David L. Isom is the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman (SEAC) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — the highest-ranking enlisted member in the U.S. military and the principal enlisted advisor to the Chairman on issues affecting enlisted personnel and their families.
The SEAC advises the Chairman (and senior defense leaders) on enlisted issues across the services — including readiness, training, professional development, discipline, morale and quality-of-life matters — and represents enlisted perspectives in joint policy and decision-making forums.
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Personnel oversees military personnel policy and related matters — pay and benefits, military healthcare and TRICARE, military retirement, recruitment/retention, family programs, housing, child care, and morale/welfare/mental-health issues — and holds hearings and oversight on those topics.
In his Feb. 11, 2026 testimony Isom and the other senior enlisted leaders focused on service member and family quality-of-life broadly; the published SEAC statement and hearing materials emphasize housing, pay/compensation, healthcare/family medical services, childcare and family programs, and mental-health resources.
Testimony like Isom’s can prompt congressional oversight, requests for additional funding in the annual defense appropriations/authorization process, and legislative or policy changes — e.g., directed DoD reviews, earmarked appropriations for housing or family programs, changes to pay/benefit authorities, or oversight hearings to track implementation.
Isom’s line “Warfighters are the foundation of War Department lethality” means that personnel — their health, readiness, training and family stability — are central to military effectiveness; practically this prioritizes funding and policies for people (pay, housing, healthcare, mental health, childcare, training/retention) alongside, or even before, equipment purchases.