20250409: MLP Hearing: A Review of Military Food Programs
House Subcommittee on Military Personnel
2025-04-09
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
Thank you. The hearing will now come to order. I ask that unanimous consent that the chair be authorized to declare a recess at any time without objection. So I want to welcome everyone here to this hearing on military personnel subcommittee. Today's hearing is on the military food programs and the duty to feed our service members. I want to thank our witnesses for being with us today, and I hope this hearing provides the opportunity for members of the subcommittee to have a productive discussion with our witnesses. So let's be clear. Our men and women in uniform put everything on the line for this country. They endure the tough conditions and constant demands of military life. Access to nutritious, high-quality meals should be a given, not a challenge, or a quote-unquote nice-to-have, especially when money is deducted from junior enlisted members' paychecks to pay for it. Myself and the RACA member, when we had our initial meeting, we were talking about agreeing on the fact that we want to focus on quality-of-life issues, and this being one of them. Yet we continue to hear reports about the poor food quality, inconsistent operating hours, and logistical failures that leave too many of our service members without reliable meal options. And that's clearly unacceptable. I hope we would all agree on that. Even more concerning, fewer than one in three service members regularly use on-base facilities. A take rate that low signals a serious disparity between what's being provided and what's actually working for the force. The services have a responsibility to provide accessible meals that meet the nutritional needs of our service members. However, a lack of tracking and proper oversight of food programs has led to wildly inconsistent standards across military installations. Some bases have top notch dining facilities while others struggle to serve safely cooked food.
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Unknown (SPEAKER_09)
According to a RAND study, 25 percent of service members living in the barracks report food insecure. Think about that for a minute. That's just not bad for morale. It's bad for readiness and, frankly, embarrassing and unacceptable for the United States of America. Today we will hear directly from leaders responsible for overseeing military food programs. I want to know what's broken, why it's broken, and more importantly, how do we fix it and fix it quickly. This isn't about politics. It's about doing the right thing for and by the people who defend this nation. I look forward to the discussion and working with my colleagues to ensure that every service member, regardless of rank,
duty station or shift has access to the quality meals that they need and that they deserve before our before hearing from our witnesses let me offer ranking member hooligan an opportunity to make some opening remarks thank you and thank you all very much for coming thank you mr fallon for hosting this hearing on such an important quality of life issue for our service members the access to quality and nutritious food. I believe that this hearing serves as a continuation of much of the good work that we started in the last Congress. The bipartisan House Armed Services Quality of Life Report highlighted food insecurity as a challenge resulting from poor compensation of service members, particularly those who are most junior. And as a result, we included a historic pay raise for junior enlisted in the last NDAA and I look forward to taking on the challenge of improving food quality and access across military installations in this NDAA. You know that we all are in agreement when we're both quoting the same source of information. In January of 2023, at Congress's request, the RAND National Defense Research Institute did publish a study on food insecurity amongst members of the armed forces and their dependents, which included a variety of findings, but amongst them that 25 percent of all active duty personnel would be classified by the USDA as having low food security. And in addition, that report highlighted that the food insecurity was higher amongst those who lived on post. Since then, a series of news reports have further exposed concerning trends across the service's food programs, whether it's the quality of the food being served or the quantity of options available during meal hours or both. Both are variables that challenge service members and their access to food and nutritious food as well. So this is, of course, also compounded by the fact that service members may find chow halls closed or kiosk shelves empty. when they finally have the chance to eat, given their very varied work schedules.
Nearly all service members receive a monthly payment, which is designed to defray their personal food cost. It's known as the Basic Allowance Subsistence, or BAS, and this allowance is provided at a flat rate However, the funding mechanisms that support on installation food programs have recently come under increased scrutiny after questions were raised regarding how the services actually spend their basic allowance for subsistence. that is withheld from soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and guardians. It's also unclear whether the services consistently and accurately account for those costs of food programs, which also calls into question if and how the services are measuring their own effectiveness. To the points of oversight and effectiveness, last year the Government Accountability Office released a report where it made over a dozen recommendations for the Department of Defense and Military Services to increase their oversight and evaluation of nutritional efforts in support of service members. And unfortunately, I must report that nearly a year after its release, all of the recommendations, all of the recommendations remain open. which means that they have not yet been addressed.
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