Military Construction, Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2007

MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, MILITARY QUALITY OF LIFE AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007

Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank both the chairman and the ranking member for putting together this legislation and for the appropriations.

It is interesting because I do not serve on Armed Services or obviously Appropriations or Defense approps, but I think every Member of this House is affected by what is in this bill because all of us have seen our young men and women who have come back, who have been injured, and that is what this bill is about, the VA medical facilities, the medical facilities for these service personnel who are injured, and it is great to hear some of the good things that are in this bill. I know it is under very strict limitations, but I want to thank the committee for doing this.

I want to talk about something that is very specific briefly, about an important project in my own area. Now, in Houston we do not have a base. We have a lot of reserve units, but we have the Ellington Field where they have F-16s, and we have a fire station that needs to be put in there. We have one that does not meet either Air Force standards or OSHA standards, and it is a facility that serves not only our Air National Guard but our Army National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, NASA, and of course, civil aircraft.

The existing facility, like I said, is rapidly deteriorating and does not meet either OSHA or Air Force standards. Roof leaks and lack of insulation result in equipment being destroyed and extremely high operating costs. The lack of adequate facilities and space do not allow for proper integration of female firefighters. Storage facilities do not exist and require hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment to be stored outside, and traditional Guardsmen must store issued equipment at their homes.

New firefighting apparatus must be parked outside the station because they do not fit in the truck bays. Currently, our 147th has one fire truck valued at $1 million which is unable to fit into the station, and the unit is expecting delivery of another one this year. This results in slower response times, degraded performance, and vehicle deterioration.

The funding I requested for this new fire station will not only bring the facilities up to OSHA and Air Force standards but will protect the investments already made in the equipment in the base.

Plans are under way to move 2,300 Army, Navy and Marine Corps Reserve troops from elsewhere in the Houston area to Ellington to make it really a joint Reserve base. As this happens, we must ensure there is sufficient infrastructure to support these units.

Again, the fourth largest city in the country affecting not only Johnson Space Center and the petrochemical industry, but I would appreciate any consideration by the committee during the conference report.

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