Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and underscored the importance of servicemember quality of life in the military.
Strickland’s remarks are transcribed below, and can be viewed here:
Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland: I’m going to support this amendment by my colleague Pat Ryan. And I want to reiterate something that he pointed out.
Every person who serves on this Committee does so because we are dedicated to protecting and defending our homeland, our national security, our security abroad, and especially those people who are serving.
The fact that Secretary Hegseth is still employed is a joke. And what is more appalling to me is your conspicuous silence. At some point, you have to speak up for the American people. At some point, you have to speak up and show that you’re a true patriot. Your silence speaks volumes.
I’m offering an amendment that will protect the Department of Defense’s ability to provide healthcare for servicemembers and their families. My amendment seeks to limit the termination of civilian healthcare providers provided by the DoD. Our uniformed leadership has made clear – in hearing after hearing before this Committee – that lethality and readiness are directly linked to servicemember quality-of-life.
I had the honor of serving on the bipartisan Quality of Life Panel, and healthcare is a big issue. Today, patients at military treatment facilities often have to wait weeks for routine care. At military hospitals across the nation, resources and providers are so limited that beneficiaries are redirected off-base, where wait times stretch even further. This is intolerable for those seeking specialty care, including mental health, and even pregnancy and postpartum support services. These healthcare needs cannot wait just so President Trump can claim he may have saved a few bucks.
The last one hundred days have seen crippling attacks on our civil servants. This workforce that has resulted in decreased military readiness and worsening outcomes for those in uniform. Led by Elon Musk who’s unaccountable and gleefully implemented by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, multiple rounds of layoffs and terminations are already hurting our Armed Forces and making federal service a less attractive option for our most talented healthcare professionals.
This sloppily executed deferred resignation program and reduction-in-force layoffs have resulted in little to no savings while sowing chaos and upending lives. No one here is going to argue against eliminating government waste and doing it efficiently. But you use a scalpel, not a chainsaw.
What’s also unacceptable is doing this in a way that hurts our dedicated healthcare providers, our servicemembers, and basically the United States of America. Despite the alleged concern about an unsustainable budget, today this Committee is considering and debating how to spend an additional 150 billion dollars.
I encourage my colleagues to use this opportunity. Commit to improving healthcare access and outcomes for our servicemembers and their families, and provide some stability and predictability for our providers. We cannot lose sight that this entire partisan process unfolding today is in service of giving the wealthiest Americans trillions of dollars in tax cuts, paid for on the backs of hardworking families and those who are serving us.
The least we can do is ensure our military personnel receive the best level of care possible. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on my amendment and guarantee access to providers and military treatment facilities.
Our nation is stronger when our military includes everyone. Inclusion is not a bad word. And when we are talking about censorship, we are demoralizing and dehumanizing the very people who chose to wear the uniform. More than 40 percent of servicemembers identify as minorities, and the most recruitable adults in 2027 will be people of color.
And make no mistake – you must be qualified to serve. The two are not mutually exclusive. The fact is this. The military is an employer. And when the economy is strong and unemployment is down, the military has to compete for talent just like every other employer. Telling people that they don’t belong will only worsen our recruiting issues.
And while the President may be attempting to crash the economy and to erase people, we should not stand for it. Serving in the military does not mean that you give up your rights. Serving in the military does not mean that you should be made to feel that you don’t belong somewhere.
My father served in a segregated Army. And when Truman desegregated it, it was not popular. In today’s terms, some people in this room may say it’s “woke”, but it was the right thing to do for the country and our national security.
Secretary Hegseth’s and Elon Musk’s attempts to erase very recent and painful parts of history might make them feel better, but it does nothing to make us more safe as a nation. You can’t erase the reality of history. And to this day, we have women, people of color, and other minorities breaking barriers and serving in the military. And we must recognize it is the right thing to do. Not because it’s morally right, because it makes us more safer. It makes us a stronger military.
It’s an unfortunate reality that minority servicemembers face worse treatment in the military justice system. That Black and Hispanic servicemembers were more likely than their White counterparts to face criminal investigation and court-martial. It’s also unfortunate that too many servicemembers and their families have had to be relocated because of racism or anti-LGBTQ harassment. And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, in their stunned silence, don’t even care about this.
My colleagues would rather coddle White supremacists and extremists than support the servicemembers and their families of all hues who represent the best of us.
And unlike some countries that try to bury the worst parts of history, our country – in order to form a more perfect union as we progress – openly learns from the mistakes of our past.
It is 2025, people. It is time to act like we understand the present and the future but not ignore our past. That is something we should uplift and embrace. But unfortunately, this Secretary of Defense has chosen to erase history and ignore reality. And we should all be ashamed of ourselves if we don’t support this amendment. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this and I yield back, Mr. Chair.
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