President Obama praised his wife, Michelle, and Dr. Jill Biden on Saturday for successfully streamlining a previously complicated process military spouses had had to go through to transfer their professional licenses to other states.
The Independence Day version of the weekly address celebrated the sacrifices of military members and their families as well as reforms in all 50 states to simplify the transfer process many spouses must go through when relocating to a new base or location.
“Our troops are often transferred from base to base. It’s part of the job,” Obama said. “And because their families serve with them, that means their spouses move 10 times more often than the rest of us. Ten times more often. That’s tough on a career. And more than one in three of these spouses works in a profession that requires a professional license or certification.”
As part of the White House’s Joining Forces initiative, Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden rallied governors and state legislators to change the certification processes to make it easier for military spouses to quickly get a job and remain in the workforce.
Spouses will no longer have to take recertification classes, pay fees for new licenses or meet other standards they have already met in other states’ tests.
The president vowed to take further, unspecified steps in his final six months to make licensing simpler for them.
