COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES UNITED STATES SENATE NINETY-SECOND CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H.R. 16754 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR MILITARY CON- 81-368 O Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1972 (The hearings in this volume from page 1 through page 452 were joint hearings of the Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Committee on Armed Services and Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Committee on Appropriations. Page 453 to the completion of this volume were additional hearings held by the Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Committee on Appropriations.) (II) ITARY CONSTRUCTION AUTHORIZATION, FISCAL YEAR 1973 MONDAY, MAY 22, 1972 'he Military Construction Subcommittees of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations met in joint session, pursuant to notice, at 2:35 p.m., in room 212, Old Senate Office Building. Membership of the Military Construction Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services is as follows: Senators Symington (chairman), Jackson, Ervin, Cannon, Harry F. Byrd, Jr., of Virginia, Tower, Thurmond, and Dominick. Membership of the Military Construction Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations is as follows: Senators Mansfield (chairman), Proxmire, Montoya, Hollings, Brooke, Boggs, and Stevens. (Exofficio members: Senators McClellan and Young.) Present: Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Committee on Armed Services: Senators Symington (presiding), Cannon, Harry F. Byrd, Jr., of Virginia, Tower, and Dominick. Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Committee on Appropriations: Senators Young and Brooke. Also present: From the Senate Armed Services Committee-Gordon A. Ñease, professional staff member; and Mary E. Keough, clerical assistant. From the Senate Appropriations Committee: Vorley M. Rexroad: clerk of the subcommittee, and Joel E. Bonner, minority staff member. Senator SYMINGTON. The hearing will come to order. We are meeting this afternooon to begin hearings on the military construction authorization bill for fiscal year 1973. As we have for the past several years, we are meeting in joint session with the Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Appropriations Committee of which Senator Mansfield is the chairman. Barring unforeseen interruptions, I would hope that we may complete our hearings this week. That may be modified by some of the plans of Chairman Stennis for marking up the procurement bill. To summarize briefly, the bill as introduced, S. 3448, calls for a new authorization of $3,040,119,000 and an increase in prior years' authority of $6,857,000, for a total authorization of $3,046,976,000. This is the largest request for military construction that has come before the committee in several years. Special emphasis has been given this year to people-related projects, such as military family housing and bachelor housing. There is also a substantial increase in projects for the Reserve components, pollution abatement, NATO infrastructure, and the emergency fund for the Secretary of Defense. (1) Again this year the full committee has deemed it advisable to transfer the construction requirements for the Safeguard anti-ballistic-missile system to the military procurement bill. This includes $386 million for Safeguard construction, $19 million for site defense of Minuteman, and $12.4 million for 460 units of family housing for the Malstrom and Grand Forks ABM sites. As I have indicated, we expect to move rapidly but thoroughly through the hearings. Considerable time has already been devoted in carefully reviewing the entire bill and I will address myself primarily to projects of special interest. I want each member of the committee, however, to feel free to take up any project he so desires. The printed record will reflect the complete justification for each individual item making up the total bill. We understand the House committee began its hearings on the construction bill last week and we will arrange our schedule so as to prevent a conflict of witnesses. Our first witness today will be Hon. Barry J. Shillito, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Installations and Logistics. I am sure his remarks will be comprehensive enough as usual to permit us to then proceed directly to the line items making up the various titles of the bill. Following Mr. Shillito's testimony and while his staff is here, we will take up title VII of the bill which relates to general provisions addressing ourselves primarily to those provisions where a change from prior years is proposed. We will then take up title V which relates to military family housing requirements. This will permit us then to go directly to the line items of the three military departments and the Defense agencies. Mr. Secretary, we welcome you here. If you have a statement, would you read it? STATEMENT OF HON. BARRY J. SHILLITO, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (INSTALLATIONS AND LOGISTICS) Mr. SHILLITO. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the committees. BACHELOR HOUSING One of the largest segments of the bill this year is for bachelor housing which will provide facilities to make a military career more attractive, thereby reducing the need for the draft. I might comment, since 1969 we looked at 289,000, almost 290,000 drafted in 1969 down to 50,000 in 1972, and that ties into the point that I am making here on bachelor housing. Our major problems in bachelor housing are the lack of sufficient adequate housing and the need to modernize our existing inventory to increase the liveability of our structures. The need to improve the bachelor living conditions is particularly acute in Germany. The Offset Agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany will improve our bachelor housing living conditions in that country. This program will be discussed later in my statement. The proposed fiscal year 1973 military construction program will assist greatly in overcoming these problems. The total fiscal year 1973 construction and rehabilitation expenditures for bachelor housing, including a modest program for bachelor oflicers, will amount to $386 million. Included in this sum is $219 million for new construction of 35,100 barracks and dormitory spaces. This is about $92 million more than the investment for fiscal year 1972 and over twice the amount invested for new construction of bachelor enlisted housing in fiscal year 1971. In addition to new construction we have a major program of improvement and modernization of our existing bachelor enlisted housing. The largest portion of this program is to convert existing sound structures which are presently open-bay configured into modernized room configured barracks: an investment of about $148 million for fiscal year 1973 will produce over 72,000 adequate barracks spaces. This represents $63 million more than the investment for fiscal year 1972 which was the first year in which we concentrated on modernization and improvement. Prior to fiscal year 1972 we were investing less than $10 million per year to improve our existing bachelor housing. Additionally, we are proposing that the statutory limitation of new bachelor housing construction be revised from the previous cost per man basis to a square foot basis. This will combine the concept of cost control desired by both the Department of Defense and the Congress, and the realities of execution of design and construction which recognize the differences of adequacy standards for various grade groupings of bachelor personnel. Additionally, it has the advantage of utilizing a standard measure of cost; that is, dollars per square foot, that is familiar to all contractors. It is a standard normally utilized in the execution of design and construction and will readily allow the contracting officers to determine if bids are within the statutory limit. FAMILY HOUSING The provision of adequate housing for military families is of vital importance to enhancing career attractiveness and achieving an allvolunteer force. Accordingly, we have continued to allocate greater resources to new on-post construction, which has increased to 8,200 units in fiscal year 1971, 9,866 units in fiscal year 1972, and 12,181 units in fiscal year 1973. In addition, cooperation from the Department of Housing and Urban Development has led to the planned construction of low income private rental housing, on a priority of occupancy basis by military families, amounting to 4,300 section 236 units in fiscal year 1971 and a minimum of 5,050 units in fiscal year 1972. GEORGE AFB, CALIF. Experimental housing projects at George AFB and follow-on project at Norton AFB: I know these committees continue to have an interest in the experimental housing project at George Air Force Base, Calif., which was authorized and funded in fiscal year 1969. We are pleased to inform the committees that the construction of these housing units has been completed, and all units are now occupied. As expected, the lessons learned during the development and construction of this project will continue to improve the efficiency of the concept. 1 |