Isle projects would
receive $300 million
in defense billThe U.S. House approves
funding for military construction
A massive defense spending bill approved by the U.S. House yesterday includes more than $300 million for Oahu military construction projects.
The funding for Hawaii is part of a $401 billion package passed 362-40 and likely to be approved by the Senate early next week. It would then go to President Bush for his signature.
The bill includes $177.1 million for improvements at Schofield Barracks, including $49 million for each of two barracks complexes. Hickam Air Force Base is also slated to get about $85.6 million, including $30.4 million for a corrosion control and maintenance facility.
At Pearl Harbor about $39.2 million in funding is included in the bill. The majority of that money, about $32.2 million, is earmarked for waterfront improvements.
The defense package also includes about $6.3 million for ordnance holding areas at the Lualualei Naval Reservation and $1.4 million for land easement at Helemano Military Reservation.
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House-Senate conference committee that wrote the final draft of the defense spending bill, hailed its passage.
"These projects represent an important federal investment in Hawaii and our economy," he said in a statement. "They add up to more job opportunities, contracts for island firms and a ripple effect which reaches virtually everyone in the state."
Both Abercrombie and fellow Hawaii Democrat U.S. Rep. Ed Case voted in favor of the bill.
The bill also grants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the increased control he sought over 700,000 civilian employees, a change the Pentagon says will free more troops for combat positions but some Democrats say goes too far in stripping overtime guarantees and job protection rules.
The bill increases soldiers' pay by an average of 4.15 percent and extends recent raises in combat and family separation pay.
Most of the funding authorized in the bill will come from a $368 billion defense appropriations bill signed by Bush on Sept. 30.
