Senate’s Guard Leaders

Press To Reduce Facilities Backlog

In Stimulus Package

 

WASHINGTON (January 15, 2009) – U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the longtime co-chairs of the Senate’s National Guard Caucus, are asking Senate leaders to include $1.5 billion for military construction funding for the National Guard in the emerging  economic stimulus plan.  They want the funds to be used for facilities construction and renovation projects within the National Guard, including creation of new National Guard armories across the country, which serve as both military readiness spaces and public locations for community gatherings.

 

Leahy and Bond emphasize the double benefits of these construction projects in spurring the economy, while enhancing the Guard’s and the Reserves’ abilities to carry out their missions.  They urge that any stimulus plan that includes military construction funds should broadly allocate dollars to the Army and Air National Guard, not through earmarks.

 

Leahy and Bond also are senior members of the Appropriations Committee, which is coordinating with other committees, congressional leadership, and the incoming Obama Administration to draft the stimulus plan.  Several of the President-elect’s economic team received copies of the letter. 

 

A PDF of the letter is available here.

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