Sam Liccardo
03/25/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/25/2026 14:10
Video: Congressman Sam Liccardo Fights to Secure Long-Term Funding for Commissary
Washington, D.C. - Today, Congressman Sam Liccardo (CA-16) testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs to save a commissary in our area.
Speaking during its "Member Day Hearing," Liccardo highlighted the need to find, plan, and fund a permanent home for a commissary, as the Moffett Commissary is set to close by 2029.
The Moffett Field Commissary currently sells deeply discounted food and supplies to more than 2,600 military families across the Bay Area. The next closest commissary is more than 75 miles away in Seaside, CA.
Liccardo's testimony builds on months of direct engagement with federal agencies, including the Defense Commissary Agency and leadership at NASA Ames Research Center. His efforts helped secure a new lease agreement that will keep the commissary open through 2028, with an option to extend operations into 2029.
Full Transcript:
The project that we refer to is adjacent to the Moffett Federal Airfield, which is in the 16th District. It's long served as a Naval Air Station. The installation itself has been decommissioned, but it still maintains a very strong military presence. It's got the 63rd Regional Readiness Command headquarters at the US Army Reserve, the 129th Rescue Wing, the California Air National Guard. It supports the NASA Ames Research Center, which is now a leading center for supercomputing and nanotechnology materials science.
This airfield is now operating as a joint civil military airport. But it is really a hub for the military community, both active service as well as veterans, who reside throughout the Bay Area, roughly a 9 million person metropolitan area, and the commissary is very much at the heart of that.
This is the only commissary serving within a 75 mile radius, at, it operates in a facility that NASA Ames owns the region's only commissary. And, most recently, the Defense Commissary Agency and NASA agreed to extend the current lease.
We work very hard on buying two years of life there. The facility will likely close by 2029 because the building simply can't take it anymore.
And so we need to find a better place for it. And this committee knows well that access is certainly a valued benefit for many of these families.
So we have been working collaboratively with the local community as well as with, DECA and with NASA and we've identified another site, or they have, I should say, which seems to have the support of the community. And so I respectfully request that the committee include report language, encouraging coordination among the relevant agencies to evaluate options to maintain commissary access.
Sam Liccardo published this content on March 25, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 25, 2026 at 20:10 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]