Government

House Appropriators Cut FY15 DOD Construction, Hike VA Major-Projects Account

In its first action on fiscal year 2015 spending bills, the House Appropriations Committee has voted to slash Dept. of Defense construction and boost the Dept. of Veterans Affairs major-projects program.

The panel, which cleared the military construction-VA bill on April 9, sliced DOD construction 33%, to $6.6 billion. Army construction would be hit hardest among the armed services, with a 52% reduction. Navy-Marines and Air Force programs each would be cut by more than 30%.

The committee hiked VA major-projects funding 64%, to $562 million; that account funds projects of at least $10 million. The largest major-projects item is $187.5 million, for a new facility for spinal-cord injuries and other buildings in San Diego. Another $122.4 million would go for construction and renovations at VA's Canandaigua, N.Y., medical center.

The DOD and VA totals are the same as the amounts President Obama sought in his FY15 budget.

Senate appropriators have not acted yet on their version of the 2015 milcon-VA measure.

As ENR's former Washington Bureau Chief, Tom Ichniowski wrote about the federal government since the George H.W. Bush administration, and covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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