Frequent moves and the headaches that accompany them are nothing new to military families. There's packing, unpacking, repacking, new schools, new neighbors, new jobs ...

One thing troops haven't had to worry about with the reassignments is getting new driver's licenses, or registering to vote in a new state; Under federal law, servicemembers can claim residency in their home state no matter how many times their service moves them around.

But for spouses it's a different story. A cross-country move from an East Coast base to a West Coast assignment means troops' wives or husbands need to change their residency, and leaves them with a different state to vote in and file taxes to than their military partner.

On Monday Congress voted to change that, passing the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act which allows those spouses to retain the same state residency as their servicemember.

The legislation has been discussed in Congress for several years, and critics of the measure have expressed concern that military spouses might not have access to some critical state services if they aren't state residents. But lawmakers this session decided those worries were outweighed by the headaches of families with split tax returns and different voting rules.

House officials said the president is expected to sign the bill into law in the next few days.

[PHOTO: Pennsylvania Department of Transportation]