At Fort Liberty, President Biden signs order to help military members and their families

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Joining Forces was co-launched by Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.

FORT LIBERTY — President Joe Biden visited Fort Liberty on Friday afternoon and signed an executive order to support military-connected families.

Several hundred service members and their families stood by as the president sign the order amid the camouflage-draped walls of the post's Hercules Fitness Center.

“The most sacred obligation America has is to prepare those we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home or deploy,” he said during the signing ceremony. “Today we’re taking an important step to — towards fulfilling that obligation.”

Biden described his order as “the most comprehensive set of administrative actions in our nation’s history to support the economic security of military families, veterans, spouses, caregivers and survivors.”

‘It matters to our military recruitment and retention.  It matters to our troops’ readiness and resilience, and it matters to our nation’s safety and security,” he said.

The order aims to provide “more flexibility, more support and more resources,” Biden said.

What the order does

The executive order, officials said Thursday, has 20 actions designed to eliminate employment barriers and increase economic opportunity for military and veteran spouses, and for caregivers and survivors.

Biden said the order encourages all federal agencies to retain military spouses with policies such as flexibility when a spouse’s service member changes duty stations or allowing a spouse to work remotely if their service member is stationed overseas.

It provides resources to military spouses and includes “exploring new federal options like grants and loans for military spouses to start and sustain a business,” the president said.

The order also allows military families to seek legal  assistance tied to employment and requires new training for federal human resource directors related to hiring military spouses and veterans

“Finally, it provides more resources to improve military families' access to quality, dependable and affordable childcare,” Biden said. “Today, we are celebrating the implementation of the affordable Care Flexible Spending Account.”

How military families inspired order

Tiffany Zoeller, who introduced Biden to the crowd Friday, is among the military spouses who the order is aimed to benefit.

Zoeller said she has been a military spouse to Sgt. 1^st Class Lee Zoeller, who is stationed at Fort Liberty, for five years, and the couple has two sons Jaden, 9, and Jackson, 3.

Zoeller said she is also a federal employee who works at Womack Army Medical Center in the Advanced Education General Dentistry Program.

She said she was able to get the job through the  Military Spouse Hiring Authority. 

Video: Watch President Biden’s speech and executive order signing ceremony at Fort Liberty:

“I’m personally grateful for the recognition and support the Biden administration is giving to military spouses and their families … this support is so important to allow families like mine to thrive while our loved ones are serving in uniform,” she said.

First lady Jill Biden said the order was based on feedback from military spouses through the Joining Forces initiative.

The mission of Joining Forces is to support military families, veterans, caregivers and survivors.

The initiative, co-launched in 2011 by then-second lady Jill Biden and then-first lady Michelle Obama, provides active-duty military and veteran families support, educational resources and health and wellness programs.

“Even though every story is unique, again and again I hear the same thing — that you’re proud of your family’s service, but you miss the careers that you’ve had to leave behind; that you’re stuck looking for work that doesn’t put your education and your experience to good use; that you take the jobs you can get even if you don’t want them because, well, there are bills to pay,” Jill Biden said Friday to those gathered.

The president told the crowd that he remembers his late son Beau’s deployments to Iraq and Kosovo. Beau Biden was a major in the Delaware Army National Guard when he died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.

“Jill and I never forget that military spouses, caregivers, and survivors serve and sacrifice as well,” Biden said.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Biden visits Fort Liberty, signs order to help military families