Tillis Calls for the End of NDAs Used to Silence Military Families

WASHINGTON, D.C – Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) attended a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing and discussed issues military families are facing with on-base military housing, specifically the continued use of non-disclosure agreements (NDA) by private military housing providers.

Watch Tillis’ full comments HERE

“If you have a non-disclosure agreement that says you can’t even speak even about the existence of the agreement and you can’t speak disparagingly about the housing provider, then how does the answer to that question go? Which is why these damn things have to be eliminated,” said Senator Tillis.

As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, Senator Tillis has led the effort to reform the Military Housing Privatization Initiative and has worked with colleagues to secure a number of provisions in the FY2020 NDAA to address Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI).

Some of the previsions that Tillis worked to secure to address serious issues with the MHPI, include:

• Improving quality of life for servicemembers and their families living in privatized military housing by creating a Tenant Bill of Rights, setting up a dispute resolution process, and increasing oversight
• Holding private military housing companies accountable by instating new quality assurance and quality control measures and increasing health and hazard inspections
• Strengthening management of military housing by providing an additional $301.8 million to ensure each installation has the necessary government housing personnel to implement thorough oversight and planning measures

This year, Tillis toured homes on Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune and held two town halls to discuss on-base housing issues with military families.

“I’ve had town halls at Camp Lejeune, I’ve had town halls at Fort Bragg, I have had multiple sessions, and I have literally met with hundreds of military families down on those two bases,” said Senator Tillis. “And things are improving there, but I had at least one military spouse drive up from Fort Benning and she said ‘we were here when you all really started shining a light on Fort Bragg but now I’m down at Benning and it’s not so good.’ It sounds like it’s improving, but I would encourage all of my colleagues in the Senate and in the House to cast light on these folks. It makes a difference. We’re making progress, but we’re not making it nearly as quickly as we should. And I really do believe it’s time to draw a line with some of these venders, some of these contracts and say enough is enough.”

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