[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 58 (Thursday, May 11, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3880-S3882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MILITARY CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2001

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now 
proceed to the consideration of S. 2521, which the clerk will report by 
title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 2521) making appropriations for military 
     construction, family housing, and base realignment and 
     closure for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year 
     ending September 30, 2001, and for other purposes.

  The Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I am pleased to bring before the Senate the 
military construction appropriations bill and report for fiscal year 
2001. This bill reflects the bipartisan approach that the ranking 
member, Senator Murray of Washington, and I have tried to maintain 
regarding military construction on this subcommittee. It has been a 
pleasure to work with Senator Murray and her staff. They have been very 
cooperative throughout this

[[Page S3881]]

whole process. That is very important because we take our jobs here 
very seriously and this appropriations bill very seriously.
  This bill was reported out of the full Appropriations Committee on 
May 9. The bill recommended by the Committee on Appropriations is for 
$8,634,000,000. The bill is $600 million over the budget request and 
approximately $292 million over last year's enacted level. However, 
there are some considerations we must make. More importantly, the 
legislation reflects a reduction of $1.2 billion from just 4 years 
ago--a decrease of almost 12 percent.
  We sought to recommend to the Senate a balanced bill, and we believe 
it addresses the key military construction requirements for readiness, 
for family housing, barracks, quality of life, and the Guard and 
Reserve components.
  As my colleagues well know, we take into strong consideration the 
Guard and Reserve components because we have seen a shift in our force 
structure. Our force structure has shifted from Regular Army, Air 
Force, Navy, and Marines to Reserve and Guard components. When we 
started to do that, we found that around this country our 
infrastructure was lacking for training of these personnel.
  This bill honors a commitment we have to our armed forces. It helps 
ensure that housing and infrastructure needs of the military are given 
proper recognition.
  Also, I am pleased to report to the Senate that the bill is within 
the committee's 302(b) budget allocation for both budget authority and 
outlays.
  This bill has some points I want to mention. It includes $3.5 billion 
to provide better and more modern family housing for our service 
personnel and their families.
  On another quality-of-life measure, we have added substantially to 
the budget request for barracks construction projects. The bill 
provides $712 million for 43 projects throughout the United States and 
overseas. This funding will provide single service members a more 
favorable living environment wherever they are stationed.
  The committee also provides $101 million for 14 environmental 
compliance projects.
  We also address the shortfalls that continue to plague our Reserve 
components.
  As our active force grows smaller, we are more dependent than ever on 
our Guard and Reserve for the maintenance of our national security. I 
continue to be greatly alarmed that the Department of Defense takes no 
responsibility for ensuring that our Reserve components have adequate 
facilities.
  For the members of the Guard and Reserve, quality of life, too, is 
very important. It is all about buildings and it is all about 
facilities from which they work and perform their mission.
  Their lack of regard for the total force concept very much concerns 
me and many of my colleagues. In Montana, we have the greatest example 
of a unified Red Horse Division at Malmstrom Air Force Base. It is made 
up of Regular Air Force and Reserves and is working very well.
  This comes at a time when our country is so heavily dependent on the 
Guard and Reserve to maintain our presence around the world. For 
example, the President's budget request was for only $222 million for 
all of the Reserve components and the National Guard. That was just not 
enough.
  Recognizing this chronic shortfall, we have again lent support by 
adding $359 million to these accounts.
  In each case, the funds will help satisfy the essential mission; 
quality of life, and, of course, our readiness requirements.
  We fully fund the budget request for the base realignment and closure 
account by funding $1.17 billion to continue the ongoing BRAC process 
and consumate the remaining closures and realignments.
  As you know, in this line particularly, it has been very troubling to 
this committee that environmental cleanup has really soaked up a lot of 
our funding that should have been used for quality of life.
  We will work very closely with the Senate Armed Services Committee as 
we put together a conference package for military construction.
  This bill also includes year 2000 supplemental funding for the 
Department of Defense in peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and other 
requirements.
  The chairman of the full Appropriations Committee, Senator Stevens, 
will speak to these issues as we move along.
  I urge the Members of the Senate to support this bill and to move it 
forward as quickly and as expeditiously as we possibly can.
  Now I yield to my good friend, the distinguished Senator from 
Washington, Mrs. Murray.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am pleased to be on the floor today to 
offer the fiscal year 2001 military construction appropriations bill. I 
thank Senator Burns, the chairman of our committee, and his staff, for 
being so good in a great bipartisan manner, in being able to work this 
bill through again this year. I publicly thank him for his work with me 
in a really solid manner. I appreciate the way he has done that.
  Before I address this bill, I want to address some comments that were 
made about me on this floor by the majority leader just a short time 
ago.
  While I was taking part in a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee 
as part of my work to improve pipeline safety in this country, I 
understand the majority leader suggested that my schedule was a reason 
why a debate on commonsense gun control was not going to take place 
today.
  Given the work that I have done over the years to protect young 
people from gun violence, and my strong support of this weekend's 
Million Mom March, I was rather surprised by that suggestion. I assure 
my colleagues that this debate is too important to be delayed any 
longer.
  While I support the majority leader's concern about a family 
obligation I have; namely, my son is going to be married, there is no 
excuse for not debating this legislation--especially the absence of any 
one Member.
  If this had been a concern of the majority leader, perhaps he could 
have spoken to me personally before incorrectly citing me as the reason 
why the Senate would not be debating gun violence today.
  I would like to remind the majority leader that, on November 4, I 
came to the floor, in the wake of a fatal shooting in my home State, 
and urged the Members of the Senate to work with me on commonsense 
solutions to gun violence. Since that time, it has been the 
congressional majority that has prevented this much needed debate from 
taking place, and it is the congressional majority today that, again, 
refuses to address this vital issue.
  I would like to remind my colleagues that, on average, 12 children 
die every day from gunfire. We cannot wait any longer.
  Mr. President, I will now turn to the issue before us.
  I again am pleased to be here with my chairman, Senator Burns, in 
recommending the fiscal year 2001 military construction appropriations 
bill to the Senate for its approval.
  This is an unusual bill this year because it contains emergency 
supplemental funding for a number of defense items not related to 
military construction, including U.S. participation in the Kosovo 
peacekeeping operation and in the Colombia counternarcotics initiative.
  I will defer to my ranking member on the full committee, Senator 
Byrd, and others, to address the items in the supplemental portion of 
this bill, and I will confine my remarks to the military construction 
portion of the bill.
  This bill provides a total of $8.634 billion in new spending 
authority for military construction for fiscal year 2001.
  This level of funding exceeds the President's budget request for 
military construction by $600 million, and provides nearly $300 million 
above the amount appropriated for fiscal year 2000.
  Nevertheless, as usual, this bill comes up short of what the services 
need to meet their infrastructure requirements.
  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I once again urge the 
administration to increase the budget for military construction.
  This is a bricks-and-mortar bill.
  There is nothing glamorous or ``gee-whiz'' about aircraft hangars or 
barracks or armories.
  But this is an essential bill, and the projects that it funds are 
vital to our men and women in uniform.

[[Page S3882]]

  As many of my colleagues have pointed out to me in the course of 
developing this bill, the President's budget barely scratches the 
surface or infrastructure needs.
  The requests that Senator Burns and I have received this year address 
compelling needs throughout the services, and I wish that we had the 
resources to fund more of them.
  Senator Burns and his staff deserve a great deal of credit for their 
dedicated and thoughtful approach in drafting this bill.
  As always, they have worked very hard to produce a balanced, 
bipartisan product that takes into account both the concerns of the 
Senate and the needs of the military.
  In particular, they have done a superb job of continuing to shine the 
spotlight on the quality of life projects that are so important to our 
men and women in uniform, and to their families.
  At a time when military enlistment and retention are declining--and 
the services are unable to match the financial incentives of the 
private sector--quality of life issues are amplified in importance.
  Quality of life issues do not diminish the importance of readiness 
projects, but we must not dismiss their role in recruiting and 
retaining our military personnel.
  Within the budget constraints that we are all forced to operate this 
year, this bill attempts to meet the most urgent and timely military 
construction needs with very limited resources.
  All of the major construction projects that we have funded have been 
authorized.
  In addition, we have ensured adequate funding for family housing and 
barracks construction.
  However, I remain concerned that the nation's overall investment in 
military infrastructure continues to lag, and I hope we will see a more 
robust effort in future budgets.
  This is an extremely important bill for our nation and our military 
forces.
  I again commend Senator Burns, and I thank the staff of the 
Appropriations Committee, including Sid Ashworth, Christina Evans, and 
Sonia King, as well as Mark Borreson, a fellow on my staff, for their 
excellent work in producing the bill.
  Mr. President, I look forward to completing action on this important 
piece of legislation.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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