As lawmakers negotiate next year’s defense bill, some are sounding alarms over the possibility that funds intended to improve housing for junior troops could instead be diverted to support military operations at home.
In a hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat, pushed to add two stipulations into the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act aimed at safeguarding funding for military barracks and childcare centers. The proposals would have prohibited using the funds for domestic deployments of troops — specifically in support of immigration enforcement — and barred their transfer to border operations.
“This is simply saying that the money that we allocate as Congress for barracks and child development centers and quality of life infrastructure should be used for barracks and child development centers and quality of life infrastructure, not anything else,” she said during the hearing.
Both additions were shot down along party lines.
Military barracks, dormitories where unmarried junior troops are housed, have long been plagued by maintenance issues. Many buildings are decades-old and have fallen into disrepair during 20 years of war in the Middle East.
“This is about actually showing our service members that we care about them,” Rep. Jill Tokuda, a Democrat from Hawaii, said during the hearing, highlighting instances of barracks rooms overrun by black mold, leaky plumbing, unreliable electrical and A/C systems, and a lack of kitchens.
A 2022 government watchdog report noted how continuously delayed maintenance aggravates problems for the military’s buildings around the world, valued at $1.3 trillion overall. In fiscal year 2020, for instance, the DoD’s deferred maintenance backlog amounted to over $137 billion, exacerbated by “competing priorities”.
A separate report the following year found widespread concerns about barracks management oversight and hazardous health risks to troops— and noted that shoddy conditions harm troop morale.
The services have taken note after coming under fire for the poor living conditions highlighted in the reports and scandalous news reports of substandard living conditions.
The Army sought $2.35 billion last year to address barracks concerns, an over 60% increase in funding from the year prior. The Marine Corps, meanwhile, has undertaken a decade-long, nearly $11 billion refurbishment program.
“The idea is not to fix it and forget it,” Lt. Gen. James Adams, Deputy Commandant for Programs and Resources, said of the initiative during a panel at the Modern Day Marine expo in April, explaining that the Corps partly “got ourselves into the position we’re in now” by neglecting maintenance.
But the military is facing maintenance woes on other fronts too— one of the Army’s biggest bases was forced to dissolve its teams that oversaw preventative housing maintenance last month, amid federal government cuts, according to Military.com. And the Pentagon sought to shift $1 billion intended for Army barracks to finance deployments to the southern border earlier this year.
In a statement provided to Business Insider, Jacobs said that funds approved for barracks issues and childcare centers — which have faced staffing shortages and meager pay — are already a comparatively modest sum, considering the level of disrepair with which some facilities must contend.
“There’s not enough money as it is to upgrade and maintain quality of life infrastructure like barracks and child development centers, and address urgent issues like mold and broken heating and A/C units,” Jacobs wrote. “None of this money should be diverted for any reason — let alone to terrorize immigrant communities and stifle dissent.”
“The fact that a billion dollars in the first six months of this administration was diverted from barracks and quality of life and operations and maintenance to the border is sending the message that we really don’t care about your health and wellness,” Tokuda said during the hearing, adding that money transfers were equivalent to “essentially guaranteeing that we will ultimately never fix these barracks.”
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