[CPEO-MEF] Congress Boosts Navy/Air Force BRAC Funding

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

In the Fiscal Year 2002 Military Construction Appropriations Act, signed
by President Bush on November 5, Congress added over $100 million to the
President's request for environmental remediation at Base Realignment
and Closure (BRAC) facilities. Led by the new chair of the Senate MilCon
Subcommittee, Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Congress boosted the
Navy's request by $80.5 million and the Air Force's by $20 million.

The following language is from the Conference Report for that legislation:

***

Committee Report - House Report 107-246 - MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR
MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, FAMILY HOUSING, AND BASE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE
FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30,
2002, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

BASE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE ACCOUNT

The conference agreement appropriates $632,713,000 for the Base
Realignment and Closure Account, instead of $552,713,000 as proposed by
the House and $682,200,000 as proposed by the Senate. 

Environmental Remediation Shortfalls.--The conferees have included a
general provision (Section 131) directing the Department of Defense to
accurately reflect the cost of environmental remediation activities in
its future budget submissions for Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)
funding. The conferees note that the Navy and Air Force BRAC budget
requests for fiscal year 2002 were far below the level of funding needed
to meet urgent obligations. 

The conferees have agreed to provide and fully offset $100,513,000 over
the budget request to fund environmental remediation funding shortfalls
in the Navy and Air Force BRAC accounts. The conference provision
includes $80,513,000 for the Navy and $20,000,000 for the Air Force. The
conferees note that the funding shortfalls are the result of inadequate
programming and budgeting decisions on the part of the Navy and Air
Force. 

The conferees strongly believe that the Navy and Air Force should bear
the burden of making up these shortfalls. Therefore, the funding to
cover the BRAC environmental remediation shortfalls is derived from the
following sources: a rescission of $19,588,000 from previously
appropriated Navy planning and design funds, a rescission of $925,000
from previously appropriated Naval Reserve planning and design funds, a
$60,000,000 general reduction in the fiscal year 2002 'Military
Construction, Navy' account, and a $20,000,000 general reduction in the
fiscal year 2002 'Military Construction, Air Force' account. The
conferees direct that no item of congressional interest may be canceled
or delayed as a result of these general reductions. 

In addition to the funds provided in this Act, the Navy and Air Force
are directed to allocate all unobligated balances from previously
appropriated BRAC funds to address their fiscal year 2002 BRAC
environmental remediation funding shortfall. The conferees direct the
services to program and budget for the entire amount of their annual
BRAC environmental remediation obligations in future years, beginning
with fiscal year 2003. Failure to do so will force the congressional
committees to take proportionate reductions in specific military
construction projects or programs requested by the services. 

***

For the full Conference Report, go to
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/appover.html 
Find the row for Military Construction and the column for Conference Reports.

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

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