Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025. Mr. Chairman, the bill we see before us is a bipartisan package. It enhances readiness, it increases security, and it improves desperately needed infrastructure that has been badly neglected by the Pentagon. Most importantly, it puts our servicemembers first. The Readiness Subcommittee, which I have the honor of chairing, has included more than $1.1 billion for quality-of-life initiatives. This money will provide critical funding for barracks, in particular, Mr. Chairman, which are in a dire state. To be candid, Mr. Chairman, we literally have barracks with black mold growing in it, with feces on the wall, with ceilings caving in. It should be an embarrassment to every one of our service Secretaries, and we have yet to see anyone in the Pentagon fired for this deplorable state of our servicemembers' barracks. Mr. Chair, if the Pentagon and this administration won't act, this Congress will. This bill will improve our barracks and improve our aging infrastructure. It will provide transparency to how our facilities are sustained, and that is key. With more details into how these funds are actually spent and with oversight from Congress, holding the military departments accountable, they will be forced to adequately budget and plan for the upkeep of our facilities that our servicemembers so badly need.…”