Washington, DC - The Senate today gave final approval for a $9.316 billion spending package to fund construction, housing, and remediation projects at U.S. military bases across the nation and around the world. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) is Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is Ranking Member of the subcommittee.

The package contains:

• $5.16 billion for military construction projects - used for the construction of barracks, child development centers, hospitals and medical facilities, security investments, and funding for guard and reserve units.
  
• $3.8 billion of Family Housing Projects -- used for the construction of new family housing as well as improvements and maintenance of existing housing units.
  
• $370 million for Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) environmental cleanup projects.

The legislation also includes provisions to:

• Establish an Overseas Basing Commission. This would be a Congressionally appointed commission to study the structure of U.S. overseas military facilities and report its conclusions and recommendations to Congress and the President by December 31, 2004. Senators Hutchison and Feinstein introduced legislation to create this commission on April 29, 2003.
  
• Ensure that the Department of Defense will respond appropriately to clean up perchlorate contamination after a federal or state perchlorate standard is set by:
  
  -Requiring that the Department submit a report by April 30, 2004 on the activities of the Interagency Perchlorate Steering Committee, which was established to examine how perchlorate contamination has affected drinking water supplies and irrigation water supplies.
  
  -Identifying sources of perchlorate on BRAC properties and developing a plan to remediate perchlorate contamination on BRAC sites that can be implemented quickly once state or Federal perchlorate standards are set.

The following is the text of Senator Feinstein's floor statement:

"Mr. President, I am pleased to join my Chairman, Senator Hutchison, in bringing the fiscal year 2004 Military Construction conference report to the Senate. At a time when American troops are continuing to fight the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is imperative that Congress do its part and provide the funds necessary to support the infrastructure requirements of our service members and their families.

I wish we could do more. The 2004 military construction conference report provides $9.3 billion for a myriad of mission-critical and quality-of-life construction projects in the United States and overseas, including barracks, schools, hospitals, and family housing units. That is the good news. The bad news is that this conference report is more than $1 billion below the amount Congress appropriated for military construction last year. And yet, as old infrastructure continues to deteriorate and new missions require new facilities, the military's infrastructure requirements are growing, not declining.

In the process of completing this bill, the Senate conferees had to balance a number of meritorious projects against available funds and military priorities, and we had to make some tough cuts. Because of the scarcity of resources made available by the Administration for military construction, and the differing philosophies between the House and Senate military construction subcommittees, this has been as especially difficult year. However, the House and Senate conferees were able to bridge most of their differences and provide the best package possible under the circumstances, and I commend Senator Hutchison for her perseverance in achieving that goal.

There are many good items in this legislation. The conference report provides more than $5 billion for military construction, including $760 million for the Guard and reserve components, nearly double what the President had requested. The bill includes $1.2 billion for barracks, $149 million for hospitals and medical facilities, and $3.8 billion for family housing projects.

The legislation also establishes an Overseas Basing Commission to assess the adequacy of U.S. military installations overseas and to review the Defense Department's planned restructuring of the deployment of U.S. forces overseas. This could not be a more timely initiative, given the Defense Department's plans to make sweeping changes in the U.S. military footprint in Europe and Korea.

Overseas basing issues were among the most difficult that the conference had to deal with this year. In the middle of the budget cycle, the Defense Department announced a sweeping restructuring of U.S. installations in Europe and Korea. I support the Defense Department's review of our overseas installation requirements - it is probably long overdue - but there are many, many elements to a restructuring of the magnitude envisioned by the Secretary of Defense, and it is not something that should be rushed.

Senator Hutchison and I have discussed this issue at length, and I believe we both have strong reservations about committing billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to a new overseas basing structure that is a radical departure from the existing footprint without first seeing a comprehensive plan for the redeployment of U.S. troops, and the impact it will have on installations here at home.

Given the current precarious state of America's diplomatic relations with a number of our traditional allies, I also think the Administration should redouble its efforts to work with governments in Europe and Korea to gain their support - both political and financial - for such a massive reshuffling of U.S. bases before embarking on this effort. Even with those reservations, this conference report includes $354 million for projects at enduring installations in Europe, $169 million for the NATO Security Investment Program, which provides the U.S. share of funding for NATO construction projects, and $89 million for U.S. military projects in Korea.

Mr. President, as I said before, I wish we had more resources to devote to infrastructure requirements for our military. The need is real, and I hope that the Administration will request more money for military construction next year, so that we do not have to continue to juggle priorities and postpone funding urgently needed facilities.

Again, I thank Senator Hutchison for her leadership on this subcommittee, and I also thank the subcommittee staff, including Christina Evans and BG Wright of the minority staff, Dennis Ward and Sean Knowles of the majority staff, and Chris Thompson of my staff. I urge my colleagues to support this measure, and I yield the floor."

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