Military bill neglects Hawaii's needs, Case says
U.S. Rep. Ed Case is blasting military appropriation legislation that is moving through the House of Representatives as 'shortchanging ' priorities critical to Hawaii, including environmental cleanup and military infrastructure.
On Wednesday, members of the House Appropriations Committee voted to advance legislation that calls for over $450 billion to fund military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other programs for fiscal 2026.
The bill is the first of the 12 annual funding measures House GOP appropriators are hoping to move out of committee before Congress leaves for its August recess. But the bill advanced along party lines, with Republican lawmakers touting it as a major win and Democrats lambasting what they say are major shortcomings and omissions from the bill.
Case, a Hawaii Democrat, said in a statement after the vote that 'while the measure does have positive provisions including funding for essential veterans programs, I regrettably had to vote against it because it kicks critical military infrastructure projects down the road yet again, pursues the Project 2025 goal of privatizing VA medical care, shortchanges dedicated funding for Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS ) cleanup, eliminates climate resiliency efforts and excludes important VA infrastructure funding.'
Last year's version of the bill allocated $1.55 billion, roughly 8 %, of the worldwide military construction budget to Hawaii, but this year, no money was allocated for Hawaii. The islands are home to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which oversees all U.S. military operations across the Pacific and much of Asia. Pentagon leaders say the region is their top priority theater of operations amid tensions with China.
'We have an obligation to ensure our veterans get the benefits and care that they have earned, ' said U.S. Rep. John Carter, the Republican chair of the subcommittee on military construction and VA funding. 'This bill does that while also addressing other critical issues affecting veterans including homelessness, mental health services, and taking care of our women veterans. The bill also makes critical investments totaling nearly $18 billion in the infrastructure our service members need to work and live. The Committee will continue to prioritize INDOPACOM and quality of life investments in Fiscal Year 2026.'
In response to Carter's remarks, Case told lawmakers, 'with great respect, I have to disagree with that because I do not see the evidence that the Indo-Pacific is in any way, shape or form, prioritized in this particular bill, ' noting that the bill only included funding for a single military construction project in the region—$50 million for a military access road in Guam.
Case argued that would leave upgrades to strategic naval yards, airfields and other facilities unfunded across the Pacific as the U.S. and Chinese militaries eye each other's capabilities. When it comes to projects in Hawaii, Case told lawmakers, 'I hope and believe we would all agree that Hawaii has a place to play in all of this at this point, and yet, there's no (military construction funds ) on for Hawaii.'
He emphasized that no money was put aside under the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program to make upgrades to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, a critical maintenance point for warships and submarines. Lately, the Navy had been pouring money into the construction of a new dry dock there to support new nuclear submarines. The project is considered the most expensive single construction in the service's history. Dry Dock 5 is expected to be complete in 2028 and cost a total of at least $3.4 billion.
'There's no funding to make sure that our shipyards can continue to serve us in this capacity, ' Case told fellow lawmakers. 'There is a (Congressional Budget Office ) report that calls for billions and billions and billions of deferred maintenance and other construction right in Hawaii, including, for example, of Kaneohe Bay Marine Base at $1.1 billion, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam at $1 billion, and I could go on down the list.'
Case also accused the GOP of ignoring the threat of climate change.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has declared that the military is done with 'climate crap, ' which he insists is a political fairy tale that has distracted commanders and troops from training for war and obtaining new weapons, and promised during his confirmation hearing that he would fire senior Pentagon officials if they began talking about climate change.
Military planners have been worried about the effects of sea level rise and intensifying storms on its bases, especially in the Pacific. A Pentagon study in 2018, during President Donald Trump's first term, found that nearly half of all U.S. military sites were threatened by weather linked to climate change. But following the resignation of then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, the administration dismantled the Navy's climate change task force, which had started under the Obama administration and which Mattis had kept running.
When Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021, the program restarted. But the second Trump administration has taken an even harder line on climate programs. In April, Navy Secretary John Phelan announced on social media platform X, 'I'm focusing on warfighters first and I'm rescinding the Biden administration's climate action program.'
Case told fellow lawmakers that 'there is the problem of a continued reluctance, a continued closing of their eyes by the Defense Department, of anything that smacks of any kind of base resilience, because they don't want to talk about the effects of the weather on our basing. Therefore things get zeroed out that the military knows that we need, and this is simply the wrong way to take a look at this. We are shortchanging this critical strategy in our (military construction ), and we've got to correct this before it is literally too late.'
However, though ultimately voting against the bill, Case managed to secure $634 million for the Energy Resiliency and Conservation Investment Program, which funds projects that save energy and water use in support of military operations to cut costs and improve efficiency in the long term. The bill also called for several reviews and reports on military infrastructure needs at bases in Hawaii and around the Pacific that Case pushed for, including aging water infrastructure around Pearl Harbor.
VA provisions expansive The portions of the bill dedicated to the VA included provisions that maintain contracting preferences for Native Hawaiian-owned businesses that work with the VA ; $1.5 million for a pilot project to use new technology to help identify the remains of unknown service members buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific ; $342 million for rural health initiatives ; $233 million for substance-use disorder treatment plans for veterans and a hefty $3.4 billion to address veteran homelessness.
It also includes $1.3 billion to support female veterans and support the VA's Office of Women's Health, including its child care initiative. As more women have served in the military in recent decades, record numbers are now claiming the benefits they've earned and presenting new challenges to the VA.
'Women veterans often require specialized care due to unique health needs stemming from their military service and gender, ' said Case. 'With sustained support from my Committee over multiple years, Congress is working to ensure the VA set the standard for women veterans care, ensuring consistent, high-quality services across all facilities.'
In Hawaii veterans are served by the VA's Pacific Island Health Care System, which also serves vets in the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa—giving it an area of responsibility of approximately 2.6 million square miles. The system has few dedicated facilities of its own, with some of its operations at Tripler Army Medical Center. It largely relies on partnerships and contracts with other hospitals and clinics across the Pacific's far-flung islands to provide for patients.
The bill includes language calling on formal plans to expand coverage to veterans living in the 'freely associated ' Pacific island nations of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands—all of which have traditionally high enlistment rates.
The measure also includes language calling for continued support and operations for the VA Center for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and United States-affiliated Pacific Islander Veterans. The center's doctors and scientists do research across the U.S. and Pacific islands and regularly work with the University of Hawaii. The bill calls on the VA to continue partnering with universities in Hawaii and across the Pacific to support island veterans.
The current version of the bill includes funding for the VA on paper, but Case's office in a statement charged that it also 'specifically advances the privatization of veterans health care by proposing vastly larger increases for medical care provided in private sector compared to short-funding the government's VA health care system, a key goal of the Project 2025 plan being followed by the Trump administration.'
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