Daniel Schwam

The authors of this report analyze data from the American Community Survey, providing valuable context for understanding the social and economic resource environment of veterans and their families and identifying potential gaps and needs.

Trends of declining U. S. military recruitment and weakening public confidence in the military institution raise important and pressing questions about public perceptions of the military and uniformed service. This report details public perceptions of veterans and the military and public willingness to encourage a young person to join the military as identified in American Life Panel surveys administered in February and June 2022.

Using an updated version of RAND's Recruiting Resource Model, the authors analyze the relationship between observed and alternative mixes of Army spending on recruiting resources (advertising, recruiters, and bonuses) and recruiting outcomes, particularly contracts and accessions. Results indicate that TV advertising and, to a lesser extent, recruiters are more cost-effective than bonuses at increasing enlistments.

Several U. S. Army resources and policies work together to produce recruits. Understanding their interactions under various circumstances enables the Army to use its limited resources more effectively and efficiently. The authors present a model--the Reserve Recruiting Resource Model--designed to optimize resources and policies to achieve future Army Reserve recruiting goals.

Passenger air travel is at an all-time high. A key question for Congress is whether current levels of spending will be sufficient under existing federal policies to enable commercial service airports to make appropriate and timely infrastructure investments to meet future demand. This report contains a comprehensive review of the role of the federal government in airport infrastructure funding and financing.