Press Releases

Today, U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (PA-08) announced that provisions he authored on military family health and safety were included in the House Fiscal Year 2020 Military Construction-VA appropriations bill, which was approved by the full Appropriations Committee this afternoon.

The provisions address the health and safety threats in on-post military housing managed by private sector property management companies, as have been reported in 2018 and 2019 national press coverage. These deficiencies were also outlined in a special report issued in February by the Military Family Advisory Network, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of life for service members and their families.

“Our military branches have admirable records of working to protect service members from hostile fire from our nation’s enemies,” said Congressman Cartwright.  “But improvements are needed to protect them from the serious safety and health threats in privatized base housing, which include lead-based paint and paint dust, mold, exposed asbestos, radon, faulty electrical wiring, rodent and insect infestations, sewage leaks, and gas leaks.”

Specifically, the FY 2020 MilCon-VA bill includes:

• A finding that potentially unsafe conditions exist in privatized military family housing throughout the nation;
• A directive to the service branches to fully shoulder the long-term responsibility of overseeing the health and safety aspects of military housing, as service members and their families are, by their very nature, only temporary tenants of such housing;
• A directive to the Department of Defense to make whole service members and their family members whose health has suffered as a result of negligent maintenance on issues related to: mold, asbestos, radon, faulty wiring, rodent and insect infestations, gas leaks, and other housing-related health issues; and to prioritize funding for mold remediation in military housing;
• A directive to the Department of Defense to develop a new system for dealing with safety and health threats in military family housing managed by private contractors that includes: (1) active outreach to tenants on how to file a complaint or make a maintenance request, (2) a new record-keeping and reporting system of housing complaints and maintenance requests, and (3) annual reporting on the status of remediation requests and the efforts to address them by private contractors;
• A directive for the services to review the professional competency of the repair personnel and contractors used to remediate health and safety threats in privatized military housing; and
• A directive for the service branch secretaries to submit a report to Congress detailing: (1) how the services monitor privatized housing facilities, and (2) any planned upgrades to that system in order to add transparency to it; and for the Department of Defense to submit quarterly reports on measures taken to improve the quality of housing in buildings managed by private companies under tenant contracts and leases from the Department.

“The days of leaving the health-related conditions of base housing to private landlords must end,” said Cartwright.  “Each service branch needs to implement a separate, dedicated office that is assigned the unique and unconflicted task of supporting tenants’ safety and health-related requests, and ensuring that remediation of risks actually takes place.”

“I intend to make sure the Appropriations Committee stays on this issue for years to come,” Cartwright added.

The FY 2020 MilCon-VA appropriations bill next moves to the House floor.  The House Majority Leader has announced plans to consider it in June.

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