$433M due for Hawai'i military
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Congress has approved a compromise defense spending bill for the next fiscal year that provides $433 million for Hawai'i military projects, including $17.5 million for a Stryker brigade at Schofield Barracks.
The money is down nearly $50 million from what the Senate backed in July, according to Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, as House and Senate negotiators pared back the bill because of spending concerns. But the final amount, approved by the House on Wednesday and the Senate yesterday, still represents a substantial investment in Island military projects.
Lawmakers agreed to spend $35 million — or $17.5 million apiece — on advanced procurement for the last of six planned Stryker brigades, expected in Hawai'i and Pennsylvania. The Defense Department has raised questions about the final two brigades, but Inouye and Army sources are confident that a brigade for Hawai'i remains in the works.
The brigades are organized around new eight-wheeled armored vehicles and are designed as an intermediate step in the Army's transition to a faster, more mobile fighting force. The Defense Department is studying whether to modify the brigades, possibly by adding more combat power.
Inouye, who serves on the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the spending reductions in the final bill were made to accommodate other government programs.
The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign into law, would provide $18.4 million for the last installment of a 10-year, $400 million effort to remove unexploded munitions from Kaho'olawe.
Inouye's staff said the bill contains $26.7 million for equipment and maintenance at Pearl Harbor, $23 million for Tripler Army Medical Center, $27 million for the Maui Space Surveillance System, and more than $19 million for the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua'i.
Another $1 million would go to prevent the brown tree snake, which has devastated bird life on Guam, from coming into Hawai'i.
The bill also would eliminate the Pentagon's Terrorism Information Awareness program, which could have involved broader government searches of medical, credit and telephone records. Although there are reports that some of the intelligence-gathering functions may continue at the Pentagon, Inouye and other lawmakers fought the program because of the potential threat to privacy and civil liberties.
The bill also would remove a $5 million cap on a federal loan program for Native American veterans, including Native Hawaiians, that caused trouble for several home loans in Hawai'i this year.
"This program has helped Native Hawaiian veterans and Native American veterans take advantage of a benefit provided all other veterans," said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i.
