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Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness ranking member, delivered the following opening statement at a joint Readiness and Military Personnel subcommittee hearing entitled "Privatized Military Family Housing: Update on Implementation of Housing Reforms."

Remarks as prepared for delivery:

Today we will hear testimony from three of the four invited partner companies that participate in the privatized military housing initiative (MHPI). I would like to echo Mr. Garamendi's comments about today's witnesses. I very much appreciate the engagement by the companies present today and am disappointed that not all could attend.

Over the past two and a half decades, the MHPI public-private venture has been utilized to provide housing options for our military families. Unfortunately, the program has also experienced serious management, health and safety, and oversight concerns. As someone whose district is home to 48,000 active duty military members, I know that our military families deserve better, and I will not stop fighting to ensure these issues are resolved.

In 2018 and 2019, largely as a result of a Reuters investigative series, military families from across the country came forward to share problems about their living conditions under the program. This committee held numerous hearings in response to concerns about mold, rodent infestations, poor customer service and poor management. It became clear that there were systemic issues within the privatized military housing initiative that required significant attention.

Both the NDAA for FY 20 and the NDAA for FY 21 contained bipartisan provisions to reform and strengthen oversight of the program. One such provision was the requirement for the Department of Defense, in coordination with the private partners, to develop and promulgate a tenant's bill of rights. The NDAA mandated 18 rights, and since 2019, 15 have already been implemented and available to military families. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about their perspective on why the universal lease, dispute resolution, and 7-year maintenance history have not yet been made available to all of our military families.

I am also concerned with the financial stability of some of the housing projects within the MHPI program. The military privatization initiative began as a way to modernize family housing, improve efficiency and grow reserves for future improvements. Today, many of the MHPI agreements are roughly at the mid-point of their 50-year term. While we are aware of some significant new investments, the fact remains that old housing units inherited into the program will need to be recapitalized. We must continue to assess the financial condition of the agreements to ensure that new investments and improvements can be made.

I welcome ideas today from the witnesses about how to find solutions to cases where projects are not receiving adequate cashflow to sustain home quality for our servicemembers.

According to the Military Housing Advocacy Network, despite the progress made in the past two NDAAs, thousands of military families are still living in substandard housing. We just left a briefing where we heard from various family advocacy groups, so we know that some problems persist, and how important Congress's continued oversight is.

Two years ago at another hearing with program partners, I made it clear that reform was needed, and to do so in a way that preserves the sound financial footing of each project so that military families receive housing commensurate with the sacrifices they make for each of us. Today, I am committed to seeing this through.

I want to thank the witnesses for your engagement, and I look forward to learning more about your perspectives on the program overall, your progress implementing Congressional reforms of the past two NDAAs as well as your ideas to improve the quality and experience of privatized military housing for our service members and their families.

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