Mil.Con warnings & The Wall

The Defense Department had warned Congress for more than five years of poor outcomes unless monies were made available to pay for urgently needed military construction (Mil.Con) projects – some of the same projects that have been canceled to fund the President’s border wall. The warnings are contained in DoD budget requests over the years. They include potentially hazardous living conditions for troops and their families, as well as unsafe schools. In numerous cases, DoD warned that lives would be put at risk if buildings don’t meet the military’s standards for fire safety or management of explosives. Before the $3.6B in construction funding was pulled to support the wall, some military buildings had been neglected in favor of other priorities. The defense spending limits, which took effect after a 2013 budget deal designed to end a government shutdown, starved the Mil.Con budget for years, officials and analysts say, and are long overdue. The Washington Post uncovered budget documents pertaining to 29 of 43 military construction projects in the U.S. that are being canceled to pay for the wall. The review excluded two projects that had been canceled before the emergency authorization. Many of these documents are publicly available. The Pentagon insists that the projects are merely being delayed, not canceled. The details in the budget documents underscore risky trade-offs made in declaring a national emergency to divert funding for the wall. One such project includes, the Air National Guard’s need to replace an aircraft parking ramp at NAS/JRB New Orleans in Belle Chasse, which abuts a public road. Munitions-loading aircraft, which are kept on alert in the event of a terrorist attack, expose the public to the “unacceptable risk” of being affected by an explosive accident, the Air Force wrote in 2018. An AF analysis calculated that members of the public are inside the jets’ “explosive arc” for about 3,800 hours annually as they pass by the base. The shelters that hold the aircraft when they are on the tarmac are on sinking concrete slabs causing pipes and electrical connections to disengage. The shelters do not have fire protections, DoD wrote in 2018. Additionally, DoD warned that highly decentralized weapons maintenance buildings at the Anniston, Ala., depot would continue to increase the risk of accidents because of the “unnecessary movement of artillery pieces.” (Source: Washington Post 09/19/19) https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pentagon-has-warned-of-dire-outcomes-if-military-projects-canceled-for-wall-dont-happen/2019/09/18/03e99ac6-d988-11e9-ac63-3016711543fe_story.html