Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today elevated key Georgia national security priorities in his first hearing as Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction.
Sen. Ossoff, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, today held a hearing about funding priorities for military construction projects and highlighted the need to strengthen oversight over military housing contractors.
Sen. Ossoff serves as the top Democrat on the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee, positioning him to fight for and deliver Federal funding for key Georgia projects impacting national security, military readiness, quality-of-life for servicemembers and military families, and more.
During the hearing, Sen. Ossoff elevated key Georgia military construction priorities, including quality-of-life upgrades for servicemembers and their families.
“Georgia, of course, is home to 13 defense installations vital to our national security and home to some of the nation’s most important missions and capabilities, including key Air Force missions at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins and Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta; the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, outside of Columbus; Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay on Georgia’s coast; Ft. Stewart, home of the 3rd ID; Ft. Gordon, home of the Army Signal Corps and the Cyber Center of Excellence, where they also host a vital NSA facility; Hunter Army Airfield, which hosts elite U.S. Army Ranger and aviation elements; the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany; Combat Readiness Training Center in Savannah, and more,” Ranking Member Ossoff said.
“I’ll also note concern that there is substantial defunding of family housing accounts for the Army and the Navy [in the President’s budget request], including for programs that provide essential maintenance of and oversight of privatized family housing,” Ranking Member Ossoff later said. “I think we all know that privatized family housing at DoD installations is a mess. I’ve spent years investigating it, heard testimony from folks like Captain Samuel Choe in Georgia, who experienced first-hand the effects on his daughter’s health of mold and contamination in privatized family housing at Fort Gordon.
“His eight-year-old daughter, as he testified before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations here in the Senate, developed a rash so severe that, as Captain Choe testified, quote, ‘her skin became hardened and rough and reptilian in nature, and when she would scratch it, would bleed profusely.’ This was the eight-year-old daughter of a U.S. Army Captain who, because of the poor condition of housing in this Balfour Beatty homes development at Ft. Gordon, was bleeding when she scratched her own skin. So, I’m concerned that the reduction in funds for these family housing programs could reduce our ability to hold those contractors to a high standard and to look out for those personnel and their families,” Ranking Member Ossoff continued.
Click here to watch Sen. Ossoff’s opening statement.
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