{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://case.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2380", "Hawaii Is Designated For The Most Military Construction Funding Of Any State In The Upcoming Fiscal Year Under U.S. House Appropriations Committee-Approved Measure", "2024-05-23", "2024", "2024-05", "Democrat", "House", "HI", "Ed Case", "C001055", "case.house.gov", "case", "https://case.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27&Page=10", "scraper", "(Washington, DC) \u2013 U.S. Congressman Ed Case (HI-01) reported that the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, approved today by the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, includes over $1.55 billion in military construction projects for Hawai\u2018i, the most of any state.\n\n\u201cThis major funding for critical Hawai\u2018i projects underscores all over again the key role Hawai\u2018i holds in our national defense as well as the key role of our armed services in Hawaii\u2019s economy,\u201d said Case, who is in his sixth year on Appropriations, previously served on the committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and currently serves on its Subcommittee on Defense.\n\n\u201cBy allocating fully 8% of our total national and worldwide military construction budget to Hawai\u2018i, we are making a generational reinvestment in Hawai\u2018i in the critical facilities we need to meet the challenges of the Indo-Pacific.\u201d\n\nSome $1.2 billion, the largest share of total budget allocated to Hawai\u2018i, is to continue construction of new Drydock 5 at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, the largest and most expensive project in U.S. Navy history. This state-of-the-art facility and the Shipyard\u2019s some 6,000 civilian employees will have the capacity to perform the highest levels of repair and maintenance on current and next-generation submarines and other vessels. Case has been focused on advancing and funding Drydock 5 since he returned to Congress in 2019.\n\nAmong the other projects for which Case advocated and which were included in the measure is a $36.6 million space control center at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for the Hawai\u2018i Air National Guard\u2019s (HIANG) space operations.\n\n\u201cThe space domain is increasingly critical to our overall national defense, especially in the Indo-Pacific, Hawai\u2018i is once again key, and our HIANG, the U.S. Space Force and other defense assets require state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to perform their mission,\u201d said Case.\n\nThe measure also funds the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and various small agencies and programs supporting our nation\u2019s some 19 million veterans, including some 112,000 throughout Hawai\u2018i, and their families.\n\nThe bill includes a number of priorities also advanced by Case and critical to Hawai\u2018i veterans, such as improving Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) veterans\u2019 access to mental health care and increasing outreach to AANHPI veterans.\n\nThe measure also continued to support the VA Center for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and United States-affiliated Pacific Islander (NHPIUSAPI) that works with the University of Hawai\u2018i and encourages the VA to partner with universities in the Pacific region focusing on issues unique to the NHPIUSAPI community.\n\nThe MilCon-VA measure is the first of twelve bills to be taken up by the House Appropriations Committee that will collectively fund the federal government for FY 2025 (commencing October 1, 2024). The proposed discretionary funding level is $147.5 billion, a decrease of almost $6.4 billion over the FY 2024 enacted level.\n\n\u201cFor me, this is a mixed result,\u201d said Case. \u201cWhile the measure funds many critical national, Indo-Pacific and Hawai\u2018i priorities for our military infrastructure and veterans which I support, I regrettably had to vote against the measure overall because it reduces funding far below what is needed including $1.5 billion in cuts to critical military construction projects, shortchanges dedicated funding for Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) cleanup, eliminates climate and military base resiliency efforts, rejects important VA infrastructure funding and rejects diversity advancement initiatives.\u201d\n\nFurther details follow:\n\nMilitary Construction\n\nThe bill provides $17.9 billion for Department of Defense (DoD) military construction and family housing, nearly $412 million above the FY 2025 budget request.\n\nBesides Drydock 5 and the Space Control Center, other major Hawai\u2019i projects advanced by Case and funded under the measure include $115 million for upgraded aircraft maintenance hangars at Wheeler Army Air Field in Wahiaw\u0101, and $204 million for upgraded aircraft maintenance hangars and aircraft parking aprons Marine Corps Base \u2013 K\u0101ne\u02bbohe.\n\nOther specific military construction programs and provisions requested and secured by Case include:\n\n\u00b7 $66 million specifically for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command projects.\n\n\u00b7 $636 million for the Energy Resiliency and Conservation Investment Program.\n\n\u00b7 $40 million for Air National Guard and $45 million for Army National Guard unspecified minor military construction.\n\n\u00b7 $52 million for defense-wide military construction and family housing.\n\n\u00b7 Directing the DoD to identify the Army\u2019s investment needs in order to support the wildland firefighters located on Schofield Barracks.\n\n\u00b7 Directing the DoD to provide a report on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam infrastructure development plan, to address ongoing concerns of the aging water and wastewater facilities on the installation.\n\n\u00b7 Directing the DoD to assess the aging infrastructure that houses the headquarters of the Marine Corps, Space Force and Special Operations Commands on O\u2018ahu.\n\nVeterans-Related Programs\n\nThe bill provides $129 billion in discretionary spending for veterans-related programs, $66 million above the FY 2025 budget request. It specifically includes $113 billion for veterans\u2019 medical care, matching the President\u2019s FY 2025 budget request.\n\n\u201cOur Hawai\u2018i veterans and their families make up one of the largest percentages of any state in our nation including in such key areas like women and minority veterans. I continued to focus especially on the often unique challenges of delivering full veterans\u2019 health and other benefits in a diverse island state,\u201d said Case.\n\nThe bill specifically includes $1.3 billion, an increase of over $300 million from the FY 2024 enacted level, to meet the need for specific care for women veterans and support the Office of Women\u2019s Health, including its childcare initiative. These funds will allow the VA to continue hiring women primary care providers and to increase the number of peer support specialists for women veterans. These efforts have become even more critical as the number of female veterans using VA health care services has increased.\n\nCase\u2019s committee included $22.8 billion for the Cost of War Toxic Exposure Fund, which provides funding to implement the Honoring our PACT Act.\n\nThe PACT Act, which Case supported and helped enact into law, expands health care and benefits for more than five million servicemembers who were exposed to dangerous burn pit fumes, Agent Orange and other toxins during their service.\n\nOther specific veterans-related programs and provisions requested and secured by Case include:\n\n\u00b7 $5.8 million for the Native American Veteran Housing Loan Program, which is $2.6 million above the FY 2024 enacted level.\n\n\u00b7 $60 million for the VA Grants for the Construction of Veterans Cemeteries, which regularly provides fundings to support Hawaii\u2019s state cemeteries.\n\n\u00b7 $263 million for opioid treatment and prevention efforts, which is $33 million above the FY 2024 enacted level.\n\n\u00b7 $6.4 billion for Telehealth and Connected Care. This will continue expansion of telehealth services and includes additional mental health, primary care and rehabilitation services.\n\n\u00b7 $3.2 billion for Veterans\u2019 Homelessness Program Resources for our nation\u2019s veterans, an increase of $97 million above the FY 2024 enacted level. This funding will enhance homeless veterans service providers ability to provide high demand care such as health services, substance use disorder programs, compensated work therapy and other supportive services.\n\n\u00b7 $337 million for Rural Health Initiatives, which is equal to the President\u2019s budget request. This will improve access and quality of care for the more than 3 million enrolled veterans residing in highly rural areas.\n\n\u00b7 Directing the VA to provide $2.5 million to increase outreach through private organizations, related to mental health care for veterans and their families, through the Whole Family Care Partnership.\n\n\u00b7 Directing the VA to continue supporting the Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islanders (NHPIUSAPIs) Center.\n\n\u00b7 Directing the VA to develop a plan for implementing veterans benefits for veterans living in the Freely Associated States.\n\nThe bill now moves to the full House of Representatives for expected consideration in June.\n\nAttachment: Copy of the FY 2025 MilCon-VA funding measure here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:01:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://case.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2380"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9341901168227196, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}