Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz Statement at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request Hearing for Army 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 Army Military Construction and Family Housing:

Thank you, Chairman Carter, for yielding.

Assistant Secretary Jacobson and Lieutenant General Vereen, thank you for being here and testifying today. It is nice to see you both again.

This is going to be a tough year. We are in the second year of spending caps set in place under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and this year is going to be especially tight.

The topline spending level for defense programs is barely a one percent increase over last year's level, so this year's budget request really shines a light on what's important to the Army.

In total, the Department of Army is requesting $3.7 billion for military construction for the Army, Army National Guard, Army Reserve, and Family housing operations and construction.

This is a $185 million increase over last year's enacted level, and importantly, an increase of $1 billion over last year's budget request.

Year after year, we press the Services to submit adequate budget requests, and while I know there is much more that we can do, I am glad we are trending in the right direction.

Specifically, I'm very pleased to see that the Army is prioritizing its soldiers and families.

The Army has requested almost $1 billion to construct new barracks and $101 million for new family housing construction, which is especially meaningful in a year when flat budgets feel like a win.

The condition of Army barracks has been deplorable, and the Government Accountability Office highlighted just how bad they can be in a report issued in September, 2023.

There is still a long way to go to right the ship, but seeing the Army taking this seriously and submitting a budget that strongly invests in the quality of housing for our soldiers is heartening.

This is progress that I expect the Army will continue to build upon in future budget requests as well.

Military construction supports installations and facilities to support the warfighter – but that is more than just missile and munitions distribution facilities, hangars, and ranges. It's also the facilities that support the whole person and their family to ensure a quality of life that we promise.

Sexual assault is still rampant across all Services. The Army saw a decrease in reports of sexual assaults in 2022 by about 9 percent compared to the year before. Is that because the Army is doing a better job of preventing assaults or because less soldiers are comfortable reporting?

If soldiers are expected to give their full attention to training and warfighting, they cannot be worried about whether or not their children have safe and reliable child care. How is the Army meeting the needs of its families, providing safe and reliable childcare, and ensuring CDC facilities are being adequately prioritized?

Beyond just the infrastructure necessary for adequate child care, we must also ensure the safety of the children served at those CDCs. There were recent deeply troubling reports about child abuse at a Navy CDC and leadership failures that resulted in unacceptable delays in families getting answers.

The safety of our children is the most important thing, and we need to ensure our troops can trust the Services to care for their family members and keep them safe from harm.

On the housing front, privatized family housing has a terrible history of unlivable housing conditions, and with past instances of fraud from the housing providers to boot, it is imperative that we continue to do more to hold private companies accountable and ensure all housing that DOD oversees is clean, livable, and safe.

Hearing that the Services want to double down on this effort to use privatization as a means to solve its unaccompanied housing issues is not something that we are taking lightly.

These proposals need to be seriously scrutinized to make sure we do not repeat the mistakes of our past.

Privatization of unaccompanied housing might end up being the right answer in limited circumstances, but it should not be the first and only option considered to right size our unaccompanied housing portfolio, and I am interested in hearing how and why Army is considering this solution.

And lastly, we must continue to focus on environmental cleanup. I have prioritized funding in this bill over a number of years now for PFAS remediation because of how widespread and harmful these chemicals are.

We must do right by our affected communities to ensure BRAC installations are not harming water quality.

To that point, EPA announced its final rule earlier this month that sets a national standard for PFAS contamination in drinking water.

This not only emphasizes the seriousness of this issue, but it will also undoubtedly increase the Army's PFAS funding needs. I am interested in the Army's plan for remediation moving forward.

As you can see, we have many important issues to discuss today.

Thank you again for being here, and I look forward to your testimonies.

I yield back.