Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing On Military Privatized Housin

CSPAN2 Hearing On Military Privatized Housing July 13, 2024

Held by the Senate Armed Services committee, this is two hours. To receive testimony from the Government Accountability Office Service chiefs of the current condition of privatized military housing. Almost a year ago i first heard from the military families about the conditions they faced and frankly it was called to my attention from the air force base and i thought this was something that was just unique to the air force base and then i thought its elsewhere in oklahoma. Its also everywhere around the country so that was kind of the background of how this all started. Ive come to learn that it is a problem nationwide. The National Crisis in portions we havent seen since the scandal about a decade ago. Members of this committee can our staff an and bicycles, peope traveled and seen the problems firsthand. This is the third hearing that committee has had and im sure that it wont be the last. We hope this is the first two hearings we would see differences by now and be able to use this hearing. In fact it was set up to discuss the progress that has been made. Well, it is set up to the progress that hasnt been what he wanted. We continue to hear regularly from the families across the country about questionable practices for the workmanship and frankly in some places about housing contractors just not caring about the families that they are supposed to be serving. Additionally, as it is reported, some of the contractors are now under investigation for defrauding the federal government and im really worried what else may come out of the woodwork on this. What other problems are out there that we dont know. To the witnesses from the get it cut apart and i have to ask when is enough enough and i have to make one comment though of the witnesses that are here with one exception they all kind of walked into this blindly because of an issue you are not familiar with, so to say some things that are critical, im not looking at you personally, but as the department into was representing it before you arrived here. Regardless of any potential wrongdoing we are still receiving complaints that you are failing to fix the problem as time for talk is over. If these companies cant get the job done you over to the military families to find a company that will. I say this because this housing problem is really a readiness problem. We dont think of as being a ita readiness problem. Ive experienced talking about this. We actually had to air men that had to come back from the uae to handle this problem that should have been handled by the military in their absence so this is a very important element. These hearings are not to be an indictment on the privatization housing system as a whole because in some cases it has worked and has worked very well. It is meant to be an indictment on the bad actors that we know are out there and to those who lead our men and women in uniform i ask what are we going to do about it since almost a year later wer we are still heg from the same problems. As i mentioned earlier, display thethiswouldnt be the last heag pitting our witnesses on notice that we will have another hearing early next year to discuss the implementation of our housing Reform Efforts and contractors will be back to answer the hard questions. I have some things i was going to say that i think i will go ahead and bought use her time. I think the gao has done a great job, and i want to make sure that everyone hears from them. To remediate these and dozens of others, we have more than 30 housing related legislative provisions this year. 30 positions. Thats another reason that its important and we have been unable. We did a good job in the senate, and we do have those problems that we will be addressing. We cannot afford to ignore this problem like military housing or why it is so crucial and we continue to pass this every year. They support the Bipartisan National Security in this country and it shouldnt be held hostage by issues outside of the committees jurisdiction. Unfortunately because of issues that are not in the Senate Armed Services committee jurisdiction, this years is not yet resolved which means only leadership can clear up this log jam out there. Otherwise the likelihood is greater now than it was. We are out of time and i didnt mean to deviate from the subjects of the Committee Hearing that i think its important that we bring this up as it is a critical thing taking place right now. I hope that we can move past these issues so that we can determine and remain focused on the promises they made to those who served the country and getting signed into law. That should be the priority, and it is. With that i would like to recognize the military families that have traveled here today to speak answers from you and we would like to have all the families to stand up right now. Lets give them a round of applause. [applause] to the dod witnesses as ive said before, these are the people who trust you, whose trust you are going to have to regain. Thank you mr. Chairman. I would like to begin by it andt again thinking of a vast number of military families have spoken out about the inadequate conditions of the Privatized Housing. I especially want to recognize the military families to travel today for this hearing as the chairman has done. Today we welcome elizabeth field from the gao and senior civilian leadership of the military services. I especially want to thank you and your team for your dedicated work this far. The gaos finding this far confirmed the alarming trends. For example, the gao found that the often quoted 87 satisfaction rate is, quote, misleading and unreliable, and that the records for the request of the work Service Calls they are questionable. The committee continues to receive complaints directly from the military families. While the services have made strides since last february many problems with housing remains. I am still not convinced that the companies are doing everything in their power and investing as much as they can to improve the quality for the military. I also have several questions that i would have to be entered into the record that were requested directly by military families on the many issues within the military Treatment Facilities and diagnosing medical problems caused by inadequate housing conditions. While the conference process is still underway for the fiscal year 2020, i remain confident that we will reach an agreement on legislation that will represent the most significant reform of the Privatized Housing since its inception in 1996. We also have a lot of work to do on addressing systemic problems have been discovered with Privatized Housing and i think the chairman fothankthe chairmas important and timely hearing. Last, i want to take this opportunity with the civilian and military leadership of each of the services present to express my deep concern about the president s recent interference in more times cases involving members of the u. S. Military. These follow my remarks and will follow the senate on novembe november 21. The president has the power to pardon that has the responsibility to use that power wisely, not recklessly. Good order and discipline are critical to the timehonored traits of the United States military not only to enable the military readiness and effectiveness, but also to ensure military men and women remain firmly tethered to the nations moral and Ethical Principles of the most demanding wartime environment. Some claimed these were a distraction to the intervention that somehow improved the morale of the military. On the contrary, the president chose disregard for the Justice System risked undermining the confidence of the servicemembers and movable and the chain of command. Especially those that are courageous enough to bring allegations of the war crimes and testify against their teammates. When we do not hold our military personnel to appropriate conduct and also makes it more likely that they will face similar abuse on the battlefield and less likely that we will be able to hold our enemy is accountable. There is no one more critical on these issues than senator john mccain who stated this is a moral debate. Its about who we are. I do not mourn the loss of any service life. What i do mourn is what we lose when the official policy or neglect they confuse or encourage those who fight this war for us and get the best sense of the results. In the violence, chaos and heartache of the war through deprivation we are always indifferent, stronger and better than those who destroy us. I believe that the case has done a disservice. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you senator reid. The military departments submitted a statement for the record which will be part of the record and i ask each to limit your remarks to five minutes. We have a full pane panel todaya lot of members with a lot of questions. Before we turn to the department i would ask the director of defense capabilities management at the gao to provide her statement which i know includes new findings that will be made public for the first time today. Thank you chairman inhofe, Ranking Member reading members and staff of the committee it is an honor to be here today to discuss the ongoing work assessing the military Housing Privatization initiative. Almost as soon as reports began surfacing last year of problems with military Privatized Housing, servicemembers and their families began reaching out to us that the gao to share their stories. We heard from military families who reported bold throughout their homes, Rodent Infestation and other Serious Problems like gas and Carbon Monoxide leaks and repeated sewage leaks. While these are just some examples of the complaints that we have received they are indicative of the tickets conference we heard from military families living in Privatized Housing and installations across the country. What we wanted to find out when we began receiving these complaints is how commonly held the word. Defense Department Officials have been merely pointed to two metrics to help answer that question. First, they cite the results of the departments annual Customer Satisfaction survey. According to the dod most recent report evaluating the program, Tenant Satisfaction has remained at 87 and is, quote, a critical indicator of Overall Program success. However, as senator reid noted, weve determined that for many reasons ranging from health is a question was asked to help the results were compiled and calculated, this 87 figure is not in any way reliable. Second, the departmen departmeno high occupancy rates. In the same report from any of this year, dod stated the fact that occupancy rates remained greater than 93 program wide demonstrates, and im going to quote again, a high level of service and satisfaction and overall success in providing suitable and desirable housing. However, through the site visits and ten installations where we conducted 15 focus groups with families wheeler and Family Members often choose to live in Privatized Housing for reasons that have nothing to do with the housing itself. Reasons such as living in close proximity to medical and Education Services for children with special needs or a concern that means housing is neither affordable nor safe. As part of our ongoing review, we have a different way to determine the extent of the problems we were hearing about. We collected and analyzed over 8 million work order records from all 14 private partners handle 79 projects. Our hope was we could use the data to determine the prevalence of certain hazards to the patterns over time in a different location and possibly to assess the timeliness of the maintenance conducted on the home. Unfortunately we found because of the data in the records not captured reliably or consistently, they cannot be used to do so. Among other problems we found anomalies in the data provided by all 14 private partners such as duplicate work orders and work orders with completion dates prior to when the words that. The problems on a detail are significant not just because they tell us the dod statement that the program has been successful overall may not be fully accurate, but because the department has been using the metrics to reward and incentivize the partners. I want to acknowledge the Service Secretaries along with officials from the office of the secretary of defense have taken steps to address these and other problems from working to renegotiate the performance incentive structures to strengthening oversight on the ground to increasing Staffing Levels and military offices that have seen the resources cut, and i also want to acknowledge the many factors that make this a deeply complex problem including the department and ability to unilaterally make certain changes to the legal agreements with the partners. Through our ongoing review, we know that the departments efforts are headed in the right direction. But it will take sustained attention likely over a number of years to work through the many implications of this longterm Publicprivate Partnership and to fully meet departmental of providing safe and clean housing for all servicemembers and their families. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. We have a lot of participation today. Senator reid and i agree that we are going to govern in earnest to stay on the subject is a temptation to get into other areas but housing is it today so that is what we will attempt to give. Lets go ahead with our Opening Statements, secretary mccarthy. Thank you mr. Chairman. Chairman inhofe, Ranking Member reed and distinguished members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on actions taken by the army since the intensive focus on the Housing Operations and oversights that began in february of 2019. I would like to reiterate serious commitment to providing safe, quality and Affordable Housing to our soldiers, Civil Servants and their families. It is our response ability to provide housing not simply to code but also to quality. We must fix the current housing crisis using a house to house approach. We must also fixed the governance model and address underlining issues to ensure systemic change. Over the last ten months, we identified our government falls, initiated a commander driven town halls and created a 24 hour helpline to hear feedback directly from the families affected. We have a empowered the chain of command as a part of the solution, created transparency in the work order process and ultimately, sought to regain the trust of the men and women in our ranks and their families. We directed housing as our top qualityoflife priority and aligning resources. As a demonstration of our commitment to this issue, we assigned Housing Operations to the fourstar commander of our Material Command who at the delegated authority would hold Incentive Fees. We developed new Incentive Fee metrics measure delete the measuring workforce response, repair quality and Resident Satisfaction to allow us to withhold fees for substandard performances. As a tri Service Residents bill obillof rights has been finaliz. We are also equally concerned and committed and in the last two fiscal years the army has invested 1. 1 billion. For fy 20, projects will total 790 million. While the army has worked hard over the past ten months to make significant strides and will be managed over the housing there is much more work to be done. The immediate focus is to fix the current housing issues that can be addressed by its active followthrough on work orders and improved management. We await the 45 of the force that live on post. In addition, we need to rapidly address the needs of the families that have been temporarily displaced across Army Installations there is the need for the operating procedures, transparency and accountability of claims. This must include standardizing the rent reimbursement, food cards and remediation or replacement of household items. Since february, the army has a displacement of 2,265 families. Currently 182 families are still in temporary housing via Privatized Companies are addressing issues in their homes. Days can feel like weeks and weeks can feel like months. These are not simply members of these our lives. We have over 86,000 privatized homes with one third in Good Condition one third fair condition requiring minor refurbishing and one third in Poor Condition and needing to be rebuilt. Right now the general is working on an overall analysis of the armys Privatized Housing requirements and in the spring we plan to present the findings to the key committees jurisdiction. In closing, the armys resolve and our commitment to bringing safe, quality Affordable Housing to our soldiers and their families but much more work remains. We need congressional help in two areas. First, we need the approval to enact items such as the residents bill of rights and second, a final 2020 appropriations bill to continued immediate

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