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Fort Bragg building money may be stalled
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By NC Property at 2007-03-09 11:48
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Fort Bragg building money may be stalled
By Henry Cuningham
Military editor
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Up to $220 million for construction projects at Fort Bragg this year may be stalled by gridlock in Congress.
Rep. Robin Hayes estimated that almost $150 million in construction projects are being halted by congressional inaction.
A Fort Bragg spokesman offers a higher estimate.
The Army post has $370 million in construction planned for 2007, and $150 million is not affected, said Col. Billy Buckner, a Fort Bragg spokesman.
“The remaining $220 million is on hold pending passage of the (military construction) budget.”
There are concerns about long-term implications for meeting base-realignment deadlines that are less than five years away.
So far, the budgeting snag has not slowed the brisk pace of building on Fort Bragg.
“Fort Bragg has $760 million worth of construction ongoing,” said Tom McCollum, a spokesman for the Army post. “Those contracts have already been cut and are not in jeopardy.”
Construction sites Tuesday were humming with activity on projects for which funding has been approved. The steel frames and metal decking and roofs are in place for the first phase of the four-story 82nd Sustainment Brigade barracks at Goldberg and Watson streets.
Typically, the money for new building projects does not show up immediately at the beginning of federal fiscal years.
However, dollars for 2007 seem more uncertain than usual.
The Republican-dominated 109th Congress adjourned without passing many spending bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, including military construction.
The Democratic-dominated 110th Congress is balking at finishing last year’s work and is contemplating a “continuing resolution” that would hold 2007 spending to the levels of the previous year.
Hayes, a Republican from Concord, is co-sponsoring legislation to address the funding shortfall for this year.
“The current continuing resolution endangers the Army’s military construction program to the point of causing Army wide problems in the areas of training, maintenance, communications and command activities,” Hayes wrote.
Hayes made his comments in a letter to Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, the senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.
Congressional Democrats have their own priorities, and President Bush is soon scheduled to send his 2008 budget proposal to Capitol Hill.
“It is not going to be easy,” Rep. David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who is now chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “There are no perfect solutions. But, when the Republican Congress adjourned without passing a budget and without enacting nine of the 11 appropriations bills needed to fund government services for the year, they forfeited their right to complain about whatever action we are forced to take next year to clean up their chaotic mess.”
The Beltway deadlock does not bode well for military installations that have a congressional mandate to complete BRAC moves by Sept. 15, 2011.
Fort Bragg stands to be a major beneficiary of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment process. Many BRAC-related projects are scheduled for 2008. At Fort Bragg, there is concern that a delay could derail the already-tight schedule to accommodate the growth by the deadline.
Military editor Henry Cuningham can be reached at cuninghamh@fayobserver.com or 486-3585.
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