Bacon Speaks Out Against Diversion of Military Housing Funds

Washington – Yesterday, Rep. Don Bacon (NE-02) raised serious concerns regarding the reported diversion of $1 billion from critical military housing improvements to border security operations. During a House Armed Services Committee (HASC) hearing titled “Department of the Army Fiscal Year 2026 Posture,” Rep. Bacon highlighted how this reallocation would impact service members’ living conditions, particularly following Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports on substandard facilities. 

As Chairman of the HASC Quality of Life Panel, Rep. Bacon worked alongside Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) to improve service members’ living conditions, including securing the largest junior enlisted pay raise in 40 years. Last year, their bipartisan panel report revealed the deterioration of military housing facilities and recommended funding in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for extensive barracks renovations and essential infrastructure upgrades to ensure safe, healthy living conditions for service members.

View Rep. Bacon’s Remarks here, and written as delivered below: 

“I want to echo some of the concerns that we’ve heard today, the bipartisan concerns on the news reports that the Secretary of Defense has moved over $1 billion out of barracks and dorms for the border. We need a strong border. I get that. But I spent the last year chairing a subcommittee or a temporary subcommittee looking at quality of life, and in the midst of that, the GAO came out and gave our dorms and our barracks a failing grade an F, to include the Army. 

“We saw pictures of raw sewage in dorms, rodents, mold, dorms and barracks that had no air conditioner or heat working, and on and on. We spent the year trying to build a plan to help the services fix this. And what we did learn is over a decade, the services were moving money out of their dorms and barracks towards weapon systems. I get that we had finite resources, but we built a 10-year hole for our dorms and barracks. 

“Now, if the news reports are true, it’s very troubling. We were trying to help for the quality of life and feel like a decision was made that undermined this whole effort that we spent the last year doing.”