Congressional Testimony
Congressional Testimony
Here's a look at documents involving congressional testimony and member statements
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House Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Mackenzie Issues Opening Statement at Hearing on Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections released the following opening statement from a May 13, 2026, hearing entitled "Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues":* * *
Today's hearing will examine emerging workplace safety risks and the need for collaborative, practical policymaking to better prevent serious injuries and fatalities in the modern workplace.
The workplace has evolved dramatically in recent decades, bringing new risks to both employers and ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, May 15 -- Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections released the following opening statement from a May 13, 2026, hearing entitled "Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues": * * * Today's hearing will examine emerging workplace safety risks and the need for collaborative, practical policymaking to better prevent serious injuries and fatalities in the modern workplace. The workplace has evolved dramatically in recent decades, bringing new risks to both employers andemployees. Today, businesses must navigate an increasingly complex safety landscape shaped by rapidly changing technology, new worker arrangements such as remote work, and evolving operational demands. At the same time, long-standing safety concerns that once received limited attention are now at the forefront of workplace safety discussions. Yet, while the nature of work constantly changes, the regulatory framework governing workplace safety has often struggled to keep pace.
Although overall rates of workplace injuries and illnesses have declined, far too many workers and families are still impacted by serious injuries and fatalities each year. And while progress has been made, even one workplace injury or fatality is too many. To achieve further improvements, we must look to frontline workers, business owners, researchers, and safety experts who are developing innovative approaches to workplace safety.
Safety issues that may not have been part of the conversation decades ago are now crucial components of workplace safety programs and advocacy efforts. Vehicle-involved accidents, for example, have become one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities across many industries.
Drivers--whether in construction, mining, utilities, delivery services, or sales--face significant risks every day simply doing their jobs and supporting their families.
In response, many industry leaders are adopting comprehensive safety management systems that go beyond regulatory requirements. These approaches may include leading indicators, behavioral safety programs, and advanced data analytics to identify serious injury and fatality risks before incidents occur. These efforts demonstrate how innovation and proactive safety practices can create safer workplaces.
As we look ahead, one thing is clear: effective workplace safety policy cannot be developed in isolation. Policymakers, workers, employers, safety professionals, and industry experts must all have a seat at the table. To truly improve safety outcomes, regulations must include meaningful input from the workers, employers, and safety professionals responsible for implementing them every day. Lasting workplace safety improvements require policies that both protect workers and remain practical, adaptable, and responsive to evolving risks.
Ultimately, the goal should be more than compliance alone. The goal should be to create safer workplaces through thoughtful and forward-looking policies that reflect the realities of modern work. This Subcommittee will always find opportunities to partner with the administration, workers, job creators, and safety experts to achieve this shared mission.
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Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/mackenzie_os_5.12.26.pdf
House Education & Workforce Committee Chairman Walberg Issues Opening Statement at Hearing on Mining
FORT BRANCH, Indiana, May 15 -- Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, released the following testimony opening statement from a May 8, 2026, field hearing entitled "Protecting Workers and Powering America: The Future of Mining":* * *
I would like to thank Vincennes University for hosting today's hearing.
It is great to be at an institution that is educating tomorrow's leaders in the fields of firefighting, manufacturing, workplace safety, and mining.
Today's hearing will examine the U.S. mining industry and ways we can improve the industry for ... Show Full Article FORT BRANCH, Indiana, May 15 -- Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, released the following testimony opening statement from a May 8, 2026, field hearing entitled "Protecting Workers and Powering America: The Future of Mining": * * * I would like to thank Vincennes University for hosting today's hearing. It is great to be at an institution that is educating tomorrow's leaders in the fields of firefighting, manufacturing, workplace safety, and mining. Today's hearing will examine the U.S. mining industry and ways we can improve the industry forboth miners and mine operators. Under the Trump administration and Republican leadership in Congress, there is opportunity for mining to grow and continue delivering for communities like this one.
America's mining industry is at a turning point. Last year, President Trump issued three executive orders aimed at strengthening domestic mining production. These were critical steps to ensure energy independence for the nation.
The Department of Labor and this Committee are also taking steps to remove burdensome policies and create a regulatory landscape that allows mining operations to grow.
Acting on these executive orders, the Department of Energy recently announced nearly $100 million in funding as part of its Mine of the Future initiative, with $80 million going toward the development and commercialization of advanced mining technology. This initiative recognizes the innovative approaches being taken in the mining industry, where some of the most advanced technology is being used to increase production efficiency and reduce worker exposure and risk.
Last July, members of this Committee sent a letter to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) requesting that it revise the overly burdensome rule on respirable crystalline silica issued by the BidenHarris administration in 2024. The mining industry depends on small and mid-sized operators, and several provisions in this final rule placed costly obligations on these businesses, which would likely cause them to close their doors.
But the work does not stop there. We must ensure worker protections keep pace. For example, in July 2025 MSHA created the Compliance Assistance in Safety and Health, or CASH, program to support the anticipated surge in mining productivity following President Trump's executive orders. MSHA also continues to award millions of dollars in grants to support mine safety and health training across the United States.
These investments in safety and health have paid off. In 2025, the mining industry experienced its lowest total injury rate in history. While there has been outstanding progress in keeping our workers safe, there is still more work to do.
Collaboration between government and the private sector leads to safer workplaces, an educated workforce, and a stronger mining industry.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about ways to unleash the mining industry's potential in a way that protects miners and benefits the communities in which they live and work.
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Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/walberg_opening_statement_5.8.26.pdf
House Education & Workforce Committee Chairman Walberg Issues Opening Statement at Hearing on DOEd Policies
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, released the following opening statement from a May 14, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Education":* * *
Good morning. Secretary McMahon, welcome back to the Committee.
Under your leadership, the Trump administration is delivering on reforms that will make education less expensive, improve outcomes for students and families, protect civil rights, and empower states and local communities with greater freedom to make the education decisions ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, May 15 -- Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, released the following opening statement from a May 14, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Education": * * * Good morning. Secretary McMahon, welcome back to the Committee. Under your leadership, the Trump administration is delivering on reforms that will make education less expensive, improve outcomes for students and families, protect civil rights, and empower states and local communities with greater freedom to make the education decisionsthat are right for them.
First, I applaud the Department of Education for its swift implementation of the reforms enacted under the Working Families Tax Cuts. That law contains the most significant reforms to higher education in more than a decade. The Working Families Tax Cuts will lower college costs and debt burdens for students and families, hold schools accountable so they deliver programs that set students up for future success, and provide students and workers with new pathways to successful careers.
In the months since enactment, the Department has pursued an aggressive and consensus-driven implementation process. Through two separate negotiated rulemaking processes, the Department successfully reached consensus on regulations addressing the law's student loan reforms, accountability system, and Pell Grant expansion for short-term workforce programs. Madam Secretary, that is impressive work.
At the same time, the Department has been tackling broader challenges within our post-secondary education system. First, Madam Secretary, you fixed the FAFSA. The Biden-Harris administration famously botched the rollout of the updated FAFSA, but under your leadership, the Department launched the 2026-2027 FAFSA earlier than ever before. As a result, FAFSA completions increased significantly, giving more students an opportunity to pursue their post-secondary dreams.
In addition, student loan repayment is finally back on track. The previous administration spent its time pursuing illegal efforts to shift student loan debt onto taxpayers, while this Department is helping borrowers regain their financial footing and return to repayment responsibly.
The Department is also taking the threat of unreported foreign funding seriously by opening new Section 117 investigations into non-compliant institutions and revamping the reporting portal to increase transparency and public accessibility.
Finally, the Department is addressing student aid fraud. In recent years, ghost student fraud has cost taxpayers millions of dollars and crowded legitimate students out of classrooms. Criminals are increasingly using AI to expand the scale and sophistication of these schemes, exploiting vulnerabilities that were worsened when key safeguards were weakened.
Since taking office, however, Secretary McMahon has implemented aggressive anti-fraud measures, including restoring critical safeguards, strengthening identity verification requirements, and improving the Department's ability to detect fraudulent activity. Those efforts helped block over $1 billion in attempted fraud in 2025 alone. Again, Madam Secretary, impressive work.
At the K-12 level, the Working Families Tax Cuts delivered again. That law included a massive expansion of school choice by allowing taxpayers to subtract up to $1,700 from their tax bill for donations made to nonprofit scholarship granting organizations, or SGOs. Those organizations, which must be approved by governors, will distribute scholarships to families to help cover tuition, tutoring, special education services, or other education-related expenses. The program will become operational in January 2027, and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that by 2034 the program will make approximately $4.4 billion available to students and families annually.
As of last week, 31 states had indicated that they would participate.
Unfortunately, most Democrat-led states have chosen politics over families, but I was encouraged to hear that Governor Hochul to opt New York into the program. That is great news, and I hope many other Democrats will follow. Secretary McMahon, while the Treasury Department is responsible for implementation, thank you for working closely with Treasury to ensure this program fulfills its promise of expanding educational freedom for American families.
Secretary McMahon, thank you as well for standing up for parents.
Whether it's restoring the promise of Title IX for women and girls or stopping efforts by states and school districts to conceal health and wellbeing information from parents in violation of FERPA, the
Department is once again putting parents back in the driver's seat of their children's education.
Secretary McMahon, you are also continuing the fight against antisemitism. This Committee has been beating the drum on this issue, and we will continue to do so. Our friends on the other side of the aisle seem interested in this issue only when they believe there is a political benefit to be gained. That's tragic. Thank you for standing up for Jewish students and educators and for holding institutions accountable when they fail to protect students' safety and access to educational opportunity.
Finally, Madam Secretary, I applaud your ongoing efforts to return education decision-making to states and local communities where it belongs. You've already demonstrated that education programs are more effective when administered alongside related workforce, economic, and community priorities. The Committee looks forward to working with you to advance our shared goal of empowering families, states, and communities to deliver better outcomes for students, families, workers, and taxpayers.
Secretary McMahon, again, thank you for being here. I look forward to your testimony.
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Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/walberg_os_5.14.26.pdf
Harvard Law School Center for Labor & Just Economy Senior Research Fellow Parker Testifies Before House Education & Workforce Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections released the following written testimony by Douglas L. Parker, senior research fellow at Harvard Law School Center for Labor and a Just Economy, and former assistant secretary of Labor for occupational safety and health, from a May 13, 2026, hearing entitled "Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues":* * *
Thank you, Chairman MacKenzie, Ranking Member Omar, and members of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, for the invitation to testify on private sector strategies ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections released the following written testimony by Douglas L. Parker, senior research fellow at Harvard Law School Center for Labor and a Just Economy, and former assistant secretary of Labor for occupational safety and health, from a May 13, 2026, hearing entitled "Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues": * * * Thank you, Chairman MacKenzie, Ranking Member Omar, and members of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, for the invitation to testify on private sector strategiesto address emerging safety issues. For the last sixteen years I have served the public in a variety of roles working to improve occupational safety and health outcomes for U.S. workers. I held senior roles at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, was Chief of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, serving as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health from 2021 to 2025. I also served as Executive Director of a legal aid organization dedicated to worker health and safety-related rights, and have represented labor unions in various industries. I am currently a consultant on health and safety matters. I also serve as a senior research fellow at Harvard Law School's Center for Labor and a Just Economy.
I look forward to a wide-ranging discussion of some of the many emerging issues in health and safety. For the benefit of the subcommittee I have provided a short list of some of the highlights that, from my perspective, are top of mine in ensuring that workers in the U.S. can go home at the end of shift safe and healthy.
Emerging Issue 1-The Degrading of the Health and Safety Ecosystem
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is the cornerstone of U.S. occupational health and safety. It codifies a system of roles and responsibilities shared among government, employers, employees, and employee representatives to address health and safety in the workplace. Under this system, employers have the responsibility to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. It is critical that employers and employer associations are proactive, thoughtful and forward-leaning in advancing workplace health and safety. We should encourage innovation, research and a scientific approach to improving outcomes for workers.
It is critical to recognize that health and safety strategies implemented by employers do not develop in a vacuum. While many employers deserve credit for their significant commitment to health and safety, It would be a mistake to think of emerging health and safety strategies as employer-developed.
Employer strategies are grounded in years of experience and study of the nature of workplace hazards. They are grounded in the demands of organized labor to improve working conditions, and in labor-management agreements that have for years improved safety programs through worker participation, input and negotiation, resulting in strong industry standards in those sectors, benefiting both union and non-union workers. They are grounded in non-profit organizations of safety and health professionals that contribute to the field. And they are grounded in world-class research into health and safety hazards and a research-to-practice approach that puts new technologies and practices in the hands of employers and workers. This knowledge is possible through the work of public institutions such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the work of numerous state agencies and public research universities.
Any discussion of emerging health and safety issues must recognize that without these public institutions, without labor, and without dedicated safety and health professionals our Nation's workers would work in much more dangerous conditions. Particularly troubling was the Administration's recent effort to dismantle NIOSH, which would have eliminated the Nation's principal means of researching and understanding the nature of health and safety hazards for workers. Thankfully, through the efforts of the public, including leading voices from both labor and management, this decision was reversed. This non-partisan recognition of the critical role of a public institution in providing value to both workers and employers was a welcome departure from the current climate of divisiveness.
Unfortunately the Administration remains undeterred in its desire to eliminate NIOSH, which has provided the foundation for many of the advances and innovations today's panel will discuss.
The President's FY 2027 budget proposes a 75% budget cut, eliminating all current occupational safety and health research programs. There are also proposed budget cuts and changes to the mission of NIEHS.
Effective cuts at other agencies are also degrading the system that Congress envisioned when it passed the OSH Act. The number of federal OSHA inspectors, which is now well below 700 compliance officers to cover the majority of the U.S. private sector, is the lowest number in the agency's history. Similar staffing reductions have impacted other parts of the agency, limiting OSHA's ability to update and modernize rules, address emerging hazards, and conduct outreach. These cuts will also impact the effectiveness of state OSHA plans. The President's FY 2027 budget further undermines any efforts by OSHA to hire inspectors, proposing a 13.5% budget cut for OSHA enforcement and a 36% reduction in health and safety inspections from 2025 levels.
Emerging Issue 2: Growing Recognition of Safety and Health Management Systems
The most important positive development in the private sector is the growing recognition of the need for employers to develop robust safety and health management systems (SHMS).
Compliance with a set of health and safety regulations is a critical part of safety, but it represents a floor, a minimum set of requirements. Unlike a compliance-focused program, a SHMS approach to health and safety embraces health and safety as a core organizational value. Its goal is continuous improvement of health and safety. While different SHMS approaches emphasize different components, they have three common themes: (1) corporate leadership and communication; (2) a systematic approach to finding and fixing hazards; and (3) active employee involvement and input.
During my tenure at OSHA we placed significant emphasis on the importance of employers adopting a SHMS approach to health and safety, holding listening sessions, encouraging information sharing, highlighting positive examples, and incorporating SHMS principles into corporate-wide settlements. We even expanded our own SHMS to include a section on mental health and mental health and wellness.
Emerging Issue 3: Injury/Illness Data and Leading Indicators
Employer efforts to develop metrics for health and safety performance developed from the same desires for a more scientific approach to better business management. There is a growing call for increased use of leading indicators as a tool for predicting and improving health and safety outcomes. I fully support this effort. During my time at OSHA I led the call to encourage employers to better use data, including the development of leading indicators, as part of a SHMS approach.
At the same time, I am concerned with the suggestion from some corners that leading indicators represent a "silver bullet," or that good use of leading indicators means less focus on injuries. To respond to some of those claims I have a few key points:
1. The U.S. lacks a comprehensive surveillance system to understand the health effects of work.
The lack of such a system severely curtails our ability to understand, or even count, the number of occupational illnesses in this country.
2. Our ability to track injuries and serious injuries exists but is limited. Our understanding of injuries on a national or industry-wide scale is primarily based on sampling. Efforts to count injuries are limited by inconsistencies in employer reporting, some of which are driven by inconsistent rules and some which are driven by incentives to undercount injuries.
3. Despite the limitations, tracking injuries and illness are our best available method of tracking health and safety outcomes.
4. Injury and illness data are sometimes referred to as "lagging indicators." It is important to note this statement, "lagging indicators," is incomplete. One must complete the sentence, "lagging indicators of ____" to understand this reference. It almost always means future injuries or illnesses, but can also refer to catastrophic events.
5. For example, if an employer has a high number of ergonomic injuries and implements a new ergonomic program, the number of past injuries is a lagging indicator of future ergonomic injuries. In addition to being a lagging indicator, it has limited predictive value in determining how the new program will work. However, it remains a critical benchmark for future performance. It is also a record of past outcomes, and represents worker suffering, lost income for the worker, and lost economic value for the employer.
5a. If the employer has a high number of ergonomic injuries and makes no changes, past injury rates are still both a lagging indicator of future performance and a benchmark. However, in this scenario a lagging indicator is a stronger indicator of future performance, assuming the injury rates are statistically significant. And the larger the sample size, the more relevant lagging indicators tend to become.
6. The best leading indicators track implementation of SHMS. They track things like maintenance, worker participation in safety, efforts to audit hazards, and adoption of innovative solutions to address hazards. But any effective approach includes both leading and lagging indicators. There is not "silver bullet," and indicators should not be confused with definitions.
They are predictive tools, not outcomes. The only relevant outcome is how safe and healthy workers are.
I applaud efforts by the private sector to develop stronger leading indicators. But in adopting them we cannot abandon fundamentals of health and safety, such as tracking injuries and illnesses.
Emerging Health and Safety Issue 4: Silica
The debilitating effects of silica dust on workers' lungs is hardly an emerging issue - the impact on stonecutters was documented in the Roman Empire. What has emerged in recent years however is a form of exposure to respirable silica dust that is killing and disabling workers at a shockingly young age. The exposure occurs among workers who cut and shape engineered stone, a composite material made with crushed stone - typically silica-containing quartz binders, and resins. The "recipe" for this material radically concentrates respirable silica, creating dangerous exposures at moderate levels of dust. At OSHA I characterized this hazard as America's next Black Lung if we do not take decisive action. The victims are typically immigrant workers who take jobs in small operations of only a few employees. These operations are widely dispersed, making enforcement and outreach difficult. While there are technologies and processes that can protect workers from dust, as a practical matter workers will continue to have adequate protections in this industry. The nature of the supply chain of these products places the greatest risk on the workers at the smallest employers with the least access to the significant capital needed to invest in improvements. It is also unclear to me whether the current economics of the industry allow for these sorts of improvements. This is the type of hazard where emerging strategies and leading indicators implemented by larger, more sophisticated employers mean little.
A similar trend exists in the coal mining industry, where changes in mining methods have introduced higher levels of silica-containing quartz dust into the mine environment. After years of progress in preventing coal miners' pneumoconiosis, one of several respiratory diseases known as Black Lung, there has been an alarming increase in the rate of Appalachian coal miners stricken by Black Lung at younger and younger ages because of exposure to respirable silica. While MSHA finalized a rule to put stronger protections and better health surveillance in place across the mining industry, implementation has been paused by this Administration. In the meantime, miners wait for relief.
Emerging Health and Safety Issue 5: Artificial Intelligence
AI dominates the conversation about new technology in the workplace. It is a powerful tool with real potential to reduce injuries and illnesses. But if AI is not grounded in fundamental safety principles and an ethical framework, it can introduce significant physical and psychological hazards into the workplace.
I support using new technologies to protect workers. I have witnessed how collaboration between government and the private sector has brought technology into the workplace that saves lives. But many of the AI tools on the market focus on modifying worker behavior instead of addressing the root causes of hazards. While these tools can be a helpful part of a safety program, the first question in addressing a workplace hazard is whether the danger can be eliminated, isolated or controlled through engineering. Skipping those steps and simply training workers to adapt to hazards makes workplaces less safe. Safety-purposed AI can also undermine safety by chilling employee involvement in safety efforts if used to monitor and discipline employees instead of for improving safety.
Employers must also ensure new technology does not introduce new hazards into the workplace. Algorithmic management tools that track worker activity can create physical and psychosocial hazards. Fear of surveillance, loss of privacy, and anxiety about job loss affect mental health. Physical injuries and illness can result from production pressures that cause workers to skip needed rest breaks or work at unsafe speeds. These risks can be reduced through prevention by design. Practical strategies for prevention by design in AI include development of risk assessment tools, auditing standards, and a safety certification process focused on ensuring technology does not harm workers. And employees should have a seat at the table. Transparency and understanding are key.
Other Emerging Issues
Workers continue to face new and growing hazards, including from heat, workplace violence, particularly in health care, and new chemical compounds introduced into the workplace. These hazards require a robust approach from employers and our worker protection agencies. OSHA should continue its work developing standards to protect workers in all of these areas, but needs additional funding to do so adequately.
Thank you again for the opportunity to come before the subcommittee and offer my perspective.
I look forward to the discussion.
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Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/parker_testimony.pdf
DOEd Secretary McMahon Testifies Before House Education & Workforce Committee
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The House Education and Workforce Committee released the following testimony by Education Secretary Linda McMahon from a May 14, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Education":* * *
Chairman Walberg, Ranking Member Scott, distinguished members of this Committee, thank you very much for having me today.
I want to thank my team at the Department of Education and those across the federal government for their months of hard work and diligence to produce the President's Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget request.
In November 2024, the ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The House Education and Workforce Committee released the following testimony by Education Secretary Linda McMahon from a May 14, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Education": * * * Chairman Walberg, Ranking Member Scott, distinguished members of this Committee, thank you very much for having me today. I want to thank my team at the Department of Education and those across the federal government for their months of hard work and diligence to produce the President's Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget request. In November 2024, theAmerican people elected President Trump with a clear mandate: to sunset a 46-year, $3 trillion failed federal education bureaucracy in Washington, DC, and return authority to where it belongs, with parents, teachers, and local leaders. Amid record-low test scores across every subject and grade and record-high numbers of students buried in crippling student debt, Americans urgently want results--schools that prepare students for success, pathways that lead to real opportunity, and policies that encourage innovation and excellence.
Today, I can confidently attest that we are delivering on the vision of educational renewal that, for decades, many promised but no one delivered. With your partnership, the FY 2027 Budget will propel these advancements even further to forge the futures our children deserve.
In the time since I last came before this committee, I've traveled to over 30 states visiting private, public, charter, magnet, tribal, and parochial schools, and engaged with hundreds, if not thousands, of students, teachers, parents, and superintendents. Seeing first-hand the successes and challenges our education systems face has reinforced my conviction that empowering local leaders and targeting federal dollars toward evidence-based programs are the force multipliers driving our educational renaissance.
To that end, my Department has carefully scrutinized every dollar of taxpayer investment to ensure that it supports clear pathways to success for our students and families. Within months of entering office, we cut billions in bloated, unproductive, and, in some cases, downright absurd program funding, and redirected those resources to revitalize literacy, invigorate workforce development, and support our most vulnerable students. We conducted an honest assessment of our operational efficacy, shrank our bloated bureaucracy, and to date, have secured ten partnerships with federal agencies far better equipped to manage programs than the Department of Education. Under the Trump Administration, bureaucracy no longer comes before the people it is supposed to serve.
At the state level, we've stopped burdening local leaders with excessive paperwork and one-sizefits-all mandates. We are now empowering them to design solutions that best support their students, including by granting them more discretion over their federal education dollars by leveraging existing flexibilities in federal law. For example, we awarded Iowa the first-ever Returning Education to the States Waiver, which combines four funding streams into one and frees millions of dollars in compliance costs. This allows Iowa to devote more resources to proven interventions--like those that led to their recent double-digit reading gains. This is what real empowerment looks like: unleashing flexibility for our local education leaders to scale the reforms that have delivered results for students and families. And we continue to work closely with other states to help them realize their potential for innovation.
We have also made unprecedented progress to expand affordable, high quality education options and restore parents to their rightful role as the primary decision-makers in their child's education.
No family should be locked into an education system that limits the opportunities open to students based on ZIP code, income, or administrative barriers. Thanks to President Trump and Republicans in Congress, the Education Freedom Tax Credit--the largest national expansion of education freedom in history--gives parents access to critical resources like scholarships, tutoring, and specialized services for students with disabilities, whether their child attends public or private school. And in FY 2025 alone, we devoted half a billion dollars to Charter School Programs, and thanks to the partnership of those here today, I look forward to matching that investment in the next two fiscal years.
Across every level of education, the Trump Administration is restoring safety, fairness, and equal opportunity for our students and returning civil rights enforcement to the letter and purpose of the law. After our nation watched violent riots erupt on college campuses, men invade women's sports, and harassment against Jewish students while universities turned a blind eye, we secured seven historic agreements with universities to recommit to merit, fairness, and civil-rights protections for more than 120,000 students across their campuses. In K-12 and higher education alike, we are ensuring no student is discriminated against on the basis of their skin color, disability, or sex, and that every learner is protected by clear, consistent, and equal standards under the law.
Under President Trump's leadership, we have also finally restored fiscal integrity, accountability, and transparency to the broken federal student aid system for the 43 million Americans holding an astounding $1.7 trillion in federal student loan debt. Our simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form finally delivers on the promise to cut completion time from days to minutes; and we launched the FAFSA on the earliest timeline in program history, leading to a record 11 million submissions to date. We introduced a new earnings indicator so students and families can see projected outcomes upfront--no longer forcing them to make life-changing financial decisions blindly or take on significant debt without clear, reliable information. And thanks to our strengthened security measures, we have prevented over $1 billion in attempted federal student aid fraud.
We are hard at work implementing the historic provisions of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which many of you in this room helped pass. The new law simplifies federal student loan repayment rules; it launches a brand-new Workforce Pell program that will make workforcealigned, short-term educational programs available to Americans; and it puts downward pressure on tuition to make education more affordable for students nationwide.
Distinguished members of this Committee, these historic reforms serve as a powerful demonstration of our responsible stewardship of the trust the American people have placed in us.
And today, we're putting forward a request for $75.7 billion in new discretionary budget authority-- with every allocation scrutinized and intentionally structured to accelerate these reforms for the American people.
Today's budget request maintains full funding for the Title I-A Grants to Local Education Agencies program, devoting over $18.4 billion to serve children from low-income families.
It includes $33 billion for the Pell Grant program, supporting low-income students who have not yet earned a degree. This represents an increase of $10.5 billion over the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriation in order to fully fund the current maximum award of $7,395 and eliminate the shortfall in Fiscal Year 2027. The Trump Administration is committed to maintaining access to Pell without cuts to the maximum award and looks forward to working with Congress to put the program on stable financial footing for this year and into the future.
It provides $2 billion in new Make Education Great Again (MEGA) grants, which would include a historic investment to improve numeracy and literacy giving educators and students the resources they need to remediate our nation's decades-long academic proficiency crisis.
And for our students with disabilities and their families, the Trump Administration requests $15.4 billion for the IDEA Grants to States Program and $590 million for IDEA Grants for Infants and Families Program, which is a combined increase of over a half a billion dollars above the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriation.
Despite relentless attacks and a slew of misinformation campaigns about our efforts to return education to the states, we have always made clear that shifting authority back to the states would not come at the expense of essential federal support and programs, the vast majority of which predate the Department itself. Today's budget request is unequivocal proof that when the Trump Administration makes promises, we keep them.
Our students are more than young learners--they are the future of our country and our world.
Every aspect of our life - our economy, our national security, the preservation of our freedom - depends on the investments we make in them.
With your partnership, we are well-positioned to unleash momentous opportunity for every child to realize their God-given potential. Thank you for your commitment and partnership, and I look forward to taking your questions.
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Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fy2027_ed_budget_testimony_house_edworkforce_final.pdf
Cianbro Corp. Senior Corporate Director Sughrue Testifies Before House Education & Workforce Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections released the following testimony by Patrick Sughrue, senior corporate director of health, safety and environmental at Cianbro Corp., Pittsfield, Maine, on behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors, from a May 13, 2026, hearing entitled "Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues":* * *
Chairman Mackenzie, Ranking Member Omar and Members of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections:
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on "Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections released the following testimony by Patrick Sughrue, senior corporate director of health, safety and environmental at Cianbro Corp., Pittsfield, Maine, on behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors, from a May 13, 2026, hearing entitled "Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues": * * * Chairman Mackenzie, Ranking Member Omar and Members of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections: Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on "Building a Safer Future: Private-SectorStrategies for Emerging Safety Issues." My name is Pat Sughrue and I serve as Senior Corporate Director of Health, Safety and Environmental at Cianbro Corp. ("Cianbro"), a full-service, self-performing general contractor that delivers industry-leading construction services for complex projects throughout the country. Founded in 1949, Cianbro is one of America's largest 100% employee-owned, open shop construction and construction services companies, operating in more than 40 states and employing over 4,000 team members.
We are both a Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Programand Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) certified at multiple locations and one of few to be recognized as VPP Mobile Workforce certified in the industry. On a national level, Cianbro was recently recognized by Associated Builders and Contractors with its Excellence in Construction Safety Pinnacle Award, just 1 of 3 general contractors in the country to receive this prestigious honor.
On May 4, Associated Builders and Contractors released its 2026 Health and Safety Performance Report, an annual guide to health and safety best practices on construction jobsites reflecting more than 1.3 billion hours of work completed in 2025. The report is especially relevant to today's hearing because it demonstrates how private-sector safety systems, including the use of leading indicators, are already helping contractors identify hazards, reduce risk and improve outcomes before incidents occur.
The 2026 report shows that top-performing ABC members participating in ABC's STEP(R) Health and Safety Management System achieved incident rates 686% safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics construction industry average, reducing total recordable incident rates by 85%.
The lesson is clear: Proactive, measurable safety systems work.
At Cianbro, we know that safety challenges cannot be solved by looking only at what went wrong after an injury occurs. It requires committed and engaged leadership, clear communication, team member involvement, and a culture of trust. In addition, it requires a proactive approach, focused on the holistic person which is why we utilize leading indicators to help us prevent illness and injuries.
Construction professionals need to be at their best at all times as the construction industry is full of risks. We believe utilizing leading indicators is critical to maintain a safe work site. A few examples of the leading indicators we use today include:
* Daily Stretching, Communication, and Fit for Duty Evaluations
* Daily reporting of all good catches, near misses, and environmental impacts
* Identifying High Energy Hazards and Controls--tracking/trending/actions shared
* Safety walks / Audits, X-rays and trends
* Peer-to-Peer Behavioral Observations
* Craft Observations Raising Excellence (CORE) Committees led by craft professionals
* Daily pre-task planning and meetings - (Jobsite Hazard Analysis/Jobsite Safety Analysis)
* New-hire orientation and site-specific orientation
* Lifelong Education and Development tracking.
* Last Minute Risk Analyses
Today in the construction industry, there are multiple layers of accountability when injuries occur on a project.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalties, workers' compensation, civil liability risks, contractual/owner accountabilities, insurance companies, and informally but just as powerful are the consequences derived from damaged client relationships, workforce morale, public perceptions, reduced ability to attract talent.
But enforcement alone cannot build an industry leading health and safety culture. To address emerging safety challenges, OSHA should also emphasize compliance assistance, cooperative programs, education and practical tools that help employers prevent incidents before they happen.
Relying on Total Recordable Injury Rates, or TRIR as a primary safety metric is increasingly ineffective and counterproductive. TRIR is a lagging, no-fault outcome measure--it reflects injuries that have already occurred rather than the conditions and behaviors that create risk.
Because it only measures the presence or absence of recordable injuries, TRIR provides little insight into hazard exposure, safety system effectiveness, or prevention capability, especially in dynamic environments that exist in the construction industry.
In contrast, leading indicators measure the inputs and processes that prevent injuries before they occur and directly assess how well a safety system is functioning in real time. These indicators are actionable: They tell leaders what to improve, where risk exists, and who needs support--long before someone is hurt.
Over-emphasis on TRIR also creates unintended negative consequences. Because it is outcome-based and highly visible, TRIR is often perceived as a scorecard of success or failure, even though OSHA explicitly treats injury recording as no-fault. This pressure can drive underreporting, discourage early medical treatment, and shift focus away from learning and prevention toward blame and damage control. Leading indicators, by contrast, reinforce a learning-based safety culture by rewarding problem identification, transparency, and corrective action rather than the absence of reported injuries.
Ultimately, organizations that prioritize leading indicators move from reactive safety management to proactive risk control. Measuring and managing leading indicators provides a more accurate, ethical, and effective way to reduce serious injuries, improve operational discipline, and demonstrate true safety leadership.
OSHA policy should reward prevention, encourage innovation, and help more employers adopt proven best practices.
ABC's 2026 Health and Safety Performance Report is a blueprint for doing exactly that. It shows that when contractors measure safety, engage workers, hold leaders accountable and commit to continuous improvement, injury rates go down.
As this Subcommittee examines emerging workplace safety issues and ways to improve OSHA's practices and programs, I urge you to look closely at what is already working in the field. ABC members, like Cianbro, are demonstrating that voluntary, data-driven safety systems can deliver extraordinary results.
People are the heart and souls of the construction industry. The purpose of every safety program should be to protect them using leading indicators.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
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Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/sughrue_testimony.pdf
Chief of Naval Operations Caudle Testifies Before House Appropriations Subcommittee (Part 1 of 2)
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense released the following testimony by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle from a May 12, 2026, hearing on the fiscal 2027 budget request:* * *
Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum, and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the posture of the United States Navy. On behalf of our battle-ready Sailors, resilient families, and dedicated civilians serving around the globe, thank you for your continued support to our Navy and our Nation.
For 250 years, the United States ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense released the following testimony by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle from a May 12, 2026, hearing on the fiscal 2027 budget request: * * * Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum, and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the posture of the United States Navy. On behalf of our battle-ready Sailors, resilient families, and dedicated civilians serving around the globe, thank you for your continued support to our Navy and our Nation. For 250 years, the United StatesNavy has delivered forward naval power to defend the homeland, protect our economic prosperity, and deter conflict. Today, we remain forward, lethal, and ready - manned, trained, and equipped to maintain freedom of action in the maritime domain and, if required, to fight and win decisively at sea.
Operation Epic Fury has not merely tested our force - it has reinforced the assumptions that underpin the necessity of fielding and deploying a strong Navy. It confirmed that the future fight is not theoretical; it is here now - defined by speed, ambiguity, and persistent pressure below the threshold of armed conflict. What we have observed during our recent combat operations aligns directly with our Fighting Instructions: decision advantage matters more than perfect information; forward, combat-ready forces are not optional - they are decisive; and persistence is how we compete and deter. The broader security environment reflects this same reality. Strategic competition is intensifying. The People's Republic of China continues to rapidly modernize its naval and joint force capabilities to contest maritime access, coerce regional actors, and challenge international norms. Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea remain persistent and opportunistic threats. Increasingly, competition is occurring in the gray space below armed conflict, where sustained presence, information dominance, and the ability to act faster than an adversary can determine outcomes.
To meet these challenges, the Navy is executing a disciplined, warfighting-focused investment strategy. We are protecting the core of our combat power - our Sailors, our strategic deterrent, and the Foundry that generates readiness - while accelerating the maritime kill chain capabilities that convert readiness into combat effects: command and control, counter-targeting, sensing and scouting, precision payload delivery, terminal defense, and contested logistics.
Every major Navy investment decision is evaluated based on its contribution to warfighting advantage and deterrence.
Navy and Nation 250
Established before our Nation declared its independence, the United States Navy has served as a relentless instrument of American power - defending the homeland, securing our economic prosperity, and projecting force abroad to deter conflict and, when necessary, defeat our adversaries.
The Navy provides persistent, combat-credible forces across the globe with a battle force of 291 ships. Approximately 100 ships and over 70,000 Sailors and Marines are deployed at sea each day, ready to respond in competition, crisis, and conflict.
Today, naval power underwrites American economic power. With over 90 percent of global trade traveling by sea and the vast majority of international communications carried by undersea cables, the Navy protects the global system that fuels American prosperity. We secure sea lines of communication for ourselves and our allies - and deny our adversaries access when required.
The Navy delivers substantial differentiated value to the Nation: forward presence, global mobility, and the ability to project combat power without reliance on host-nation permission. We defend the homeland from the sea, secure maritime borders, protect critical seabed infrastructure, and ensure access to global markets. We are America's Home Team and America's Away Team - deterring conflict forward with sovereign options so it never reaches our shores.
United States Navy Around the World
Strategic Deterrence. The Navy's sea-based nuclear deterrent remains the most survivable leg of the nuclear triad. Continuous patrols by ballistic missile submarines ensure a credible second-strike capability and underpin national security. The Columbia-class program and supporting efforts are essential to maintaining this capability and remain the Navy's top acquisition priority.
Defense of the Homeland. Border security is national security. To operationalize the National Security Strategy, the Navy remains focused on defending our homeland and interests in the Western Hemisphere. As part of Operation Southern Spear, our naval forces are providing domain awareness and regional maritime security through enhanced counternarcotics operations and maritime interdiction in the U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Southern Command areas of responsibility.
Our naval force remains pivotal in the fight against narco-terrorism as a national security threat, delivering decisive blows through power projection, coordinated deterrence, and advanced surveillance. This precise action at sea, proven successful in Operations Southern Spear and Absolute Resolve, directly degrades the enemy's ability to threaten our homeland and protects U.S. interests.
The presence of a multitude of naval assets, each bringing their own unique capabilities, working along our joint partners, creates a powerful shield for America. By intercepting threats and securing interests far from our borders, the Navy is keeping the fight off the streets of American towns and cities and preventing the flow of illicit drugs into our communities.
Indo-Pacific. China's rapid naval expansion and increasingly aggressive behavior underscore the urgency of restoring credible deterrence. In support of the National Defense Strategy, the Navy is responding by operating forward, strengthening alliances, and demonstrating the ability to fight and win at sea. Our presence signals resolve, reassures partners, and complicates adversary decision-making.
Middle East & Europe. In the Middle East, the Navy has conducted sustained combat operations to defend U.S. forces, protect maritime commerce, and degrade adversary capabilities designed to project power and control critical chokepoints. Under Operation Epic Fury, our forces, alongside our tremendous Joint Force teammates, have played an outsized role in eliminating the Iranian regime's maritime forces. These sustained operations have reaffirmed a fundamental truth: naval power underwrites American power. From the sea, our Navy has delivered persistent presence, rapid decision advantage, and sustained combat power - demonstrating our ability to project force without reliance on foreign basing, defend our forces, protect our partners, and impose costs on our adversaries at a time and place of our choosing.
These operations have not only tested our Fleet - but they have also validated the Navy's differentiated value to the Nation: forward, ready, and sovereign lethal forces that are ready to fight and win. Epic Fury has validated that moving combat ships at sea are hard targets and are essential to the Joint Force scheme of maneuver.
Burden Sharing with Allies. The Navy remains steadfast in our commitment to enhance security, stability, and deterrence with our allies in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.
Through joint exercises and war games, force posture initiatives, and cooperative sustainment efforts, we are strengthening interoperability and ensuring a collective approach to shared security challenges. By deepening these partnerships and promoting burden-sharing, we enhance collective resilience, strengthen deterrence, and ensure our forces remain postured to respond to any contingency. Allies and partners are essential to the Navy's overall Hedge Strategy.
AUKUS. We continue to support the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) enhanced security partnership and value the contributions of allies and partners to the global security environment. Royal Australian Navy Sailors are currently serving on American submarines and continue to complete the nuclear training pipeline. Last November, a U.S. Virginia-class submarine completed the first submarine maintenance period without the support of a U.S. submarine tender or sovereign facility. At the conclusion of the event, the blended U.S. and Australian maintenance workforce had completed more than 200 individual maintenance tasks, ranging from hull preservation and temporary service installations to complex system access, testing, and restoration.
The maintenance availability marked a decisive step in turning the AUKUS security partnership into an operational reality, reinforcing the Department of War's (DoW) peace through strength approach to security in the Indo-Pacific. By expanding allied capacity to repair, sustain and re-supply submarines forward in a strategically relevant region, AUKUS strengthens deterrence and ensures combat-credible forces are postured to deter aggression across the IndoPacific.
CNO Enduring Priorities: Sailors First, Foundry, Fleet, and Fight
My priorities - Foundry, Fleet, and Fight - are not just words, but a framework for action: forging our Sailors in the Foundry, ensuring the Fleet is properly manned, trained, and equipped, and most importantly, ensuring our forces are ready to Fight and win, whenever and wherever called upon. At the center of this vision is the United States Navy Sailor, our main weapons system, and our most enduring competitive advantage. Our Sailors are what sets us apart from our adversaries. Not just steel, technology, or combat power - our People. Enduring through each of these priorities is an underlying imperative that we will view everything we do through an operational lens.
Sailors First. The lifeblood of our Navy is the Sailor. Without our brave and courageous Sailors, our Navy would go no further than the pier. A Navy that cannot recruit, train, support, and retain its Sailors is a Navy that cannot fight, regardless of technology or platforms.
Therefore, Sailors First is not a quality-of-service initiative alone; it is a warfighting imperative.
We are focused on outcomes - ensuring every Sailor is supported, connected, and ready to fight.
Every Sailor lost to preventable quality-of-service failures represents a direct loss of combat readiness and trust in their government leadership.
Foundry: People, Infrastructure, and Material. The Foundry determines whether we win or lose before the first shot is fired. It is the engine that generates warfighting advantage - producing trained warfighters, ready platforms, and sustained combat power at the speed and scale required for modern conflict. These investments are a prerequisite to success in any conflict. If the Foundry fails, no amount of operational brilliance, skill, or technology can compensate in war.
Fleet: People, Platforms, and Payloads. The Fleet is the Navy's most decisive instrument of national power and the core of our differentiated value to the Joint Force: forward, persistent, and combat-credible forces that deter aggression, assure allies, and, if necessary, fight and win at sea. Composed of people, platforms, and payloads, the Fleet operates across all domains to deliver effects at the time and place of our choosing. Readiness is combat power. Fully manned, maintained, and equipped forces provide the fastest and most reliable means to increase lethality today. Investments in maintenance, operations, and sustainment directly translate into increased presence, responsiveness, and warfighting effectiveness.
Fight: People, Decisions, and Effects. The Navy provides the combat credibility and global power projection required to secure U.S. interests, deter adversaries, and ensure freedom of the seas. In competition, we operate forward to shape the environment and deter conflict. In crisis, we respond rapidly with credible combat power. In conflict, we fight to win - delivering decisive effects at sea and across all domains. Future victory at sea will depend on our ability to accelerate decisions and deliver effects faster than our adversaries. This requires a force trained and empowered to operate under conditions of degraded communications, executing commander's intent with initiative, discipline, and speed.
Within my priorities there are four overarching focus areas where we will ruthlessly prioritize future Navy investments. Together, these investment objectives are mutually reinforcing and span across my priorities of Sailors First, Foundry, Fleet, and Fight. Indeed, these objectives are tailor-made to increase the differentiated value of the Navy and deliver asymmetric advantage across the Future Years Defense Program.
CNO Investment Objectives for Fiscal Year 2027
To deliver a Navy that is ready to deter aggression and win in conflict, the Fiscal Year 2027 budget prioritizes four critical areas:
1. Battle Ready Sailors - Quality of Service and Warfighter Competency. We are investing in housing, pay, training, and total Sailor wellness to ensure our people - the Navy's primary weapon system - are ready, resilient, and retained. Failure to invest in our Sailors directly degrades readiness and combat effectiveness.
2. Total Force Readiness - Infrastructure, Maintenance, Operations, and Spares. Fully funding our global network of critical infrastructure, maintenance facilities, ship operations, flying hours, and spares is the fastest way to meaningfully increase combat power today.
Underfunding readiness reduces surge capacity and delays response in crisis.
3. Maritime Kill Chain - Command and Control, Counter-Targeting, and Long-Range Fires. We are accelerating investments in sensing, counter-targeting, command and control, and precision weapons to ensure we can find, fix, and finish adversaries at range. Gaps in our complex kill webs reduce our ability to execute all joint warfighting functions.
4. Golden Fleet Initiative - Future Force Design and Scalable Combat Power. The Golden Fleet Initiative is the future of the Navy's force design. With this initiative, we are building a balanced, high-low mix of manned and unmanned systems to deliver combat mass, distributed lethality, and operational flexibility at scale. Without this transition, the Navy risks insufficient capacity to prevail in high-end conflict. These objectives are key to the Navy's Hedge Strategy and reflect a disciplined approach to resource allocation, ensuring that every dollar invested strengthens the Navy's ability to fight and win.
1. Battle Ready Sailors - Quality of Service and Warfighter Competency
Recruit and Retain Talent. The Navy is successfully attracting and keeping top talent to ensure a lethal, combat-ready force.
In FY25, we surpassed our recruiting goal of 40,600 by recruiting 44,096 new Sailors, a success driven by data analytics and targeted digital campaigns. The Future Sailor Preparatory Courses have been key, graduating 3,583 individuals into Basic Training in FY25. For FY26, the recruiting goal has been increased to 45,000, and we are currently on track to meet this target.
Retention remains a cornerstone of our end-strength strategy. We consistently met or exceeded retention benchmarks across all zones in FY25. Policy changes have been
instrumental; suspending High Year Tenure (HYT) gates retained 2,340 Sailors, and the HYT Plus Pilot has processed nearly 7,942 requests. Furthermore, the Full Power Navy (FPN) initiative, launched in February 2025, has already convinced 3,291 Sailors who were considering separation to continue their service. These combined efforts resulted in a net gain of 10,830 enlisted Sailors over the past year.
While officer retention at the department head level remains a challenge in specific career fields, we continue to offer competitive compensation and targeted monetary incentives for critical officer fields to position the Navy as an employer of choice. We appreciate the continued support of Congress in enabling our monetary retention incentives in areas such as Aviation, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Surface Warfare, Submarine Warfare, Naval Special Warfare, and Health Professions.
Invest in Warfighter Competency. To dominate in future maritime conflicts, we are developing our Sailors into the world's most proficient warfighters. We have transitioned from episodic training to a lifelong learning model called the Career Training Continuum (CTC). This data-driven framework uses Fleet requirements to create a deliberate, career-long journey of technical mastery for every Sailor. The Career-Long Learning Continuum (CLLC) component provides a 30-year roadmap for enlisted ratings for every milestone across character, leadership, and technical mastery.
Training is actively adapting our "A" and "C" school curricula with the goal that application and performance elements will comprise approximately 60% of all instructional time.
This is achieved through the optimized use of technology, including electronic classrooms and Multipurpose Reconfigurable Training Systems (MRTS) 3D that provide high-fidelity, simulated training environments across various ratings and evolutions. Furthermore, we are leveraging additive manufacturing to create 3D-printed training aids, which provide Sailors with critical, hands-on training on modern assemblies at a fraction of the cost of using decommissioned hardware or acquiring new replicas. To accelerate learning even further, artificial intelligence and deep reinforcement learning are being implemented within our schoolhouses to analyze complex combat scenarios and enhance training.
CTC ensures our Sailors possess the advanced skills needed to operate and maintain our most complex systems, guaranteeing a more capable, confident, and battle-ready Fleet prepared to win in any contested environment.
Gaps at Sea. Proper ship manning is important to operational readiness, the ability to surge deployments, and personnel retention. Navy has worked for years to increase personnel billets and inventory afloat to ensure ships are properly manned to complete the work assigned, deter aggression, and be ready to win decisively when called on, day in and day out.
Since May 2025, recruiting success and strategically targeted distribution has increased the number of Sailors at sea by more than 400 per month due to increased sea duty billet fills and retention, driving consistent improvement in overall gaps and operational readiness since the beginning of FY25. As a result, we have 4,634 additional Sailors at sea, resulting in an 88.2% fill rate. Our schoolhouses are delivering more Sailors to the Fleet every month, with less than 2% attrition from boot camp to their first operational assignment.
Unaccompanied Housing. On my first day in office, I directed that no Sailor will live aboard ship in their homeport. We are investing in safe, modern housing and leveraging authorities to ensure every Sailor has access to clean, comfortable, and secure living conditions.
A key element to this is to provide quality government-owned Unaccompanied Housing (UH) for our service members through focused improvement of the current conditions of UH, addressing new concerns, utilizing best management practices, and producing a sustainable inventory enterprise-wide. The Department of the Navy, with guidance from the Barracks Task Force (BTF), is empowering the installations to address quick actions to improve barracks conditions that do not meet the clean, comfortable, and safe (CC&S) SECWAR target.
Furthermore, the Navy received an additional $375M and the Marine Corps received an additional $350M from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) for restoration and modernization for Barracks/UH improvements. The Barracks Task Force is working to improve quality of life in the barracks. The Navy is actively pursuing two large-scale unaccompanied housing privatization expansion projects; other Navy Fleet concentration locations are also under review.
Privatization Oversight and Military Housing Privatization Initiative. Recent media pieces and advocacy groups have highlighted environmental concerns, including mold, and poor living conditions in privatized housing, which has raised concerns with Congress and OSW leadership about the oversight and stability of the privatized housing program. In response, the Navy has implemented the enterprise Military Housing environmental health and safety module to support tracking home health and safety in response to emergency/urgent issues.
The Department of the Navy has also increased staffing inside military housing offices, which now include additional resident advocates and home inspectors, which enables the department to hold our Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) partners accountable and enforce the Tenant Bill of Rights and other oversight provisions included in recent National Defense Appropriation Acts.
The Navy has continued quality of life enhancements in MHPI UH and is currently negotiating the expansion of the UH projects for both Hampton Roads, VA and San Diego, CA.
These large-scale expansions will privatize an additional 8,097 bedrooms in Hampton Roads and 5,091 bedrooms in San Diego.
Navy Child and Youth Programs. The Navy is actively addressing the impact the nationwide childcare staffing crisis has had on our Sailors through a robust set of initiatives: improving compensation with updated pay structures, offering recruitment incentives, and providing enhanced training. Staff childcare discounts are a powerful retention tool, helping us keep qualified professionals. The Navy is also extending childcare capacity beyond the gate by maximizing the Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood program. This fee assistance program provides immediate relief in areas with the longest waitlists by empowering families to access quality, vetted civilian childcare, turning a community resource into a force multiplier.
Our message remains clear and consistent: readiness depends on strong families and a strong Fleet. Navy Child and Youth Programs deliver affordable, high-quality child and youth services.
Wi-Fi Barracks Rollout. Today's demanding environment and the needs of modern-day Sailors require improvements in Quality of Service across the enterprise. Providing Sailors with reliable connectivity ensures the Navy maintains a well-supported and connected fighting force by increasing access to training and education opportunities and expanding access to support networks. Enhanced Quality of Service initiatives positively impact Fleet morale, readiness, and retention and will strengthen the credibility of our Navy. One initiative is to provide free and subsidized high-bandwidth Wi-Fi access for Sailors living in Unaccompanied Housing. The phased plan began in November 2025 with project completion expected by December 2027 across all installations globally.
Galley and Navy Food Transformation. Nutrition is essential to every element of Sailor readiness and performance. To ensure food is consistently accessible to our Service members, the implementation of Essential Station Messing (ESM) facilities, Grab-n-Go options, a relaxed galley attire policy, as well as 24/7 access to Navy Exchange Micro Markets in barracks and food truck initiatives are in place at select locations across the enterprise. The Navy is focused on sustaining and improving ashore galley facility operations, effectively transforming them into a dining destination of choice. Galleys are essential to ensuring Sailors have access to fresh, healthy meals that support optimal nutrition and performance. In conjunction with military food transformation and modernization, the Navy is launching two ashore galley pilot sites in the third quarter of FY26, with the intention of expanding choice, increasing healthy options, expanding access, and increasing ashore galley utilization.
Fallon Range Training Complex. The Navy continues the execution of Fallon Range Training Complex (FRTC) Modernization activities to support enhanced range capabilities, consistent with the FY23 and FY25 National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA). The FRTC is used extensively by the Navy to conduct mission training in the areas of advanced strike warfare, air warfare, electronic warfare, and tactical ground mobility, including live-fire training. The complex is the only location where an entire carrier air wing, consisting of more than 70 aircraft and associated support crews, can work together and train. In fact, every Navy Carrier Air Wing trains on the FRTC prior to deployment as part of their combat surge readiness certification.
A Programmatic Agreement between Naval Air Station Fallon, the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation was completed in November 2025, as required by the FY23 NDAA. The Agreement relates to the management of historic properties within the FRTC and streamlines compliance for issues subject to the National Historic Preservation Act.
Reserve Mobilization. The Navy Reserve continues to focus on creating strategic depth.
During Fiscal Year 2025, mobilization exercises (MOBEX 25-4 and LSE-25) successfully streamlined mass mobilization protocols, achieving significant lessons learned and gains in efficiency. These exercises resulted in a 90% reduction in the order processing timeline, cutting it from 77 to just 10 days. Additionally, the activation process, including pay, was accelerated by 20%, decreasing from 250 to 209 days.
To build upon this momentum, the Billet Based Suitability Screening (BBSS) initiative was established in coordination with key stakeholders across the Navy. This risk-informed program further expedites mobilization by screening reservists for their specific billet requirements prior to activation. The BBSS is organized into three tiers: CONUS, remote/operational/sea duty, and expeditionary - ensuring that personnel are appropriately vetted for their assignments ahead of time.
Civilian Mariners and CLF Force Structure. Civil service mariners (CIVMAR) are federal government employees that crew combat logistics ships, and other government-owned, government-operated vessels. Military Sealift Command (MSC) CIVMAR inventory is 6,146 out of a total required inventory of 8,805. This gap drives significant risk to afloat operations and mission success.
MSC needs to fill 4,868 afloat billets. 6,146 CIVMARs are not enough to fill all afloat billets once requirements for leave, training, medical holds, recertification, and travel are considered. MSC Force Generation Risk Reduction (FgRR) places 17 ships pier-side for several years, temporarily taking them out of operation to reprioritize the CIVMAR workforce onboard higher priority operational ships. Today, MSC is on plan for recovery with 15 ships pier-side and three more planned to come out later this calendar year as we work to deliberately grow our CIVMAR manning.
MSC has implemented several initiatives to improve quality of service to attract and retain more mariners. Initiatives include more efficient detailing processes, increased leave accrual, and installation of Wi-Fi at sea. Pay reform to reduce aggregate pay limits for CIVMARs was also included in the FY26 NDAA.
MSC is executing CIVMAR recruitment as planned with overall CIVMAR inventory growing ahead of target; however, the program remains undermanned. Placing ships pier-side in FgRR has temporarily reduced MSC's at-sea billet requirement to 2,908. MSC is currently filling 2,464 of these at sea billets (85%). Of these ships that have remained operational, 444 at-sea billets are vacant. MSC cannot fill 100% of these at-sea billets as the 15 ships in FgRR must still be minimally crewed to support maintenance, security, and safety requirements. Additionally, CIVMARs on leave, in training, on medical hold, or undergoing recertification are not available to crew at-sea ships. These friction points are being aggressively addressed by the FgRR efforts.
Implementation of Military Justice Reforms. The Navy has implemented the military justice reforms mandated by the FY22-FY25 NDAAs, enhancing accountability and strengthening the force. As such, the Navy has adopted a modern, cloud-based case management system, known as the "Naval Court-Martial Reporting System," which allows rapid, data-driven responses to inquiries and enhances internal oversight.
The Navy's Office of Special Trial Counsel (OSTC) provides an independent prosecution capability for serious offenses; as of January 2025, this includes substantiated formal complaints of sexual harassment. The establishment of the OSTC centralizes prosecutorial authority for serious, enumerated offenses under the Lead Special Trial Counsel, who ensures that covered offenses are handled with the appropriate level of military justice expertise. The Navy has maintained a specific career track for military justice practitioners since 2007. These officers serve in the Navy's most critical military justice positions, including throughout OSTC.
Uniforms. The Navy has recently reinvigorated the Naval Uniform Board to better support our Sailors, reduce sea-bag requirements, and review current policies to ensure alignment with the Secretary of War's recent guidance. We are also investing in our uniform availability by working with the Defense Logistics Agency and Navy Exchange Service Command to resolve availability issues through weekly inventory assessments.
Physical Readiness Program. The Physical Readiness Program is built on consistent high standards and aligns with DoW guidance to maintain a healthy, deployable force. By emphasizing long-term fitness over short-term test preparation, the program fosters a culture of sustained readiness, which directly contributes to operational performance, retention, and resilience.
The Navy continues to modernize the physical readiness program to reflect advancements in sports science and reducing preventable injuries. Recent updates include revised body composition standards, expanded alternative cardiovascular options, and increased access to high quality fitness facilities both afloat and ashore. These improvements emphasize long-term wellness over short-term test preparation and support a culture of sustained readiness.
2. Total Force Readiness - Infrastructure, Maintenance, Operations, and Spares
Readiness Overview. To deliver a battle-ready force, the Navy is prioritizing full funding of surface, submarine, and aviation maintenance accounts at the executable level. This ensures platforms are delivered on time and ready for tasking. We are also prioritizing ship operations and flying hours to sustain global presence and combat readiness. These investments are foundational - without them we accept immediate risk in surge capacity, force projection, and crisis response timelines. To sustain a globally present and combat-ready force, the Navy funds Readiness accounts to include Ship Operations and the Flying Hours Program. Funding in Readiness accounts supports global operations including those in the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Indo-Pacific, and the U.S. southern border. These programs directly resource our forward deployed forces, ensuring we can deter aggression and respond to crises. Any reduction in readiness funding results in delayed maintenance, reduced operational availability, and decreased combat power available to combatant commanders.
The spares program is a critical component of operational readiness. The ability to achieve 80% combat surge readiness levels for all platforms is directly related to the health of on hand spare parts. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made $2.1B available for spares: $1.4B for maritime spares and $700M for amphibious spares/rotatable pool establishment.
Public Naval Shipyards. The most important driver to improving shipyard performance is workforce retention, stability, and development. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) has received an 8.6% increase for specific Federal Wage Service (FWS) series. Norfolk Navy Shipyard (NNSY) FWS submission was derived through the results of the FY23 wage survey, which resulted in an average increase of ~14% across all series. Other locations and schedules are still under review.
The four shipyards had higher than expected attrition and lower than planned new hires in FY25 that led to gaps in the engineering workforce and in critical trade shops. Highly trained and experienced mechanics are transitioning out of the wage grade fields to pursue positions with increased pay and greater responsibilities. The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) expert tradesperson initiative is developing a career path that incentivizes our best and brightest mechanics to remain in the wage grade field. Over 630 expert trades have been hired as of the end of FY25, with a goal of 924 by the end of FY26. These shipyard manpower initiatives are essential to restore and maintain maritime industrial base resiliency in the U.S. Homeland.
We're also taking a hard look at whether we need a new public Navy Yard. In the FY27 budget, we've resourced a deliberate study to close the gap between the maintenance capacity we have and the maintenance demand we know is coming. That work looks at three things: the shortfall we're carrying today, the requirements of the future force, and where a new yard would make operational sense - based on the threat, the industrial base, workforce, and the utilities required to sustain it.
This is about combat credibility. Maintenance is not a back-end function - it is a warfighting requirement. If we cannot generate ready ships on time, we cannot deliver combat power when it matters. Reintroducing public repair capacity into our shore-based inventory is not just an infrastructure decision - it's a strategic one. It's how we hedge against risk, strengthen the industrial base, and ensure the Fleet we build is a Fleet we can sustain and fight.
Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP). SIOP is an essential generational investment to reduce maintenance durations for the Navy's nuclear fleet and to improve the poor facility conditions in the Navy's four public shipyards. To date, SIOP has completed 54 projects across all four shipyards - Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (PHNS), Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS), Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY), Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) - totaling over $1.4B. These projects maintained dry dock certification, improved facilities, and optimized process flows. An additional 43 projects worth $6.3B are under contract, including six dry docks.
Three new dry docks are under construction, and three dry docks are being modernized. This year's budget devotes $1.8B to SIOP.
Surface Ship Maintenance and Sustainment. Under the goal of delivering a force that is 80 percent combat surge ready, the Navy is continuing investments in surface ship maintenance to eliminate delays and deliver a more combat-ready force. We are simultaneously investing in sparing to keep operational ships at sea with their full capabilities. New initiatives such as the hybrid government-industry depot at Naval Support Activity Crane will be crucial to sustaining the wholeness of deployed the Aegis Combat System well into the 2060s. Our current maintenance structure lacks the right balance of Sailors, civilians, artisans, and engineers. Years of depot and activity level consolidation have reduced opportunities for our Sailors to master the skill sets needed to repair and sustain at sea. For these reasons, the Navy is pursuing the stand-up of Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activities (SIMA) in Norfolk and San Diego. These facilities will provide our Sailors with hands-on training in advanced ship repair and expose them to modern capabilities such as AI/ML, advanced manufacturing (e.g., 3-D printing, CAD/CAM, etc.), workflow monitoring technologies, and robotic systems.
Base Operating Support (BOS) & Facilities, Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization.
Systemic under-funding of aging shore infrastructure directly impacts global fleet operations, warfighter lethality, and quality of service (QoS) for Sailors and their families. The Navy's average facility condition is "poor" with an average facility age of 58 years and will continue to degrade at current resourcing, with the maintenance backlog now at $36B. Our FY27 budget prioritizes restoration and modernization investments in unaccompanied housing, ensuring our most critical warfighting advantage - our Sailors - are safe, secure, resilient, and missionfocused. To do so, the Navy is investing $9.1B in Facilities, Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization, a $3.4B (60%) increase from FY26.
We are supporting the Foundry by making large investments to improve critical infrastructure such as degraded airfields, waterfronts, and utilities essential for supporting Fleet operations. Additionally, our sustainment strategy makes targeted investments in shipyards and educational facilities and fully funds QoS facilities (UH, pools, and gyms) to ensure a resilient and ready force. We are also bolstering Fleet effectiveness by fully funding critical nuclear deterrence and operational architecture facilities
BOS shortfalls have critical impacts to Fleet readiness and sustaining mission capabilities, ensuring regulatory compliance, and promoting QoS for Sailors and their families.
Historically, the Navy's BOS account has been relatively flat, creating an inability to execute increases in requirements. For FY26, programmed funding levels supported increases in physical security recapitalization, utilities inflation, Red Hill compliance, and improving QoS (e.g., Child Development Centers (CDC), Galley Operations, MWR, and UH). For FY27, the Navy continues to evaluate the BOS account holistically, with focused prioritization on requirements tied to Fleet readiness and QoS initiatives.
Military Construction Overview. Military Construction (MILCON) is critical to optimizing infrastructure across Navy installations, ensuring the readiness, resilience, and global reach of our forces. These investments enable global logistics and warfighter development, generation, and employment from the shore while supporting mission-critical capabilities. The PB-27 request will reflect the Navy's top priorities - the Navy nuclear deterrence mission, investment in the Indo-Pacific, support for new platforms, SIOP, and other key facilities/infrastructure that contributes to warfighter lethality. PB-27 requests $7.4B in MILCON, including Family Housing and SIOP, in FY27 for a total of 61 projects, in addition to MILCON Design (D), and Unspecified Minor Military Construction (UMMC).
Guam Infrastructure Build-Up. Damage from Typhoon Mawar impacted both civilian and military infrastructure, which complicates our ability to meet the NDS and impacts QoL for Sailors and their families. The Department of the Navy has executed several hundred million dollars in emergent repairs related to Mawar damage to date; and the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY 25) Supplement provided $2.2B for Mawar recovery efforts ($900M Operations Maintenance Navy (OMN), $102.2M Family Housing OMN, $1,127M Military Construction Navy, $27.4M Family Housing Construction).
Additionally, the Defense Policy Review Initiative, which moves Marines from Okinawa to Guam, continues to be a priority for the DoW. The cost cap for Guam construction was established within the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (NDAA FY15) as $8.5B, of which the Government of Japan is providing $3.1B.Shore Counter Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-sUAS). The Navy is a committed partner to the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) and the Portfolio Acquisition Executive Robotic & Autonomous Systems (PAE RAS) to increase collaboration on C-sUAS development, engineering, test and evaluation, and operations. The Navy continues to develop, integrate, support, and sustain capabilities required to address rapidly evolving multi-domain threats, ensuring interoperability across all Counter Unmanned Systems (C-UXS).
The Navy C-UAS capability coverage reached 96% of the legacy baseline capability equipment install requirements at our installations. The remaining sites are pending local jurisdiction approvals. Additionally, the Navy has successfully installed multi-modal (layered) detect and defeat capabilities at key strategic weapons facilities. Fixed site EW systems are installed at 99% of the planned Navy installations (57 planned installations), with handhelds also being present at 85% of these installations (47 locations). Fixed site multi-modal (e.g., EW, radar, camera) systems are installed at one installation. System operator staffing is currently at 95% for required locations and historically, the Navy has been the leading Service in ensuring CsUAS is appropriately integrated into installation operations, reinforcing that a complete capability is dependent upon both materiel and non-materiel aspects.
3. Maritime Kill Chain - Command and Control, Targeting, and Long-Range Fires
Fight from the Maritime Operations Centers. Maritime Operations Centers (MOCs) are a critical warfighting capability - serving as the operational command-and-control hub that links strategic intent to tactical execution. Treating the MOC as a warfighting platform and weapon system enables the Navy to synchronize effects across domains and accelerate decision-making.
This initiative strengthens the Navy's contribution to Joint and Combined All-Domain Command and Control and ensures unity of effort in contested environments. Additionally, our MOCs are fully integrated into LVC networks, enabling our teams to train just like we fight. However, improvements to integrate Information Warfare systems must continue to be prioritized going forward, including enhanced battle management aids.
C-C5ISRT. The Navy continues to leverage the Counter-Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (C-C5ISRT) Investment Strategy to align research and development (R&D)/science and technology (S&T), investment recommendations, operational needs, and key programs of record (PoRs) to support our "North Star" outcomes. We have continuously refined C-C5ISRT objectives and made significant strides in focusing intelligence, studies, war games, experiments, evaluations, tests, emulation, and modeling and simulation by working with stakeholders and capability developers across the Fleet to provide awareness at oceanic scale. These efforts are focused on developing effective command and control (C2) of joint effects for unity of mission and synchronized operations to close complex kill chains.
Further C2 efforts will be tested through exercises and war games this year. The Navy also led development of option cards for use by combatant commands and senior national security decision-makers. R&D efforts were able to conduct proof of concepts for significant capabilities aligned with C-C5ISRT efforts. Multiple Fleet exercises and war games reinforced command and control, training, doctrine, and enhanced readiness efforts on new and existing capabilities. C-C5ISRT investments are the Navy's most important strategy to improve maneuver, survivability, and scheme of maneuver executability.
Surface Missile Systems. Without sufficient investment in munitions and payload capacity, the Navy risks entering future conflicts with forces that are technologically advanced but unable to sustain combat or achieve decisive outcomes. As such, the Navy is expanding both the capability and capacity of its missile inventory. Sustained production of SM-6 and Tomahawk cruise missiles, integration of additional interceptors, and development of hypersonic weapons such as Conventional Prompt Strike are essential to maintaining credible offensive and defensive capabilities. Increasing magazine depth remains a top priority. For that reason, the Navy is committed to a historic investment of $21.6B in FY27 for 4,612 weapons, including 540 Standard Missiles and 785 Tomahawk missiles. The Navy is also investing another $1.6B in the weapons industrial base.
4. Golden Fleet Initiative - Future Force Design and Scalable Combat Power
Golden Fleet Initiative. The Navy's current force structure is not sufficient in size or design composition to deliver the optimal combat mass required to prevail in high-end maritime conflict for all key operational problems and scenarios globally. The Golden Fleet Initiative addresses this challenge by creating a balanced, high-low mix of platforms - combining high-end combatants with scalable, lower-cost systems and unmanned capabilities to deliver distributed lethality at scale. This approach recognizes a fundamental reality: future conflicts will require both capacity and capability integrated for optimized, lethal outcomes. High-end platforms, such as battleships and next-generation carrier aviation, provide multi-mission, high payload capacity, and advanced warfighting capability, while lower-cost and scalable platforms, like Frigates and RAS, provide responsive and flexible modular solutions required for modern naval warfare.
Lower cost systems also deliver the volume and distribution necessary to complicate adversary decision-making and sustain operations over time. The unmanned fleet is fielded through partnerships with organizations such as the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Navy's Rapid Capabilities Office, which can leverage the speed of commercial innovation to provide the highest-technology and the lowest price. For example, in FY25, the Navy in close collaboration with DIU, successfully curated, developed, prototyped, and transitioned an sUSV interceptor to USINDOPACOM in 15 months. The Golden Fleet Initiative's high-low mix ensures the Navy can generate sufficient combat power to deter aggression, absorb losses, and ultimately culminate a fight at sea.
BBG(N). The battleship is designed to provide the Fleet with a significant increase in lethality by accommodating advanced weapon systems required for modern warfare. Adding capability at the highest end of the high-low mix, its primary role is to deliver high-volume, long-range offensive fires and serve as a robust, survivable forward command and control platform. The battleship will be capable of commanding a Battle Group, operating independently, or integrating with a Carrier Strike Group for missile and air defense.
The battleship is planned to be nuclear powered and designed to accommodate developmental capabilities and will have a large capacity for existing weapons, to include vertically launched missiles from the Mark 41 launcher as well as a large Conventional Prompt Strike magazine. A key advantage of large surface combatants is their ability to deliver highvolume fires from a single platform. Delivering large quantities of ordnance from fewer platforms reduces coordination complexity, increases synchronized responsiveness, and ensures combat power can be applied at decisive moments. Its large form factor delivers space, weight, power, and cooling margins crucial for the battleship's directed energy and railgun weapons systems, which will dramatically reduce the need for kinetic missile defense and greatly extend the range of the battleship's gun systems.
Battleship acquisition will utilize an innovative Navy-led, industry-collaborative design approach. Procurement of the ship is planned for 2028, with projected delivery to the Fleet in the 2030s. PB-27 includes one billion dollars of advanced procurement for Battleship.
Frigate. The Navy's Frigate program is a strategic necessity to address a significant shortfall in the Navy's small surface combatant inventory and to create a more balanced and flexible Fleet. Representing the low end of the high-low mix, Frigates will relieve more capable, high-end assets like the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers from missions that do not require large, exquisite multi-mission combatants. Frigates will primarily be responsible for missions such as convoy escort and anti-submarine warfare (ASW), homeland defense, maritime interdiction, and counter-drug operations. Its main role is to serve as a highly producible, cost-effective, and adaptable platform focused on surface warfare and ASW. while also acting as a command and control "quarterback" for RAS capabilities and unmanned vessels like Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels (MUSV).
A key innovation in the Frigate program will be the inclusion of space and power to accommodate containerized payloads, which will allow the platform to incorporate existing and future capabilities and weapons without having to redesign the hull or engage in lengthy modernization availability. The Frigate will be produced with speed and affordability and a mature, stable design to reduce technical risk and accelerate production. Initially contracting to deliver two ships from one shipbuilder, we will leverage a competitive bidding process for follow on hulls across multiple yards. PB-27 includes $1.4B for Frigate.
Columbia-class Submarines. The Columbia-class Ballistic Missile Submarine (SSBN) is our Navy's number one acquisition priority, designed to recapitalize the nation's sea-based strategic deterrent as the Ohio-class SSBNs approach the end of their service life. Its primary role is to serve as the most survivable leg of the nuclear triad through the 2080s, ensuring that strategic warfighting requirements continue to be met.
The Columbia class will employ advanced technologies not found on the Ohio-class, to include fly-by-wire controls, electric propulsion, and improved quieting technology to pace the threat. While the lead ship is projected to deliver 12 to 18 months late, the Navy is working with shipbuilders to recover schedule and investing in Ohio-class life extensions to manage the transition. This program is in serial production, with six hulls in various stages of construction.
PB-27 includes $15.2B for Columbia-class program full funding, advanced procurement, and industrial base investments.
Virginia-class Submarines (VCS). VCS are designed to provide the Fleet with unrivaled warfighting overmatch by delivering on the Nation's undersea asymmetric advantage. The new construction program is currently underperforming to the required delivery cadence but has stabilized and is seeing improvements in key areas. The primary challenge associated with submarine construction is to drastically increase production capacity across the enterprise in order to improve efficiency and increase the new construction rate to ~2.33 submarines per year.
The Navy's plan involves a close partnership with industry and Congress, featuring heavy investment in modernized facilities, skilled workforce development, a strengthened supplier network, and accelerating advanced manufacturing and digital tools to increase throughput and improve first-time quality. This budget provides stable, multi-year funding essential for restoring the production cadence. Twenty-six Virginia-class submarines have been delivered to date, and an additional 14 are under contract and under construction. PB-27 includes $14B for the Virginia-class program across advanced procurement, procurement of two submarines, industrial base investments, and shipbuilder productivity and wage enhancements.
Aircraft Carriers. One of the Navy's most important differentiated values is projecting mobile, lethal force from the sea. A Carrier Strike Group (CSG) is a sovereign, floating airfield that provides sustained combat power without needing permission to use foreign land bases - a vital capability in contested regions like the Western Pacific, Middle East, and High North. This allows the Navy to conduct its irreplaceable mission of independent power projection, launching precise, over-the-horizon air strikes on demand. To maintain this, the USS John F. Kennedy will replace the USS Nimitz in FY2027, keeping the Fleet at its required 11 carriers. These carriers are the centerpiece of our naval strategy, enabling us to build powerful formations that can deter and quickly seize the upper hand against any adversary. PB-27 includes $4.1B for aircraft carriers: $1.9B for advanced procurement of CVN-82 and $2.1B of incremental funding for CVNs-80/81.
Next Generation Carrier Aviation (F/A-XX). To maintain air dominance from the sea in contested environments, and a growing number of complex threats at an ever-lowering cost of entry, the Navy must continue developing the next generation of carrier-based aviation capability. With prudent and focused investments, F/A-XX will extend the reach, survivability, and lethality of the Carrier Air Wing (CVW), enabling operations against advanced threats at greater ranges and with increased persistence. As the manned component of the Navy's next generation tactical airframe, F/A-XX is the most important effort in our Air Wing of the Future (AWOTF) campaign - already allowing the Carrier Air Wing (CVW) to remain ahead of complex threats our legacy fighters face today.
This capability is essential to counter adversary investments in long-range sensors, weapons, and anti-access/area denial systems. F/A-XX, integrated with unmanned platforms like the Navy's Combat Collaborative Aircraft (CCA), will ensure the CSG remains a decisive instrument of power projection well into the future. Failure to field next-generation carrier aviation capability on schedule will introduce risk to air superiority, strike reach, and the longterm viability of carrier-based operations in contested environments.
F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter. The F-35C is the most lethal, combat capable aircraft in the Department of the Navy's inventory, complementing the CSG. It provides unique capabilities that cannot be matched by modernizing fourth-generation aircraft and is vital to the CVW's future as the ultimate cornerstone of our naval forces. To date, the Navy has delivered 82 F-35Cs to the Fleet with 132 procured through the end of this fiscal year. Over the next decade, our goal is to field 273 total F-35C aircraft by 2036. To ensure the F-35C remains the preeminent multi-role fighter within the CSG, Navy must continue to invest in and modernize this highly capable platform to keep pace with our adversaries. Delivering this transformational capability to CVWs as soon as possible remains imperative to ensuring naval air dominance. To that end, PB27 procures 20 F-35s, an increase of 12 aircraft compared to FY26.
Destroyer Modernization. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG 51) is the workhorse of the surface Fleet, as illustrated clearly by Operation Epic Fury. While Frigate will relieve them of lower-end missions, and Battleship will take on long range strike with greater capacity, DDG 51 remains highly capable for integrated air and missile defense, surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and strike as a critical component of both CSGs and Surface Action Groups. All remaining procurement for the class is the Flight III variant, which incorporates the most modern hardware and software, especially the AN/SPY-6 radar and Baseline 10 of the Aegis Combat System along with a limited number of hull, mechanical, and electrical upgrades.
The Navy intends to continue destroyer procurement at a level that does not pressurize the current construction backlog while at the same time modernizing Flight IIA destroyers through DDG Modification 2.0. Through this process, Flight IIA ships will be upgraded to AN/SPY-6, Baseline 10, and SLQ-32(V)7, ensuring that past investments remain relevant to the future fight. Without significant improvements in destroyer construction at the shipyards and sustained investment in modernization, the Navy will accept risk in air and missile defense coverage, escort capacity, and the ability to protect high-value forces in contested environments.
Littoral Combat Ship. The Littoral Combat Ship fulfills an important near-term role on the low end of the current Fleet's high-low mix. With capability upgrades leveraging containerized and modular payloads including the offensive Naval Strike Missile, deployed LCS complicate adversary decision-making by holding surface ships at risk. LCS have relieved the legacy Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships in the FIFTH Fleet area of operations, marking an important transition in a persistently challenging warfare area. At the same time, LCS are conducting experimentation with RAS that will lay a foundation for the success of Frigate and streamline a repeatable process for creating tailored forces. With the final LCS delivering to the Fleet prior to FY-27, the Navy will transition to sustaining and modernizing these ships to keep them relevant, combat credible, and reliable through their service lives.
LHA/LPD. The Navy is committed to maintaining no less than a 31-ship amphibious force structure and the Navy and Marine Corps remain committed to building and sustaining traditional amphibious warfare ships that comprise the Amphibious Ready Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit (ARG/MEU) team to support ARG/MEU readiness. The LHA is a key component of the ARG/MEU team, providing unmatched capabilities for crisis response, humanitarian aid, and high-end combat. Starting with USS Bougainville (LHA-8), LHA Flight I ships reincorporate a well deck for deploying landing craft, to complement aviation assault. LHA 8 is projected to deliver in FY27.
Amphibious transport docks (LPDs) provide our expeditionary team with the capability to embark, transport, and disembark elements of a landing force for a wide range of expeditionary missions with the ability to operate independently in distributed operations. The new Flight II LPDs are designed to replace aging and costly Landing Ship Dock (LSD) ships.
The next ship Harrisburg (LPD 30) is projected to deliver in FY27. LHAs and LPDs are currently built at HII Ingalls Shipbuilding. LHA 10 and LPDs 33, 34, and 35 are a part of the 2024 Multi-Ship Procurement (MSP) contract.
In addition to building new amphibious ships, we are executing a comprehensive plan to improve readiness of our existing amphibious ships, an area in which we acknowledge we have underperformed. To provide an increased focus on this issue, the Navy and Marine Corps jointly established the Amphibious Force Readiness Board (AFRB), co-chaired by Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jim Kilby and the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. Our charter addresses challenges for force generation, readiness, and maintenance and modernization of the amphibious force. The AFRB will provide quarterly reports to SECNAV, CNO, and CMC on actions and improvements.
We have set clear goals including executing on time deployments and on time maintenance completion, specifically: reducing unplanned maintenance to 10% to reduce cost and schedule impact, reducing days of maintenance delay, procuring 97% of long lead time material greater than one month prior to maintenance period commencement, and awarding contracts one year prior for maintenance planning and workforce stability. These actions are how we restore confidence in the amphibious force and deliver combat power on time.
Medium Landing Ship (LSM). The Marine Corps and Navy are developing the new Medium Landing Ship (LSMs) to address a recognized littoral mobility gap in the Indo-Pacific and support the Marine Corps' Force Design. This vessel will maneuver and sustain expeditionary forces - including their supplies and equipment - across contested waters, enabling direct landings on beaches and at austere or degraded ports. To accelerate delivery of the new LSM, the Navy is using a rapid acquisition strategy with a commercial Vessel Construction Manager (VCM), with the expectation of fielding LSM at a higher rate. The first hull is directed to Bollinger Shipyard, with hulls 2 through 5 directed to Fincantieri Marinette Marine, and hulls 6 and on to be competitively awarded by the VCM.
Auxiliaries. AS(X) is the two-ship recapitalization class for the USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) and USS Frank Cable (AS 40) submarine tenders located in Guam. AS(X) will directly contribute to submarine force readiness and maintenance capacity by conducting rearm, repair, and resupply missions for all U.S. submarine classes. AS(X) will also store submarine ordnance, countermeasures, and unmanned systems. PB-27 procures two submarine tenders in FY-27. The two ships are funded at $4.4B.
The Navy's Light Replenishment Oiler (T-AOL), also known as the Next Generation Logistics Ship (NGLS), will be a new class of smaller logistics ships that will rearm, refuel, and resupply naval forces at sea. NGLS will augment the Combat Logistics Force with smaller, less expensive, intra-theater ships that enhance the Navy's ability to support expanded maritime maneuver by enabling Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), Littoral Operations in Contested Environments (LOCE), and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO). PB-27 proposes procurement of the NGLS lead ship in FY31 with planned delivery in FY35.
The Navy is recapitalizing its towing, salvage, and rescue ship force with eight Navajoclass Towing and Salvage (T-ATS) ships. T-ATS will be capable of conducting diving, salvage, submarine rescue operations, and emergency towing missions. The program is behind schedule, but the schedule is stabilizing. T-ATS 11 will be delivered in 2026. The final T-ATS is scheduled to be delivered in 2029.
The T-AO 205 class oiler is the replacement class for the current fleet of Henry J. Kaiserclass (T-AO 187) oilers, which are reaching end of service life. T-AO 205 class is being built at General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego. The first John Lewis-class oiler (T-AO 205) has commenced Fleet operations. The USNS Oscar V. Peterson (T-AO 206) will commence Fleet operations in Q4FY26. The Navy requires 20 oilers per the current Battle Force Ship Assessment and Requirement (BFSAR). The T-AO 205 class oilers utilize a double-hull design to align with modern commercial industry practices, provide a V-22 capable flight deck, and have greater food storage capacity than the T-AO 187 class. Initial program delays have caused the Navy to have to extend legacy T-AO 187 class ships in previous years.
Strategic Sealift. We are forging the next generation of maritime dominance by recapitalizing our strategic sealift fleet. We are not just replacing old ships but ensuring that America can deliver naval combat power to any shore for the next fifty years. We must continue this vital work and champion the merchant mariners who sail them - they are the lifeblood of this critical capability. The Navy's strategic sealift fleet is projected to lose 1.3 million square feet of capacity by 2031 as older ships retire. Without sustained and predictable recapitalization authorizations and funding for a mix of both new and used vessels, the DoW will be forced to accept a critical shortfall in strategic sealift, directly threatening the timely delivery of the Joint Force in crisis.
To effectively address the critical shortfall in strategic sealift capacity, a dual-pronged investment strategy is required. In the near term, a sustained focus on acquiring younger, more reliable used commercial vessels offers the most rapid solution to close the immediate capacity gap created by the retirement of aging ships. Concurrently, a long-term, steady investment in the new construction of purpose-built sealift ships will guarantee a future Fleet structured to provide reliable, predictable, and militarily useful capacity to meet wartime delivery demands.
The Department of the Navy's budget request for PB27 is the continuation of its recapitalization strategy by the procurement of used vessels, construction of new sealift vessels to replace the aging surge sealift capacity, as well as the continuation of capability development for future special mission sealift recapitalization.
Top Level Requirements (TLR) for Sealift New Construction has been approved by the Navy and provided to the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD).
Upon receipt of One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) funding, MARAD will contract with a Vessel Construction Manager for design and construction of the first two sealift vessels. The Buy-used sealift recapitalization program provides a stable near-term acquisition profile while reducing maintenance and repair costs. The program's buy-used authorized vessel limit was increased from ten to twelve by Congress in FY26 NDAA and seven of the twelve vessels have been purchased.
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Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AP/AP02/20260512/119266/HHRG-119-AP02-Wstate-CaudleD-20260512.pdf
Amvets National Executive Director Chenelly Testifies Before Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee released the following written testimony by Amvets National Executive Director Joe Chenelly from an April 29, 2026, hearing on legislation to strengthen veteran's access to care:* * *
Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal, and distinguished members of the Committee: On behalf of AMVETS, we thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding several pieces of pending legislation before the Committee. Founded in 1944, AMVETS is one of the nation's most inclusive Congressionally chartered veterans service organizations, representing ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, May 15 -- The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee released the following written testimony by Amvets National Executive Director Joe Chenelly from an April 29, 2026, hearing on legislation to strengthen veteran's access to care: * * * Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal, and distinguished members of the Committee: On behalf of AMVETS, we thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding several pieces of pending legislation before the Committee. Founded in 1944, AMVETS is one of the nation's most inclusive Congressionally chartered veterans service organizations, representingthe interests of veterans of all eras, as well as their families, caregivers, and survivors.
We appreciate the Committee's continued commitment to advancing thoughtful, bipartisan legislation that strengthens the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), improves access to timely, high-quality care, and ensures that veterans and their families receive the benefits they have earned through service and sacrifice.
The proposals under consideration reflect a broad effort to address persistent gaps in access to care, modernize benefits delivery, support caregivers and survivors, and strengthen oversight across the VA system. They also recognize the evolving needs of today's veteran population, including women veterans, those experiencing homelessness, and individuals living with complex and chronic conditions such as ALS, TBI, and spinal cord injuries.
AMVETS is proud to support many of the bills before the Committee, particularly those that align with our national priorities. These include efforts to coordinate a national veterans strategy, strengthen survivor benefits, expand neurorehabilitative and whole health services, support women veterans, and improve economic opportunity. We also offer targeted recommendations on several proposals to ensure they are implemented in a way that protects access, preserves flexibility, and delivers meaningful results for veterans.
I. LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS SUPPORTED BY AMVETS
A. PURSUING A COORDINATED NATIONAL VETERANS STRATEGY
For years, AMVETS has called for a unified national approach that better aligns the work being done across federal, state, and community systems. We look forward to working with Congress, the administration, and partners nationwide to help ensure every veteran has a clear pathway to success.
S. 3726, the National Veterans Strategy Act
AMVETS strongly supports the National Veterans Strategy Act of 2026, which would establish a government-wide framework for defining and advancing veteran success. Current efforts remain too often disconnected, without a consistent way to measure outcomes or coordinate resources.
Establishing shared metrics and a national strategy will help align efforts across sectors and improve accountability. This approach reflects the reality that long-term success depends on coordination across health care, economic opportunity, education, and community engagement.
We are thankful to Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Blumenthal for introducing this bill and recognizing the need for a coordinated approach.
B. STRENGTHENING SURVIVOR BENEFITS AND HONORING SERVICE
AMVETS remains committed to ensuring that surviving families are treated fairly and that veterans are honored with dignity. Several of these proposals address longstanding gaps in survivor support and memorial recognition.
S. 749, Justice for ALS Veterans Act of 2025
AMVETS has been a longtime supporter of the Justice for ALS Veterans Act of 2025, which addresses a clear inequity in survivor benefits for families of veterans who die from ALS.
Although ALS is recognized by the VA as a presumptive service-connected condition, current law governing Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) does not account for the rapid progression of the disease.
Because ALS typically advances quickly, surviving spouses are often unable to meet statutory requirements tied to how long the veteran was rated totally disabled before death. As a result, families are denied enhanced compensation through no fault of their own. This legislation corrects that disparity by ensuring that veterans who die from ALS are treated as meeting the relevant requirements regardless of how long they lived with the disease. AMVETS supports this bill for bringing greater fairness to surviving families facing one of the most devastating service-connected conditions.
Draft bill, to increase burial and funeral expenses paid by the Secretary of Veterans AMVETS endorses legislation to increase burial and funeral benefits for veterans who die from service-connected conditions. Current benefit levels have not kept pace with the rising cost of funeral and burial services, creating an added burden for families at a time of grief.
By increasing these benefits and tying future adjustments to inflation, this proposal would help ensure that support remains meaningful over time. AMVETS supports this legislation to appropriately honor our veterans' service and sacrifice. Families should not be left carrying avoidable financial hardship because statutory benefit levels have failed to keep up with current realities.
S. 1127, the Dennis and Lois Krisfalusy Act
AMVETS also supports the Dennis and Lois Krisfalusy Act, which would remove an outdated eligibility restriction for VA-furnished memorial headstones and markers. Under current law, certain otherwise eligible veterans are excluded solely because they died before November 11, 1998.
That distinction is arbitrary and does not reflect the nature or value of a veteran's service. By eliminating this restriction, this bill ensures that all eligible veterans are afforded equal recognition. A government-furnished headstone or marker is a lasting expression of gratitude, and no veteran should be denied that recognition based solely on an outdated date limitation in statute.
C. EXPANDING NEUROREHABILITATIVE AND WHOLE HEALTH CARE
Improving long-term outcomes requires expanding access to rehabilitative care, innovative treatment models, and whole health approaches that address both physical and mental wellbeing. AMVETS believes that such policies improve veterans' quality of life, addressing many root causes that lead to negative mental health outcomes and tragic outcomes.
We thank the Committee for their efforts to consider a broader continuum of wellness through these proposals.
Draft bill, the Veteran Acquired Brain Injury Caregiving Act
AMVETS strongly supports the Veteran Acquired Brain Injury Caregiving Act, which would establish a pilot program to expand access to care for veterans living with acquired brain injuries through the Veteran-Directed Care program. Veterans with acquired brain injuries often experience complex cognitive, behavioral, and physical challenges that require individualized, long-term support, yet existing care models do not always provide the flexibility needed to respond effectively.
This legislation would allow eligible veteran-serving nonprofit organizations to use Veteran-Directed Care resources to deliver more tailored services in a community-based setting.
AMVETS supports this proposal because it creates a more adaptable model of care for veterans whose needs may not fit neatly within existing systems, while also better supporting the families and caregivers who help sustain recovery and daily functioning.
We are also proud supporters of the Veterans TBI Adaptive Care Opportunities Nationwide Act of 2025 (S. 3130), which would further expand neurohabilitative care for veterans with TBI. This group of veterans has been left behind for far too long, and we look forward to seeing meaningful legislation passed to finally get them the care they deserve.
S. 3988, the Veterans Spinal Trauma Access to New Devices (STAND) Act
AMVETS endorses the Veterans STAND Act, which would expand access to preventative evaluations and assistive technologies for veterans living with spinal cord injuries and disorders.
Veterans with these conditions often face lifelong health challenges that require proactive management, specialized care, and access to tools that preserve mobility and independence.
This legislation advances a more comprehensive approach by emphasizing annual evaluations and improved access to emerging technologies that can improve function and quality of life.
Modernizing care for veterans with spinal cord injuries means not only treating complications after they arise, but also making available the kinds of interventions and devices that help prevent deterioration and support long-term independence.
Draft bill, the Veterans Outdoor Rehabilitation Act
AMVETS supports the Veterans Outdoor Rehabilitation Act, which would establish a grant program to expand access to structured outdoor recreation opportunities for veterans. Programs that promote physical activity, peer engagement, and connection with nature can play an important role in supporting both physical and mental well-being, particularly for veterans coping with stress, isolation, or service-related conditions.
By helping states and community partners develop and expand these programs, this bill broadens the range of wellness and rehabilitation options available to veterans. AMVETS fully believes that recovery and resilience are not limited to traditional clinical settings. Structured outdoor programs can complement existing care by improving engagement, strengthening social connections, and supporting long-term wellness.
S. 3647, the Disabled Veterans Dignity Act of 2026
AMVETS is grateful to the Committee for its efforts on the Disabled Veterans Dignity Act of 2026, which would establish a comprehensive program within the VA to address the bowel and bladder care needs of veterans living with spinal cord injuries and disorders. These services are essential to maintaining health, dignity, and independence, yet many veterans continue to face inconsistent access to the level of support they need to remain safely in their homes and communities.
This legislation recognizes that bowel and bladder care is not incidental, but a critical component of daily medical support for severely disabled veterans. It also addresses a fundamental qualityof-life issue that too often goes overlooked and helps ensure that veterans with significant disabilities can live with greater stability, dignity, and independence.
S. 3706, the Produce Prescriptions for Veterans Act
AMVETS supports the Produce Prescriptions for Veterans Act, which would authorize the VA to provide produce prescriptions as part of its medical services. Nutrition plays a significant role in preventing and managing chronic conditions, yet many veterans face food insecurity while also dealing with illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
By allowing eligible veterans to receive vouchers or similar support for fruits and vegetables, this legislation offers a practical way to improve health outcomes and address underlying contributors to chronic disease. AMVETS supports this bill for reflecting a broader shift toward preventive and whole-health care, giving veterans and providers another tool to manage their long-term health more effectively.
D. ADDRESSING HOMELESSNESS AND VULNERABLE VETERANS
Veterans experiencing homelessness often face complex challenges that require sustained and coordinated care. Our team works daily through the AMVETS Family Service Center in South Strabane, Pennsylvania, and two newly awarded Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program DOL grants to address the needs of these veterans, particularly those facing serious mental health conditions and other complex barriers to care. These veterans need both hands-on action and legislative support to rebuild their lives.
S. 4043, the Health Care for Homeless Veterans Act
The Health Care for Homeless Veterans Act would make permanent the VA's authority to provide treatment and rehabilitation services for veterans who are both seriously mentally ill and experiencing homelessness. These programs are a critical component of the VA's continuum of care and serve some of the most vulnerable members of the veteran community.
Temporary or time-limited authorities create uncertainty for both the providers administering these services and the veterans who rely on them. Making this authority permanent helps ensure continuity of care and reinforces the VA's capacity to provide long-term support where it is most needed. AMVETS recognizes that sustained treatment and rehabilitation services are essential to improving stability, supporting recovery, and helping prevent repeated cycles of homelessness.
E. ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AND TRANSITION SUPPORT
Successful transition to civilian life depends in large part on whether veterans can access information, benefits, education, and employment opportunities in a timely and practical way.
AMVETS fully endorses policies that reduce avoidable barriers and strengthen pathways to longterm stability and success after service.
S. 3591, the Thomas M. Conway Veterans Access to Resources in the Workplace Act AMVETS supports the Thomas M. Conway Veterans Access to Resources in the Workplace Act, which would improve awareness of federal and state benefits available to veterans by requiring the development and display of standardized notices in the workplace. Too often, veterans remain unaware of the full range of services and support available to them, particularly as they transition into civilian employment.
By requiring that this information be made more visible and accessible, this bill helps bridge a persistent awareness gap. Access to benefits often begins with access to information. Ensuring that veterans and their families can more easily learn about available resources is a practical but meaningful step toward helping them navigate civilian life more successfully.
S. 3993, the Reducing Arbitrary Barriers to Apprenticeship Act
AMVETS also supports the Reducing Arbitrary Barriers to Apprenticeship Act of 2026, addressing longstanding disparities in how veterans' educational benefits are applied to apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs. These pathways offer meaningful opportunities for veterans to enter skilled professions, yet current benefit structures often place them at a disadvantage compared to those pursuing more traditional academic routes.
This legislation improves equity by removing barriers that limit how veterans can use their earned educational assistance in apprenticeship settings. AMVETS knows that success after service takes many forms, and veterans should be able to pursue the pathway that best fits their goals without being penalized by outdated or uneven benefit rules.
F. ADVANCING CARE FOR WOMEN VETERANS
As the population of women veterans continues to grow, our members strongly support policies that improve access to comprehensive, gender-specific care and address long-standing gaps in service delivery. Ensuring timely access to preventive care, specialty care, and maternity care is essential to improving outcomes and strengthening trust in the VA health system. AMVETS will continue working with Congress and VA leadership to advance policies that ensure equitable, comprehensive care for women who have served.
S. 3999, the Women Veterans Specialty Care Access Act
AMVETS strongly supports the Women Veterans Specialty Care Access Act, which would improve access to gender-specific health services by allowing women veterans to directly schedule appointments for women's specialty care without requiring a referral. Referral requirements can create unnecessary administrative delays and make it harder for women veterans to obtain timely care.
This legislation removes those barriers and promotes more direct access to services such as gynecology, maternity care, and postpartum care. Timely access to women's health services is a critical component of comprehensive, veteran-centered care and should not be hindered by avoidable administrative obstacles.
S. 3395, the Mammography Access for Veterans Act of 2025
Additionally, AMVETS supports the Mammography Access for Veterans Act of 2025, which would expand and strengthen access to breast cancer screening services across the VA. Early detection remains one of the most effective tools in reducing breast cancer mortality, yet many veterans continue to face barriers to timely screening.
By expanding breast imaging access through telescreening, mobile services, and broader availability across states and territories, this bill helps ensure more veterans can receive timely preventive care. Expanding access to life-saving screening services is both necessary and overdue.
Draft bill, the Maternal Health for Veterans Act
AMVETS endorses the Maternal Health for Veterans Act of 2026, which would strengthen oversight, coordination, and investment in maternity care services provided through the VA. As more women veterans rely on these services, improving care coordination and identifying gaps in outcomes becomes increasingly important.
Requiring better reporting and supporting maternity care coordination programs will help improve transparency and strengthen the VA's ability to address disparities in maternal health outcomes. AMVETS maintains that improving maternity care is essential to ensuring that women veterans receive equitable, high-quality support throughout pregnancy and postpartum care.
G. IMPROVING ACCESS, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND VA SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
Improving how the VA delivers care and services is essential to strengthening trust and ensuring better outcomes. AMVETS stands behind efforts to boost performance and improve the way the VA delivers care and services, communicates with veterans, and maintains accountability across the system.
S. 3170, Stuck On Hold Act
AMVETS endorses the Stuck On Hold Act, which would require the VA to implement an automated callback system across its customer service telephone lines. For many veterans, access to benefits and services depends on being able to reach the VA by phone, yet long wait times continue to create unnecessary frustration and barriers.
This legislation would help modernize that process and make communication with the VA more responsive and user-centered. Improving access is not only about expanding services, but also about ensuring veterans can reach the system in a timely and practical manner.
S. 3311, the Veterans Affairs Peer Review Neutrality Act of 2025
AMVETS supports the Veterans Affairs Peer Review Neutrality Act of 2025, which would strengthen the integrity of peer review processes within the Veterans Health Administration.
Veterans deserve confidence that concerns about care are reviewed fairly, objectively, and without conflicts of interest.
By requiring recusal in cases involving direct participation in care and by promoting neutral review in certain circumstances, the bill reinforces transparency and accountability in quality management. AMVETS has long advocated for internal oversight to maintain trust in the VA health care system and improve patient outcomes.
S. 3992, the Joint Medical Facilities Fund Act
AMVETS also supports the Joint Medical Facilities Fund Act, which would codify and strengthen the authority for a joint funding mechanism between the Department of Defense and the VA to support shared medical facilities. As the needs of servicemembers and veterans increasingly overlap, strong coordination between these systems becomes more important.
This legislation supports a more structured and efficient approach to maintaining shared infrastructure and delivering integrated care. AMVETS supports the bill because improving coordination between the DOD and the VA is essential to continuity of care and to ensuring that both servicemembers and veterans are served effectively as they move between systems.
II. LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS SUPPORTED WITH RECOMMENDATIONS
S. 3000, the FRAUD in VA Disability Exams Act of 2025
AMVETS appreciates the intent of the FRAUD in VA Disability Exams Act, provided it is implemented in a way that protects veterans from unintended harm. Addressing fraud within the disability claims process is important, but those efforts must be carefully structured to avoid negatively impacting veterans acting in good faith.
AMVETS remains concerned that, without appropriate safeguards, veterans could be unfairly disadvantaged for relying on private medical providers or for minor errors outside of their control. Measures aimed at strengthening oversight should not create additional obstacles for veterans navigating the claims process.
To ensure balance, AMVETS recommends clarifying that privately completed Disability Benefits Questionnaires (DBQs) should not be treated as inherently suspect, establishing a process that allows veterans to correct minor deficiencies before adverse action is taken, and focusing enforcement efforts on patterns of systemic abuse rather than isolated cases. With these protections in place, this legislation can strengthen program integrity without undermining access to earned benefits.
S. 3098, the Presumptive CLARITY Act of 2025
AMVETS also supports the intent of the Presumptive CLARITY Act of 2025, particularly its focus on increasing transparency in how the VA evaluates conditions and cohorts for presumptive service connection related to toxic exposure. Improving visibility into this process can help build trust and provide veterans with a clearer understanding of how these important determinations are made.
At the same time, AMVETS is mindful that new transparency requirements should not create additional administrative burdens that could slow decision-making or divert resources away from processing claims. Veterans exposed to toxic substances already face significant delays in receiving recognition and care, and added reporting requirements must not further complicate or extend that process.
We recommend that the implementation of this legislation prioritize efficiency and integration with existing VA processes, ensuring that any new requirements are streamlined and do not detract from timely adjudication of claims. With these considerations, this bill can improve transparency while preserving the VA's ability to deliver decisions in a timely and effective manner.
S. 3286, Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act 2.0
AMVETS recognizes the continued need to refine and strengthen the VA appeals process and appreciates the effort to build on prior modernization reforms through the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act 2.0. While earlier changes were intended to improve timeliness and flexibility, implementation has revealed ongoing challenges that warrant thoughtful reassessment.
As Congress considers further adjustments, we remain concerned that certain procedural elements, particularly rigid evidentiary timelines and docket structures, may continue to create barriers for veterans attempting to navigate the system. These issues can be especially difficult for those without representation or those managing serious health conditions while pursuing their claims. Reforms aimed at improving efficiency should not inadvertently limit a veteran's ability to fully develop and present their case.
AMVETS views this legislation as part of a broader, ongoing effort to improve the appeals system and encourages continued dialogue with stakeholders to ensure that future changes enhance both accessibility and fairness. With careful consideration and collaboration, modernization efforts can move forward in a way that strengthens the system while preserving the rights and interests of veterans.
S. 3653, the Veterans' Bill of Rights Act of 2026
Our members recognize the importance of ensuring that veterans are fully informed of their rights when accessing care, benefits, and services through the VA. Clear and accessible information is essential to helping veterans navigate the system and understand the resources available to them.
At the same time, AMVETS encourages careful consideration of how these requirements would be implemented to ensure they are consistent with existing authorities and do not create unnecessary duplication or administrative burden. Efforts to expand awareness should complement, rather than complicate, current processes and communication tools already in place within the VA.
AMVETS looks forward to continuing to work with the Committee to ensure that any efforts in this area improve clarity and access for veterans while maintaining efficiency and consistency across the system.
Draft bill, the VHA Novel Therapeutics Preparedness Act
AMVETS has been at the forefront of advocating for the responsible evaluation and integration of emerging therapeutic interventions for veterans with complex mental health conditions. As innovative approaches continue to develop, particularly in areas such as post-traumatic stress, depression, and TBI, ensuring that the VA is positioned to respond in a coordinated and clinically appropriate manner is essential.
AMVETS supports the goal of improving readiness and establishing a more structured approach to evaluating and implementing novel therapies, including the emphasis on interdisciplinary care, patient safety, and post-treatment integration. These elements reflect the evolving understanding that effective treatment for many veterans requires more comprehensive and supportive care models than traditional approaches alone.
At the same time, AMVETS encourages careful attention to how these efforts are implemented to ensure they remain evidence-driven, scalable, and accessible across the VA system. In particular, coordination with community-based providers, incorporation of peer support, and alignment with existing mental health and suicide prevention programs will be critical to longterm success.
AMVETS looks forward to continued engagement with the Committee and stakeholders to ensure that emerging therapeutic approaches are integrated in a way that expands access, maintains high clinical standards, and supports the full continuum of care for veterans.
Draft bill, the Optimizing the VA Workforce for Veterans Act
A capable and stable workforce is essential to the VA's ability to deliver care and benefits effectively. AMVETS recognizes the importance of long-term planning to ensure staffing levels are aligned with the needs of veterans and that the department is equipped to meet growing and evolving demand.
Efforts to improve workforce planning and transparency, including the development of a strategic human capital plan and clearer communication around staffing changes, can help strengthen the system if implemented thoughtfully. Aligning staffing decisions with actual workload and veteran outcomes is critical to maintaining both access and quality of care.
AMVETS also emphasizes that workforce decisions must remain grounded in mission needs and should not be influenced by shifting political priorities. Actions that affect staffing, particularly reductions in force, have direct consequences for veterans and must be approached with care and deliberation.
As this legislation moves forward, AMVETS encourages an approach that prioritizes continuity, supports frontline staff, and maintains focus on delivering consistent, high-quality services to veterans.
Draft bill, a bill to improve the Department of Veterans Affairs schedule for rating disabilities
AMVETS believes that the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities must remain current, accurate, and reflective of how service-connected conditions impact veterans in their daily lives. The rating schedule plays a central role in determining compensation and must be carefully maintained to ensure fairness and consistency across the system.
However, changes to the rating schedule involve complex medical, legal, and policy considerations that can have wide-ranging effects on veterans' benefits. Adjustments to how conditions are evaluated, including the consideration of treatment or medication, require careful review to avoid unintended consequences for veterans currently receiving or seeking compensation.
Given the scope and potential impact of these changes, it is important that any updates to the rating schedule be developed through a transparent process with robust stakeholder engagement, including input from veterans service organizations, medical experts, and the veteran community.
AMVETS will continue to monitor this proposal and looks forward to engaging further as the policy discussion develops to ensure that any changes uphold fairness, consistency, and the longstanding principles underlying veterans' disability compensation.
IV. CONCLUSION
AMVETS appreciates the Committee's continued leadership in advancing legislation to improve the lives of veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. The proposals considered in this hearing reflect a comprehensive effort to strengthen access to care, modernize VA systems, enhance accountability, and address the evolving needs of the veteran population. From expanding access to specialty care and innovative treatments to supporting caregivers and addressing homelessness, these measures represent meaningful progress toward a more responsive and equitable system.
AMVETS stands ready to work with the Committee, the VA, and other stakeholders to ensure these proposals are implemented effectively and deliver real outcomes for veterans. We thank you for your continued commitment to those who have served and look forward to continued collaboration to advance policies that uphold the promises made to our nation's veterans.
About AMVETS
AMVETS is the most inclusive congressionally chartered veterans service organization in the United States. Our membership is open to all active-duty service members, reservists, guardsmen, and honorably discharged veterans. As a result, AMVETS members have played a vital role in defending our nation in every conflict since World War II.
Our dedication to these men and women dates back to the post-World War II era, when countless returning service members sought access to the health, education, and employment benefits they had earned. Navigating the government bureaucracy to secure these benefits proved challenging for many, prompting experienced veterans to form local groups to assist their peers. As the veteran population surged into the millions, it became evident that a national organization was needed--one distinct from groups that had been established to serve veterans of previous wars. The emerging generation of veterans sought an organization of their own.
With this vision in mind, 18 delegates from nine veterans' clubs convened in Kansas City, Missouri, on December 10, 1944, to establish The American Veterans of World War II. Less than three years later, on July 23, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed Public Law 216, officially recognizing AMVETS as the first congressionally chartered organization for post-World War II veterans.
Over the years, our congressional charter has been updated to welcome veterans from subsequent conflicts. AMVETS has also evolved to better meet the needs of newer generations of veterans and their families. To further this mission, we maintain partnerships with other congressionally chartered veterans' organizations as part of the "Big Six" coalition. Additionally, we collaborate with newer groups such as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and The Independence Fund. Our commitment to veterans' well-being is further demonstrated through our partnership with the VA's Office of Suicide Prevention and Mental Health, working to combat the tragic epidemic of veteran suicide.
As AMVETS looks toward the future, we remain steadfast in our dedication to serving those who have defended our nation. We urge the 119th Congress to join us in this commitment by making policy decisions and casting votes that protect and support our veterans.
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Original text here: https://www.veterans.senate.gov/services/files/73DA941F-2A55-42C2-89C8-171B76337910