Military Construction: FY2017 Appropriations
Released: 2016-10-04T00:00:00

Introduction

Military construction for active and reserve components of the Armed Forces, military family housing construction and operations, the U.S. contribution to the NATO Security Investment Program, military base closures and realignment actions, and the military housing privatization initiative will be funded through Title I and Title IV of the FY2017 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The act is associated with three separate bill numbers: H.R. 4974 , S. 2806 , and H.R. 2577 .

In February 2016, the Administration requested $7.62 billion in new budget authority to fund military construction activities in the Department of Defense (DOD) for FY2017. Of this amount, $7.44 billion was dedicated to base military construction activities. The request included an additional $172.4 million for construction activities associated with Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO).

The $7.62 billion request was $554.5 million less than new budget authority appropriated for military construction in FY2016. The House proposed an appropriation of $7.87 billion in new budget authority for FY2017, while the Senate proposed $7.93 billion. The House-Senate conference reported a new budget authority appropriation of $7.90 billion that, after incorporating budget authority rescinded from previous years, would make available a total appropriation of $8.21 billion, as shown in Table 1 . The House has agreed to the conference report. Further action in the Senate is pending. Detailed military construction appropriations tables may be seen in the Appendix to this report.

Military Construction Appropriations for FY2017

Impact of the Recent Budget Limitations

Congressional deliberations on the FY2017 defense budget in general, including military construction, may be influenced by broader budget discussions over annual appropriations bills. Since 2011, binding annual caps on discretionary appropriations (through FY2021) were codified by the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 ( P.L. 112-25 ). The effect on appropriations in general, with specific emphasis on defense, has been substantial and is discussed in detail in CRS Report R44519, Overseas Contingency Operations Funding: Background and Status , coordinated by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].

The Legislative Path for Military Construction Appropriations

H.R. 4974 , the first version of the military construction appropriations bill of the legislative session, was introduced in the House on April 15, 2016. A companion bill, S. 2806 , was introduced in the Senate on April 18. H.R. 2577 , originally the Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) appropriations bill for FY2016, was adopted to serve as the vehicle for a compromise appropriation bill. As such, the bill was reintroduced to the Senate in May 2016 with amendments that eventually encompassed what had been three separate appropriations. Division A of the amended bill would have provided FY2017 T-HUD appropriations, and Division B would have provided FY2017 MILCON/VA appropriations. An additional Title V of the Senate-proposed act would fund the Department of Health and Human Services for Zika virus response and preparedness. The amended bill was passed by the Senate on May 19, 2016, and sent to the House.

Upon receipt of the amended bill, the House proposed an additional amendment. H.R. 2577 , as engrossed by the House, would have established Division A as the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017; Division B as the Zika Response Appropriations Act, 2016; and Division C as the Zika Vector Control Act. The House passed the amended bill on May 26, 2016, and requested a conference.

The conference was held on June 15, 2016, and the conferees filed their report, H.Rept. 114-640 , on June 22, 2016. The House agreed to the report on June 23, 2016, by the Yeas and Nays, 239 – 171 ( Roll no. 342 ).

In the Senate, portions of the bill were incorporated into H.R. 5325 , the Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill, 2017, which was renamed the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act. The amended bill contained four parts: (1) Division A: Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017; (2) Division B: Zika Response and Preparedness; (3) Division C: Continuing Appropriations Act, 2017; and (4) Division D: Rescissions of Funds. The Senate passed the amended bill by Yea-Nay vote, 72-26 ( Record Vote Number 151 ) on September 28, 2016. The House agreed to the Senate amendment by the Yeas and Nays, 342-85 ( Roll no. 573 ) the same day. The President signed the bill into law ( P.L. 114-223 ) on September 29, 2016.

Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) FY2017 Status

Since the end of the Cold War, Congress has periodically authorized the Secretary of Defense to reduce or realign domestic defense property in order to better employ military forces and their supporting agencies and to eliminate the cost of operating and maintaining facilities no longer needed. Congress authorized the first so-called BRAC round in 1988 with an amendment to the defense authorization act for that year. In 1990, Congress included authorization for three additional BRAC rounds in a title to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY1991. These rounds were carried out in 1991, 1993, and 1995.

Following the conclusion of the 1995 BRAC round, the Secretary requested legislation to continue disposing of excess property, but Congress did not incorporate a reauthorization until the NDAA for FY2002 (P.L. 107-107, Title XXX). That act sanctioned a single BRAC round for 2005. The approved recommendations for that round were carried out between 2006 and late 2011.

In 2012, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta asked Congress to authorize two new BRAC rounds. Secretaries have repeated the request for one or two rounds in each subsequent year, including the current year, but Congress has thus far declined to do so, as illustrated in Figure 1 . The current versions of the NDAA contain an explicit prohibition against a new round, stating, "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize an additional base realignment and closure (BRAC) round." The Obama Administration, in its Statements of Administration Policy on the NDAA bills, has objected to the absence of a BRAC authorization and this prohibition.

Military Construction Appropriations Since FY2000

The President has requested new budget authority in the amounts of $7.44 billion (base budget) and $172.4 million (Overseas Contingency Operations, OCO) for a total of $7.62 billion for military construction and military family housing for FY2017. This compares with $7.72 billion made available for FY2015 and $8.54 billion enacted for FY2016. This continues a downward trend in military construction appropriations begun in FY2010, when construction activity associated with the 2005 Base Closure (BRAC) round began to subside.

The President has requested significantly less military construction funding for FY2017 than was the norm during the early years of the 2000s. Figure 2 illustrates the amounts of new budget authority enacted between FY2000 and FY2016 and projected by DOD through FY2021.

The OCO portion of the request continues a shift in emphasis that has become apparent in recent years. OCO construction has shifted from the CENTCOM (Middle East and Southwest Asia) and AFRICOM (Africa, less Egypt) Areas of Responsibility (AOR) to EUCOM (Europe). OCO military construction through FY2011 was directed to the CENTCOM AOR in Southwest Asia. For example, in FY2011, $1.22 billion in OCO construction was devoted to Afghanistan, Qatar, and Bahrain (see Figure 3 ).

This began to be redirected in FY2012, when $269.7 million in OCO construction went to projects in Afghanistan, Bahrain, and Djibouti. The FY2013 OCO appropriation included $355.6 million for construction in Djibouti, Bahrain, and Diego Garcia (a British Protectorate in the Indian Ocean), plus funds to construct the ballistic missile defense AEGIS Ashore complex in Romania.

No construction funding was identified as OCO for FY2014, but the FY2015 appropriation included $151.9 million that encompassed some OCO construction in Djibouti and Bahrain but devoted most of its emphasis to improving airfields in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. The FY2016 appropriation of $428.9 million was devoted largely to an AEGIS Ashore Missile Defense Complex in Poland, with the remainder going to ship repair and pier construction in Bahrain and airfield improvements in Oman, Niger, and Djibouti. Nearly two-thirds of the FY2017 request of $172.4 million is designated as part of the European Reassurance Initiative and is dedicated to airfield improvements in Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland, plus additional facilities in Iceland and Germany to accommodate the Navy's P-8A Poseidon and the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor aircraft. The remainder of the FY2017 request is intended for projects in Djibouti.

Additional Resources

Appropriations

CRS Report R44582, Overview of Funding Mechanisms in the Federal Budget Process, and Selected Examples , by [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report R44625, Department of Veterans Affairs FY2017 Appropriations , by [author name scrubbed].

Defense Appropriations

CRS Report R44531, FY2017 Defense Appropriations Fact Sheet: Selected Highlights of H.R. 5293 and S. 3000 , by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report R44497, Fact Sheet: Selected Highlights of the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4909, S. 2943) , by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report R44454, Defense: FY2017 Budget Request, Authorization, and Appropriations , by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report R44519, Overseas Contingency Operations Funding: Background and Status , coordinated by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report R44039, Defense Spending and the Budget Control Act Limits , by [author name scrubbed].

Veterans Issues

CRS Report R42747, Health Care for Veterans: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions , by [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report R43704, Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (H.R. 3230; P.L. 113-146) , by [author name scrubbed] et al.

CRS In Focus IF10396, Caregiver Support to Veterans , by [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report R43547, Veterans' Medical Care: FY2015 Appropriations , by [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report RL34024, Veterans and Homelessness , by [author name scrubbed].

Appendix. Detailed Appropriations Tables

Table A-1 shows the amounts of budget authority granted to the various military construction and family housing appropriations accounts as enacted for FY2016 and as requested by the President, passed by the two chambers and reported by the conference committee.

The table is grouped into seven separate clusters similar to those present in the bills. The bill's Administrative Provisions section, which includes both rescissions of funds and new funding for the military departments' Unfunded Priorities List (UPL), has had the UPL extracted to indicate the budget authority not requested by the President:

Active Components (Army, Navy and Marine Corps, Air Force, and Defense-Wide, which includes defense agencies and Special Operations Command [SOCOM]); Reserve Components (National Guard and Reserves); NATO Security Investment Program (NSIP); Family Housing (including the Family Housing Improvement Fund, the principal DOD support for the military housing privatization initiative); BRAC (military base realignment and closure); Administrative Provisions (the normal location for rescission of prior-year appropriated budget authority); and Unfunded Priority Lists (budget authority not requested by the President in his annual budget request but planned for future years).

Table A-2 presents the military construction funding requested and recommended for Overseas Contingency Operations construction.