Fiscal year 2015 (FY2015) was the fourth year in which discretionary appropriations for the Department of Defense (DOD) were subject to a legally binding cap on national defense-related spending, initially codified by P.L. 112-25 , the Budget Control Act of 2011 (or BCA) and subsequently amended, most recently by P.L. 113-67 , the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2013. President Obama's FY2015 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilCon/VA) budget request complied with the applicable cap, as did the versions of the FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that were passed by the House ( H.R. 4435 ), reported by the Senate Armed Services Committee ( S. 2410 ), and enacted into law ( H.R. 3979 , P.L. 113-291 ). Similarly, the versions of the FY2015 MilCon/VA Appropriations Act passed by the House and reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee ( H.R. 4486 ) and the version enacted as part of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 ( H.R. 83 , Division I; P.L. 113-235 ) were consistent with spending caps then in force. Table 1 and Table 2 track the status of both acts. Congress annually authorizes the appropriation of funds for military construction projects through the drafting and passage of a Military Construction Authorization Act. This is typically incorporated as a division within the broader National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Military Construction Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 constituted Division B of the Carl Levin and Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 ( P.L. 113-291 ). The NDAA is the principal legislative vehicle by which Congress organizes and sets policy for DOD. The Military Construction Authorization Act within the NDAA not only authorizes military construction projects and their necessary appropriations, but is also used to modify and extend the authorizations of existing projects, approve the acquisition and transfer of defense land title, set policy for real property disposition, require specific notifications to Congress of relevant defense actions, authorize appropriations for the NATO Security Investment Program (NSIP), and direct the management of DOD real property and facilities, among other actions. Provisions within, or amendments to, the NDAA authorized each of the five military base realignment and closure (BRAC) rounds carried out over the course of the past quarter-century. Title XXX of the FY 2015 NDAA, titled Natural Resources Related General Provisions , was unusual in the sense that it directed a number of real property actions for the Department of Interior, not DOD. This report will address only DOD-related provisions of the act. The amount of military construction new budget authority requested for FY2015 ($6.6 billion) was 40% less than the request for FY2014 ($11.0 billion). According to Administration statements, this reflected a deferral of construction forced by appropriations caps imposed by the BCA. The final act authorized the appropriation of $6.6 billion for military construction and family housing, $220 million for additional overseas contingency operations construction, and authorized several "unfunded" construction projects for which DOD had planned but had not requested funding. Table 3 tabulates the military construction appropriations requested and authorized for FY2015. In all, the President had requested $539.4 million for Army construction, while the act authorized $543.4 million. The President also requested $78.6 million for Army family housing construction and $351.0 million for operation and maintenance. The act authorized those amounts. Authorizations for military construction appropriations typically remain current for three years, as specified within the act. Nevertheless, specific authorizations can be modified in subsequent acts with respect to time for completion and to scope. The FY2015 act extended the authorization for a number of Army projects that originated in FY2011 and FY2012. It also expanded the scope or increased the amount of appropriations authorized for several others. The act also collapsed the last four of six planned phases of construction of a Command and Control Facility at Fort Shafter, HI, into a single authorization, with the conference committee stating that the move would be expected to save construction cost and speed completion by up to four years. The act also adjusted the Army's construction priorities by authorizing three projects for which funding had not been requested in FY2015: $15.0 million for a Consolidated Shipping Center at Blue Grass Army Depot in KY, $46.0 million for a Simulations Center at Fort Hood, TX, and $86.0 million for the third phase of construction of the Individual Training Barracks Complex at Fort Lee, VA. With respect to overseas military construction, the act prohibited the obligation or expenditure of funds for the construction of family housing at Camp Walker in the Republic of Korea (ROK) until DOD validated on-post family housing requirements in the country and proposed a plan to meet those requirements. The consolidation of U.S. Army personnel in the ROK from long-established garrisons along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) bordering North Korea to Camp Walker, near Daegu, and Camp Humphreys, near Seoul, has been a point of congressional concern noted in several NDAAs. The President requested $16.4 million for Navy and Marine Corps family housing construction and $354.0 million for operation and maintenance. The act authorized those amounts. The President had requested $1.0 billion ($1,018.7 million) for Navy and Marine Corps construction, while the act authorized $993.2 million. In its Joint Explanatory Statement (JES) accompanying the act, the conference committee explained that it had reduced the requested authorization for a Cyber Studies Building at Annapolis, MD, by $90.1 million from $120.1 million to $30.0 million, noting that the Navy would not be able to spend the full amount of the request. The act added unrequested authorizations of $13.8 million for a Regional Ship Maintenance Support Facility at Bangor, WA, and $50.7 million for a Radio Battalion Complex at Camp Lejeune, NC, the top unfunded construction priorities for the Navy and Marine Corps, respectively. As with the Army, the act modified some previously enacted authorizations for various construction projects. The President had requested $811.7 million for Air Force construction, while the act authorized $846.2 million. The difference can be attributed to an unrequested authorization of $34.4 million for a Corrosion Control and Composite Repair Shop at Andersen Air Force Base (AFB), Guam, a forward rotational deployment site for Global Strike Command B-52 Stratofortress and B-2 Spirit bombers. As it did for the other departments, the act modified several previously enacted construction authorizations. The President did not request family housing construction funding for the Air Force, and the act did not authorize any. He did request $327.7 million for Air Force family housing operation and maintenance, and the act authorized that amount. The President had requested $2.1 billion ($2,061.9 million) for Defense-Wide construction, while the act authorized $2.0 billion ($1,962.9 million). The difference is explained by a $70.0 million reduction to the $259.7 million requested for hospital construction at the Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Germany, a $9.0 million reduction in the request for Contingency Construction, and a $20.0 million reduction in requested Planning and Design funding. The act also modified several previously enacted authorizations for ongoing construction projects and barred the obligation or expenditure of any funds for the construction of either a human performance center at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Story, VA, or a squadron operations facility at Cannon AFB, NM, until the Committees on Armed Services of both House and Senate receive a report on DOD efforts on the prevention of suicide among members of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The President did not request family housing construction funding for the Defense account, and the act did not authorize any. He did request $61.0 million for the operation and maintenance of defense family housing, which the act authorized. The international Chemical Weapons Convention, formally known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, ratified in 1997, banned the production, stockpiling, or use of chemical weapons. Since ratification, the U.S. has systematically reduced its supply of chemical munitions. The U.S. Army Chemical Munitions Activity is the agency entrusted with the destruction (demilitarization) of the nation's chemical munitions stockpile. At one time, installations in eight states stored these munitions. Currently, only Pueblo Chemical Depot, CO, and Blue Grass Army Depot, KY, have remaining munitions. The President had requested $38.7 million for chemical demilitarization construction and the act authorized the full amount. The President had requested $199.7 million as the U.S. contribution to NSIP (see footnote 3, p.2 of this report), while the act authorized $174.7 million. The difference is attributed in the act's Joint Explanatory Statement (JES) to slower than expected expenditure of funds already in the program. The presidential requests and subsequent authorizations for the various reserve components are set out in Table 4 . The projects authorized included several for which the President had not requested funding. The Family Housing Improvement Fund is the principal source of appropriations used to support the privatization of military family housing.