Hawley To General On Pronouns: 'I'm Curious As Heck How Not Using He/She Can Help With Lethality'

thank you very much the ranking member and thank you madam chair and thanks to the witness for being here General stid let me talk with you let me start with you if I could I have spoken repeatedly with the secretary of the army about replacing aging Homes at Fort Leonard Wood in my home state and there is no doubt in my mind that service members deserve better than they are getting right now I was just there a few weeks ago I toured the homes myself I spoke to Residents I spoke to spouses I spoke to children who lived in the homes these homes need to be replaced what concerns me is the Army doesn't seem to have a plan to replace this aging housing stock so let me just ask you this in your opinion how does the availability or maybe lack of availability of quality military housing for service members and their families affect recruiting and retention foreign Hawley good afternoon the army takes the care and quality of life of all of our service members and their families very seriously so we are making and committed to investing uh in our housing within not just that but within our day care centers child care offering opportunities expanding beyond that for spousal employment to put kind of a whole package on the table to ensure that our facilities and our care and commitment towards family members is first class would you say a whole package when will we be seeing this package Senator we we continue to work on it and I can take that question for the record please well that's fine I mean but let me just say again for the record I've said this in the full committee I'll say it again here that I think we're past the point of continuing to kick this down the down the road I mean this is a this is a problem now frankly at Fort Leonard Wood it was a problem a decade ago but I listen I've been there I mean I've I've seen it myself I've talked to the service members myself I've been in their houses I've been in their kitchens I've looked at their bathrooms where there's mold growing I've seen that they don't have places for their kids I've seen this the substandard living conditions and it just isn't acceptable general you know what I promise those service members that I'd be a royal pain in the new in the you know what until something changed so I'm keeping that commitment and I'm going to continue it until something changes and frankly I've I've heard this now for it's going on two years I've only been in the Senate three but I've heard it continuously that well we'll get to it we'll get to it we'll get to it well at Fort Leonard Wood we haven't gotten to it and I I bet if we went around the table here I bet that the other members of the subcommittee would have the same situation in their state so um I'll give you the question for the record but I just want to put on notice again and you can take this back that I want to see some progress on this and I want to see it soon and what I don't want to see are any more commitments from the army that they're going to spend X number of dollars this happened last year we're going to commit X number of dollars to Fort Leonard Wood and then as it turns out zero dollars were spent on housing I'm still ticked off about that and I don't want to see it happen again and I want to see progress made so that's my piece I think you understand where I'm coming from General Miller let me let me come to you can you help me with something here Anderson Air Force Base I understand this is in Guam course leaders there recently received an official email that prohibited them from using pronouns or descriptors like he she youngest oldest male or female why is that I mean what what what's what's going on Senator Hawley thank you for that question actually that is um we've been talking a lot about that because it was a it was an email from my understanding that went out for locally from one of the commanders there and I don't remember at what level I don't know if it was a group Commander the wing Commander there I believe that it was a Facebook post that went out based on a question it is not the Air Force policy to not use pronouns and so I think it was a social media you know exacerbated by individuals that said that they were directed for that ah okay good well I think that's that's progress so so you're saying I'm looking at a news article here published August 31 2022 uh saying that pacques has been has has sent this uh this letter around leaders of the base are instructed do not use pronouns age race Etc and they go on the unauthorized examples of unauthorized language are male female youngest oldest he she but you're saying that that is not that was not an official communication that has not been a direction it is not an official communication from the half correct okay okay and so um your your position to me is today that that is that is not policy and that they have not been so instructed this is a social media policy or fuffle I mean this is not this is not real it it's not happening it's I don't know if it's not happening but it is not an official policy from the Department of the Air Force okay um I ask because part of the way it's been reported is that the ration now um is to help with lethality and also recruiting and I just it was curious as heck how how not using he she can help with lethality and how it's helping with recruiting but I'll I take your word for it that this is this is not a policy and um that satisfies me so thank you thank you madam sir

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Length: 5min 38sec (338 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 21 2022