{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-serving-waste-side-poor-planning/", "Serving Up Waste, With a Side of Poor Planning", "2016-08-01", "2016", "2016-08", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul released the latest edition of \u2018The Waste Report,\u2019 an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government.\n\nIn today\u2019s report, Dr. Paul highlights $6 million in taxpayer funds used to renovate Fort Belvoir\u2019s \u201cEagle\u2019s Nest\u201d Dining Facility. The project was completed in November 2015, only for the facility to be permanently closed by July 1, 2016. In addition to facing stiff competition from other local dining choices, it became clear during the renovation that the Army would likely close the Eagle\u2019s Nest.\n\n\u2018The Waste Report\u2019 can be found HERE or below.\n\n***\n\nLast November, Fort Belvoir\u2019s \u201cEagle\u2019s Nest\u201d Dining Facility completed a $6 million renovation, and last month (less than a year later), the facility closed its doors permanently.[1]\n\nAccording to the base newspaper, Belvoir Eagle, the project \u201cincluded installing new flooring; ceilings; lights; bathrooms and serving lines; and replacing all of the furniture,\u201d with a representative of the facility even quoted as saying, \u201c[w]e really are a premier dining facility, now.\u201d[2] Seven months later, Fort Belvoir\u2019s website read, \u201c[e]ffective July 1, 2016 the Fort Belvoir Dining Facility will be officially, permanently closed.\u201d[3]\n\nThe shocking part is not that the Army is closing the facility after the renovation, but that the renovation was done in the first place. According to the Army, the facility only had less than a 5 percent utilization rate.[4] Of course, Fort Belvoir is just south of Alexandria, VA, next to George Washington\u2019s home at Mt. Vernon. With Starbucks, Subway, and Burger King on base, and numerous restaurants and grocery stores just a short drive in either direction on Route 1 (which bisects the base), it is not surprising that even a remodeled base dining facility would have trouble competing.\n\nTo understand why the Eagle\u2019s Nest renovation was such a boondoggle, you first need to understand how the Army feeds personnel on the home front. In addition to their regular pay, military personnel receive one of two types of food assistance: Subsistence-In-Kind (SIK), where a solder walks into an Army cafeteria and receives a meal, and Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS), a tax-free, additional benefit added to a soldier\u2019s pay for them to purchase food wherever they see fit.\n\nBase dining facilities\u2019 (like the Eagle\u2019s Nest) primary purpose is to serve personnel on SIK plans, although they do take cash customers at reduced rates. But with more and more private food options on base, or in local communities, fewer personnel are taking SIK plans. This is why, last August, the Army decided to explore closing mess halls operating at less than 65 percent of capacity based on SIK users. [5]\n\nThis meant certain closure at Fort Belvoir, where not one person is on the SIK plan.[6] That\u2019s $6 million of taxpayer money down the garbage disposal. Imagine the cost if the second phase, a kitchen remodel, had taken place!\n\nToday\u2019s Menu: Waste with a side of poor planning\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T21:00:38Z"]], "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://www.paul.senate.gov/news-serving-waste-side-poor-planning/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.327674999833107, "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"}