‘A Problem In The Civilian World As Well’: Jennifer McClellan Presses Austin On Childcare Challenges

5 months ago

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) questioned Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin about childcare affordability, the workforce shortage, supporting mental health and strengthening ties with partners in Africa.

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00:00The gentlelady from Virginia, Ms. McClellan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Secretary

00:04Austin and General Brown, for being here today. I want to focus a little bit on child care,

00:12and I appreciate in your submitted remarks that you pointed out that the

00:18FY 2025 budget is focusing on efforts to make child care more affordable. But for the past

00:26year, what I have been hearing as I visit installations across Virginia as late as

00:31Friday when I was at Fort Greg Adams, is affordability is only part of the issue,

00:36and for many of these installations, it's the lack of sufficient workforce to meet the demand.

00:42And so I wanted to ask if you could elaborate what the DOD is doing to help increase

00:49the workforce, including making the ability to do background checks a little bit faster,

00:55because I hear that seems to be the long pole in the tent. We are doing things to speed up

01:04the amount of time that it takes to conduct background checks, and you are right, that has

01:07been an issue of concern for a number of people for quite some time. We're also doing things to

01:15incentivize workers working for us in the child care arena. If you're an employee, for example,

01:29if you want your child to be enrolled in that child care center, we've reduced the cost for

01:34the first child by 50 percent. And there are other things that we're doing to try to

01:40make it more attractive for people to come work for us. But there's stiff competition,

01:48as you know, in this area, and we've just got to continue to do more to attract the right people

01:56to join us and stay with us. And we've seen some improvement, but there's more to be done yet.

02:02Thank you. I know this is not just a problem for the DOD, it's a problem in the

02:06civilian world as well. But if there are more resources or assistance that we can provide,

02:12please let us know. On mental health and suicide prevention, these are also difficult issues we

02:18continue to grapple with. In September of 2023, you signed off on a memo with over 100 actions

02:24to prevent military suicide, targeting five primary lines of effort. And can you tell us

02:30today how the department is beginning to implement those directives and how we can be supportive?

02:37Well, we are implementing them. And, of course, I am personally involved in this because it's

02:43really important to me. And I routinely engage service leadership in terms of what they're doing

02:56and how they're making health care or mental health care more available to their troops.

03:03And so this remains a focus for the department from the top to the bottom. But it's still a very,

03:11I mean, competitive market. There's just not enough health care providers,

03:16mental health care providers, and the demand is pretty significant. We've done some things like

03:26make telehealth care available. And that's helped the people who are working and living in remote

03:34areas. And again, there's much more that we need to do. But it will remain a very competitive

03:46market because there's just not enough providers out there in the civilian world or in the military.

03:51Thank you. We had the opportunity to speak with leadership for AFRICOM in a posturing hearing

03:56earlier following the military coup in Niger. And since then, we have seen a further weakening

04:02of the American position in Africa as our troops have been ordered to leave Chad as well as Niger,

04:08two nations that are vitally important to our counterterrorism efforts. And you may not have

04:13time to answer this. So for the record, if you could provide how the department is working to

04:18how the department is working to prevent similar troop evictions from our African

04:23partners and what the department is doing to strengthen ties with our partners in Africa,

04:29we'd love to have that submitted for the record. Okay. We will submit it for the record.

04:33Thank you. And finally, I would just say after my visit to Fort Greg Adams,

04:38one of the challenges I think with meeting recruitment goals is the fact that particularly

04:43since COVID, the inability to be more further integrated in the communities and Fort Greg Adams

04:50is a good example where you have two military museums, a great new exhibit on the 6888

04:57and black women who participated in the war effort. And yet civilians have a hard time getting

05:02on campus to see them. If there's anything we can do to help you meet that balance between providing

05:08security at the gate, generally allowing more people from the chair. And I recognize does

05:13gentlelady from

‘A Problem In The Civilian World As Well’: Jennifer McClellan Presses Austin On Childcare Challenges

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