U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Olivia Cowart
On May 19, 2026, ROA urged the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel to exercise oversight of preparations to implement Section 623 of the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act and to include the Reserve Forces Travel Fairness Act (H.R. 7593) in its Military Personnel markup of the FY 2027 NDAA. Watch the hearing here.
In a letter to Chairman Tommy Tuberville and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren ahead of the Subcommittee’s hearing on Department of Defense personnel policies and programs, ROA noted that Section 623 amended 37 U.S.C. § 452 to authorize full reimbursement of travel expenses for reservists traveling more than 50 miles from their permanent residence for inactive-duty training and other reserve duty. The provision takes effect January 1, 2027, and ROA urged the Subcommittee to confirm the Services are positioned to implement on time and to identify any ancillary budgetary impacts so adjustments can be addressed before execution.
ROA emphasized that Section 623 addresses only part of the cost-of-service burden carried by Reserve Component members. The most recent publicly available Status of Forces Survey of Reserve Component members indicates that the average drilling reservist performs approximately 109 hours of uncompensated duty annually, a 23 percent increase between 2017 and 2019.
The Reserve Forces Travel Fairness Act would close a persistent gap under current Joint Travel Regulation provisions, which reimburse reservists who rent vehicles for mandatory training 150 miles or more from home only for travel days, not the days the vehicle is actually used. H.R. 7593 covers the full training period plus one adjacent travel day on each end.
“Section 623 is a meaningful step, but the cost-of-service problem facing Reserve Component members is larger than any single provision can address,” said Maj. Gen. John B. Hashem, U.S. Army (Ret.), Chief Executive Officer of ROA. “Implementing Section 623 on time and advancing H.R. 7593 in this year’s NDAA cycle will deliver real, durable relief for the citizen warriors who carry these costs out of pocket.”
ROA’s analysis of enacted appropriations from FY 1999 through FY 2026 finds that Reserve Component per-capita military personnel costs run at approximately 0.31 times equivalent Active-Duty costs, generating approximately $63.4 billion in FY 2026 savings alone and roughly $1.3 trillion cumulatively. The travel-related costs at issue, ROA noted, are well-justified against that fiscal advantage.