Defense bill moves Hawai'i Stryker unit closer to reality
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The Senate has agreed to spend $17.5 million next fiscal year on a Stryker brigade for Hawai'i, another sign Congress intends to move forward with the brigade even if the Pentagon still has questions.
A defense spending bill approved Thursday contains money for Stryker brigades in Hawai'i and Pennsylvania. The House endorsed money for the brigades earlier this month in its version of the defense spending bill, which now goes to a House-Senate conference committee.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has asked the Army to evaluate the combat power and configuration of the six Stryker brigades, leading some to question whether the final two, in Hawai'i and Pennsylvania, will survive as planned.
The Stryker brigades are designed as quick-strike teams that could be deployed faster than the Army's traditional heavy forces.
Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, ranking Democrat on the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee, said the defense bill would provide $482 million for projects in Hawai'i. Taken together with a military construction bill approved earlier this year, Hawai'i would get $812 million in defense money beyond military payroll and operations.
"In Hawai'i, many projects vital to our military maintaining its position as the world's strongest and most advanced force will receive continued funding under this legislation," Inouye said.
According to the senator's staff, the bill includes $27 million for equipment and maintenance at Pearl Harbor, $24 million for telemedicine at Tripler Army Medical Center, $27 million for the Maui Space Surveillance System, $20 million for the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua'i, and $18.4 million to help the Navy with unexploded ordinance on Kaho'olawe.
The bill also includes $7 million for a man-overboard identification system for the Navy, $6 million for a Kailua-based computer project to better detect submarines, $4 million to study ocean-wave power as an energy source for electricity, and $1 million to prevent brown tree snakes from entering Hawai'i from Guam.
"Once again, the brown tree snake has slithered its way into our defense appropriation act," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who frequently mocks local projects that appear unrelated to the focus of spending bills.
The snake has devastated bird life on Guam and military and wildlife officials have worked to keep it from spreading to Hawai'i.
Inouye also added a provision that would lift a Bush administration cap on a loan program for Native American veterans, including Native Hawaiians. Loans were suspended after the cap was exceeded, causing problems for about 50 Hawaiian families, the senator's staff said.
Inouye also was instrumental in restricting money for the Terrorism Information Awareness program, a Pentagon intelligence effort that civil liberties groups feared could be used to spy on American citizens. The senator was among several lawmakers who successfully placed limits on the program in a federal spending bill passed in February.
An Inouye spokesman said the Senate again added the limits "because of great concern as to how this particular program would affect civil liberties."
Correction: The Department of Defense has renamed the Total Information Awareness project the Terrorism Information Awareness program. A previous version of this story did not reflect the name change.
