{"id":29046,"date":"2026-01-07T11:48:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&#038;p=29046"},"modified":"2026-01-07T11:48:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:48:38","slug":"sen-ossoff-announces-passage-of-ndaa-provision-to-protect-military-servicemembers-health-care","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-announces-passage-of-ndaa-provision-to-protect-military-servicemembers-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Announces Passage of NDAA Provision to Protect Military Servicemembers\u2019 Health Care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Washington, D.C.&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014 As the Trump Administration reportedly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrdw.com\/2025\/12\/16\/fort-gordon-hospitals-unclear-future-heres-what-we-know\/\">considers<\/a>&nbsp;reductions at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today announced passage of a new provision in the NDAA to protect health care for military servicemembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ossoff announced the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/12\/10\/congress-to-require-greater-oversight-of-military-health-restructuring\/\">passage of a key provision<\/a>&nbsp;in this year\u2019s&nbsp;<em>National Defense Authorization Act<\/em>&nbsp;that will help protect health care by increasing oversight over the Department of Defense\u2019s ability to modify or downsize military hospitals and clinics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The provision will require the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Surgeon General of the relevant military department&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/12\/10\/congress-to-require-greater-oversight-of-military-health-restructuring\/\">to review proposed changes<\/a>&nbsp;to military treatment facilities to determine their impact on military readiness before changes can be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the provision will require the Director of the Defense Health Agency (DHA)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/12\/10\/congress-to-require-greater-oversight-of-military-health-restructuring\/\">to explain<\/a>&nbsp;how servicemembers, families, and retirees would receive medical care if hospital cuts would affect their typical access to health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NDAA became law last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This comes after Sen. Ossoff&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/25.11.12_Senator-Ossoff-DDEAMC-Letter-to-Acting-Director-Smith.pdf\">launched an inquiry<\/a>&nbsp;in November with the Acting Director of the Defense Health Agency (DHA) requesting more information about reported plans to reduce services at Eisenhower Army Medical Center, which serves between 30,000 to 40,000 active-duty servicemembers, retired servicemembers, their families, and DoD civilians in and around the CSRA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to Sen. Ossoff\u2019s inquiry,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Response-Letter-to-Sen-Ossoff-DDEAMC-ADir-signed.pdf\">the Acting Director of the DHA told Sen. Ossoff<\/a>, \u201cIt is premature for the DHA to address your detailed and thoughtful questions one by one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAny potential reductions in care at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center risks putting further strain on the Augusta Veterans Affairs Medical Center and surrounding hospitals in the region. This new provision will strengthen oversight to protect our servicemembers, their families, and veterans from potential hospital cuts that could risk their access to life-saving care,\u201d&nbsp;<strong>Sen. Ossoff said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/119th-congress\/senate-bill\/1071\/text\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;to read the new provision in the NDAA (sec. 714).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"># # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C.&nbsp;\u2014 As the Trump Administration reportedly&nbsp;considers&nbsp;reductions at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today announced passage of a new provision in the NDAA to protect health care for military servicemembers. Sen. Ossoff announced the&nbsp;passage of a key provision&nbsp;in this year\u2019s&nbsp;National Defense Authorization Act&nbsp;that will help protect health care by increasing [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29046","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/29046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/29046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29047,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/29046\/revisions\/29047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}