As Appropriations Chair, Murray boosted funding for DOD child care initiatives and for repairs and new construction and design of Child Development Centers as NBC warns: “America’s child care shortage is pushing military families to a breaking point”
Murray also discussed construction of new base operations facility at Fairchild after securing $54.7 million to fully fund the project
Senator Murray: “It is always good to be back at Fairchild to talk with the men and women helping keep our country safe about challenges they are facing—everything from child care to housing to PFAS cleanup—and how the funding I’ve secured will make a difference here on base.”
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL from visit HERE***
Spokane, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, visited Fairchild Air Force Base to discuss funding she has secured to make critical improvements to quality-of-life and base operations facilities, see how those resources are being put to use, and hear directly about current challenges and needs at Fairchild. During the visit, Senator Murray toured Fairchild’s Child Development Center (CDC), community center, on-base housing facilities, and Base Operations facility, saw and was briefed on the UH-1N helicopters that support the Air Force’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape school, and met with Fairchild leadership.
“It is always good to be back at Fairchild to talk with the men and women helping keep our country safe about challenges they are facing—everything from child care to housing to PFAS cleanup—and how the funding I’ve secured will make a difference here on base,” said Senator Murray. “In negotiating this year’s funding bills, I made sure we do more to support our servicemembers and military families, including here at Fairchild. Today, I had the opportunity to tour Fairchild’s child care center and talk about how the new resources I secured will help address staffing shortages and what more we need to do to ensure no one is worried about finding or affording child care while serving our country in uniform. I also discussed plans for a new base operations building to replace and consolidate outdated facilities with funding I have pushed for over the last few years. These investments are critical for our families on base, and I am going to keep pushing to get our servicemembers the support they need, which absolutely includes quality and available housing—something that has been out of reach for too many and that I’ll keep pushing to fix.”
As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray has used her gavel to ensure Congress invests in supporting the men and women who serve our nation in uniform. In this year’s government funding bills that she negotiated, Senator Murray secured $167 million for the Department of Defense’s child care initiatives and $94 million—a $66.5 million increase over the last fiscal year—to support full-day universal pre-K and double enrollment from 1,810 to 3,625 children of servicemembers. As Senator Murray has spoken about and worked to address for years—and as recent reporting details—servicemembers are facing serious challenges securing the affordable, quality child care they need to fulfill their missions, and CDCs at military installations across the country lack the capacity they need to serve military families. Nationwide, roughly 9,000 kids are on waitlists for care at CDCs—3,700 of whom are on Air Force waitlists—and CDCs face significant challenges in recruiting and retaining the staff they need. Senator Murray secured $33 million to enable DOD to help recruit and retain child care workers by providing a 50% tuition discount at CDCs for the first child of employees, and she secured $20 million in new funding for the renovation and repairs of CDCs like the center at Fairchild. She separately secured $277 million to establish six new CDCs and an additional $60 million for the design of future CDCs, and will continue pushing to ensure servicemembers can find and afford the child care they need to complete their missions—at Fairchild and bases across the globe.
Senator Murray has long pressed DOD to address military housing problems—and at Fairchild Air Force Base, in particular, where unacceptable conditions at on-base privatized housing maintained by Balfour Beatty Communities have been reported. That includes reports of mold on exteriors of some homes, cracks in the foundations, siding falling off, roofs in need of replacement, and more. Last November, she wrote a letter with Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R, WA-05) to Balfour Beatty Communities expressing concern about the conditions at the aging homes and requesting an updated timeline to fix the issues. Senator Murray secured $10 million above the President’s budget request this year for Air Force family housing operations and maintenance to strengthen oversight of privatized housing projects.
On Friday, Senator Murray toured Fairchild’s existing base operations facilities, which are out-of-date and in deteriorating condition, and discussed plans for construction of a new, consolidated base operations facility with funds she has secured. In total, Senator Murray has secured $54.7 million for the project since fiscal year 2020—fully funding the project. A contract is projected to be awarded in June 2024.
Senator Murray secured other critical new investments to support servicemembers at Fairchild and bases across the globe in this year’s funding bills: a 5.2% pay raise, new funding to help survivors of sexual assault and to prevent sexual assault in the military, $420.4 million for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) remediation on military installations, and more.
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