In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced this bill to give military spouses the choice to establish the same state of residency as the servicemember to have the benefit of keeping the same state of residency for voting and tax purposes:

"Current law allows active duty service members to maintain one state of legal residence for tax and voting purposes, even when service members receive military orders requiring them to relocate. Under this law, spouses are only granted the same benefit if the service member and spouse have established the same tax residence at the time of their marriage. Essentially, this requires spouses to establish residency every time the service member receives orders with assignment to a new location—adding undue stress and anxiety to military families already under the pressure of managing their relocation... Military spouses serve too, and this piece of legislation eliminates the daunting task of documenting multiple tax jurisdictions, which at times causes some spouses to forego the complication of working all together."

This legislation was passed by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on a voice vote and the support of 10 cosponsors in the House, all of whom are Republicans.

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) Press Release
• Rep. Stefanik Op-Ed via Medium
• CBO Cost Estimate (Previous Version)
  
• Auburnpub.com