Member Day

I would like to thank all of you for coming to today's hearing and receiving to receive testimony from our colleagues. I look forward to hearing more about projects, programs, and issues in military construction, veterans affairs, appropriation bill that are important to your district and the communities across the country. Your input is critical as we work to fund agencies under the subcommittee's jurisdiction. I look forward to working with Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz and our subcommittee colleagues to accommodate these priorities as best we can as the fiscal year 2027 appropriation bill proceeds to move forward. Thank you again for taking time to speak to us today and bring these important issues in your community to our attention. Ms. Wasserman Schultz will get to make a opening argument when she gets here. Okay? But we will go ahead. Ms. Val Hoyle. Tell us what your issues are. This your written written will be entered in the record.

Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much for allowing me to testify here today. And I'm here to talk to you about the veterans home in Roseburg. Now, Roseburg is in Douglas County, and myself and Representative Cliff Bentz split representing that county. My district, the Fourth District of Oregon, has more veterans than any other district in Oregon. We have been the state of Oregon set aside matching funds once in 2011. Both Representative Bentz and I voted on that. And then again in 2024, our governor signed a bill granting $35 million for the project. The state has been ready to go and the need is there. And these veterans have been fighting our veterans put their lives on the line to protect and serve our country. They earn these benefits. These are not this isn't charity. We know that the home the the backlog in 2026 of the state home construction grants is well over a billion dollars. And the grants from the VA help cover 65 percent of the cost. And every single year that we put it off, it becomes more expensive. These are rural and frontier communities that depend on on these services. And our veterans deserve to live out the end of their lives in dignity. And in these rural communities, we don't have a lot of options. So this is something that has strong bipartisan support, is long past due. And although I'm fighting for the Roseburg veterans home, which again, Oregon has done its part for many years, the fact of the matter is a billion dollars is a lot of money for these veterans, for these homes, whether it's for upkeep or building new ones. A billion dollars is budget dust. I could go through just as Mr. Carter, I'm sure you could as well, and find so many things that we're spending a billion dollars on that would be better served, put to use taking care of our veterans at the end of their lives. So I'm here to ask that we fully fund the state veterans home program and specifically that we fund the Roseburg veterans home building because as I said, it's this this home would serve rural and frontier counties where we have very little option and these men and women deserve deserve for us to pay back their sacrifice.

Is there a building there now? Oh, I'm sorry.

No, no. It's so we have let me see. This this we have 13.4 acres of land and this would house 134 veterans. So it would need to be built. But it's ready to be built. And part of our issue was this wasn't at the top priority for many, many years. We finally got it to that whatever it is, class A priority then the last two years. So now our issue isn't that it's not prioritized in the list of things that need to be done. It's just the money's not there and the money is being spent on upkeep of existing homes, which I'm not arguing against. But we also have to take care of the veterans that are there and every single day we're getting more. So I think this is this is the kind of project that taxpayers, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, believe that where we we should be spending our money.

Very good. Mr. Cuellar, do you have a question?

Yeah, just just a comment. And and we've seen that in Texas also. We work with the land commissioner in Texas and this type of partnership is important. So the important thing is your priority, you're up there, right? Because okay. So and the surrounding areas, where would the next available or where is the next available state home? Is it 100 miles? Is it?

Oh gosh. It's we have we have a state home in Eugene, so that's about two two and a half hours away. And then it would be up in Portland, which is another four four and a half hours. And then there's nothing down on the on the south coast because those are cities that are up north. We don't have anything at all whatsoever. And this is where you know, we have our VA in Roseburg because this is the part of Oregon where we have most of our veterans. So there really isn't another option where there is capacity.

Yeah, just to close, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, we've done that in Texas where we see one, where are you on the list? And second of all, is there anything close by? And if there's nothing close by, then your argument becomes much better on that.

Oh, thank you.

Your time is fine. A question, it's the commissary you're looking for, right?

No, sir. Veterans home for veterans that are it's sort of a assisted living end of life home.

Oh, assisted living. Yeah. It's just for the home.

Yeah, it's these are for the homes.

I misunderstood.

No problem. I'm sorry I didn't clarify. But yes, this would be for veterans living out the end of their lives, having memory care, assisted living.

Well, I've visited the one here in in town. And it's it's a really nice place.

And and again, what I we have one of our state representatives from from down south, Republican state representative, his his father had dementia and they didn't have anywhere the VA didn't have anywhere for him to go. So he had to have him six hours away and he had to drive six hours to see his father. Whereas if we could have this home in our rural community, in a place that was accessible, it just it just makes sense. And again, there is no opposition to this project. Strong bipartisan support.

There she is. I'll let you repeat your argument just for a second. She has a very good argument. She has a good argument. Whatever Val says goes. Yes. So. Well, thank you. And I think they just called votes. So we might have to. No, we don't. We're good. We we will do our very best to try to accommodate you.

Thank you very much, sir. And and again, I come both but Representative Bentz and I both strongly support this.

Very good. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Liccardo.

Hi, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You're looking for a commissary.

I I am as a matter of fact. Yes. And about 2,600 military families are as well. Yes. I read the paperwork. Thank you. Thank you for that. And thank you for for your long-standing support of our service members, veterans and families. And thank you also Ranking Member. The project that we refer to is at the adjacent to the Moffett Federal Airfield, which is in the 16th District. It's long served as a naval air station. The installation itself has been decommissioned, but it still maintains a very strong military presence. It's got the 63rd Regional Readiness Command headquarters of the U.S. Army Reserve, the 129th Rescue Wing, the California Air National Guard. It supports the NASA Ames Research Center, which is now a leading center for supercomputing and nanotechnology, material science. It this airfield is now operating as a joint civil military airport. But it is really a hub for the military community, both active service as well as veterans who reside throughout the Bay Area, roughly a nine million person metropolitan area. And the commissary is very much at the heart of that. And so this is the commissary only commissary serving within a 75 mile radius. It it operates in a facility that NASA Ames owns. It's the region's only commissary. And most recently, Defense Commissary Agency and NASA agreed to extend the current lease. We worked very hard on getting buying two years of life there. The facility will likely close to by 2029 because the building simply can't take it anymore. And so we need to find a better place for it. And this committee knows well that access is certainly a valued benefit for many of these families. So we have been working collaboratively with the local community as well as with DeCA and with NASA. And we've identified another site or they have, I should say, which seems to have the support of the community. And so I'd respectfully request that the committee include report language encouraging coordination among the relevant agencies to evaluate options to maintain commissary access.

Okay. Questions?

No questions, but thank you very much for bringing it to our attention.

We'll do the best we can.

Thank you for hearing me. Thanks. Have a great day.

Put some language in there. Okay. Mr. Moylan. You dropped in without. We'll let you see what you got to say. About Guam.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much and Ranking Member Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz. Thank you for hosting today's members' day hearing while you work to craft the FY 2027 military construction, veterans affairs, and related agencies appropriations act. As your subcommittee begins this important work, I wanted to highlight just some of Guam's priorities this year, please. And perhaps the most important is to increase our operational presence of the VA in Guam and the rest of the U.S. associated Pacific Islands. Over the last year, I've worked timelessly to push the VA to expand its presence in our region, including opening a VA regional office. A regional office offices exist in every state, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. But veterans who call Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, or one of the freely associated states must rely on the regional office in Honolulu, which is seven datelines away, time zones away. And this is an injustice to our veterans and places a burden on those who are only looking to access their earned benefits. I'm asking for a two-step approach to fix this problem. First, VA should increase its operational presence by surging staff in existing federal lease space. This would leverage department's existing discretionary authority to assign defined claims intake, development, and processing responsibilities to Guam-based staff, utilizing an already leased space and an existing infrastructure. More importantly, this begins to close the gap in coverage and provides a measure of equity to those who serve. In other words, we need more of their employees there. They got more space than they need. And second, VA should begin planning the establishment of a regional office in Guam and submit that plan to Congress. Such a report should also work to identify any barriers to establishing a regional office if any barriers should exist. So I'd like the VA to tell Congress what they need to get done to establish a regional VA office for Guam. And it's in the VA, the Secretary of VA's existing authority to establish one, but he has not. So the path forward should improve access to in-person service, mitigate persistent time zone barriers, seven of them, reduce claim processing delays, mailing takes over seven days each way, that currently exceed, which extremely exceed the VA benchmarks, and prioritize U.S. citizens federal employment, all while preserving continuity of operations elsewhere in the region. We're talking Guam, Marianas, free associated states. And phase implementation paired with clear performance matrix would allow VA to measurably improve outcomes for Pacific Islands veterans in cost-effective and operationally sustainable manner. I also in addition want to urge the committee to support veteran poverty prevention programs, including the veterans homeless prevention program, the Office of Food Security, VBA and VHA programs that support access to earn benefits, healthcare, and help prevent our veterans from falling through the cracks. These heroes served our nation and it's only right that we give them the respect due of that service. Thank you and I any questions I'd be happy. that we give them the respect due of that service. Thank you and I any questions be happy.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz?

I don't have any questions, but I led a CODEL, I don't think you went with us when we, yeah, but the Judge and I have both been to Guam and met with veterans on Guam. It is very clear that the, that these are serious needs. The effort and length of time that people on Guam, veterans on Guam have to take to be able to get access to expanded healthcare services that aren't available, you know, on Guam is, is excessive and unreasonable. And, but I know that they've faced challenges in, in establishing a, a more permanent office in the past. But it is a real, a real problem and I know it's something that I will continue to, to try to help find a solution to.

We'll try to help make that work.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

You know, you and I talked about it a long time ago.

Yes sir. Yes sir, Mr. Chairman.

Guess we go vote, huh? Oh, well is anybody else, you waiting to see us? You're with him, okay. Well if there's nothing else, we'll adjourn. We'll look at it, we'll see what we can do.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you member, thank you. Thank you very much.