Over the Columbus Day holiday weekend, the House and Senate approved the conference reports for the Homeland Security and Military Construction spending bills. To date, the Department of Defense spending bill is the only one of the thirteen FY2005 spending bills that has been enacted into law.
On September 29, Congress approved a continuing resolution (H. J. Res. 107) to fund government programs at their FY2004 levels until November 20, 2004 (see The Source, 10/1/04). The House and Senate are expected to be in session the week of November 15 to complete their work on the remaining FY2005 spending bills.
Military Construction
On October 9, the House approved, 374-0, the conference report for the FY2005 Military Construction spending bill (H.R. 4837). The Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent on October 11. It will now go to the White House for President Bush’s signature.
H.R. 4837 allocates $10 billion in FY2005 for military construction, a $687 million increase over FY2004, and $450 million above the administration’s request. The measure also allocates $14.5 billion as emergency supplemental funding for disaster-relief activities related to Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne.
Under the bill, $4 billion is provided for military family housing, of which $1.5 billion is allocated for new family housing units and improvements to existing units, and $2 billion is for the operation and maintenance of existing units. Congress allocated $3.9 billion in FY2004 for military family housing.
According to press reports, the measure includes funding for child development centers, but no amount is indicated. Congress provided $16 million for child development centers in FY2004.
