September 16, 2024

Warren Releases 26-Page Report Highlighting Senate Armed Services Committee Accomplishments

“Preserving National Defense, Protecting Servicemembers and Their Families, and Defending Taxpayers”

Senator Warren delivers for servicemembers and their families in Massachusetts and across the country over eight years of service on Committee 

Text of Report (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a new 26-page report, Preserving National Security, Protecting Military Families and Veterans, and Defending Taxpayers, outlining her accomplishments on the Senate Arms Services Committee since her appointment as a member in 2017. The report details Senator Warren’s work for servicemembers and their families in Massachusetts and across the country, from fighting for increased accountability in military spending and contracting, to improving healthcare, housing, child care, and quality of life for servicemembers, and ensuring that Massachusetts has a seat at the table.

In an interview, Senator Warren underscored the fact that half of all federal spending goes toward the Department of Defense, which has a “profound impact on our nation’s financial health,” adding: “It affects us right here in Massachusetts. How we treat our active duty military, our veterans, and our military families has an important impact on who serves and what their experiences are like.”

“I’ve worked hard to make sure that Massachusetts is effectively represented. I’ve made sure that Massachusetts has a seat at the table when decisions are made about military spending,” Senator Warren continued.

Over eight years on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warren has:

  • Introduced 41 pieces of legislation referred to the Committee and cosponsored 63 others
  • Obtained numerous legislative victories in the annual National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAAs) signed into law by Presidents Trump and Biden
  • Attended over 200 hearings and chaired seven since becoming Chair of the Personnel Subcommittee
  • Sent nearly 200 oversight letters seeking accountability from the Department of Defense (DoD), military contractors, and other DoD-related companies and agencies

When Senator Warren was first appointed to the Senate Armed Services Committee in December 2016, she promised to ensure that “Congress provides effective support and oversight of the Armed Forces, monitors threats to national security, and ensures the responsible use of military force around the globe.”  The report reveals how she has kept those promises. 

The 26-page report highlights Sen. Warren’s work, including:

Preventing corruption and overcharging:

Senator Warren has used her position on the Armed Services Committee to fight for strong ethics and conflict of interest standards to protect the national interest and ensure that the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) contracting decisions are made based on national security interests. And she has aggressively fought to cut waste, fraud, and abuse in DoD contracts, by:

  • Introducing the Department of Defense Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act and securing NDAA provisions that prohibit senior DoD nominees from owning or trading stocks in the ten largest defense contractors. 
  • Obtaining voluntary ethics commitments from key Pentagon officials to protect the military from potential conflicts of interest.
  • Fighting contractor price gouging, including seeking an investigation by the DoD Inspector General into overcharging by TransDigm Group Inc.11 that resulted in TransDigm agreeing to return $16.1 million to the Department of Defense. 
  • Introducing the bicameral and bipartisan Stop Price Gouging the Military Act and winning new tools for DoD to end contractors’ abuse of loopholes that rip off the military.
  • Fighting against contractor profiteering during the COVID crisis.
  • Introducing the bipartisan and bicameral Streamline Pentagon Spending Act to push back against the Pentagon’s wasteful “unfunded priorities” wish lists, and holding DoD accountable until the agency endorsed her bill to scale them back.

Working for Massachusetts:

Senator Warren has worked with the Massachusetts delegation to make sure DoD is investing in the Commonwealth and supporting the servicemembers who live and work there. Her victories include:

  • Securing over $490 million for family housing, safety upgrades, and other critical military construction for military bases and facilities throughout the Commonwealth.
  • Championing funding for Massachusetts universities, including securing almost $50 million of DoD funds to support programs at UMass-Lowell, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Northeastern.
  • Obtaining DoD funding for innovative companies in Massachusetts.
  • Securing a commitment that the Air Force will base F-35s at Barnes Air Force base.
  • Ensuring quality of care for hundreds of veterans at State Veterans Homes in Massachusetts following cases of horrific negligence at Holyoke Soldiers’ Home and other State Veterans Homes.
  • Responding to concerns she heard from veterans in Massachusetts by conducting aggressive oversight to make sure that medical examinations done for veterans to qualify for compensation or pension (C&P) benefits are conducted in a timely and professional manner.
  • Fighting to protect the health and well-being of the Commonwealth by addressing the threats from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), “forever chemicals” that have been linked to “cancer, liver damage, and birth defects” at Westover Air Reserve Base, expediting flood protection and environment enhancement options to protect Revere, Malden, Saugus, Lynn, and Everett, and blocking funding for a proposed gun range that could jeopardize Cape Cod’s sole aquifer.

Fighting for servicemembers and their families:

Senator Warren has fought for years to improve quality of life for servicemembers and their families, and her successes include: 

  • Passing key parts of her Military Housing Oversight and Service Member Protection Act into law and holding private housing contractors accountable for their failures to provide adequate housing for military families—including fighting for and obtaining new requirements that restrict private contractors from abusing non-disclosure agreements and violating servicemembers’ rights—and requiring DoD to put the first-ever military housing complaint database online.
  • Investigating sexual assault and harassment of students in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corp (JROTC), and passing key parts of her JROTC Safety Act to protect JROTC students from abuse and forced enrollment.
  • Strengthening and improving military child care programs, including securing $37 million for child care construction funding for military families in Massachusetts and securing a proposal in the fiscal year 2025 Senate NDAA to address military childcare staffing shortages. 
  • Improving care for military sexual trauma survivors.
  • Requiring DoD to put in place enhanced efforts to identify servicemembers suffering from gambling disorder and obtain new data on overdoses among servicemembers.

The report also highlights Senator Warren’s accomplishments in preserving defense industry competition and fighting industrial monopolies, improving healthcare access and quality for servicemembers, righting historical wrongs, increasing the Department of Defense’s climate resiliency, and preventing and mitigating civilian harm.

Read the full report here.

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