A bipartisan group of Congress members blasted the Pentagon over “reprehensible” conditions in military barracks, citing troops living amid mold and contaminated water and, in some instances, forced to clean up “biological waste” left behind by the suicides of fellow servicemembers.

In a scathing letter addressed to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, lawmakers accused the Pentagon of failing to “provide the most basic oversight and care” of barracks at 10 installations cited in a recent report and called it a “failure of leadership” by Austin “that cannot be ignored.”

The letter comes as a response to a damning Government Accountability Office investigation released last week that rebuked barracks conditions at 10 different bases as posing “serious health and safety risks,” for junior enlisted servicemembers.

A Pentagon spokesperson told Task & Purpose the department could not comment directly on the letter because “as with all Congressional correspondence, the Department will respond directly to the members.”