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STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN ON THE MILITARY CONSTRUCTION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005
September 20, 2004
Senator McCain submitted the following statement for the record regarding the Military Construction Act:"Mr. President, I support passage of the Fiscal Year 2005 Military Construction Appropriations Act. This bill provides $10 billion in funding for important military construction activities including base housing and the construction and maintenance of base infrastructure. Amazingly, this report contains only 35 earmarks totaling $44.7 million, which is significantly less than the approximately $80 million in unauthorized earmarks contained in last year’s appropriations bill.
"Although 70 percent of these earmarks are directed to the states of appropriators, I applaud the Military Construction Subcommittee for their generally clean bill. I am particularly pleased by the language in the report that specifically states that the Committee has provided construction funds only for projects that were included in the Senate-passed version of the FY2005 Defense Authorization Act, currently pending in conference. This appropriations bill is a good example of how the legislative process is expected to work, wherein, the work of the authorizers is fully taken into account by the appropriators. I hope this can be emulated by all appropriations subcommittees and authorizing committees.
"As we progress towards the scheduled Base Closure and Realignment round in 2005, I am encouraged to see that my colleagues have resisted the temptation to add pork to bases in their states in what would be a misguided effort to save their bases from base closure. Such efforts would be a waste of taxpayer money, and would not prevent their base from being closed.
"In an effort to contain the wasteful spending inherent in member requested construction projects, I sponsored, and the Senate adopted, merit based criteria for evaluating member add-ons as a part of the fiscal year 1995 Defense Authorization Act. The criteria are:
1. The project is in the service's future years defense plan. 2. The project is mission essential. 3. The project can be put under contract in the current fiscal year. 4. The project does not conflict with base re-alignment proposals. 5. The service can offset the proposed expenditure within that year's budget request.
"These criteria have been useful in ferreting out programs or projects of questionable merit, and in determining the relative priority of projects that have been requested by members for strictly parochial reasons, often at the expense of the readiness of our armed forces. Unfortunately, in the years that these criteria have been in place, no offsets have been provided for any project.
"Mr. President, all of the 35 earmarks, totaling $44.7 million, are under the minor construction account. Normally, this account is intended to be used for urgent and unforeseen requirements and therefore neither the President’s budget nor the authorizing committees identify specific projects to be funded. Once the Services decide to spend the money, the authorizing and appropriations committees must approve or disapprove of the minor construction project to which the Services plan to fund. By earmarking the funds in the minor construction account, the appropriators have usurped the authority of the authorizing committee to approve or reject these projects.
"I commend the Chairman of the Military Construction Subcommittee, Senator Hutchison, and the Ranking Member, Senator Feinstein, for their work on this bill and their continued support for our military. Their attention and commitment to only supporting high priority projects for the Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force is once again exemplary and provide for a sound measure to fund military construction in the coming fiscal year."
(list attached below)
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