ICYMI: At Hearing, Warren Presses Military Leaders on Potential Conflicts of Interest in TRICARE Pharmacy Contract; Secures DoD to Strengthen Whistleblower Protections

May 21, 2026

ICYMI: At Hearing, Warren Presses Military Leaders on Potential Conflicts of Interest in TRICARE Pharmacy Contract; Secures DoD to Strengthen Whistleblower Protections

Opening Remarks (YouTube) | Round 1: Exchange (YouTube) | Round 2: Exchange (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. - At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pushed top Department of Defense (DoD) leaders on issues facing service members and their families, including access to affordable health care and necessary reforms to protect military whistleblowers from retaliation for reporting their concerns through protected channels.

Senator Warren delivered opening remarks calling out Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for mismanaging the DoD's budget, unfairly blocking promotions, undermining the military justice system, disregarding the importance of DoD civilian personnel, and endangering the health of troops.

"Secretary Hegseth and President Trump have asked our troops to risk their lives in an illegal war with Iran at the same moment that the administration's actions make life harder for service members and their families," said Senator Warren.

During the hearing, Senator Warren raised concerns that the TRICARE pharmacy contractor, Express Scripts, which is the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the United States, has, over time, been overcharging military families for their prescriptions. The Senator cited reporting that Express Scripts charges DoD $484 more, on average, to dispense generic drugs through the mail-order pharmacies Express Scripts owns than through competing pharmacies.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Keith Bass committed to conducting annual reviews of TRICARE's contract and providing the data and audits to Congress.

TRICARE's contract with Express Scripts is set to expire in 2029, which allows DoD to negotiate a better contract for service members and their families. Senator Warren emphasized the need for regular audits and greater transparency in future contracts.

"DoD cannot continue to ignore this conflict of interest," said Senator Warren.

In her round, which focused on whistleblower retaliation, Senator Warren highlighted the need to protect service members and their families from retaliation for reporting wrongdoing by military housing companies. Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata confirmed his support for Congress passing reforms in this year's NDAA that would protect service members and their families from reprisal for reporting when these companies are forcing them to live in terrible conditions.

The Senator also raised the importance of DoD informing service members of their rights and responsibilities to report violations of the law and abuses, even in cases where they've signed a non-disclosure agreement with a military housing company and in other contexts where a service member may be required to sign an NDA. Under Secretary Tata expressed his support for any action that protects a family member, a service member, and their family and confirmed that nothing "restricts anybody from reporting to the Inspector General."

She also asked Under Secretary Tata whether he would support reforms that make clear to service members that they have a right to to report dangers to their health and safety without fear of punishment.

Under Secretary Tata confirmed that, "Any soldier, sailor, airman, marine, or guardian who sees an issue with any kind of defective equipment or any safety issue should feel free to go to the chain of command, go to the Inspector General, go to whoever can help solve that problem until that problem is solved."

Transcript: Hearings to examine the posture of the United States Central Command and United States Africa Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2027 and the Future Years Defense Program.
Senate Armed Services Committee
May 20, 2026

Opening Remarks

As Prepared for Delivery

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses for your testimony today. Our annual posture hearing provides an opportunity for the Department to discuss personnel priorities for the coming year. It's also an opportunity for this subcommittee to continue to focus on the challenges that service members and their families are facing.

Since this subcommittee's posture hearing last April, Secretary Hegseth and President Trump have asked our troops to risk their lives in an illegal war with Iran at the same moment that the administration's actions make life harder for service members and their families.

President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have badly mismanaged America's military budget. The Army reportedly needs to make up for a shortfall of $4 to $6 billion. To fill that gap, the Army is reportedly looking to slash training costs across the force, including by cutting pilots' flight hours, which could have serious safety consequences. Why is there such a huge gap? The President's decisions to drag the military into a war with Iran and to use the military to do DHS's job at the southern border. And the gap gets even wider because the Army still hasn't been fully reimbursed by the Department of Homeland Security for its support for border operations.

Secretary Hegseth has also continued to send chilling messages of who is and who is not welcome in the military. So far, despite repeated questions from Congress, there have been no explanations for multiple, abrupt removals of top military officers.

The Secretary also reportedly blocked the promotion of four Army officers to become one-star generals-two of whom are Black and two of whom are women.

Secretary Hegseth is also requiring a review of the "effectiveness of having women in ground combat roles" despite senior enlisted leaders testifying before this subcommittee in February of this year that women being in combat arms units does not lower standards.

And attacks on university partnerships will limit opportunities for troops to develop leadership skills and risk gains in recruitment and retention.

Secretary Hegseth has also continued to undermine the military justice system.

He fired the top military lawyers shortly after he was confirmed to avoid "roadblocks" to President Trump. Those "roadblocks" are known as "the law."

The Secretary has sent judge advocates general off to work as immigration judges or as federal prosecutors in Minneapolis and other cities.

He said the Iran War would have "no stupid rules of engagement."

He has also launched a "ruthless" review of the roles of JAGs that may simply be one more way to decrease accountability for potentially illegal policies.

This administration also continues to treat DoD's civilian workforce with contempt.

It's shameful that for the second year in a row DoD's budget request fails to include any pay raises for civilian employees.

With Trump policies driving up costs for all Americans, this is a significant pay cut for DoD civilians who play critical roles in supporting service member and family quality of life, contracting and acquisition for weapons systems, engineering, holding together our medical health system, and more.

Secretary Hegseth is taking other steps that endanger the health of our troops.

Last month, he announced that DoD would end the mandatory flu vaccine, which has been in place since 1945.

Keep in mind that the flu vaccine was made mandatory after 20 to 40 percent of U.S. Army and Navy personnel fell ill during World War I, resulting in over 26,000 deaths and significant degradation in military readiness.

Mandatory vaccines in the military date all the way back to when George Washington mandated that troops be vaccinated against smallpox in 1777.

Secretary Hegseth is playing politics with the health and the readiness of our military, and that is wrong.

There is much to talk about, but I want to focus today on two topics with our witnesses.

First, we need to ensure that the contractors entrusted to administer TRICARE benefits are keeping our service members and their families healthy-not using taxpayer dollars to boost their bottom lines. Express Scripts, which is the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the United States, has held the TRICARE pharmacy contract for twenty years.

Over that time, Express Scripts has forced thousands of pharmacies out of the TRICARE network, making it harder for service members to fill prescriptions-but likely boosting orders and profits for Express Scripts' mail-order pharmacy.

For years, I have been calling for more transparency into the TRICARE pharmacy contract, but DoD has carefully protected the interests of Express Scripts at every step. It is time for TRICARE to put the interests of our service members first. They should do it on their own, but if they don't, then Congress should force them.

Second, we need to have protections in place for service members to report serious concerns to protected channels without fear of reprisal.

Military families have long dealt with terrible living conditions in housing owned by private military housing companies.

But those private companies have muzzled families by forcing them to sign non-disclosure agreements to get compensation for damages.

I appreciate that one of the Department's legislative proposals for this year's NDAA would be to make clear that tenants are protected from reprisal for reporting dangerous and disgusting housing conditions to an Inspector General, Congress, or the Department of Defense.

But we shouldn't stop there. We must make it clear to service members, including in other contexts where they sign NDAs, that they still have rights to report serious violations of the law, gross wastes of funds, abuse, and serious threats to public safety to protected channels.

We also need to make sure we're protecting service members who come forward to report serious concerns to troop safety and health, such as from unsafe weapons or aircraft systems, to Congress, DoD, and the IG.

The safety of our troops and the efficient operation of DOD should be at the top of our list-and that means protecting people with the courage to identify and call out problems.

I look forward to discussing these topics with our witnesses.

Round 1: TRICARE

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The TRICARE Pharmacy Benefit helps 9 million service members, veterans, and their families access prescription drugs. TRICARE's pharmacy contractor, Express Scripts, decides which pharmacies are included in the TRICARE network and decides what they're going to get paid. And of course, Express Scripts is supposed to work for the DoD and for military families. That's what taxpayers pay Express Scripts to do, except Express Scripts also runs its own pharmacy that participates in the TRICARE network, a competitor to every other pharmacy, and that means that Express Scripts both provides pharmacy services to TRICARE members directly and sets the reimbursement rates for itself and all of its competitors. That gives Express Scripts an incentive to under-reimburse all of the competing pharmacies and inflate its own payments. So, how is that deal working out for the taxpayers? Express Scripts reportedly charged DoD $484 more on average for generic drugs dispensed by the Express Scripts-owned pharmacy. Meanwhile, Express Scripts has offered unaffiliated pharmacies such terrible terms that since 2022, nearly 13,000 retail pharmacies have just left the TRICARE network. They've just said, "We can't be part of this."

So, Assistant Secretary Bass, you lead the Defense Health Agency, which oversees this contract that I'm talking about. Are you concerned that Express Scripts appears to be steering service members to the pharmacies that it owns and overcharging American taxpayers?

Assistant Secretary Keith Bass: Thank you, Ranking Member Warren. I appreciate your support, and I understand that this is an important issue. The Department continues to look at this interview, and, as you're aware, this PBM, this TRICARE PBM, is different than a normal PBM. It provides administrative services only and is a contract management mechanism for the departments. It does claims, mail order pharmacy, and is paid a fixed fee for each of the prescriptions. The Department of War controls the pricing and retains the cost savings. We understand the concerns, and we welcome the opportunity to work with you and your staff.

Senator Warren: I'm sorry, could I have an answer to my question? I am concerned that we've got a pharmacy benefit manager here who competes with a bunch of America's pharmacies, and it's the one that is doing the pricing, and it's the one that's deciding who else the competition will be. That seems to me like a perfect way to be able to advantage yourself and disadvantage everyone else. And look, I'm not just making that up. I've got two pieces of evidence: $484 more per average that we're paying now on these generic drugs, and 13,000 pharmacies across this country that have just said, "you won't pay me enough, so I've got to leave the entire system," which cuts down on service for our military members. And are you telling me, "Oh, you're thinking about it?" You've had 20 years to think about this.

Assistant Secretary Bass: The Department continues to evaluate this budget. It reviews and works with the contractor to ensure that it's within the guidelines of the contract.

Senator Warren: Well, you're working with the contractor. How's that working out? How do you explain $484 on average, more for prescription drugs than for generic drugs?

Assistant Secretary Bass: Thank you, Senator. I'm not aware of the cost discrepancy.

Senator Warren: OK, then, how do you explain 13,000 pharmacies actually leaving the whole system? Just saying, "You won't even pay me enough to make it worthwhile."

Assistant Secretary Bass: The contractor is meeting its contractual requirements.

Senator Warren: Yeah, what? What are you saying about 13,000 pharmacies leaving this whole system, and they won't do anything? They can't fill prescriptions now for our military and for our veterans. You're okay with that?

Assistant Secretary Bass: No, ma'am. Our priority is to make sure all of our beneficiaries, the 9.6 million, get the coverage that they deserve and the benefits they deserve.

Senator Warren: Well, I think they deserve a lot more than what you're delivering for them, and I want to know when you're going to get better at this. Look, what we're talking about here is a blatant conflict of interest. Our job in this Senate Subcommittee is oversight, and that's why, for years now, I've been calling for more transparency to ensure that Express Scripts isn't favoring itself and its own subsidiaries and under-reimbursing the independent pharmacies in the hopes that it can drive them out of the TRICARE business altogether and just have more of the business for themselves. I have been met with obstruction every step of the way from our own Department of Defense.

So, let me ask you another question, Secretary Bass: Will you disclose the differences between TRICARE reimbursement rates and fees and other price concessions between what it's paying pharmacies and what it's paying itself?

Assistant Secretary Bass: Thank you, Ranking Member Warren. I commit to working with you and your staff in providing the data that you're-

Senator Warren: You'll give me that data?

Assistant Secretary Bass: I will work with you.

Senator Warren: I'm going to hold you to that. So, Express Scripts' pattern of bad behavior speaks for itself. In addition to the news reports that I've already mentioned, an audit by the Office of Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management found that Express Scripts overcharged the American Postal Workers Union and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program by about $45 million. And the Government Accountability Office found "persistent inconsistencies" in the data that Express Scripts provided to DoD, which DoD is supposed to be validating on its own, but failed to catch.

So, Secretary Bass, given the long history of infractions by Express Scripts that I just read to you, will you commit to annual audits of the TRICARE pharmacy contract to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being wasted?

Assistant Secretary Bass: Yes, I commit to doing an annual review of the contract.

Senator Warren: Good. And then will you let us see those annual audits?

Assistant Secretary Bass: I commit to working with you and your staff.

Senator Warren: No, will you let us see them? I don't want to hear about them and hear your summary. I want to see the audits. Do I have that commitment?

Assistant Secretary Bass: I will work with you and your staff.

Senator Warren: Is that a yes?

Assistant Secretary Bass: Yes.

Senator Warren: Good. Thank you. That wasn't so bad. Look, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize for running over. I just want to finish up by saying the current TRICARE contract with Express Scripts expires in 2029, and DoD, right now, is in the acquisition planning phase for the next generation contract. As it builds the requirements for this new contract, DoD cannot continue to ignore this conflict of interest that arises when a company owns both a PBM, that is the one directing the payments, and a pharmacy. That has got to stop, and in the meantime, existing contracts should be regularly audited and subjected to much greater transparency to try to beat this kind of conflict out of the system. I look forward to working with DoD on this and serving the best interests of the 9 million American service members, veterans, and their families who are depending on us. Thank you. I appreciate it, Secretary Bass. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the extra time.

Round 2: Whistleblowers:

Senator Warren: Sir, I just want to follow up on this same conversation, if I can, with you, Secretary Tata, and it picks up on what the chairman said. "Is anybody listening?" And I just want to focus in a little bit on that.

So, you're the top advisor on quality of life issues. Do you support Congress passing reforms in this year's NDAA that would protect service members and their families from retaliation for reporting housing companies that are forcing them to live with mold for months or even years on end?

Under Secretary Anthony Tata: Absolutely, without equivocation. I support that.

Senator Warren: I really appreciate that and want to triple underscore it as we go into our negotiations on the NDAA, because housing companies have been using nondisclosure agreements to try to muzzle tenants to keep our service members from being able to report what's going wrong, and we just don't want to see this same thing over and over, where NDAs are used in different parts of DoD to keep those who are injured from being able to complain about their injury. And look, there may be a lot of different circumstances where people are being asked to sign NDAs, including people who have clearances. but those agreements should never preclude the ability of a service member to be able to complain to a commanding officer about what's happening in housing, to be able to complain to an inspector general, or to complain to Congress to point out wrongdoing, and I think it's critical that we make sure that whistleblowers of every kind, including spouses who are trying to protect their children in their housing, all the way to people who see something wrong in the department they're in, so let me ask you on that one. Secretary Tata, should DoD be informing service members of their rights and responsibilities to report violations of the law and abuses, even if they've already signed an NDA agreement?

Under Secretary Tata: I support any Senator, or Ranking Member Warren. I support any action that protects a family member, a service member, and their family to have appropriate housing and to lodge appropriate complaints, regardless of the circumstances, because they deserve the best. They're sacrificing their lives for our country, and there should be nothing in their way of absolutely having the best housing possible.

Senator Warren: And I appreciate that, because, like my colleagues here, we've been working to try to upgrade the housing for a very long time. Basically, it feels like ever since the private contractors came in and took over, and figured out they could make a profit by shortchanging our military families. But let me remind you, Mr. Secretary, the question I was asking actually widened out the second time, and that is, this is true about housing, but I'm asking the question up and down the line. the fact that people are being asked to sign NDAs, and it raises questions in other contexts about whether or not they have the right, for example, to report to an inspector general about something they've seen that is wrong. and if they can't report or feel like they can't report to an inspector general, then we don't get the information we need, we don't get the oversight we need, we can't expose the problems we've got. So, I just want to make sure your support is not only that families ought to be able to report about housing, but anybody up and down our chain in the military should not be stopped by an NDA from reporting when they see something that is wrong, being able to report to an IG, being able to report to a commanding officer, being able to report to somebody here in Congress. Are you in agreement on that?

Under Secretary Tata: I know of nothing that restricts anybody from reporting anything to the Inspector General.

Senator Warren: Okay, and then if I can, I'll do one really quick, one more turn on this, and that is about the importance of making sure that our war fighters are operating systems that do not unnecessarily endanger their health or their safety. For example, in 2011, F22 pilots raised concerns about becoming disoriented because of oxygen problems with the F22, but their commanders said, "fly anyway." Both pilots went to Congress; one went to the IG. The IG concluded that the pilot wasn't protected. The law protects troops who come forward to raise concerns about public safety, but it isn't explicit if they want to prevent their fellow service members from being hurt or killed. So I just want to ask, should we be alerting people to their rights to report and make sure that service members can come forward with concerns about troop safety?

Under Secretary Tata: Ranking Member Warren, broadly, any soldier, sailor, airman, marine, or guardian who sees an issue with any kind of defective equipment or any safety issue should feel free to go to the chain of command, go to the Inspector General, go to whoever can help solve that problem until that problem is solved.

Senator Warren: Yeah, I appreciate that. I very much support your conclusion here. But I want to remind you, the reason I'm asking these questions is because the problem is out there, and there are people who feel like they can't do that, and so I just hope we're going to do everything possible at DoD. We're going to get as much as we can in the NDAA to push in that direction, and I also want to say thank you to Secretary Todd for your work on blast overpressure. I appreciate the questions from the Chairman on this, and thank you to Secretary Bass for your point about supply chains. Other things I would have asked you about, but you guys have covered them. I really do appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for your work.

###