Phase 2 Funding Approved for New Stratcom HQ

Press Release

Today, Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson said that the Senate Appropriations Committee's approval of reduced funding for the second phase of construction on a new U.S. Strategic Command headquarters in Nebraska is appropriate, given the project's delays.

"The level of funding the Appropriations Committee approved today for the new STRATCOM headquarters is appropriate, considering delays that have slowed its construction, and because there are unspent funds from the project's first phase," said Senator Nelson. "I intend to address the delays later this week when the Senate Armed Services Committee works on the 2013 Defense Authorization bill.

"In the 21st Century, STRATCOM has new responsibilities that require a modern headquarters to carry out its nuclear, space, and cyberspace missions. The current facility is both outdated and showing signs of troubling decay, so I will push to make sure this critical national security project remain on track," said Nelson, who is a member of both the Appropriations and Armed Services committees.

The existing facility was built in 1957 and in recent years has experienced failures in electrical service and cooling water systems, as well as fires and flooding. Senator Nelson has worked for several years with the military and the Bellevue and Omaha communities on addressing STRATCOM's facility needs.
Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2013 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies on a vote of 30-0. The bill provides $128 million for phase two in construction funding to replace the STRATCOM facility at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. The Administration had requested $161 million.

Last year, Congress formally authorized replacing STRATCOM's headquarters and approved $120 million for the first phase of construction.
Earlier this year, Nelson raised concerns that the construction had been slowed by a problem between state and federal agencies over whether state sales taxes would be charged for construction materials on a federal project that should be exempt.

In April, Nelson testified at a Nebraska Legislature's Revenue Committee hearing in Lincoln on the issue. He argued that the federal government should not pay state sales taxes it doesn't owe, and taxpayers shouldn't have their federal taxes used to pay state sales taxes they don't owe.

Nebraska law exempts materials used in federal projects from state sales taxes, but the federal government must fill out a state form to qualify and federal officials had balked out of concern over liability. Without the exemption, the project's costs would rise from $15 to $18 million, Nelson testified.
At the hearing, state and federal officials pledged to work out the problem by amending the required form to exempt the STRATCOM project from state sales taxes, but work had already been delayed by several months.

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