Friday, February 14, 2025

Senator Mark Warner Pushes Amendments to Aid Service Members and Their Families

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) continues to advocate for military families (WYDaily/Nancy Sheppard)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) is endorsing policies that he said will help Virginia’s military families.

Warner has supported amendments to the U.S. Senate’s annual defense bill, according to a press release from the senator’s office.

One amendment Warner has supported aims to address food insecurity among military families by directing the Secretary of Defense to designate a senior official to coordinate with other government agencies to tackle the problem. The Department of Defense will conduct a study on food insecurity, and a separate amendment would direct the U.S. Government Accountability Office to independently review the study and provide independent analysis of proposed action to Congress.

A third amendment supported by Warner would create a pilot program for service members to receive boxes of fresh produce for no charge.

“The brave men and women who serve in our military should never have to worry about putting food on the table, about having a safe place to live, or about being able to access the timely and quality health care they have earned,” Warner said.

Warner has also introduced two amendments to address housing insecurity among military families.

The first would direct the U.S. Government Accountability Office to prepare a report on the ways tenants are benefiting from recent housing reforms and protections. Another amendment would require that performance-based incentives paid to housing provides be posted online. Currently, tenants can only access that information by requesting it directly from their respective housing office, according to the press release.

Senator Warner has also proposed pausing a potential restructuring and realignment of Military Treatment Facilities (MTF). The pause would be for one year, to reassess how MTFs can best provide care to service members and their families. During the interim, service members and families would receive care from local providers.

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