Strickland, Colleagues Seek Answers on Defense Child Care Reporting Policies

Washington, D.C.- Today, U.S. Representatives Marilyn Strickland (WA-10), Jill Tokuda (HI-02), Sara Jacobs (CA-51), led 21 of their colleagues in seeking urgent answers from the U.S. Department of Defense in response to an April 10, 2024 article from Military.com detailing systemic failures to report child abuse and harm at military child care centers. That article included shocking details of one military family's experiences at the Ford Island Child Development Center near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawai'i.

"The Department's child care programs are critical to supporting military families, with direct impacts on mission readiness, morale, and recruitment and retention," wrote the lawmakers. "Ensuring the safety and well-being of children on military installations is of paramount importance to the trust between service members, their families, and the Department of Defense, with significant implications for ongoing recruitment and retention issues."

Representative Strickland is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Readiness, and the Subcommittee on Military Personnel - which has jurisdiction over the Department of Defense's childcare policies.

The full letter can be found here.

Other signatories of the letter are Representatives Salud Carbajal (CA-24), André Carson (IN-07), Matt Cartwright (PA-08), Jason Crow (CO-06), Don Davis (NC-01), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Robert Garcia (CA-42), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Steven Horsford (NV-04), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), Andy Kim (NJ-03), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Susie Lee (NV-03), Jennifer McClellan (VA-04), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Kevin Mullin (CA-15), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Pat Ryan (NY-18), and Terri Sewell (AL-07).

U.S. Representative Marilyn Strickland serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. She is whip for the Congressional Black Caucus, a member of the New Democrat Coalition, and one of the first Korean-American women elected to Congress.

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