MilCon-VA spending bill breezes through House

The House voted 411-6 on Wednesday to approve the fiscal 2011 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill, the first of the 12 annual spending bills to see floor action this year.

The bill includes $77.3 billion in discretionary funding -- a slight decrease from the $78 billion Congress provided in fiscal 2010.

The House approved 11 amendments, including a proposal from Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., which would prohibit Defense Department funding in the bill from being used to renovate or construct any facility within the continental United States to house any individual being held at the U.S. military's detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Gitmo, and the only reasons we continue to debate this is for public relations," Gingrey said.

House Military Construction-VA Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, said he would support the amendment since "there is no funding in this bill of any type to fund any facility for detainees from Guantanamo."

Despite acceptance of his amendment, Gingrey requested a recorded vote, apparently to generate campaign fodder ahead of the midterm elections. Gingrey indicated that Republicans would likely seek to attach similar language to the Homeland Security, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Defense Appropriations bills.

His amendment passed 353-69.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., offered, and then withdrew, an amendment that would have barred funding for all member-requested earmarks for military construction projects in the bill.

Flake said he wanted to highlight the broken earmark process, which amounts to a "spoils system" in which 51 percent of the earmarks go to 13 percent of the members -- appropriators, party leaders or committee chairmen. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the bill has a total of 84 earmarks worth $355.2 million.

One of the earmarks had a Republican name attached to it: Rep. Ahn (Joseph) Cao, R-La., along with Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., requested $2 million to upgrade the alert facility at the New Orleans Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base. Cao's earmark comes after House Republican leaders called on their caucus to abstain from earmarks this election year.

Other Republicans who ignored their leadership's request include Reps. Ron Paul of Texas, Don Young of Alaska and Henry Brown of South Carolina.

The House MilCon-VA bill also includes $50.6 billion in advance appropriations for fiscal 2012.

For the Veterans Affairs Department, the bill provides $56.8 billion in discretionary funding, and $64 billion for mandatory VA programs. Military construction and family housing would receive $18.7 billion under the bill, which also includes $1.3 billion in emergency appropriations for military construction projects in support of the war in Afghanistan.

The bill's overall level of discretionary funding is close to the $77.25 billion the Senate Appropriations Committee approved in its version this month. The Senate bill allocates $18.7 billion for military construction, $56.99 billion in fiscal 2011 discretionary funding for the VA, and $50.6 billion in advance appropriations for fiscal 2012.