Rep. Cisneros Statement on HASC Markup of GOP Reconciliation Bill 

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Gilbert R. Cisneros, Jr. (CA-31) released the following statement after the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) completed its markup session on H. Con. Res. 14, the House Republicans’ partisan reconciliation bill. Rep. Cisneros offered two amendments regarding oversight over Elon Musk’s DOGE and its involvement within the Department of Defense and including funding for childcare worker pay and child development center infrastructure, but both were voted down by Republicans. Rep. Cisneros voiced his opposition and voted against the committee’s $150 billion empty check to the Department of Defense, which will now be sent to the House Budget Committee to be included in the Republican’s reconciliation package. 

“I’ve had grave concerns with Washington Republican’s reconciliation bill from the beginning. Make no mistake, their bill is built on devastating cuts to Medicaid and Social Security. However, I take my role on the House Armed Services Committee and its work very seriously, and I approached today’s markup in a good faith effort to provide critical oversight of the Department of Defense (DoD). That oversight is needed now more than ever, as Secretary Hegseth’s tenure has been marked by chaos and basic failures in Operational Security.

“I offered two amendments in today’s committee. First, an amendment to reassert Congressional oversight of the DoD and require that Elon Musk’s DOGE answer basic questions about its activities related to the DoD. Second, an amendment to ensure there are funds to pay childcare workers at DoD Child Development Centers, and that the facilities they work in have the funds they need to be properly maintained and modernized. Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues prioritized a blank check to Secretary Hegseth. I refuse to give Secretary Hegseth free reign to jeopardize our national security and put his partisan funding projects over the health and welfare of the American people.”

Rep. Cisneros’s DOGE transparency amendment would have allowed the DoD to access the first $100 billion of the reconciliation bill’s funding. But before the Department could use the last $50 billion, it simply would have required the DoD to answer elementary oversight questions about DOGE and its activities related to program management at the Pentagon.

Rep. Cisneros’s childcare worker pay amendment would have increased childcare fee assistance to $200 million, added $1.3 billion for Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force child development center facility maintenance, and included $1 billion for childcare provider compensation under the Department of Defense’s modernization of the Child Development Program Staffing Model passed in FY25 NDAA.

Rep. Cisneros is a Navy veteran and the former Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. He currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee’s Intelligence and Special Operations and Military Personnel Subcommittees. He also serves as the Chair of the New Dem National Security Working Group.