ICYMI: At Senate Hearing, Army Leader Confirms Poor Barrack Quality Affects Service Member Morale, Military Leaders Commit to Reducing Child Care Waitlists

February 12, 2026

ICYMI: At Senate Hearing, Army Leader Confirms Poor Barrack Quality Affects Service Member Morale, Military Leaders Commit to Reducing Child Care Waitlists

Warren also presses military leaders to work through child care waitlist, commit to improving pay for military child care workers in the next year

Round 1: Barracks Exchange (YouTube) | Round 2: Child Care Exchange (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. - At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, Ranking Member of the Committee Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questioned military leaders on the impact of poor barrack conditions and inadequate child care on service member morale and readiness.

Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer confirmed that a failure to address mold, pests, and poorly maintained barracks "does affect morale."

Senator Warren also asked the leaders about the use of nondisclosure agreements by landlords and whether it's fair for private military housing providers to use them to keep military families quiet about their unsafe living conditions. Leaders from every service agreed it's wrong for private companies to use nondisclosure agreements to prevent service members from coming to their commanders or Congress about poor housing conditions.

"Letting these private housing outfits come in and do a lousy job of keeping the housing operational, and then refuse to repair it unless people promise to be silent-agree to be muzzled-is just flat wrong. And I enlist your help in beating that out of our operations at the housing level," said Senator Warren.

In her round about child care access for military families, Senator Warren pointed out that one of the leading reasons for the shortage of military child care workers was low pay. In the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Senator Warren secured a provision requiring the services to update their pay scales by April 2025. All of the leaders committed to reducing their service's waitlist in the next year.

"You have the tools from Congress…And you have not picked them up and used them…[Military families] do not have a year that they can just set aside while they are waiting around on a 1,400 or a 2,700 child waitlist. They've got to have childcare now," said Senator Warren.

"I hope when we come back next year I will be offering congratulations to every one of you because we have no babies waiting for the care they need," concluded Senator Warren.

Transcript: Opening Statement at Hearing to Receive Testimony from the Senior Enlisted Leaders on Servicemember and Family Quality of Life
Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel
February 11, 2026

Round 1: Barracks Reforms

Senator Elizabeth Warren: So we've got hundreds of thousands of our troops living in barracks all around the world. In fact, DoD requires enlisted service members to live in barracks during basic training and initial job training. Required, not optional. But DoD and the services have failed to address health and safety risks in unaccompanied housing-not just for a few years now-it has been for decades. A 2023 GAO report uncovered terrible conditions-mold covered ceilings and walls, sewage overflows, bedbugs, rodents, cockroaches. These are problems our troops should not have to live with even for a day. But barracks managers report that it takes "at least several months" to fix these problems.

So here we are, a few years later, and these issues have not gone away. In a 2025 survey, soldiers reported mold, pests, and outdated and poorly maintained barracks. The survey also found it is still the case that "maintenance requests often take weeks or months to address, leading to a frustration among soldiers." Army barracks got a rating of 68 out of 100. For anyone who's keeping score, that gives them a D+.

Now, I heard each of you talk about readiness, so let me ask you, Sergeant Major Weimer. You are the senior enlisted leader for the Army. Does it undermine troop morale and readiness if soldiers report black mold on their ceilings and walls and they can't get anybody to fix it for months on end?

Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer: Ranking Member, thank you. When work orders do not get addressed in appropriate time, it does affect morale.

Senator Warren: Yeah. And I assume the same is true for rodents, the same is true for sewage overflows. Look-we need solutions, and we need them quickly. But we also need the right solutions, and this is what's gotten really worrying. I'm concerned that the services are increasingly looking to privatize the barracks, and we have seen this movie and lived through it already.

We have seen what private companies have done with family housing-poor conditions like black mold, pest infestations, and broken HVAC units. Even when companies offer compensation because they have damaged property or they have created financial burdens because someone had to move their family out, had to stay in a motel for weeks on end, they force military families to sign nondisclosure agreements. Think about that: you do them wrong, treat them badly, and then as part of the hostage-taking here, before you will repair it, you insist that they sign a nondisclosure agreement so they can't tell anybody else about what went wrong. At least we know when the government operates the barracks, it does not prohibit the troops from coming to Congress with their concerns, going to their leadership with their concerns. I am very concerned that privatization will decrease oversight and accountability, especially if we don't take action here.

So I am going to ask a question of all of you: does anyone here believe that it is appropriate for a housing company to prohibit service members from reporting to their commander or to Congressional representatives that a company has failed to remove toxic mold in their room for over 10 months? I will just take a simple "yes" or "no" if you think it's okay to do that. I will start down at this end.

Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman (SEAC) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff David L. Isom: I think service members should always have access to their commanders to be able to report problems, ma'am.

Senator Warren: Okay. And to be able to tell Congress? This is part of what oversight is about. I want to make sure we are clear. Sergeant Major?

SEAC Isom: Yes, ma'am.

Sergeant Major Weimer: Ranking Member, that chain of command should be well aware of everything going on in that situation that you just declared.

Senator Warren: Okay, so you are not in favor of these nondisclosure agreements?

Sergeant Major Weimer: I am in favor of taking care of the family in that situation, Ranking Member.

Senator Warren: Wait, are you wobbling here on me on whether or not those nondisclosure agreements should be permitted?

Sergeant Major Weimer: I don't think a family should be put in a box where they cannot have accountability and be taken care of, Ranking Member. I have lived in houses. I don't understand how a family gets put in a corner for a nondisclosure. I have to do more research on that. But in that 10-month scenario, there should be a chain of command that knows everything that's going on in that before anybody signs it.

Senator Warren: You know, Sergeant Major, I don't understand why you are trying to parse words here. The question is, as part of getting a repair, should any housing operator-that is working for the United States government and getting paid by the United States government-be able to say to a service member, "I'm only doing the repair after you sign an agreement that you won't tell anybody in your chain of command, or you won't tell any Congressional Oversight Committee about what this place was like?"

Sergeant Major Weimer: That right there, Ranking Member, they should not be able to do.

Senator Warren: Good, we're clear.

Master Chief Petty Officer (MCPO) of the Navy, John Perryman: Ranking Member, no.

Senator Warren: Okay.

Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Carlos A Ruiz: No.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, David Wolfe: Ranking Member Warren, absolutely not.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force, John Bentivegna: No, they must not be forced to do that.

Senator Warren: Good, I appreciate this. You know, this may seem like a little side point, until it's a family that has been put in a box, as you rightly put it, and they've got nowhere to go.

Our job is to make sure that our service members are taken care of. And I hear each of you saying that. But we have got to make this work on the ground. And I just start with something as essential as housing. And letting these private housing outfits come in and do a lousy job of keeping the housing operational, and then refuse to repair it unless people promise to be silent-agree to be muzzled-is just flat wrong. And I enlist your help in beating that out of our operations at the housing level.

So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We'll keep working on this.

Round 2 - Child Care

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. SEAC Isom, I have something I want to ask you about. If over half of enlisted service members left the military within just one year of joining, would that constitute a crisis?

SEAC Isom: Yes, ma'am.

Senator Warren: If you found out the reason for this attrition rate was low wages, what would you try to do?

SEAC Isom: I would come to you and ask for higher pay.

Senator Warren: Okay. And if we give you the money to do that, what would you do with that money?

SEAC Isom: We would pay those service members and hopefully increase recruiting and retention, ma'am.

Senator Warren: Well, you may remember we started this by noting: we have a waiting list of more than 7,800 children who are waiting for their childcare slots and not getting them. And the principal reason for that is we do not have enough people.

Do you know what the attrition rate is for people who are hired to be child care workers for our military right now? Don't know? It's 50%. That is why I started with that hypothetical. It's 50%.

And when you go ask those people-we have actually interviewed them and done studies-why did you leave? These were people who were attracted to the work, who like babies, who like little kids, who like working in a military setting, who liked the fact that the schedules are different, but it's part of their contribution.

You know what they tell us is the number one reason they leave?

SEAC Isom: Low pay?

Senator Warren: Low pay. Okay, so last year-the year before last, actually-we got into the NDAA that our military services would have money, and that they would upgrade their pay scales by April 2025.

We can agree it's now past April 2025, right? Which services have failed to do that? I am a little disturbed that you do not know any of these numbers. The Army, the Navy and the Air Force have not yet changed their pay scales, which might be the reason we have 7,800 children waiting for care.

So, I appreciate that everyone says they care about childcare, quality of life, all of it relates to readiness. You have the tools from Congress. We have already given them to you. And you have not picked them up and used them. So here is my question for the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force: we're going to be back here a year from now-we do this every year-we are doing this on video right now. When I come back to ask these questions a year from now, are we still going to have a waiting list that is 7,800 babies long? Or will we have whittled that waiting list down because we are actually hiring enough child care workers to get the job done? Can I hear, please, from the Army?

Sergeant Major Weimer: Senator, our goal is to draw-

Senator Warren: I'm not asking your goal. I'm asking are you going to get it done?

Sergeant Major Weimer: Senator, we're going to move out with a purpose.

Senator Warren: Navy?

MCPON Perryman: Senator, I believe the Navy has taken advantage of the increased pay scales authorized by Congress to the point that our current staffing is that 87%, which is up from the 60's in roughly FY 22. Our unmet need sits at about 1,400. We have significantly increased My Childcare Fee Assistance. And so I do think, to your point, we have moved out with the authorities, we are making significant progress in reducing our waitlist.

Another thing we did inside helping childcare workers is: for anybody who works for us, their first child is free. And then their second child is reduced further.

Senator Warren: Okay, that's great but that does not reduce your waiting list. Do you think it is ok to have a waiting list of 1,400 kids?

MCPON Perryman: I do not think it is okay but-

Senator Warren: Have you updated your pay scales as you were required to do by April of 2025?

MCPON Perryman: Yes, ma'am, our pay scales have been updated.

Senator Warren: So you're telling me the information I have that says you have not upgraded them is wrong?

MCPON Perryman: In my prep I was told we upgraded our pay scales.

Senator Warren: In mine, I was told you had not. Let's go back and check that one. How about the Air Force?

CM Sergeant Wolfe: Yes, Senator Warren, same as the Navy. Under the information I have is that we have upgraded our pay scales.

Senator Warren: And how long is your waiting list right now?

CM Sergeant Wolfe: Right now we've got about 2,700 with unmet need across the Air Force and that's absolutely not where we want to be for sure.

We are seeing initial indications that the first child free is having an impact because it is helping us keep people longer. So we are seeing some impact there. We don't have enough time with that policy in place to know for sure. We think we have about a 7%-8% bump from that policy all by itself. And absolutely we are committed to making sure this number goes down over time and does not creep back up. You have that commitment.

Senator Warren: And when you say "over time," can we just keep in mind that parents can't wait? They do not have a year that they can just set aside while they are waiting around on a 1,400 or a 2,700 child waitlist. They've got to have childcare now. Our position should be that there are extra slots so they are able to pick up the slot.

So, I really want to say: Space Command, Marines, you nailed it. And let's keep it up because that is what we have to do. We cannot say we are a military that cares about families if we pretend to care about childcare and then we have a waitlist that's got 7,800 babies waiting on it.

This is what oversight is about and I hope when we come back next year I will be offering congratulations to every one of you because we have no babies waiting for the care they need.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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