Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz Statement at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request Hearing for Navy and Marine Corps Military Construction and Family Housing

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-25), Ranking Member of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for Navy and Marine Corps Military Construction and Family Housing:

Thank you, Chairman Carter, for yielding.

I would like to welcome back Assistant Secretary Berger and Lieutenant General Banta, and welcome for the first time Vice Admiral Jablon.

Thank you all for being here today.

The Department of the Navy’s FY25 budget requests $5.2 billion for Navy and Marine Corps military construction, Navy Reserve military construction, and Navy and Marine Corps family housing construction and operation.

This is a cut of $1 billion compared to the enacted level.

This is also a $1.5 billion cut from last year’s budget request despite our year over year efforts to get military construction funding up to a level that adequately addresses the true needs of the military.

Now, I know that we are in a tight funding environment – the topline funding level for defense spending is essentially flat with last year, so I know we are going to need to see cuts, but it’s a shame that it has to come from the Navy like this.

I’m a big believer in your budget request representing your values.

And I think this is especially true in tight fiscal environments – you really have to prioritize what’s most important.

The Navy is prioritizing SIOP, with an investment of $2 billion through construction projects and planning and design this year. SIOP is critical to secure and modernize our nation’s shipyards, which is vital for our national security.

The Navy is also prioritizing sustaining and strengthening U.S. deterrence against China, with $1.8 billion for projects in the Pacific, including projects in Hawaii, Australia, and Guam.

However, it is clear that the Navy is not prioritizing quality of life in this year’s request with only one quality of life project in its entire active component military construction request.

I understand there are a number of competing priorities – and I do not envy you for having to make the tough choices between mission readiness and ensuring the department is meeting all the other needs of our Sailors and Marines – such as providing adequate childcare, ensuring housing is clean and livable, and reducing the prevalence of sexual assaults.

While those things may not seem as “mission critical” – they most certainly are. Sailors and Marines cannot be expected to perform at their highest level if they are worried about affordable and convenient child care, or mold or vermin infested housing.

Quality of life directly affects mission readiness.

It is our duty to care for the whole servicemember – not just the warfighter part of them – and that includes taking care of them and their families holistically.

Again, I am extremely disappointed, to say the least, of the lack of quality of life projects in the budget request this year.

Do you not have a backlog of Navy and Marine Corps families seeking child care? There are 13 child development centers requested across the FYDP, but none prioritized this year.

The Government Accountability Office recently came out with a report back in September 2023 addressing military barracks conditions. The Department of the Navy was not without fault, and to see no military construction in this year’s budget to address these deficiencies is disheartening, to say the least.

Now I know there are other funding sources to support barracks through the defense subcommittee’s bill, and MILCON is not always the answer, but I am interested in the department’s plan to address inadequate, unlivable housing conditions across the board.

With our recruitment and retention problems, we need to be making the U.S. military more desirable – not less.

We need to be showing people that the Department of the Navy is and will continue to take care of our Sailors, Marines, and their families.

There needs to be more balance in your request.

Again, I know we are in a tough spot this year. We have to work within the confines of the law, but I am interested in digging in deeper to the details that make up this request, and I hope to gain a better understanding of your priorities this year - how you are prioritizing the people, not just the mission.

Thank you, and I yield back.