Senate Appropriators Hike DOD, VA Construction, Also Give Corps Civil Works Small Increase

In its first action on fiscal 2016 spending bills, the Senate Appropriations Committee has recommended large boosts for Dept. of Defense construction and Dept. of Veterans Affairs major projects. It gave a tiny increase to the Army Corps of Engineers civil-works program.

The committee on May 21 cleared a measure that would provide $8.1 billion for FY16 DOD construction, up $1.5 billion, or 23%, from this year's appropriations. The same bill includes $1 billion for VA major projects, an 83% boost from 2015. Major projects are those that cost $10 million or more. The biggest items are $161 million for seismic corrections to a Long Beach, Calif., facility and $158 million for a seismic retrofit and replacement of existing buildings in San Francisco.

The House-passed DOD-VA spending measure is less generous: It includes $7.6 billion for military construction and freezes VA major projects at the 2015 level of $562 million. Senate appropriators also approved a bill to fund energy and water programs. It has $5.5 billion for Corps civil works, up less than 1% from 2015. The House-approved version provides $5.6 billion for civil works. The Senate panel's bill also includes $5.2 billion for Energy Dept. defense environmental cleanup, up $180 million from 2015 and $124 million above the House figure.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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