GOP senators look to add $50B for defense into infrastructure bill
The Republican defense hawks’ effort is the largest, and most detailed, proposal for defense money in an infrastructure bill so far.
The bulk of the funding would go toward Navy and Coast shipyard infrastructure, an effort members of both parties had contemplated for months ahead of the current floor debate. But the proposal also seeks to boost funding for military construction projects, depot upgrades, test ranges, national security labs and the installation of 5G technology.
Shelby’s and Inhofe’s offices did not immediately comment on the effort.
Shipyards: Half of the funding in the amendment, just under $25.4 billion, would go toward upgrades and repairs at Navy and Coast Guard shipyards. Similar proposals have garnered bipartisan support, particularly lawmakers from states with shipyards. The Navy has laid out a decades-long plan to modernize its public shipyards to support new ships and a larger fleet.
Of that total, $21 billion would go toward improvement projects at the Navy’s four public shipyards, mirroring the Navy’s plan.
Another $4 billion would toward private shipyards, split evenly between new construction projects and repairs.
The Coast Guard would receive $350 million for its shipyard improvement needs.
Other funding: The amendment would disperse the rest of the funding to address a wide swath of military infrastructure needs.
It would dedicate $4 billion across the military services and Pentagon to reduce the backlog of facility infrastructure maintenance projects. Another $2 billion would go toward high priority military construction projects.
The proposal would allocate $4.5 billion to depot modernization as well as $2.5 for updates to ammunition plants.
Senators also set aside $4 billion to upgrade military test and training ranges.
An extra $2.5 billion would fund efforts to install 5G wireless networking technology at Defense Department facilities.
Another $1.5 billion would go toward efforts to remediate PFAS chemicals at military installations.
Outside of the Pentagon, the proposal allocates just over $3.8 billion for the Energy Department for construction projects related to the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Savannah River nuclear facility and other related projects.
State of play: The Senate is poring through amendments this week to the bipartisan bill that would dedicate $550 billion in new spending to roads, bridges, climate resilience and broadband technology. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may soon look to cut off debate on the bill, which could spill into the weekend or early next week.
Tacking on $50 billion in emergency defense spending, and thereby pushing the portion of the bill dedicated to new spending to more than $600 billion, would be a considerable shift in the price tag and focus of the bill, which was painstakingly hashed out by a bipartisan group of senators.
Republicans may line up behind an effort to boost spending on defense facilities, where there is wide agreement that funding has lagged. And while some Democrats endorsed specific efforts — such as including money to overhaul shipyards or defense industrial facilities such as depots and arsenals — others have railed against using an infrastructure bill as a backdoor to increasing defense spending.
Previous pushes for defense money: The amendment from Shelby, Inhofe and Wicker is the most expensive effort to include defense facility funding in an infrastructure deal so far, though it isn’t the first.
Democrats and Republicans, led by Wicker in the Senate and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) in the House, have pushed for months to include shipyard funding in an infrastructure deal.
The bipartisan House Military Depot, Arsenal, Ammunition Plant and Industrial Facilities Caucus, led by Democrat Cheri Bustos of Illinois and Republican Blake Moore of Utah, has also pushed for a broader array of funding for defense industrial facility improvements, including shipyards, depots, arsenals and ranges.
