S. HRG. 106±273 MILITARY CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2000 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H.R. 2465/S. 1205 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR MILITARY CONSTRUCTION FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEP- TEMBER 30, 2000, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 54±227 cc WASHINGTON : 2000 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0±16±059975±X COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont SLADE GORTON, Washington FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky TOM HARKIN, Iowa CONRAD BURNS, Montana BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HARRY REID, Nevada JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire HERB KOHL, Wisconsin ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah PATTY MURRAY, Washington BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado BYRON DORGAN, North Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois JON KYLE, Arizona STEVEN J. CORTESE, Staff Director LISA SUTHERLAND, Deputy Staff Director JAMES H. ENGLISH, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY CONSTRUCTION CONRAD BURNS, Montana Chairman KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas PATTY MURRAY, Washington LARRY CRAIG, Idaho HARRY REID, Nevada JON KYL, Arizona DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii TED STEVENS, Alaska (ex officio) ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia (ex officio) Professional Staff SID ASHWORTH CHRISTINA EVANS (Minority) Administrative Support MAZIE R. MATTSON EMELIE EAST (Minority) (II) CONTENTS TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1999 Department of Defense: Department of the Navy .................................................................................. 1 Defense agencies: U.S. Special Operations Command .......................................................... 39 TRICARE Management Activity .............................................................. 39 Defense Logistics Agency .......................................................................... 39 Personnel Support, Families and Education ........................................... 39 TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1999 Department of Defense: Department of the Army .................................................................................. 71 Department of the Air Force ........................................................................... 113 WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1999 Department of Defense: Forward Operation Locations (FOL) for Counterdrug Operations ............................................................................................................ 133 (III) MILITARY CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2000 TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1999 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., in room SD±192, Dirksen Sen- ate Office Building, Hon. Conrad Burns (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Burns, Stevens, and Murray. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY STATEMENT OF ROBERT B. PIRIE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY (INSTALLATIONS AND ENVIRONMENT) ACCOMPANIED BY: REAR ADM. LOUIS M. SMITH, COMMANDER, NAVAL FACILITIES EN- GINEERING COMMAND MAJ. GEN. GEOFFREY B. HIGGINBOTHAM, USMC, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR INSTALLATIONS AND LOGISTICS, HEAD- QUARTERS MARINE CORPS REAR ADM. JOHN B. TOTUSHEK, CHIEF OF NAVAL RESERVE OPENING STATEMENT OF CONRAD BURNS Senator BURNS. We will call the committee to order this morning. Thank you to the panel, we appreciate your delaying here just a little bit. We are going to talk about military construction and how it affects the United States Navy and the United States Ma- rine Corps. First we will hear from the Navy. Secretary Pirie, it is nice to have you back again. I appreciate our working relationship, it has been very good, and I appreciate the efforts you have put into it. We hope that we can do some good things for our people in uniform. This is probably the fifth or sixth time you have been before this committee since I have been here. You are probably getting tired by now. But we appreciate your ef- forts. I have some concernsÐand my statement will be very, very shortÐthe way the Department of Defense is starting to deal with the military construction budget. I am very concerned about it. In- cremental funding has risen. Some concerns have come up, that maybe that will slow our execution and what our mission is and what the eventual bottom-line cost to the taxpayers at the end of those projects will be. Also, it appears to me that we are assuming some risk that would not necessarily have to assume. (1) 2 Senior defense officials have told me that one-time-only funding technique advance appropriations of all projects. However, the same fiscal challenges that the Department faced putting together the fiscal year 2000 budget will still be there for years to come. We still have got a big challenge ahead of us. The danger will be that we begin not to fully fund military construction up front, but spread those costs over 2, 3, and as many as 5 years. I tend to oppose incremental funding, and believe it is a wrong way that the Department should proceed. I think it will strike a major blow to revitalizing our aging infrastructure and improving the quality of life of our members that are in uniform, and their families. I can assure you that we will approach this situation with a great deal of care and consideration and with the cooperation of, Mr. Secretary, you and your staff that we have always enjoyed be- fore. I think we can be very candid and very frank with one an- other on what your opinions are on this and how we should proceed and how we should work together on it, to make sure that the risk to the taxpayer and the total cost, bottom line, is taken into consid- eration before we go into such an action. The Navy has 12 bachelor quarters projects in its budget. The Marine Corps has three such projects, and that is a good start. We look forward to working with you, of course, on these critical re- quirements, because we are also very much aware of retention in our military. Where I see our biggest problem, or our biggest chal- lenge, ahead of us, is that we are not building Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO's) like we did. NCO's are getting out of the service, and we need those people. I want to relate to you a story. We met with some Air Force peo- ple in the Middle East. Two women, in particular, really got my at- tention, one was a tech sergeant; one was a staff sergeant, skilled peopleÐradar technicians on AWACS. Very, very important jobs, and they were going to separate themselves from the Air Force. And that, after gaining those ranks and obtaining those skills in very sensitive areas, concerns all of us in the retention of good peo- ple. And I, coming from the ranks of the enlisted, I am very con- cerned that we are not building NCO's, people who are really the backbone of our military. So, Secretary Pirie, we will look forward to your statement this morning. We will have some questions and discuss some of the on- going projects, and also what you see on the horizon as far as how we tend to the quality of life, and also carry out our mission of na- tional defense. We welcome you here this morning, and Admiral Smith, General Higginbotham, Admiral Totushek. I mentioned to Senator Biden at one time, I always thought it was a great talent that when you get to the weakest part of your argument you can elevate the volume on your speech, and you may have to do that this morning. So, thank you for coming this morning. We look forward to your statement. If you want to capsulize that, that is fine. Then we will have some questions. 3 STATEMENT OF ROBERT B. PIRIE Mr. PIRIE. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. With your permission, I will submit my lengthy, formal statement for the record. And I just have a few summary remarks, if I may. Senator BURNS. That is fine. Your full statement will be made a part of the record. Mr. PIRIE. I am very pleased to be back here again, one more time, Mr. Chairman. And I appreciate your extremely kind re- marks about our working relationship, which I think has been ter- rific from our point of view, and I look forward to continuing to get good things done together. As you said, Major General Higginbotham, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Marine Corps for Installations and Logistics, is here, on my right. On my left is Admiral Louis Smith, who is the Chief of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. And on my extreme left is Admiral John Totushek, who is Chief of the Naval Reserve. Senator BURNS. A good Irish name. His day is coming up, on the 17th. [Laughter.] NAVY BUDGET OVERVIEW Mr. PIRIE. As I said, I am pleased, Mr. Chairman, to be here to discuss the Department of the Navy's fiscal year 2000 budget for shore infrastructure and military construction. In many ways, the budget we are presenting this year is better than last year's. We project the backlog of maintenance and repair to grow more slowly as a result of real property maintenance and demolition programs. We have got a more robust Military Construction (MILCON) pro- posal, with numerous piers, compliance projects, and quality-of-life projects. Our Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) request is down. But that reflects the fact that we are coming to the end of four rounds of BRAC. On the whole, we think this year's budget is a good one, and we hope that you will continue to support us as you have in the past. I recognize the concern that the administration's request for ad- vanced appropriations may have caused.