Press Releases

 – Today, U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright announced the addition of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilCon-VA) Subcommittee to his House Appropriations Subcommittee lineup.

Cartwright will also return as a senior member of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee and the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee.

“My goal in this new role is to support the state-of-the-art modernization and renovation efforts at Tobyhanna Army Depot, as well as its increased workload of more than $150 million in projects from the last fiscal year,” said Congressman Cartwright. “Over 1,800 federal employees are at Tobyhanna right now, and more work there means more opportunities for the hard-working men and women of Northeastern Pennsylvania.”

The MilCon-VA Subcommittee provides oversight and funding for infrastructure and facilities development on all military posts.

“Keeping military bases up to date is critical to national security; keeping Tobyhanna up to date is critical for our regional economic security,” Cartwright added.

Other key DoD programs within the Subcommittee’s jurisdiction include military family housing construction and maintenance, base alignment funding, and NATO Security investments.

The Subcommittee also provides oversight and funding for the VA.  It oversees and funds programs like the Opioid Safety Initiative (OSI), which helps prevent addition and improves veterans’ access to treatment for addiction.  The fiscal year 2019 VA spending bill, which was enacted in late 2018, included the largest amount of discretionary funding for the VA in U.S. history.  Other priorities in the VA portion of the MilCon-VA bill are programs that provide career training and education to veterans, physical plant improvements to VA health facilities, and research into health issues affecting veterans.

“Respect for veterans means funding quality care for veterans,” said Cartwright.  “We’ve asked a lot from service members in both the 20^th and 21^st Centuries, and they rose to the challenge.  We now need to meet their needs without waver.”