my name on the title to a car once in a while (meaning one less Power of Attorney to worry about.)
If you are on Facebook, the Military Residency Relief Act has an information page here. If you click on the NOTES section, there are sample letters and lists of the bills' co-sponsors.
There is a lot of information on this bill, and I didn't want to make this post five miles long. You can google it, or comment, or email me for more information.
