Rep. Mike Levin’s Bipartisan TIER Act Signed into Law
TIER Act Will Help Service Members Successfully Transition Back into Civilian Life; Marks Rep. Levin’s 35th Bill to Become Law
Washington, D.C.—Today, Rep. Mike Levin (CA-49) announced that his bipartisan bill, the Transition Improvement by Estimating Risk (TIER) Act of 2025, was signed into law by President Trump as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This is Rep. Levin’s 35th bipartisan bill to become law. The TIER Act will help target resources for service members to successfully transition back into civilian life.
“My bipartisan bill, the TIER Act, is now law and will ensure service members across the country receive the right level of support when they leave active duty and transition back into civilian life,” said Rep. Levin. “It will strengthen the transition process to ensure all service members’ needs are met and the help they receive adequately reflects their circumstances. Our country has a duty to our service members, and our laws must meet their needs. This law is another step in fulfilling our nation’s promise to them.”
The TIER Act improves the existing Transition Assistance Program (TAP) by adding additional screening factors to more accurately assess the transition risk for individual service members. By focusing especially on child care requirements, spousal employment, and familial obligations of each service member, the law will help us identify the resources each service member needs to succeed in their transition to civilian life.
TAP has three pathways, also called tiers, that screen each service member for potential risk as they go through the transition process in order to determine the level of support they will need. Service members are assigned a tier by counselors based on many factors, such as disability, rank, term of service, educational and employment history, military occupational specialty, and more. The passage of Rep. Levin’s TIER Act into law will add other factors such as familial obligations and spousal unemployment that will then contribute to the tier where they are placed and the level of support they are given.
The 2026 NDAA, which includes the TIER Act, also includes a pay raise for service members, funding for new military construction projects, and increases in child care financial assistance. It also authorizes $90.4 million in new construction funding to Camp Pendleton.
The FY2026 NDAA authorizes millions in new funding to Camp Pendleton including:
- $23.5 million for the Area 52 Communications Center;
- $43.8 million for the Fire Emergency Response Station;
- $22.74 million for Area 53 Mess Hall and Armory.
Additionally, the FY2026 NDAA includes provisions that improve service members’ quality of life:
- 3.8% pay raise for service members;
- $1.5 billion for new construction of barracks and family housing;
- Five-year pilot program that will increase maximum childcare financial assistance by 30% for children two years or younger who are located in areas with high child care service costs. Service members on Camp Pendleton are eligible for this program;
- Requires the Department of Defense to study alternative methods for calculating Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) to better reflect market trends and the true cost of housing, especially in high cost and rural areas.
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