This week the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) approved the FY2014 Military Construction/Veteran’s Affairs appropriations bill. The MilCon/VA bill and the Agriculture bill (also approved this week) are the first FY2014 spending bills cleared by the SAC.
The Military Construction portion of the MilCon/VA bill provides $10.7 billion for military construction projects, family housing, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), the NATO Security Investment Program, and Chemical Demilitarization construction. This is $.3 billion less than the FY2014 request.
The House-passed FY2014 MilCon/VA bill provides $9.9 billion for military construction appropriations in FY2014, almost $1.1 billion below the request.
According to a committee summary, the SAC bill provides $8.4 billion for military construction projects: $7.7 billion for active components construction (about $300 million below the request) and almost $700 million for reserve components construction (the requested level). Funding in the bill for Family Housing totals $1.5 billion, essentially the requested amount.
The bill funds the requested amounts for: NSIP, Chemical Demilitarization, and BRAC. The committee approves DoD’s request to combine BRAC funding for 1990 and 2005 into one BRAC account.
The SAC bill provides $150 million for energy conservation projects under the Energy Conservation Investment Program (ECIP) as requested in the budget.
