April 10, 2025

Duckworth Pushes for More Cooperation with Indo-Pacific Partners on Medical Readiness and Strategic Sealift to Support Servicemembers Abroad

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC)—urged Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Admiral Samuel J. Paparo Jr. and Commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) General Brunson to build on their efforts to expand cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners by further implementing her Indo-Pacific Medical Readiness Program and strengthening our sealift fleet, which is aging and insufficient in numbers to support our military in the event of a crisis or conflict. Senator Duckworth’s Indo-Pacific Medical Readiness program—a program she championed in last year’s FY2025 NDAA—will help ensure our nation’s servicemembers as well as their families have access to quality patient care throughout the Indo-Pacific region—where they often must travel long distances to receive care. In her remarks, Duckworth asked whether there were any primary barriers that hinder medical cooperation and how the committee can continue to help implement her program. Duckworth’s full remarks are available on the Senator’s YouTube.

“We owe it to the troops we send overseas—and their families—to ensure they have access to the high-quality medical care their sacrifices deserve, whether that means getting injured servicemembers to medical facilities within the ‘golden hour’ wherein lives can still be saved or simply ensuring military families are able to deliver their babies safely,” said Duckworth. “I applaud Admiral Paparo and General Brunson’s efforts to improve the logistical readiness of our Armed Forces and with our allies and partners, but there’s more work to do. Everyone knows I’m TRANSCOM’s biggest advocate, and I look forward to continuing to work with INDOPACOM and USFK to address my concerns with medical readiness, strategic sealift and more across the region.”

In November 2023, the DoD Office of Inspector General released a report identifying repeated challenges that servicemembers and their families face when trying to access quality health care in the Indo-Pacific region, including staffing shortages and limited Tricare network providers. At certain military treatment facilities, many servicemembers are also confronted with limited specialty care, such as obstetrics and physical therapy, impacting their quality of life.

In addition to her medical readiness provision, Duckworth successfully championed several other important provisions in last year’s NDAA that are supporting our servicemembers and their families, enhancing strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, improving logistics to bolster readiness and energy resiliency as well as continuing to restore American competitiveness.

Duckworth is a proven leader when it comes to strengthening our relations with Indo-Pacific nations and improving security in the region—which she has done while successfully securing significant international investments in Illinois. Last year, Duckworth led a bipartisan Congressional Delegation to Taiwan and this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore to underscore strong U.S. bipartisan support for our partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific and strengthen our ties in the region. In 2023, Duckworth also led an official visit to Japan and Indonesia as part of her continuing efforts to strengthen ties and reinforce support between allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and the United States. In the summer of that same year, Duckworth also led another official visit to the region, visiting Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines to meet with government and business leaders and discuss opportunities that would increase cooperation in areas of mutual interest, such as economic investments, regional stability and national security.

Duckworth also successfully included a modified version of her Strengthen Taiwan’s Security Act in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to help Taiwan strengthen its military defenses.

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