STARS Act Mandates Military ID Facilities Within 30 Miles of All Major US Cities

The Supporting Troops’ Access to Recognition Services Act (STARS Act) is a logistics bill aimed squarely at improving access to essential military administrative services. In plain terms, this bill tells the Department of Defense (DoD) they must ensure that facilities handling military identification—specifically those dealing with the DEERS (Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System) and RAPIDS (Real-Time Automated Personnel Identification System)—are located closer to where most military families actually live.

Under the STARS Act, the DoD must guarantee that a “covered identification and eligibility facility” is situated within 30 miles of every metropolitan statistical area with a population of 300,000 or more. Furthermore, these facilities must be open and staffed by at least one qualified person for a minimum of two days per week during regular business hours. For military families, this is a big deal, as it directly addresses the time sink and travel headache often associated with getting or updating military IDs and managing eligibility.

Cutting the Commute for Military Families

If you’ve ever been a military spouse trying to get a dependent ID card or an active service member needing to update your Common Access Card (CAC), you know the drill: sometimes the nearest facility is on a base 90 minutes away, or worse, the off-base location is only open two half-days a week. This bill targets that pain point directly. By requiring these ID facilities to be within 30 miles of major metro areas, the STARS Act acknowledges that many service members and dependents live off-base and rely on these documents for everything from healthcare access to base entry.

Imagine a military spouse who works a full-time job in a city like Dallas or Denver. If their dependent ID expires, they currently might have to take a half-day off work, drive an hour each way, and then wait in line—all to get a new card. The STARS Act aims to shrink that travel time significantly, making it easier to squeeze this vital administrative task into a lunch break or a quick after-work trip. The provision requiring facilities to be open and staffed for at least two days a week during regular business hours is key here, ensuring that the facility isn't just technically open, but actually available when working people can access it.

The Trade-Off: Convenience vs. Cost

While the benefit to military families is clear—increased convenience and less wasted time—there are logistical realities for the DoD. The bill essentially mandates an expansion of the physical footprint of these administrative services. The DoD will either have to establish new facilities or significantly expand the operating hours and staffing of existing, smaller satellite offices. This means increased operational costs, including leasing space in or near high-cost metropolitan areas and hiring or reassigning personnel to staff them.

For taxpayers, this means funding these new or expanded facilities and staffing. However, the bill’s requirements are quite specific, which is a good thing for accountability. The vagueness level is low: the DoD knows exactly what population threshold they need to hit (300,000+) and exactly how far the facilities need to be (30 miles). The only slight ambiguity is the definition of a “covered identification and eligibility facility,” which could allow the DoD to use existing contract sites rather than building entirely new offices. If implemented correctly, though, the STARS Act should lead to a measurable reduction in administrative friction for hundreds of thousands of military families nationwide.