The Army has reversed its decision to halt travel funding that enabled potential recruits to take the military entrance exam at remote locations and high schools — just a week after cutting off the funding and endangering the program, officials confirmed.
Military.com was the first to report that on March 7, reacting to a Pentagon memo that restricted almost all travel on government credit cards, Military Entrance Processing Command halted two programs that were aimed at offering the military’s entrance exam, known as the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB, to potential recruits at closer locations and more convenient hours, as well as inside high schools.
Marshall Smith, spokesman for Military Entrance Processing Command, said that “civilian travel … to include testing administrators traveling to administer tests at high schools and Military Entrance Testing Sites, has resumed,” in an email Friday.
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The weeklong halt appears to have been the result of the Army’s interpretation of the travel memo issued by Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, that was issued March 5. The memo capped travel card use at $1 for Pentagon civilian workers as part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to slash the department and other government agencies.
However, one of the testers who was impacted by the halt told Military.com on Wednesday that they and their colleagues didn’t use government charge cards — they used their own cars and received reimbursement for mileage through vouchers.
Smith previously told Military.com that the remote sites offered tests to 65,000 students last year, and the tester, who worked in a state in the Deep South, said they administered the ASVAB to more than 12,000 high school students last year just in their region.
While the programs were shut down, potential recruits could still travel to a formal Military Entrance Processing Station to take the test but, since the facilities are largely located in major cities and military bases, that meant driving for hours for people in many parts of the country.
Marshall told Military.com that the decision to reassess the program as “other mission critical categories” of “authorized travel in direct support of military operations” was made by Army officials on Thursday.
A defense official also confirmed that the Pentagon’s Office of Personnel and Readiness worked with the Army to help it better interpret the policy.
The testing programs are far from the first casualties of Trump and Musk’s efforts to move quickly and shut off funding to government programs without first understanding the significance of what they were cutting.
Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has also fired key federal workers such as experts who were responsible for America’s nuclear weapons and scientists trying to fight a worsening outbreak of bird flu, only to realize their mistake and try to hire those employees back.
Military.com has also reported that DOGE’s efforts at the Treasury Department have led to it snagging sensitive veterans data, including information about VA benefits, leading to concerns from experts and Democrats about the safety of that data, as well as the reliability of future payments of veterans benefits.
Smith said that most of the remote testing sites were back to offering ASVAB exams Friday. Testing of high school students resumed on Friday as well.
All the testing will be back to full operation on Monday, Smith added.