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1 1 (January 28, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govebqd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Defense Primer: Active Duty Enlisted Recruiting Congressional Role The Constitution provides Congress with broad powers over the Armed Forces, including the power To raise and support Armies and To provide and maintain a Navy. In the exercise of this authority, Congress has historically shown great interest in military recruiting, which is critical to maintaining a fully manned and capable military workforce. Congress exercises a powerful influence on recruiting through its establishment of personnel end- strength levels for the Active Components and Reserve Components. Higher end-strengths generally require a greater number of new recruits, higher rates of retention among current servicemembers, or some combination of the two. Through its oversight powers, Congress monitors the performance of the executive branch in managing the size and quality of the military workforce. Congress influences the achievement of recruiting goals by the services in a number of ways: * authorizing military compensation packages that are competitive with civilian employers (e.g., basic pay, recruiting bonuses, educational and health care benefits); * establishing criteria that affect eligibility for enlistment such as age, cognitive, behavioral, and citizenship requirements; and * funding recruiting programs that provide for dedicated recruiters, market research, advertising, and military entrance processing stations. The policy levers most commonly used to manage recruiting include varying the number of recruiters, funding for advertising, and funding for enlistment incentives. When recruiting shortfalls occur, or are anticipated, Congress may elect to apply additional resources to these mechanisms. Likewise, when recruiting is expected to be strong, Congress may elect to shift resources away from these areas. Recruiting Without a robust ability to bring new personnel into the military, the Services would lack sufficient manpower to carry out mission essential tasks in the near term. Moreover, without stable recruiting levels they would lack a sufficient pool of entry-level personnel to develop into the mid-level and upper-level leaders of the future. To maintain a healthy military force structure, each Service sets goals for new personnel accessions each fiscal year for both its Active and Reserve Components. Officer and enlisted goals are set separately. For enlisted personnel, there are both quantity and quality goals. Updated January 28, 2021 Quantity Goals Quantity goals are typically based on each Service's projected need for new personnel (both officer and enlisted) over the course of the year to meet its congressionally authorized end-strength. Enlisted quantity goals are based on the proportion of congressionally authorized end- strength that a specific Service and Component allocates to its enlisted force, less the projected number of currently serving enlisted personnel it expects to retain through the end of the year. As a hypothetical example, assume a Service has an authorized Active Component end-strength of 200,000 total personnel, comprised of 30,000 officers and 170,000 enlisted personnel. If it projects that it will retain 140,000 of its current enlisted personnel through the end of the fiscal year, it might set a goal of enlisting 30,000 new individuals for that year plus a certain number more to account for those new enlistees who are separated before the end of the year (for example, for medical disability). The actual number of new enlistees needed may also change during the year as new projections are made about the retention of currently serving enlisted personnel, or if the Service must increase or decrease the total size of its force (for example, if a Service Secretary were to exercise the authority of 10 U.S.C. 115(g)(1)(A) to increase congressionally authorized active duty end-strength for that Service by up to 2%). Table 1 lists recruit quantity goals and results for FY2018- FY2020. Quality Goals Quality goals are only for new enlistees without any previous military service, also known as non-prior service (NPS) recruits. Two principal Department of Defense (DOD) quality benchmarks apply to NPS recruits. The first quality benchmark is the percentage of NPS enlistees who are high school diploma graduates (HSDG). The second quality benchmark is the percentage of scores above average on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT Categories I- IIIA). Since FY1993, the DOD's quality benchmarks for recruit quality have stipulated that at least 90% of NPS enlistees must be high school diploma graduates, and at least 60% must score above average on the AFQT. Supplementary ways to assess the quality of enlistment cohorts include the percentage of NPS enlistees who score well-below average on the AFQT (Category IV) and the number and types of enlistment waivers granted to enlistees for medical reasons, misconduct, or drug use. DOD regulations require that no more than 4% of an annual enlistment cohort may be Category IV (10th-30th percentile on the AFQT). In addition, no one in Category V (1st-9th ittps://Crsreports.congress.gt

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