During a House Appropriations Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) questioned military officials about military family living conditions.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, thank you.
00:03I'll now yield to Ms. Wasserman-Jules.
00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:07And I want to come back to your unaccompanied housing focus as well.
00:13But first I want to focus on the privatized military family housing because I continue
00:19to see unacceptable reports of inadequate, unsafe housing conditions provided by privatized
00:24housing providers.
00:25To highlight just one of the latest examples, Balfour Beatty is being sued by military families
00:31again.
00:32They've had two instances in which they have paid multi-multi-million dollar settlements.
00:42It continues to, I mean, there's not a word, frustrate is not a strong enough word.
00:49But the fact that these contracts were so complex that it made it impossible for us supposedly
00:57to unwind them and to disconnect these companies who are grossly irresponsible and could care
01:04less about the occupants of the housing for which they are required to take care of doesn't
01:11bode well, in my opinion, for the future of oversight and care of the service members
01:18who live in unaccompanied housing either.
01:21So it really chaps me when I hear you all talking about, well, the solution to the unaccompanied
01:27housing crisis that you have is to go in the direction of more privatized housing.
01:34And sure, when they're brand spanking new and they don't have any problems, sounds great.
01:41But I want to make sure that it, I don't think that you should go forward with that privatized
01:46housing concept, but if you go forward with it, then you have to make sure that these are
01:51contracts that can be unwound easily and the companies can be fired and disconnected from
01:57the abuse that Balfour Beatty and others have been engaged in.
02:02So that having been said, this lawsuit even claims that Balfour Beatty officials blocked
02:07Navy personnel from inspecting houses in some cases, and that's just the latest example
02:12of that oversight of those privatized housing providers by the military services needs to
02:18continue to be strengthened.
02:19So over the last several years, our subcommittee has consistently provided an additional
02:24$10 million per year through the family housing operations and maintenance accounts for each
02:28service for the purpose of housing oversight.
02:31There wasn't that layer there, and each branch of the service has acknowledged that they dropped
02:38the ball and completely were hounds off for many, many years about overseeing the companies
02:46that are supposed to be responsible for taking care of these, of the housing that they've built
02:51and that they then care for.
02:54So it's clear that we continue to need that funding to be used for oversight purposes.
02:58And quickly, I'd like each of you to say what plans you have for the use of the funds that
03:04were available in FY25 in the CR and for FY26, presuming that and hopefully that it will continue.
03:12Sergeant Major Weimer.
03:14Elementorffee Ranking Member, thank you for that.
03:25And I, like you, have similar concerns when we talk privatized — potential privatized barrack solutions.
03:26I just want to acknowledge that up front.
03:2825 years in the privatized housing.
03:29We have to take those lessons learned.
03:31We have to utilize those for any new ventures.
03:34Specifically on the Army side, that money we've been using for third-party inspections.
03:39third-party inspections. I'm happy to actually report right now, CONUS, we are
03:43100% complete on the privatized third-party inspections. We're now
03:4982% complete OCONUS and so we still have some work to do the rest of the
03:54year for OCONUS. We're predicting to be done by 26 on that and we'll continue to
03:59use that money. Ironically, now we're inspecting third-party inspections of
04:04our government-owned housing. As a matter of fact, my wife was informed Monday that
04:09my house is getting inspected Thursday. No, yeah, Wednesday or Thursday and that
04:15they need three hours and she had to schedule a block time. So that, I don't
04:20see that stopping. I think that accountability will continue to be
04:24important. And is there a layer of on-site military oversight? Someone that when
04:32the company isn't calling them back, when they're not able to get in touch with
04:35someone, do you have a military layer of responsiveness? Yes, IMCOM for us in the
04:43Army is that belly button, if you will, at every garrison across the
04:48public. The 100% inspection work orders amendment, that's the latest for the
04:54accountability there. And I'm happy to report now that actual people that live
04:59in those houses are sending in their own pictures of the work before the work's
05:04done. And so there's there's tenant involvement in this to add another layer
05:08of accountability. Thank you very much. Master Chief. Ranking Member, I would start
05:14by saying I really do appreciate the three years that I've worked with you and
05:19the relationship we've had. You've always been a very honest and upfront broker
05:23with me and I appreciate it. But you, more importantly, is that you've always made
05:27sure you put money, you know, where you say that your priorities are and you get
05:32after things. And so with this oversight, which is largely due to your efforts, you
05:37know, we were able to hire an additional 200 employees across the Navy, first an
05:42installation command to provide that type of oversight at the region level and
05:46across our installations. And then also 50 of those employees are hired by our
05:51Naval Facilities and Engineering Command to provide that type of oversight. And we
05:56are also able to then complete all of our third-party inspections of all of our PPVs,
06:02housing this year, and able to report that the majority of them fall into a
06:09favorable condition. But that's about 50% in good, 47% in poor, and then a couple
06:17percent, excuse me, in fair, then a couple percent in poor. So we'll continue to provide
06:23that type of oversight and those inspections to hopefully improve our conditions with our
06:29PPV partners. I am a proponent of renegotiating all those contracts based off
06:36lessons that we've learned. I think that our business partner would do better if we
06:40could find a way to renegotiate those contracts. I know the government would be
06:44better served. And more importantly, our families and service members that reside in
06:48those housing would all be better served. Much as we have done with our privatized,
06:53unaccompanied housing projects, we took those lessons learned when we negotiated those contracts
06:58and how we provide that oversight to ensure that there's good occupancy rates and that we're
07:06able to maintain the proper cash flow so that the partner has the solvency to maintain and to
07:13modernize those investments as necessary. Thank you. Thank you. Let me just stress that the chairman and I have been
07:22interchangeable over the last number of years, and we did all of those things together.
07:27And I appreciate his partnership. Chief, do you have any information on the report that the Navy was
07:36blocked from inspecting houses in some cases by Balfour Beatty? I do not have any information about any
07:44specific allegations. I do know that both the installation commander and their teams did go through all the
07:51housing down there at Key West. Our commander of Naval Installations Command has also visited and
07:58inspected many of those homes. We did a full inventory of all those homes and determined a certain portion of
08:05them to be uninhabitable. And Balfour Beatty paid for those members to be moved and placed in other homes or
08:12temporary housing as necessary. But I don't have any other information about maybe there were some more specific
08:19allegations that I'm not aware of. Could you look into that specific allegation for me? Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
08:24And I'll hold my applause for Balfour Beatty for the moment. Yes, ma'am.
08:30The, yeah, if we can continue. Sergeant Major. Yes, ma'am. Similar, very similar to Sergeant Major of the Army and
08:37McPawn, a ranking member. We also use that funding to hire oversight folks. So a little 118, I think, is the number.
08:45Who are on site? Who are on site, ma'am. Okay. We would hire them and then get after their training. So get after their training. In addition, the third-party inspections also completed.
08:54Looking to provide a report to my chain of command here, hopefully this month. I hope that that's, that will be available.
09:03And for those that have those positions in place, have any of you had those positions subject to the civilian or military hiring freeze thus far?
09:13No, ma'am. No. No, ma'am. Okay. Ma'am, Chief, for our department, I don't believe that that is a categorical exemption. But we haven't seen any negative impact from the hiring freeze to report to you today. But some have been frozen? Yes, ma'am. If we have a vacant position, it's not exempt from the hiring freeze. Okay. But I don't know if there's any.
09:39But I'm not, I'm not 100% sure that we have currently vacant positions that we're trying to hire. I didn't have, I don't, I can take that for the record, but I don't know if we have any. That would be affected by the hiring freeze.
09:50But only the openings. Not people who are currently serving. Okay. And then, just with your indulgence, Mr. Chairman, I think we'll probably only have one round and I do want to ask about sexual assault. Because we can't address quality of life without discussing that scourge.
10:08And the services have all made an effort to address the issue. And we know that a lot more progress needs to be made. The 2023 DOD annual report on sexual assault found a decrease in the number of sexual assault reports of 5% across services from 2022.
10:23The 2023 DOD workplace and gender relations report estimates 29,000 service members experienced unwanted sexual conduct in 2023. That represented a decrease from the last report in 2021, which included an 8.4% drop for women in the active duty force.
10:39But there was one outside estimate done by the Costs of War Project at Brown University that estimated the real prevalence of assaults was over 73,000 in 2023. That's a pretty major discrepancy.
10:52The number of reported assaults combined with the DOD prevalence data suggests a reporting rate of about one in four service members who reported their assault to DOD officials.
10:59And I asked you all last year whether changes in the number of reported sexual assaults reflect a true change in the number of assaults or whether those changes represent changes in service members' trust in the system and comfort level with reporting assaults.
11:14So if you can each tell me what steps you and your service have taken since last year to improve your insight into the sexual assault statistics collected and what more needs to be done so that we can know that there's trust in the system of reporting and that we reduce the actual sexual assaults.
11:37Thank you, ranking member, for that quickly.
11:39And I appreciate the discussion we had in your office about this subject.
11:46Frankly, it is a little better, but it's not good enough.
11:51As a matter of fact, I think this is one of those forever things, much like suicide, that we'll battle forever, unfortunately, but it's worth it.
11:58So our team's taken a deep dive into the Cost of War Brown survey.
12:05Our Workplace and Gender Relations survey, that's an every-two-year survey.
12:08There's some pretty consistent reporting there over time.
12:11I don't want to debate the methodology behind the Brown, but we're deep diving that.
12:19And after our discussion, right now we do see some differences in how they're comparing data.
12:26But that's like statistics.
12:29We are doing a deeper dive on that because, again, to your point, if there's some there, there, we need to know about it.
12:36And so that's our commitment based off that.
12:40Master Chief.
12:42Breaking member, I'd also like to thank you for your efforts in this space.
12:45Yourself and the chairman have provided us the necessary appropriations to hire our integrated primary prevention workforce,
12:55which has been those folks that are on the ground helping us better understand and solve some of our more complex issues in this space.
13:04I would echo everything that Sergeant Major of the Army had to say in regards to the Brown report.
13:12And I would encourage any member that would look to have a greater understanding of this problem to have a briefing from our DOD SAPRO.
13:24I had a really, really great conversation with him about all the data and the analytics behind that data.
13:30To give me a lot better trust and confidence in all the things that we're doing at the DOD level as well as across our Navy service.
13:39So in the service, we really focus on character development to make sure that we're building better people, better leaders, and better teams.
13:45And then through that, we create the right climates and cultures with which we don't have those behaviors across that culture of harm
13:52that allow for those kind of bad actors to exist with inside our commands.
13:57The DOD helps us with the defense equal opportunity climate surveys that ask all the right questions of our service members
14:05to get a better understanding of the trust, the connections, and the protective factors with inside every command at every installation.
14:13Where we recognize that there are problems, the DOD sends a team out to look at those installations
14:20with an on-site installation evaluation that will determine where we have problems in the services
14:26and need to solve what some of those problems might be.
14:29And primarily, we're doing that, as I said, through leadership or through the integrated primary prevention workforce.
14:36Dr. Nader.
14:37Rank a member.
14:38Thank you for that.
14:40I think it was this time last year I came to see you, and you challenged me, and I took that personally.
14:45And I'm here to tell you that I concur, it's not good enough.
14:51Still, in 24, we really got after this in very different ways, I think.
14:57Using data, to your point, in our commander's course, in the way that we teach our command senior enlisted leaders,
15:03before they take command, understanding the data and the command that they're stepping into
15:08and what they can do with the resources available, and the prevention folks that we've hired
15:13to get after, in their own way, in their own location, a base, a station throughout the force.
15:19And this is why my initial opening comments about Marine Corps Total Fitness is so important to me,
15:26because it's about culture.
15:27It's about developing and strengthening those protective factors that we need to inject into our young people.
15:33Just because they graduate boot camp doesn't mean that they're done.
15:35And we must continue to get after the development of the force.
15:38So, I look forward to keep working with you.
15:41In 24, we did symposiums, forums, summits.
15:45We have not stopped getting after this issue, man, and we won't.
15:50Frankie, Member, thank you for the question.
15:52We continue to focus on this, and much like my colleagues, we are unsatisfied with any report
15:58of sexual assault or harassment in our service.
16:00It's counter to our culture and what we expect of all airmen in the professional arms.
16:04We've worked really hard, and we discussed this with you last year, about prevention is way better than response.
16:11We want to get to the left of this problem.
16:13So, we established contracts across the Air Force late last year in 2024 to modernize our prevention response training.
16:22And it's updated based off of peer-reviewed research on current policies, protocols, and strategies tailored to the different leadership levels that exist across the workforce.
16:31So, we can identify concerning behaviors or emerging problems before it turns into a crisis.
16:40We've worked on our training and expanding our course evaluation measures across the enterprise, including, kind of like Sergeant Major mentioned, not just in basic training or our session pipelines,
16:51independent of how you join the Air Force, but through our professional military education for both officer and enlisted.
16:57So, across the entire spectrum, we're launching out that new training through our PME spectrum through 2025.
17:04We're also focused on cyber harassment and technology-facilitated sexual assault and harassment.
17:09A relatively emerging concern, but we want to ensure we've got that addressed in our training as well.
17:15So, we're really focused on the prevention aspects of this.
17:19We, too, have the integrated and primary prevention workforce effort underway.
17:24We've got over 1,000 people assigned to our installations across the Air Force already, specifically focused on integrated resilience, primary prevention, sexual assault response.
17:35And we are on track by FY27 to fill 100% of those billets across the Air Force as we grow out that requirement that came about from the Independent Review Commission.
17:45Thank you very much.
17:46We're continuing to focus on it, ma'am.
17:47We appreciate your continued advocacy.
17:49Thank you so much.
17:52Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz.
17:54Thank you for the question.
17:55And we spoke about this last week when we had a chance to talk.
17:59You know, a lot of the initiatives that Chief Philosophy talked about are Department of the Air Force initiatives that include both the Air Force and the Space Force.
18:06And to the integrated primary IPP workforce.
18:10I think we're about over 80% of staffed right now.
18:15And we're working towards that.
18:16But, of course, right, those professionals that are able to do that, the market is really tight to be able to get the right people.
18:21And I think that was a lot of the discussion is making sure that we have the right individuals with the right training who can help lead the service out of this scourge, which is sexual assault.
18:31And I think we all can agree, right, this has no place in our society, most importantly, has no place in the 1% of men and women who serve their nation to do that.
18:41We've made a lot of strides, you know, from a Space Force perspective.
18:44And we talked about this last week.
18:46You know, for the Workplace and Gender Relations Survey, 2023 was the first time that the Space Force was separately broken out.
18:52So we did get some data from that.
18:54One of the things that was kind of heartening that I think is a good sign was that the percentage of individuals have faith in their local leadership who understand and feel that they are confident that they can talk to someone and say, you know, I'm being harassed or I was assaulted or they feel safe at the workplace was above the average across the services.
19:15But that was just one data point.
19:17You know, we look forward to other workforce surveys to make sure that we're trending in the right direction.
19:25But it's about making sure that this is not just a training challenge.
19:29This is a leadership responsibility.
19:31And most of us, we said that, you know, this kind of training is integrated at all levels, echelons of development.
19:37But in particularly at the leadership development, whether it be squadron commander courses, senior leader courses, to understand that they are responsible for the culture in which they allow and which they create within the organizations.
19:50And I think beyond just training, saying that we've checked the box and we have training that we're getting after it, it is holding these leaders at every echelon accountable for the culture and the climate that they are creating to make sure our service members feel safe and are safe.
20:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I'll yield back so that we don't have a mutiny.