Lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee conducted an in-person oversight visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln on Sunday to investigate concerns about the aircraft carrier’s extended deployment, including mental health challenges, supply shortages and conditions faced by the nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines at sea.

Members of the bipartisan delegation — Reps. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz.; Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.; Sara Jacobs, D-Calif.; Ronny Jackson, R-Texas; Cory Mills, R-Fla.; and Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii — spoke with sailors, Marines and Navy leaders aboard the carrier as it returns to its home port in San Diego after facing a 10-month deployment that was extended at least twice because of the ongoing war with Iran.

“For months, I’ve taken the concerns shared with me about mail delays, food and supply shortages, low morale, and mental health crises aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln straight to CENTCOM and the Navy,” Jacobs said. “Unfortunately, their answers have been wholly insufficient.”

The oversight visit came less than a week after acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao revealed to Congress that eight service members of the carrier strike group tied to the USS Lincoln attempted suicide during the extended deployment.

Jacobs said sailors and Marines told her they struggled to “wash clothes, get medicine and healthcare, and eat enough food.”

Houlahan also met with chaplains, support staff, officers and enlisted service members, including some of her constituents from Pennsylvania’s 6th District. She said she learned what went right and what went wrong but declined to provide further details, citing safety and security concerns for the troops.

“I will say this: no servicemember should ever feel like they have been denied decent treatment. Ever,” Houlahan said. “And not one family member back home should have to worry that their loved one is not being treated well.”

Jacobs said lawmakers conducted the oversight visit while the Lincoln was still at sea instead of waiting for it to reach port because there is a “need for answers and accountability now.”

“I’m relieved that the USS Abraham Lincoln will soon be back in San Diego, and I’m looking forward to welcoming them home. But our demand for accountability won’t end when they make port,” Jacobs said. “I will continue pushing for an OIG investigation into these conditions and a House Armed Services Committee field hearing in San Diego to hear directly from these service members. We need to prevent this crisis from happening ever again, and ultimately end the Iran war and bring all our service members home.”

Jacobs blamed President Donald Trump for the conditions reported aboard the Lincoln, saying the president “knowingly launched a war without the required planning and strategy needed.”

“He put these service members in the position where the conditions were so horrific that some attempted suicide,” Jacobs said.

Houlahan called out both Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying they “have waged war with Iran for over seven months, despite neither the American public nor Congress approving it.”

“If we ask our servicemembers to endure conditions like those on the USS Lincoln, we must be absolutely sure that their sacrifices are necessary and justified,” Houlahan said. “This administration’s failure to prove that is an insult to the sailors I met this weekend, and to all of our brave men and women in uniform.”

Republican lawmakers who visited the carrier struck a different tone.

Hamadeh praised Cao in a post on X, calling the acting Navy secretary a “man of honor,” and saying U.S. sailors and Marines are “in good hands.” He also called the sailors aboard the Lincoln “smart, tough, resilient, and lethal.”

Mills said in a post on X that it was great to be on the Lincoln with Cao to “welcome back our heroes from their deployment to Arabian Sea.”

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