Shaheen Calls to Congratulate Military Spouse Who Helped Inspire Legislation That's Now Headed to President's Desk

Shaheen makes a call to Andrea Krull, whose husband is a Navy Commander from Manchester and helped inspire legislation during a visit to Shaheen’s office that cuts through red tape for military spouses 

(Washington, DC)—This afternoon, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Andrea Krull, a military spouse who helped inspire legislation during a visit to Senator Shaheen’s office in 2018 that is now headed to the President’s desk for signature. Andrea and her husband, Navy Commander Matthew Krull of Manchester, visited Senator Shaheen’s Washington, DC office for the Senator’s weekly constituent coffee reception where Andrea raised the struggles military spouses face as they move from state-to-state. Specifically, Andrea cannot keep her small business registered in one state and instead has to re-register her business every time her husband is reassigned to a new military installation. This is not only costly, but forces Andrea to devote many hours to filling out paperwork and long delays in getting her small business up and running.

After hearing about Andrea’s experience, Senator Shaheen and her staff began drafting legislation that would allow military spouses to register their businesses in one state. Senator Shaheen teamed up with Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) who was working on a similar bill and together, introduced bipartisan legislation that would allow military spouses to not only register their businesses in one state but also improve the ability of spouses to transfer occupational licenses from state to state. Over 34% of military spouses work in fields that require a state license in order to practice. These spouses are often required to pay to recertify this license every time they move. Senator Shaheen and Cotton’s legislation, The Portable Certification of Spouses Act, was introduced with the support of Second Lady Karen Pence and was added to this year’s National Defense Authorization Act that was recently passed by the Senate and is awaiting the President’s signature to be enacted.

During their call, Senator Shaheen thanked and congratulated Andrea for helping to inspire this legislation.

“Military spouses shoulder the burden of the home front – every military move means time spent finding a new home, enrolling children in a new school, finding new doctors, new friends and setting up life in the new location. Military spouses with professional careers have the added burden of administrative red tape for professional licensing and small business regulations,” said Andrea Krull in a statement following the call. “The signing of this legislation into law means that military spouses have one less hurdle to maintain their professional careers as they move following their active duty service member from base to base.”

“Our military families make enormous sacrifices on behalf of our country, so if we have the opportunity to help make things a little easier for them we need to seize it,” said Shaheen after the legislation passed the Senate. “Military spouses face serious challenges starting over in new communities, which are exacerbated when they have to jump through hoops to re-establish their professions. This bipartisan legislation is a commonsense fix to a bureaucratic problem that hinders military spouses from practicing their professions or restarting their businesses as they move with their families throughout the country. I appreciate the bipartisan support this effort has received and I look forward to seeing this legislation signed into law.”