San Antonio military bases score stimulus assist
House lawmakers will include $2.2 billion in the Pentagons war spending request to buy additional Boeing Co. C-17 transports according to
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey D-Wis.
The money would buy up to eight additional planes Obey said. The committee which has been a strong supporter of buying more C-17s is scheduled to review the measure Friday.
Boeing to strengthen its Washington operations this year hired as its top lobbyist and vice president for government operations David H. Morrison Obeys former adviser on defense and staff director for the House defense appropriations subcommittee under its current chairman Rep. John Murtha D-Pa. whose connections to lobbyists for defense contractors has helped spur a federal investigation.
If approved by the full House and Senate the added money would be a victory for Chicago-based Boeing which has spent $16.2 million on lobbying over the last 12 months according to federal lobbying filings. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended April 6 that the program be terminated once Boeing delivers the last of 205 C-17s in late 2010.
Boeing the second-largest defense contractor has said its plant in Long Beach Calif. will shut down in 2011 without more orders.
Congress in the fiscal 2008 war spending bill approved money for 15 additional C-17 transport aircraft. Boeing received a $2.95 billion contract Feb. 6 for these aircraft.
Congress also added money for 10 transports in the fiscal 2007 war spending bill. The funding was approved.
Boeing C-17s also are used by the U.K. Canadian and Australian militaries to transport troops and equipment and have been ordered in the past year by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The C-17 can fly intercontinental distances and land on short runways and on dirt or sand.
With the addition of emergency funding to deal with swine flu the measure will total $94.2 billion Obey said.
Some $83 million targeted for infrastructure projects
This summer the militarys Base Realignment and Closure-related construction projects at Fort Sam Houston will be at their peak employing an estimated 61000 people both directly and indirectly according to the City of San Antonios Office of Military Affairs.
But even as the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) construction programs start to wind down over the next two years the flow of federal money into San Antonio will continue as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 better known as the federal stimulus package pours additional currency into the local military operations and veterans hospitals.
The Recovery Act includes approximately $7.4 billion in Defense-related appropriations. That accounts for less than 1 percent of the total $787 billion stimulus package signed on Feb. 17 2009 by President Barack Obama. Of that amount approximately $948 million is slated to go to Texas.
San Antonio is in line to receive more than $83 million in stimulus funding for defense-related projects most of which will be at Lackland and Randolph Air Force bases according to a recently released report outlining expenditure plans drawn up by the Department of Defense (DoD).
This funding is above and beyond the money that will come through the normal budgetary process and does not include any of the projects related to the BRAC program.
