Military Personnel: Observations on the Department of Defenses Career Intermission Pilot Program
Abstract
Congress authorized the Career Intermission Pilot Program (CIPP) in 2009, with the intent of enhancing retention and providing greater flexibility in the career path of servicemembers.1 CIPP allows interested servicemembers to take career intermissions of up to 3 years in order to meet personal or professional needs--such as pursuing higher education, or caring for ailing parents or young children--and then return to active duty with no adverse career effects. Senate Report 114-255 accompanying a bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 included a provision for us to report to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees on the Department of Defenses (DOD) CIPP.2 This report transmits, in the form of the enclosed briefing, an update of some information from our October 2015 report on CIPP and provides CIPP costs and participation data from calendar years 2009 through 2016.3 This report describes (1) the costs of CIPP since it began in 2009; (2) the number of servicemembers who participated in CIPP, their occupations, and their reasons for participating; (3) the number of servicemembers who did not return after their career intermissions, and their reasons for not returning; and (4) for those servicemembers who returned from their career intermissions, how they progressed in their careers. See the enclosure for the information we presented to committee staff on May 2, 2017.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 31, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1099278
Entities
People
- Brenda S. Farrell
- Cheryl Weissman
- Felicia Lopez
- Kimberly Seay
- Mike Silver
- Norris Smith
- Tim Carr
- Vijay Barnabas
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office