The PCS program enables the military services to move personnel to assignments at new locations, and it supports a wide range of national security requirements and institutional needs. PCS moves are distinct from deployments or temporary duty travel, and they are grouped into six major categories (see table 1). DOD presents these six categories with associated cost information in its military personnel budget justification materials. Upon receiving orders requiring a PCS move, a servicemember arranges the move, often with assistance from a local military transportation office. The servicemember is entitled to reimbursement for certain travel and transportation expenses associated with the move. These expenses are authorized under Chapter 8 of Title 37 of United States Code and are specified in DOD’s Joint Travel Regulations. Allowable expenses include those related to, among other things, shipment of household goods (that is, items associated with the home and personal effects of servicemembers and dependents) and privately owned vehicles, commercial air travel, and temporary lodging. A list of allowable expenses is provided in table 6 in appendix III. Costs in excess of allowable expenses are borne by the servicemember. Required time-on-station lengths—the minimum period of time between PCS moves, subject to certain exceptions—are specified in DOD and service guidance. For overseas assignments, DOD’s Joint Travel Regulations specifies time-on-station lengths that range from 12 to 36 months. For assignments within the continental United States, time-on- station lengths are specified in service guidance and are generally either 36 months (Navy and Marine Corps) or 48 months (Army and Air Force), subject to certain exceptions. Time-on-station length may be reduced if servicemembers qualify for an exception or obtain an approved waiver. As such, time-on-station requirements can be met in two ways: (1) a servicemember remains in a location for the specified minimum length of time, or (2) a servicemember qualifies for an exception or obtains an approved waiver to move prior to the specified minimum length of time. Time-on-station lengths may vary by specific rank or position. For example, the minimum time-on-station for Air Force lieutenants within the continental United States is 36 months, but it is 48 months for other officers. Also, Marine Corps officers assigned to certain acquisition- related positions have a minimum time-on-station of 36 months, and Army drill sergeants have a time-on-station of 24 months, with an option to extend to 36 months. In September 2014, OSD reported to Congress the results of a study on increasing time-on-station lengths as a potential approach to reducing PCS moves and costs. OSD’s report, which was prepared in response to Senate Report 112-196, was based in part on research conducted by the RAND Corporation. To inform its report to Congress, OSD tasked RAND to study issues related to time-on-station. Among other things, RAND worked with the Defense Manpower Data Center to survey servicemembers on their perceptions of extending time-on-station lengths. In July 2014, RAND provided OSD a draft of its study findings. According to RAND officials, they plan to finalize their study and issue a final report in 2015, but as of July 2015 they had not done so. OSD stated that it did not agree with increasing time-on-station lengths across the board and cited survey results showing that nearly 60 percent of servicemembers were unwilling to voluntarily extend their time-on- station. At the same time, according to OSD, a significant minority of servicemembers would favor extending their time-on-station under some circumstances. Because these preferences were highly individual, OSD concluded that it was practically impossible to identify the likely preferences of a servicemember without a direct inquiry. In May 2014, the DOD Office of Inspector General reported on opportunities for cost savings and efficiencies in the PCS program. The report was conducted in response to a House report accompanying a proposed defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2014. The Inspector General’s report made seven recommendations for improved management practices in the non-temporary storage, household goods shipments, and air travel features of the PCS program. Service officials told us that the Department has begun implementing changes in response to the report, including altering policies for non-temporary storage to reduce the incidence of continued payments by DOD for storage units that had exceeded the entitlement period for retired and separated servicemembers. Management and oversight of the PCS program is a responsibility shared among multiple offices, including the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), and the military services, among others. The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness is the Secretary of Defense’s senior policy advisor on recruitment, career development, and pay and benefits— including central management of the PCS program. Within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the Defense Travel Management Office coordinates updates to the Joint Travel Regulations that establish travel and transportation guidance for the department. The Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) develops and oversees execution of the Department’s annual budget, including military personnel appropriations and obligations for PCS costs. The Comptroller also publishes and maintains the DOD Financial Management Regulation, which establishes financial management requirements, systems, and functions for all DOD components—including the preparation of budget materials. According to DOD officials, PCS moves and costs are tracked within the services by offices responsible for financial management and budget, and service time-on-station policies are managed by offices responsible for personnel assignments and human resources. DOD has experienced an overall increase in PCS per-move costs since 2001, but it does not have complete, consistent data on the program and has not evaluated the specific factors contributing to per-move cost growth. Our analysis of DOD budget data shows that average PCS per- move costs, after accounting for inflation, increased by 28 percent from fiscal year 2001 to fiscal year 2014. The overall increase in per-move costs varied across the six PCS move categories and the four military services. In addition, detailed PCS data for fiscal years 2010 through 2014 show that PCS per-move costs were consistently higher for officers than for enlisted personnel, due to differences in certain cost categories. However, we found that the services have not reported complete, consistent PCS data, thereby limiting the extent to which DOD can identify and evaluate changes within the PCS program. Program changes and other factors affect PCS costs, but the specific factors driving the overall growth in per-move costs are unclear, and DOD does not know whether the PCS program is efficiently supporting requirements to assign personnel in new locations. Our analysis of DOD budget documents shows that from 2001 to 2014 the department’s total PCS costs increased by 13 percent, from $3.8 billion to $4.3 billion, while the number of PCS moves declined by 12 percent, from 731,967 to 646,387. As a result, per-move costs increased overall by 28 percent, from $5,238 to $6,727, during this period. Per- move costs generally increased through fiscal year 2009, peaking at $7,308, and then generally decreased through fiscal year 2014 (see fig. 1). In fiscal year 2009 DOD began requiring the services to record obligations at the time PCS orders were issued, rather than at the time PCS moves occurred. As a result, the services’ actual fiscal year 2009 obligations included a one-time increase of $745.2 million. From fiscal year 2001 through 2014, per-move costs varied across the six PCS move categories (see fig. 2). The highest per-move cost was for rotational travel ($13,336 on average), while the lowest per-move cost was for accession travel ($2,289 on average). More detailed results of our overall analysis of PCS move categories are presented in appendix II. Accession and separation moves accounted for 58 percent of moves and 23 percent of PCS costs from fiscal year 2001 through fiscal year 2014. Service officials stated that they have limited ability to control the numbers of these types of moves, which are primarily driven by changes in end strengths, and therefore they viewed these moves as a non- discretionary expense. Similarly, they stated that training and organized unit moves are a non-discretionary expense because these are driven by training requirements, in the case of training moves, and by strategic decisions on force positioning, in the case of organized unit moves. Operational and rotational moves accounted for 34 percent of moves and 64 percent of costs. Service officials stated that these moves are the primary categories over which the military services have discretionary control—that is, some operational and rotational moves can be delayed to a subsequent fiscal year if sufficient funds are not available. Both we and the RAND Corporation have previously reported that DOD’s overseas presence is the primary factor in rotational travel costs, and we have recently reported that DOD’s overseas military presence represents an area for potential cost savings. For example, permanent overseas stationing—and associated rotational moves—may come at significantly higher costs than alternative approaches, such as deploying domestically stationed forces when needed. We recommended in 2012 that DOD conduct a comprehensive reassessment of its presence in Europe, including the costs of various alternatives. As of March 2015, DOD had partially addressed this recommendation by refining its posture-planning process to require specified cost information, such as rough order-of- magnitude costs for new posture initiatives. Per-move costs across the four services were higher in fiscal year 2014 than in fiscal year 2001, and average costs varied among them (see fig. 3). Per-move costs increased the most for the Marine Corps (42 percent), and the least for the Air Force (23 percent).