The Pentagon may reimburse military families for extra costs associated with transporting their pets for PCS moves delayed by the pandemic, Pentagon officials said Thursday, Military.com reported.
The pandemic-related stop move order is causing complications for those who are in the middle of a move. Bipartisan legislation would give families legal protections if they are stuck paying housing costs in two different communities.
During typical moves, service members pay out of pocket to transport their pets, often by car or commercial air travel, but the pandemic is restricting those options or making them costly.
Ramón Colón-López, senior enlisted adviser to Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, said at an online town hall Thursday that those expenses may be reimbursed.
“Every time we have had a situation where families were incurring costs because of the stop-movement and the limitation of assets, we have found a way to go ahead and compensate them or come up with a mechanism to be able take care of them,” he said. “So if it’s something that we have not done yet, we will look into it.”
The stop move order is currently in place through the end of June, but the Pentagon is regularly re-evaluating that date to see if it should be extended, Colón-López said.
“Trust that every day we are critically thinking about every possible way that we can go ahead and mitigate the risk to make sure that we go on to life in the new normal or as normal as possible,” he said.
Army Reserve photo by Master Sgt. Ryan C. Matson
