Rep. Lauren Underwood Delivers Remarks at Defense Funding Bill Markup to Highlight How Republican Funding Bill Undermines Military Readiness and Democracy at Home and Abroad

WASHINGTON — During today’s House Appropriations full committee markup of the 2026 Defense funding bill, Rep. Lauren Underwood (IL-14) delivered the following remarks: 

“I am unable to support the Fiscal Year 2026 Defense Appropriations Act we have before us today.   

While it does include a few provisions I would support, especially an increase in basic pay for all military personnel and additional pay increases for junior enlisted, it fails our troops and our national security in almost every other way.  

Our servicemembers and military families make enormous sacrifices to serve our country. The least we can do to honor those sacrifices is treat them with dignity and respect.  

Unfortunately, the Republican Majority has chosen to use our armed services as political pawns instead of prioritizing the health and safety of our troops, their families’ quality of life, or our nation’s military readiness.   

For starters, this bill codifies a dangerous new policy of the Trump Administration by banning servicemembers from traveling to access reproductive healthcare.   

And thanks to the ongoing effort to ban abortion nationwide, almost half of active-duty servicewomen are effectively unable to access abortion services without traveling.  

This extremist provision is a slap in the face to the women in uniform who risk their lives for a country that refuses to provide for their health or acknowledge their fundamental human rights.  

I am disappointed in my Republican colleagues, but not surprised—at this point in their all-out assault on reproductive freedom, the bar is on the floor.  

This bill also includes provisions that target LGBTQ+ servicemembers by blatantly endorsing discrimination.   

And of course, this bill also bans funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within the D-O-D, despite widespread agreement among security professionals that a diverse talent pool is a mission-critical priority for our armed forces. 

To give just one example of how diversity strengthens our military readiness, the Navajo Code Talkers played a key role in securing our victory in the Battle of Iwo Jima, saving countless American and Allied lives. In fact, in both World Wars, Native American servicemembers have used indigenous languages to successfully transmit secret information. 

It recently got harder to learn about this history since the Trump Administration deleted information about the Code Talkers from D-O-D websites. 

So let me remind my colleagues that military’s ability to recruit and retain, for example, speakers of diverse languages is essential to its ability to win battles and save American lives.  

In other words, the GOP’s obsession with culture wars hurts our readiness for real wars. It’s foolish, it’s shortsighted, and it’s making us less safe.  

While House Republicans are happy to rubberstamp the Trump Administration’s reckless and hateful agenda, I am not. This bill fails our servicemembers, and it fails to keep us safe, so I will be voting against it.”