Hours. The Committee Meets today to receive testimony from the Government Accountability office that serves the secretary, the Service Chiefs on the current condition of privatized military housing. Almost a year ago, i first heard from military families about the abysmal conditions they faced, and frankly, a confession is good for the, soul of this was janet driver who called this to my attention from Tinker Air Force base and i thought this was something that was unique to Tinker Air Force base but its also in oklahoma and its also all the way around the country. And so that was the background of how this all started. Weve come to learn that its it is a problem nationwide. Its a National Crisis of proportions we havent seen since the scandal at walter reed about a decade ago. Members of this committee, our staff and myself, weve all traveled and seen these problems firsthand. This is the third hearing this committee has had on this issue and im sure its not going to be the last. We hope that since our first two hearings in february and march that we would see maked differences by now and be able to use this hearing, in fact, it was set up to discuss the progress thats been made. Well, it is set up to look at the progress, but the progress has not been what we wanted. We continue to hear regularly from the families across the country about questionable practices, poor workmanship and frankly in some places about housing contractors not caring about the families theyre supposed to be serving. Additionally as reported in the press, some of these contractors are now under investigation for defrauding the federal government. Im worried what else can come out of the woodwork on this. What other problems are out there that we dont know . To our witnesses from the department, i have to ask, when is enough enough . I have to make one comment, thought, of the eight witnesses that are here, with one exception, they all kind of walked into this blind, because its a new issue that theyre not familiar with, so when im critical, say some things that are critical, im not looking at you personally but as the department and who was representing it before you arrived here. So regardless of any potential criminal wrongdoing, were still receiving complaints on a daily basis showing that youre still failing to fix the problem. The time for talk is over. If these companies cant get the job done, you owe it to the military families to find a company who will. I say this because this housing problem is really a readiness problem. We dont think of it as being a readiness problem. I had experience talking about this. We actually had two airmen who had to come back from 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 of the housing system as a whole because in some cases its worked very well. 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 were still hearing from the same about the same problems. As i mentioned earlier, this will not be the last hearing. Im putting our witnesses on notice that we will have another hearing early next year to discuss implementation of our housing Reform Efforts and contractors will be back to answer the hard questions. I had some things i was going to say about ms. Field, but i think i will go ahead and not use her time. But i think that the gao has done a great job and i want to make sure everyone hears from them. But to remediate these and dozens of other problems, we have more than 30 housingrelated provisions in the nda this year. 30 provisions. Thats another reason that the ndaa is important and weve been unable we did a good job in the house and we do have those problems that we will be addressing. We cant afford to ignore this readiness problem. Were continuing to pass the ndaa every year. It supports a Bipartisan National Security of our country and should not be held hostage by issues outside this commitees jurisdiction. Unfortunately because of issues that are not in the Senate Armed Services committee jurisdiction, this years ndaa is not yet resolved, which means only leadership can clear up this logjam thats out there. Otherwise, likelihood is greater now than it was. Were out of time and i didnt mean to deviate from the subjects of this Committee Hearing but i think its very important that we bring this up as a critical thing thats taking place right now. I hope we can move past these issues so we can determine we can remain focused on the promises we made to those who serve our country and get the ndaa signed into law. That should be our priority and it is. With that, i would like to recognize the military families who have traveled here today to seek answers from you and wed like to have theyre in the back of the room. I want all families that have an interest or have been affected to stand up right now. Lets give them a round of applause. applause as i have said before, these are the people who trust you whose trust youre going to have to regain. Senator reed. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I would like to begin by again thanks the vast number of military families who have spoken out about the inadequate conditions of their privatize d helping. I want to recognize the families who have traveled here today for this hearing. Today we welcome ms. Elizabeth field from the gao. Ms. Field, i want to thank you and your team for your dedicated work thus far. The gaos findings confirm the Alarming Trends we have heard from many military families. The gao found the 87 satisfaction rate often quoted is misleading and unreliable and that the records for work orders and Service Calls are questionable. This committee continues to receive complaints directly from military families. While the services have made strides since last february, many unacceptable problems with housing remain. I am still not convinced these private companies are doing everything in their power and investing as much as they can to improve the homes for our military. I also have several questions that i ask be entered into the record that were requested directly by military families on the many issues in military Treatment Facilities and diagnosing medical problems caused by inadequate housing conditions. While the conference process is still under way for the fiscal year 2020 ndaa, i remain confident that we will reach an agreement on legislation that will represent the most significant reform of housing since its inception in 1996. We have a lot of work to do and i thank the chairman for convening this important and timely hearing. Lastly, 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 war crimes cases involving members of the u. S. Military. These comments will follow my remarks on the floor of the senate on november 21st. The president has the pardon, but he has the responsibility to use that power wisely and not recklessly. Good order and discipline are timehonored traits of the United States military, ensuring military and women remain tethered to our ethical principles. President trumps disregard for our military Justice System risked undermines the confidence of our Service Members in the rule of law and their chain of command. Especially those who are courageous enough to bring allegations of war crimes to light and testify against their teammates. When we do not hold our military personnel to appropriate standards of conduct, it also makes it more likely that they will face similar abuses on the battlefield and less likely that we will be able to hold our enemies accountable. Theres no one with more credibility on these issues than former senator john mccain who stated, this is a moral debate. It is about who we are. I dont mourn the loss of any terrorist life. What i do mourn is what we lose when by official policy or official neglect, we confuse or encourage those who fight this war for us to beget that best sense of ourselves through the violence, chaos, and heartache and violence of war, we are always americans, indifferent, stronger, and better than those who destroy us. This we demand of our military men and women and i believe the president s interference in these cases have done them a serious disservice. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator reed. Each of the departments has submitted a statement for the record and i would ask each of our departments to look through the to limit your remarks to five minutes. We have a full panel today. We have a lot of members who have a lot of questions, so before we turn to the department, i would ask ms. Elizabeth field of gao to provide her statement which i know includes new findings that will be made public for the first time today. Ms. Field . Thank you, chairman inhoff, senators and staff of the committee. Its an honor to be here today to discuss the ongoing work assessing the military housing initiative. Almost as soon as reports began surfacing last year of problems with military Privatized Housing, Service Members and their families began reaching out to us to share their stories. We heard from military families who were reported mold throughout their homes, rodent infestations and other Serious Problems like gas and Carbon Monoxide leaks and repeated sewage leaks. While these are just some of the examples of the come complaints, theyre indicative of the types of concerns we heard from military families living at Privatized Housing at installations across the country. What we wanted to find out when we began receiving these come complaints was how commonly held they were. Defense Department Officials have primarily pointed to two metrics to help answer that question. First, they cite the results of the annual sfaSatisfaction Survey. Tenant satisfaction has remained at 87 and is a critical indicator of program success. However, as senator reed noted, we have determined that for many reasons ranging from how the survey question was asked to how the results were compiled and calculated, this 87 figure is not in any way reliable. Second, the department points to high occupancy rates. Dod stated that the fact that occupancy rates remain greater than 93 programwide demonstrates a high level of Service Member satisfaction and overall success in providing suitable and desirable housing. However, through our site invites where we conducted 15 focus groups with families, we learned that Family Members 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 offbase housing is neither affordable or safe. We sought 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 and all 79 projects. Our hope was that we could use this data to determine the hazards to see patterns over time and to assess the timeliness of maintenance conducted on the homes. Unfortunately, we found that because the data in these records are 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 order and work orders with completion dates prior to when they were submitted. The problems i detailed are significant not just because they tell us that dods statement that the program has been successful overall may not be fully accurate, but because the department has been using these metrics to reward and incentivize the private partners. The Service Secretaries along with officials from the office of secretary of defense have taken steps to address these and other problems, from working to renegotiate the Fee Structure to strengthening oversight on the ground to increasing Staffing Levels to military offices and i also want to acknowledge the many factories that make this a deeply complex problem. Including the departments inability 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 complications of this longterm Public Private partnership and to meet the departments goal of providing safe and clean housing for all Service Members and their families. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, ms. Field. We have a lot of participation today. Were going to have sevenminute rounds. Senator reed and i agreed were going to ask our members to stay on subject. There will be temptation to get into other areas, but housing is it today. That will be what we will attempt to do and i will take my first ok, im sorry. Lets go ahead with our Opening Statements. Lets start with secretary mccarthy. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman inhoff, Ranking Member reed, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to provide an update since the focus on Housing Operations and oversight that began in february of 2019. I would like to reiterate the armys serious commitment to providing safe, quality and Affordable Housing to our soldiers, Civil Servants and their families. Its our responsibility to provide housing, not simply to code, but also to quality. We must fix the current housing crisis using a housetohouse approach. You must also address the governments model to address underlying issues. Over the past ten months, we identified our governance flaws, initiated town halls and created 24hour help lines to hear feedback from the families affected. We have empowered the chain of command, created transparency of 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 priority and are aligning resources against it. As a demonstration of our commitment to this issue, we assigned Housing Operations to the fourstar commander who has the delegated authority to with hold Incentive Fees. We have developed new Incentive Fee metrics, measuring work order Response Times. Work order repair quality and satisfaction that will allow us to hold fees for substandard performance. As a triservice resident bill of rights is being finalized. We are also equally concerned and admitted to improving barracks and armyowned housing. In the last two fiscal years, the army has invested a great deal in the statement. For financial youre 20, projects will total 790 million. While the army has worked hard over the past 10 months to make significant strides in the management of Privatized Housing, theres much more work to be done. The immediate focus is to fix current housing issues that can be addressed through work orders and improved management. We owe it to the 45 of our force who live on post. In addition, we need to repidly to address the needs of families who have been displaced. Across Army Installations theres a need for Standard Operating Procedures and accountability of claims. This must include standardizing rent reimbursementfood cards, and remidiation or replacement of household items. Since february, the army has tracked the displacement of 2,2 currently, 182 families are still in temporary housing, while Privatized Companies are addressing issues in their homes. To displaced families, days can feel like weeks. And weeks can feel like months. These arent simply numbers, these are lies. Currently, we have over 86,000 privatized homes with one third of houses in good condition, one third in fair condition requiring minor refurbishing, and one third in Poor Condition 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 in spring. In closing, the army is resolved to the commitment of providing safe housing to soldier and their families. We need congressional help in two areas. First, we need the ndaa approved to enact the residents bill of rights. Second, we need a final fy 2020 appropriations bill to continue immediate housing improvements. My staff has reminded me that well stay on our schedule. Next well be hearing from the acting secretary and then secretary barrett. Distinguished members of the committee, thank you for your continued attention to this very critical issue. For the Navy Marine Corp team our people are our most Precious Resource and we will always prioritize their safety and their well being, particularly of our sailors and marines, but also their families who serve alongside them. Theres an empty chair at thanksgiving table for many of our navy and marine corp families because a father, a mother, a wife o