Bill on spouses’ rights during moves awaits Obama’s signature - Family resources for Marines | Marine Corps Times

Bill on spouses’ rights during moves awaits Obama’s signature

Landmark legislation giving military spouses the same right enjoyed by service members to pick their state of legal residence has cleared its final hurdle in Congress and is on its way to becoming law.

The Military Spouses Residency Relief Act would affect issues ranging from driver’s licenses and vehicle registration to voting rights, property ownership and taxation.

The chief House sponsor of the bill gave credit to two military spouses, Rebecca Poynter and Joanna Williamson, for getting the attention of Congress on the issue. “It’s their baby, and they should be recognized,” said Rep. John Carter, R-Texas.

Poynter and Williamson, both entrepreneurs, complained to Congress in June 2008 that they had difficulty maintaining their businesses while following their husbands from base to base because of residency laws.

The legislation goes far beyond helping spouses like them, to include mundane issues such as not having to change driver’s licenses and auto registrations after every move, to more complicated issues such as property ownership.

Poynter, an Army spouse and public relations specialist now living in Dallas, said she and Williamson, a Navy spouse in California, approached Carter for help because he represented the nation’s largest military community at Fort Hood, Texas.

Later, the two visited every Senate office and helped organize phone calls to each member of the House of Representatives from the more than 8,000 supporters who joined them on the issue.

The bill on its way to President Barack Obama for his signature is not Carter’s legislation, but a similar Senate bill, S 475, introduced in February by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

“Our military families are often called on to make frequent relocations, and it is only fair that we give the same residency benefits to spouses as we do to service members,” Burr said in a statement.

What the bill does

Voting rights: Military spouses will not lose the right to vote or register to vote in a state as a result of a military move. They could decide to register to vote at their new locations or keep their voting registrations in the old states, even if they don’t plan to return, said Joy Dunlap, family issues expert for the Military Officers Association of America.

Automobiles: A spouse will not have to change a driver’s license or auto registration when moving to another state. Some military couples try to get around the auto registration issue today by keeping only the service member’s name on the registration; that will no longer be necessary.

Taxes: A spouse will neither lose nor acquire a residence for tax purposes by entering or leaving a tax jurisdiction while accompanying a service member who is moving as a result of military orders, as long as the residence is the same for husband and wife. This applies to income taxes and personal property taxes. In some cases, this means couples no longer will need to hire accountants specifically to work out paying income taxes or property taxes in multiple states.

Property rights: Residency requirements related to land rights, such as mining claims or homesteading, will be suspended for spouses just as they are suspended under the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act for military members. As such, a spouse will not have to assert land rights over public land until 180 days after the member is released from military service. Dunlap said the change also makes it easier for spouses to retain property in their own names, which has wide effects, including executing wills and credit issues.

Discuss: This story