Stand With Movers for America:
Urge Congress to Evaluate Viability of GHC Program

We urge Congress to direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a detailed evaluation of the Global Household Goods Contract (GHC), and to consider a strategic program pause until results are clear. Given the vital role of the program in military operations and preparedness, a closer analysis of the potential impacts on military families, moving professionals, and American competitiveness is urgently needed. Join Movers for America in calling for a GAO evaluation.

The Issue

This year and every year, 300,000 dedicated military families will move across the country and around the world. These moves strain their resources, their emotions, and their time. They deserve a seamless, secure, and hassle-free experience. In a move reminiscent of the disastrous privatization of military housing, the Department of Defense is outsourcing military household moves to a single inexperienced private entity through the new Global Household Contract (GHC) – which will leave our military families woefully underserved. 

The Defense Department’s Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) coordinates the domestic and international movements of our troops, including their personal household items. Under a troubled new contract that has suffered multiple delays from poor planning and faulty technology, TRANSCOM has tasked a private entity – one that’s never handled a military move – with coordinating all PCS (permanent change of station) moves.

The new business model and fee structure are so unrealistic that countless respected and road-tested professional moving companies with experience in military relocations refuse to sign on – because they’ll lose money in their efforts to support our troops.  

After awarding the contract to the least experienced bidder rather than to the best providers, it’s clear that TRANSCOM has lost its way – prioritizing the cheapest option over reliable, experienced quality moving services.

Our active-duty military and their families sacrifice so much for our country – they shouldn’t have to sacrifice an efficient, quality system for moving their personal belongings when relocating to a new mission posting. A closer analysis of the potential impacts on military families, moving professionals, and American competitiveness is urgently needed.

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Driving the Issue

TRANSCOM’s new contract is NOT REASONABLE for trusted and road-tested professional moving companies – that’s why so many have refused to sign on.

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TRANSCOM’s new PCS contract is in DIRECT CONTRAST to President Biden’s executive order promoting American competition and the DOD’s own analysis of the need for competition in the defense sector: “Competition within the DIB [Defense Industrial Base] is critical to national and economic security.”

A Disservice to our Service Men and Women

TRANSCOM’s proposed transition to a privatized system for PCS moves is the epitome of government waste – throwing good money after bad with no benefit to our service men and women or to the taxpayers. While our military families feel the pinch directly, the new system will also hurt American businesses, provide inadequate resources, and increase our vulnerability to national security risks.

Increases Burdens and Costs for our Military Families

TRANSCOM promised improvements and greater efficiencies, yet has delivered the opposite so far for the approximately 300,000 servicemembers and their families who move each year. 

Faulty technology, inexperienced leadership, and a lack of participating moving companies could force military families to handle their own moves, organizing everything themselves and fronting the costs. Unvetted and untested moving services could result in significant relocation delays that unnecessarily keep family members apart or slow school enrollment for children, adding stress for military spouses forced to take control of a service that should be handled for them. 

Creates a Tax-Wasting Boondoggle

The project is way behind schedule – and TRANSCOM just invested an extra $60 million to “buy” another year-long delay. There were about 150,000 domestic PCS moves during 2023, and if the private entity overseeing all PCS moves conducts just 1% of all domestic moves over the year, TRANSCOM will unnecessarily spend an additional $40,000 per move in taxpayer funds. To put this in perspective, this is four to five times the average cost of a move today.

The current Defense Personal Property System encourages competition among safe, quality moving companies, with the goal of ensuring that our military members’ personal items arrive on base, on time, and intact. As the saying goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In this case, it ain’t broke, so don’t break it.

Hurts American Businesses and Lacks Resources

TRANSCOM’s new contract is a competition killer – and like many other problematic DOD contracts, it shapes market trends to create an industry monopoly, with excessive barriers to entry and a cascade of consequences. Bureaucratic complexity and rates that are too low to support viable competition will drive freedom-loving independent owner-operators out of business. 

To date, many established and experienced moving companies have refused to sign up with TRANSCOM’s new privatized system because the rates are too low to break even – In fact, many are already diversifying their business mix and moving away from servicing military moves as they plan for the future. While the inexperienced and untested contractor in control of the program will make a profit, American businesses, truckers, and independent contractors will be hurt or driven out of business, with the inevitable consequence of penalizing the men and women serving our country.

Increases Risks to National Security

Hostile foreign governments have long targeted highly sensitive information about our military operations, troop movements, and military personnel and their families. Outsourcing this military relocation program to just a single private company relying on undetermined subcontractors could make U.S. military movements and service families’ private information that much more vulnerable to data breaches and cyberattacks.

TRANSCOM’s new PCS system for military families is

DELIVERING LESS TO OUR BEST

About Movers for America

Movers for America is a coalition of professional movers and independent owner-operators dedicated to supporting our active-duty military as they relocate to new mission postings. We support a viable, competitive industry and an outstanding moving experience for our military families.

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Recent News

Media Inquiries:

Military movers urge DoD, Congress to pause household goods contract

New coalition of moving companies pushes back on DoD’s multibillion dollar household goods contract

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Movers for America Calls for Independent Evaluation of GHC, Citing Viability, Impacts on Military Families and Moving Industry, and Potential Loss of Competitiveness

Following multiple program delays and with many questions still looming about the financial viability and feasibility of military moving services…

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Movers for America Coalition Supports High-Quality Military Moving Industry, Warns GHC Contract Will Create Underfunded, Anti-Competitive Monopoly

In an effort to course-correct the U.S. Department of Defense’s anti-competitive plan to outsource military household moves, a coalition of nearly 200 experienced moving professionals launched Movers for America.

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