Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz Statement at Hearing on Quality of Life in the Military
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-25), Ranking Member of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on Quality of Life in the Military:
Thank you for yielding, Judge Carter and thank you for once again holding this essential hearing.
We all know the importance of quality of life, recruitment, and retention to the military services.
Our committee, on a bipartisan basis, has always advocated for and defended our service members’ quality of life during their active duty. And I hope that continues.
Yet, this administration’s continued callous disregard for service members, veterans, and their families threatens to overturn any progress the services have made in their efforts.
The administration has fired at least 6,000 veterans across the government, including at the VA which provides essential promised benefits to our veterans.
They are also targeting deep cuts to programs across the federal government that veterans and servicemembers rely on, including SNAP, WIC, and financial aid, while deploying an economic strategy that has started a trade war and sent global stocks tumbling.
At the Department of Defense, the plan to fire 5,400 probationary employees and the civilian hiring freeze has sent the agency into chaos while unfairly making the lives of our servicemembers more difficult.
The chaotic rollout of this hiring freeze has also left current civilian employees in limbo and essential jobs unfilled, often falling to our servicemembers to take on double duty.
We have heard reports that barracks managers and sexual assault prevention teams are among those included in this freeze, which will directly harm quality of life and increase the workload of active duty service members.
Unfortunately, a similar pattern of a chaotic rollout of DOD’s remote and telework policy has hampered opportunities for military spouses to telework. This telework made it easier for service members and their families to adjust to frequent moves.
This chaos does not make it easier for people to serve their country and we certainly should not be actively denigrating those who do choose to serve, such as is the case with Secretary Hegseth’s ban on transgender individuals openly serving in the military. This order is not only cruel and pointless, it is counterproductive to the DOD’s own goals of increasing recruitment and retention by needlessly reducing the recruiting pool for reasons which have nothing to do with an individual’s qualifications or whether their skills are needed by the Services.
Another example of this administration’s misplaced priorities is its push to erase history when DOD should focus its energy on real issues like holding privatized housing companies accountable for lead paint in family housing or addressing the deficit of housing for unaccompanied service members, not on purging websites honoring the Air Force’s first female fighter pilot or WWII Women’s Airforce Service Pilots.
The administration’s history purge also apparently extends to the Tuskegee airmen, as the Air Force removed training videos including them until public outcry forced the Department to reverse course.
How do these actions show service members that we value their service and the sacrifices their families make?
What effect do you think these actions will have on the efforts of military recruiters across the nation?
We should honor the service of those in uniform and fight for the quality of life of all service members.
To truly improve the quality of life of those service members, we must address the continued deficiencies in barracks and privatized family housing, we must address sexual assault in the military, we must address shortages in childcare, and we must invest in the mental health of our troops.
These actions are essential so that service members can focus on their important jobs, instead of worrying about who will watch their children, whether they will get sick from the mold in their homes, or whether they are safe in their workplace.
This subcommittee has recognized the value of these investments in the past on a bipartisan basis, and I look forward to working together with my colleagues again for fiscal year 2026 to address these issues.
I was incredibly disappointed by the way the fiscal year 2025 process ended and the missed opportunity for this committee to make the necessary investments to build on our progress in recent years addressing quality of life projects.
Nevertheless, we will be closely monitoring the spend plans DOD submits for the full-year continuing resolution funding and I want to make it clear to everyone here today, I expect the services to prioritize those funds in a way that delivers on the promises made in their fiscal year 2025 budget requests and in consideration of the bipartisan advocacy from Members of this subcommittee to invest in quality of life.
The spend plans must reflect the need for and importance of child development centers, barracks, schools, and other quality of life projects.
The Army’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request contained robust funding for barracks construction to tackle the Service’s housing deficiencies. The Marine Corps has a comprehensive plan called barracks 2030 for barracks investments.
We cannot backtrack and sideline these types of projects. Even great plans to improve quality of life will fail if they are not accompanied by the appropriate funding.
Moreover, I hope the Fiscal Year 2026 budget request contains a robust request for quality of life projects.
I hope to hear from all of our witnesses today on how you and your service have worked since the hearing last year to address the inadequacies in oversight of privatized military housing providers, improve the maintenance of unaccompanied housing, and address the root causes of sexual assault within the military.
I would like to thank the five witnesses for being here today and for their valuable testimony.
I yield back.
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