WASHINGTON — The Army must put more money and effort into repairing poorly maintained and substandard base housing for military service members and their families, U.S. senators have demanded, amid persistent reports that mold and other issues threaten troops’ health.
During a Thursday hearing, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee pressed top Army leaders to spend money on military housing in their states.
“We have all heard the horror stories of substandard on base housing, military families across the country, living with black mold and collapsed ceilings and electrical and fire hazards and a lot of other substandard conditions,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “We need to fix our shameful military housing problem, and we need to do it as quickly as possible.”
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth repeatedly told senators that housing is a priority but that it competes for funding in the Army and defense budgets with other key needs, including equipment and weapons modernization and training.
The Army, she said, is requesting nearly $2 billion for military housing in the 2023 proposed budget and has a 10-year infrastructure plan. That plan would have the Army invest $27 billion in infrastructure over the next decade.
“I would love nothing more than to be able to renovate all of the housing around the country that needs to be renovated in a single year. But we are not able to do that,” Wormuth said.
Officials noted that the Army submitted a separate request to Congress that outlined projects that aren’t funded in the budget but would also be priorities, and they include an additional $330 million for housing issues.
That additional money should be included in the Army’s base budget if housing is indeed a priority as leaders say, Warren said.
According to the Army, the $1.9 billion budget request is actually a 12% increase over last year’s request. Congress, however, voted to add nearly $1.5 billion in military construction funds to that request, resulting in a total of more than $3.2 billion for the year. Congress has not yet acted on the proposed budget, so it has not added funds.