CONGRESSMAN TED W. LIEU STATEMENT ON OGR HEARING RE: FAILURE OF ARMY CHILDCARE SERVICES

Los Angeles – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles) served as the Ranking Member of an Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing regarding significant failure issues with the U.S. Army's Childcare Services Assistance Program. Gross mismanagement of the Army program, which was created to help military families pay for childcare, has caused unacceptably long backlogs in processing payments and severe hardships to thousands of military families. In addition, the hearing revealed that thousands of emails and voicemails by servicemembers and their spouses were intentionally deleted by the General Services Administration (GSA). It is Congressman Lieu's view that the Army and the GSA must work together to immediately identify and put in place concrete measures to correct the program.

Excerpts from the Congressman's remarks as Ranking Member are below:

"Mismanagement of the Army's program to help military families pay for childcare has caused inexcusable backlogs in processing payments and unnecessary financial hardship to thousands of military families."

"Having served on active duty, and as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserves, and as a husband and father of two children, this issue hits particularly close to home for me."

"Together, the Army and GSA must take steps to eliminate the current backlog so that families are not needlessly faced with financial hardship to pay for childcare. I look forward to hearing a timetable today for how they plan to fix this program."

"As we learned from the Inspector General's recent report, one family is now filing for bankruptcy as a result of subsidy payment delays. This is entirely unacceptable."

Congressman Lieu's full remarks as Ranking member at today's hearing can be found here.

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