House panel approves military 'quality of life' bill

Amid complaints that military housing and "quality of life" are being shortchanged, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction voted on Wednesday to approve a $10 billion-plus bill.

Shepherded through the panel by chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, the bill calls for a $541 million increase over the sum requested for fiscal 2003 by President Bush but remains $522 million short of the amount appropriated for this fiscal year.

"It'd take at least another $2 billion just to put a small dent in the real needs out there," Hobson said after the committee approved the bill by voice vote. "There's a $48 billion backlog now in needed improvements and new construction for military infrastructure. In some places in Europe, we're still using World War I barracks, and in (South) Korea, there are real quality of life problems for the 37,000 troops we've got stationed there."

In remarks to the subcommittee as the panel prepared to tee up the bill for a vote, Hobson said the administration's initial MILCON request for $8.9 billion "was a great disappointment ... particularly as DOD continues to face severe backlogs in readiness, revitalization and quality of life projects."

Massachusetts Rep. John Olver, ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, complained before Wednesday's markup that there is not enough money in the bill to provide for improved security at military bases in the United States and abroad that house dangerous materials coveted by potential terrorists.

Under the bill, some $5.3 billion is earmarked next fiscal year for military construction, including $1.2 billion for barracks, $673 million for anti-terrorism and force protection facilities, $529 million for National Guard and Reserve projects, $168 million for NATO projects, $168 million for the chemical demilitarization program, $151 million for military hospital and medical facilities, and $18 million for child development centers.

In addition, the bill sets aside $4.2 billion for family housing, including $2.9 billion for the operation and maintenance of existing units and $1.3 billion for new units.

Finally, the bill appropriates $545 million to continue the base closure law, including $60 million for operations and maintenance and costs associated with permanent changes of station for personnel, along with $485 million for environmental cleanup at closed bases.

The Defense Department, as noted, requested $8.947 billion for MILCON purposes in the upcoming fiscal year. But the House Armed Services Committee balked at that cutback and shifted nearly $600 million from the earlier-enacted Defense Emergency Reserve Fund, or DERF--passed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks last September to help finance America's response--to the FY 2003 military construction bill. The MILCON subcommittee then rolled that authorization into Wednesday's appropriation bill.

The $600 million in DERF was ticketed, in any case, for MILCON projects, although the administration could have used the money in the fund for any purpose it deemed necessary. In effect, the subcommittee's action on Wednesday largely shields that money from being spent on any purpose other than specified military construction projects.