FY2016 Military Construction Appropriations: President's Request and House Markup Compared

CRS Insights

FY2016 Military Construction Appropriations: President's Request and House Markup Compared

Daniel H. Else, Acting Section Research Manager (delse@crs.loc.gov, 7-4996)

April 24, 2015 (IN10262)

The Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the military departments (Army, Navy, and Air Force) are

empowered by statute (10 U.S.C. §2802) to carry out military construction projects, land acquisitions, and defense

access road projects (as described under 23 U.S.C. §210) as are authorized by law. Such authorization is usually

given in the annual National Defense Authorization Act. Military construction projects are defined in statute as

including "surveys and site preparation; acquisition, conversion, rehabilitation, and installation of facilities;

acquisition and installation of equipment and appurtenances integral to the project; acquisition and installation of

supporting facilities (including utilities) and appurtenances incident to the project; and the planning, supervision,

administration, and overhead incident to the project."

Military construction is normally funded through Title I of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related

Agencies appropriations bill and provides funding for the planning, design, construction, alteration, and

improvement of facilities used by active and reserve military components worldwide. It capitalizes military family

housing and the U.S. share of the NATO Security Investment Program and finances the implementation of

installation closures and realignments. Military construction appropriations have been joined with those for the

Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Battle Monuments Commission, the Court of Veterans Appeals, the

Armed Forces Retirement Homes, and Arlington National Cemetery since the 108th Congress. Title IV of the bill

funds construction outside of the United States supporting Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO)/Global War

on Terrorism (GWOT) pursuant to Section 251(b)(2)(A)(ii) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit

Control Act of 1985 (for more information on the act, see CRS Report R41901, Statutory Budget Controls in

Effect Between 1985 and 2002, by Megan S. Lynch). This separate title was created by the congressional

committee to segregate construction supporting OCO and to designate those appropriations as emergency

spending, removing them from the budget caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-25).

On February 2, 2015, President Barack Obama sent to Congress a proposed FY2016 Department of Defense

budget request of $585.3 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund both base budget programs and Overseas

Contingency Operations. A small portion of that request, $8.4 billion (1.4%), was requested for military

construction purposes. On April 21, 2015, the House Committee on Appropriations reported its markup of the

annual appropriations bill. Table 1 displays the new budget authority for military construction and OCO

construction that has been requested by the President and recommended by the House Committee on

Appropriations.

Table 1. FY2016 Military Construction Presidential Request and House Markup

Dollars in thousands

Appropriations Account

Title I, Military Construction

Military Construction, Army

Military Construction, Navy and Marine

Corps

Military Construction, Air Force

Military Construction, Defense-Wide

Total, Active Components

FY2015 Enacted

FY2016 Request FY2016 House

528,427

743,245

663,245

1,018,772

1,669,239

1,349,678

811,774

1,991,690

4,350,663

1,389,185

2,300,767

6,102,436

1,237,055

1,931,456

5,181,434

Military Construction, Army National

Guard

Military Construction, Air National Guard

Military Construction, Army Reserve

Military Construction, Navy Reserve

Military Construction, Air Force Reserve

Total, Reserve Components

Total, Military Construction

128,920

197,237

167,437

92,663

103,946

51,528

49,492

426,549

4,777,212

138,738

113,595

36,078

65,021

550,669

6,653,105

138,738

104,295

36,078

65,021

511,569

5,693,003

NATO Security Investment Program

199,700

120,000

150,000

Family Housing Construction, Army

Family Housing Operation and

Maintenance, Army

Family Housing Construction, Navy

Family Housing Operation and

Maintenance, Navy and Marine Corps

Family Housing Construction, Air Force

Family Housing Operation and

Maintenance, Air Force

Family Housing Construction, DefenseWide

Family Housing Operation and

Maintenance, Defense-Wide

Family Housing Improvement Fund

Total, Family Housing

78,609

99,695

99,695

350,976

393,511

393,511

16,412

16,541

16,541

354,029

353,036

353,036

—

160,498

160,498

327,747

331,232

331,232

—

—

—

61,100

58,668

58,668

1662

1,190,535

—

1,413,181

—

1,413,181

38,715

—

—

315,085

251,334

251,334

125,000

—

—

117,000

—

—

-49,533

—

-96,000

-25,522

—

—

—

—

30,000

-41,392

—

-52,600

—

—

-134,000

Chemical Demilitarization

Construction, Defense-Wide

Department of Defense Base Closure

Account

Administrative Provisions

Military Construction, FY2014 (Section

127)

Military Construction, FY2015 (Section

128)

Military Construction, Army (Section 125)

Military Construction, Navy and Marine

Corps (Section 130)

Defense Access Roads (Section 131)

Military Construction, Air Force (Section

126)

Military Construction, Defense-Wide

(Section 127)

NATO Security Investment Program

(Section 132)

42 U.S.C. 3374 (Section 128)

Total, Administrative Provisions

Appropriations

Rescissions

-25,000

—

—

-63,800

36,753

(242,000)

(-205,247)

—

—

—

—

-103,918

-356,518

(30,000)

(-181,271)

Total, Title I, Department of Defense

Appropriations

Rescissions

6,558,000

(6,763,247)

(-205,247)

8,437,620

(8,437,620)

—

7,151,000

(7,537,518)

(-386,518)

—

—

244,004

—

46,000

—

—

75,000

212,996

175,000

—

—

221,000

—

532,000

6,779,000

8,437,620

7,683,000

Title IV, Overseas Contingency

Operations

Military Construction, Navy and Marine

Corps

Military Construction, Air Force

Military Construction, Defense-Wide

European Reassurance Initiative Military

Construction

Total, Title IV

Grand Total, Department of Defense New

Budget Authority

Source: Draft Full Appropriations Committee Report, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and

Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2016.

Notes: Numbers in parentheses represent subtotals. Negative numbers represent rescissions. The

President requested OCO construction as part of his regular, or "base," budget request. The House

Committee on Appropriations placed that construction into Title IV of the draft appropriations bill

and designated it as "emergency funding" under the 1985 act.

Since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947, the funding of military construction and military family

housing has experienced significant fluctuations. As expressed in FY2016 dollars, the annual appropriation of new

budget authority between FY1948 and FY2020 (including DOD projections) averages $12.7 billion (the median

lies at $12.0 billion). The minimum appropriation during that period was $1.1 billion for FY1949, while the

maximum of $34.3 billion was appropriated for FY2009, at the height of construction activity for the 2005

Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) round. If appropriations during FY1951-FY1953 (Korean War)

and FY2007-FY2011 (2005 BRAC round) are removed, the average military construction/family housing

appropriation falls to $11.4 billion. The FY2016 request of $8.4 billion and projected requests through FY2020

fall well below that average. Figure 1 illustrates the flow of these appropriations.

Figure 1. Military Construction New Budget Authority Appropriations, FY1948-FY2020

Constant FY2016 Dollars in Millions

Source: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), National Defense Budget Estimates for FY2016,

Table 6-8.

Notes: All enacted war and supplemental funding is included.