Rep. Ellen Tauscher Secures $10.8 Million in Funding For New Project at Travis AFB and Applauds the Purchase of 10 C-17 Aircraft

Washington , DC – Today, the House Armed Services Committee met to approve the National Defense Authorization Act.  Rep. Ellen Tauscher, Chair of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and senior member of the full committee announced that the Act will include $10.8 million in funding for Travis Air force Base.

“Travis is the backbone of our community, the gateway to the West for our military, and a critical hub for military airlift and strategic transport,” said Rep. Tauscher.  “In the Defense Authorization Act our goal is to shape our military to meet its current and future needs.  Travis is a vital installation and I am proud that this reshaping reflects that by delivering crucial funds that allow the men and women of the base to complete their missions more efficiently.”

The $10.8 million she secured would serve to build an entirely new facility at Travis: the Global Support Squadron Facility. The project would provide a cutting edge operations facility to house approximately 130 personnel necessary for the first Global Support Squadron (GSS) Facility on the West Coast. It would enhance readiness through specialized design features for command and control, training and deployment preparation, not available in current facilities. GSS is critical to the Air Force’s ability to rapidly deploy US military forces and initiate operations in minimal time at any base or location around the globe. 

Rep. Tauscher added that “This facility will reduce the time it takes for Travis to deploy troops and equipment. I am thrilled that this facility will help the Air Force project American forces to any conflict or any humanitarian mission around the world.”

The Defense Authorization bill also provides funds to purchase ten new C-17 aircraft.  These aircraft are crucial to the basic element of Travis’ mission, airlift.  With threats spreading across the globe and The United States dutifully taking the lead supplying humanitarian efforts not only here at home, but wherever Mother Nature takes a devastating toll, U.S. Forces must deploy more frequently and over greater distances in order to maintain this current and necessary level of global engagement. This global engagement begins at Travis and will be improved with the addition of these aircraft.

“The funds going to Travis year will support both new programming as well as Travis’ traditional missions,” said Rep. Tauscher.  “Travis continues to contribute to our community and I will continue to fight for every penny out there to ensure that Travis remains the premier military installation on the West Coast.”

Also included are funds for a National Academy of Sciences study on ways to strengthen and expand Cooperative Threat Reduction programs.

“The threat of weapons of mass destruction has never been more urgent” said Tauscher “and this study will provide a roadmap for expanding the work of our nation’s critical nonproliferation programs to new areas such as North Korea , and to put nuclear material and technology out of the reach of terrorists and rogue nations.”

In her tenure representing the base, funding for Travis has totaled $220,026,000, which is $76, 335,000 above what has been requested in the President’s budget.