Warren Celebrates Wins on Key Military Child Care, Military Health Care, Blast Overpressure Care at Armed Services Personnel Markup

Warren Celebrates Wins on Key Military Child Care, Military Health Care, Blast Overpressure Care at Armed Services Personnel Markup

Video of Remarks (SASC Personnel Subcommittee Stream)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, delivered opening remarks Subcommittee's markup of the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), celebrating her wins on key priorities, including on supporting military child care workers, holding pharmacy benefit managers accountable for potentially ripping off DoD and taxpayers, enhancing sexual assault protections for women, and improving blast overpressure care.

"It is critical that we show that Congress is continuing to work in a bipartisan manner to support our service members and military families," said Senator Warren.

Senator Warren called out the Trump administration's politicization of the military, including Secretary Hegseth's unprecedented intervention in military promotions, and attacks on DoD civilians.

"President Trump also continues to politicize the military for cheap political theater…This politicization will create lasting damage to our military and to our nation," said Senator Warren.

The senator highlighted the inclusion of her proposals, including:

• Requiring the Department of Defense (DoD) to update its pay scales for child care workers.

"[I]t is long past time for all the branches to fully update them based on requirements Congress passed in the FY 2025 NDAA. This Committee will be watching closely to ensure that happens," Senator Warren said.

• Securing a review of the TRICARE pharmacy program and how vertical integration by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts may be hurting troops and their families.

"This makes it harder for our troops and their families to fill prescriptions at their local pharmacies…We need to be doing more to stop this apparent profiteering at the expense of our service members, their families, and American taxpayers," Senator Warren continued.

• Requires the Defense Health Agency to review which military hospitals are complying with a new policy that allows patients to bring a chaperone to sensitive medical examinations.

"We unfortunately continue to hear of cases of sexual assault in the military, such as the cases of an Army OB/GYN who has been accused of recording videos of nearly 100 female patients without their consent…This policy helps keep patients safe, so I am glad that the mark directs the Defense Health Agency to review which hospitals are compliant with required chaperone policies and to develop a plan and recommendations based on their findings. Congress should go further by mandating this policy in law," said Senator Warren.

• Proposals to track service member brain injuries and provide them the care they need to address the injuries. Senator Warren is a leading advocate for providing adequate testing and care for troops' traumatic brain injuries.

"Traumatic brain injuries have become the 'signature injury' of the war against Iran, and the sooner we begin to implement these logs and do a better job tracking these injuries and making regular assessments to catch brain injuries, the better we can ensure that service members get the care they need," said Senator Warren.

Transcript: Senator Warren's Remarks on FY 2027 NDAA Markup
June 9, 2026
Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Personnel

As prepared for delivery

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for continuing this subcommittee's tradition of holding an open session for this markup. It is critical that we show that Congress is continuing to work in a bipartisan manner to support our service members and military families.

This markup comes at a time where President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are risking the lives of service members in an illegal war with Iran while making life more difficult for troops and their families back home. It also comes at a time where the Trump administration continues to politicize the military to serve their own agenda.

I am particularly disturbed by Secretary Hegseth taking unprecedented actions to intervene in military promotions. In DOD's latest list of 22 Navy promotions to become one-star admirals, zero of these promotions were women and reporting indicates that the last time the Navy promoted a woman to a one-star role was last June. And Secretary Hegseth reportedly removed the nominations of two women and two Black men from the original promotion list. It's also unclear why Secretary Hegseth has also now blocked the appointment of nine Air Force Colonels. He's also reportedly delayed the promotion of at least two dozen senior Air Force officers "while the Pentagon reviews their ties to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies." President Trump also continues to politicize the military for cheap political theater, including his most recent reported stunt to recruit hundreds of troops to watch his UFC cage-fighting event at the White House. This politicization will create lasting damage to our military and to our nation.

DOD has also shown a blatant disregard for the critical role DOD civilians play to support the military. It was shameful this administration failed to include any pay raises for civilian employees in its budget request. This mark includes some funding for civilians through bonuses, but at a time when President Trump's policies drive up costs for all Americans, it is unfair-and insulting-to deny DOD civilians a pay raise.

All of that said, I am proud of the bipartisan work done by this subcommittee to take care of troops and military families. I would like to thank the Chairman and his staff for their continued collaboration and adherence to tradition during the drafting of this mark. I am glad that this mark includes funding for the chronically underfunded Defense Health Program so that we can better support the health of our warfighters and their families. It also fully funds the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is critical for bringing home service members to their families.

I would like to highlight just a few other important provisions that have made it into this bipartisan mark. This mark continues to push DOD to ensure our service members and their families have access to high-quality child care by fully updating its pay scales for child care workers, including those who support kids with special needs. I'm also glad that the mark increases funding for child care and youth programs. While the services have made some progress in updating these pay scales, it is long past time for all the branches to fully update them based on requirements Congress passed in the FY 2025 NDAA. This Committee will be watching closely to ensure that happens.

This mark also requires GAO to review the TRICARE pharmacy program, including whether the Defense Health Agency is effectively assessing conflicts of interest in the program due to vertical integration. Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the United States, has held the exclusive TRICARE pharmacy contract for nearly twenty years. During that time, it's forced thousands of pharmacies out of the TRICARE network, allowing the company to potentially steer more business to its own mail-order pharmacies. This makes it harder for our troops and their families to fill prescriptions at their local pharmacies, and it allows Express Scripts to rake in more profits and allegedly to charge DOD a higher rate. We need to be doing more to stop this apparent profiteering at the expense of our service members, their families, and American taxpayers.

We unfortunately continue to hear of cases of sexual assault in the military, such as the cases of an Army OB/GYN who has been accused of recording videos of nearly 100 female patients without their consent. DHA took an important step last December to establish a policy requiring all military treatment facilities to offer a chaperone to any patient during sensitive medical examinations. This policy helps keep patients safe, so I am glad that the mark directs the Defense Health Agency to review which hospitals are compliant with required chaperone policies and to develop a plan and recommendations based on their findings. Congress should go further by mandating this policy in law.

I am glad that this mark also continues to push DOD to prioritize the brain health of our warfighters. I've been proud to work on this on a bipartisan basis on this issue subcommittee for years and want to thank Senator Ernst for her partnership. This year's bill continues to make progress on this issue by requiring DOD to brief this committee on the feasibility of regular cognitive testing and establishing blast overpressure and traumatic brain injury logs to better catch these brain injuries.

Traumatic brain injuries have become the "signature injury" of the war against Iran, and the sooner we begin to implement these logs and do a better job tracking these injuries and making regular assessments to catch brain injuries, the better we can ensure that service members get the care they need.

I am also glad that the mark encourages DOD to improve early identification of brain injuries, including through partnering with non-profit organizations that specialize in treating these injuries. The mark requires DOD to brief the committee on opportunities with existing non-profit partnerships for TBI treatment and early intervention. I want to call out organizations like Home Base in Massachusetts that have a strong track record of getting 95 percent of the Special Operators they treat for these types of brain injuries back into the field. DOD should continue to work with them to ensure service members have access to the care they need.

These are just some of the key provisions in the Chairman's mark, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on this subcommittee and the full committee to see what else we can do to improve the lives of our service members and their families.

I want to thank all of the members of the subcommittee and full committee for their work on this bill, as well as their staff. I especially want to thank the committee staff - Jon Clark, Gary Leeling, Andy Scott, Jenny Davis, Noah Sisk, Sofia Kamali, Glen Diehl, Megan Galindo, Madeline Guenther, Brendan Gavin, Katie Magnus, Isaac Jalkanen, Greg Lilly, and Leah Brewer.

Thank you.

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