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Letter to Bernie Sanders, Senate Budget Committee, to John Yarmuth, House Budget Committee - Representatives Escobar, Speier Lead Members in Call for $15 Billion Investment in Reconciliation to Fix Poor and Failing Military Child Care Facilities, Substandard Barracks

Letter

Date: July 16, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Military Personnel

Dear Chairmen Sanders and Yarmuth:

We face a crisis in the quality and capacity of facilities for child care for military families and
housing for unaccompanied military personnel. The U.S. military has 135 child development
centers in "Poor" or "Failing" condition, and in 2020 DoD reported nearly 9,000 children of
servicemembers on waitlists with immediate need for child care. We have seen barracks that
remind us of tenements and are wholly unacceptable for servicemembers to live in. The Army
alone needs $10 billion to bring its barracks to "Good" condition, and in many cases, to even
meet minimum Army standards.

Annual appropriations are not sufficient to resolve this backlog--and meet our moral
responsibility to provide servicemembers and military families with quality facilities with
sufficient capacity for child care and decent, safe, modern housing. We believe that the
upcoming reconciliation package is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do right by our
military families. We request that you include the House and Senate Armed Services
Committees in the reconciliation instructions in the upcoming budget resolution for the
purpose of devoting $5 billion to military child development center facilities projects and
$10 billion to barracks modernization. Such an investment will improve the quality of life and
safety for servicemembers, promote the positive development of military children, and help
military spouses obtain and maintain employment, further supporting the financial health of
military families. It is one of the most important things we can do as a Congress to show support
for the men and women who put their lives on the line for America.

Thank you for considering this request as you assemble this package to invest in the critical
needs of Americans.


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