Lawmakers discuss adding military construction funds to stimulus package

President-elect Obama's transition team and lawmakers are discussing attaching as much as $20 billion to the economic stimulus package to pay for needed, but unfunded, military construction projects at bases around the country.

The total figure for military construction is in flux, although sources described the $20 billion figure as more wishful thinking than a realistic amount. Congress has approved $25 billion -- $649 million above the Bush administration's request -- for military construction projects in fiscal 2009.

House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Chairman Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, whose panel oversees the projects, said Wednesday that the latest figures he has heard are between $8 billion and $9 billion.

Ortiz pointed to two benefits of adding military construction dollars to the package: Repairing worn-down base housing and other infrastructure would boost efforts to retain troops while creating jobs.

"I know it's going to happen," Ortiz said. "If they want to put people in jobs, this is a good way to do it."

Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., likewise said Wednesday that he is pushing for the inclusion of money for military construction programs in the stimulus package.

The amount of funding for military construction depends on affordability and what the military could execute over the next several months, sources said.

A congressional aide said the focus is expected to be on "shovel-ready" projects such as building repairs and maintenance that can spur quick job creation.

Military construction funding in the stimulus would also likely be targeted at environmental remediation efforts at abandoned bases or those slated for closure, sources said. Doing so could make a significant dent in the $3.5 billion shortfall in those accounts.

Whatever the final figure, the stimulus package is not likely to direct funding for specific military construction projects, sources said. Obama and other Democratic leaders have said they want the economic recovery bill to be free of earmarks.

Instead, the package is expected to allocate lump sums to the military services, which would distribute the money to projects that can be executed quickly. The services, sources said, have begun to identify military construction projects that could benefit from the stimulus spending. Despite chronic shortfalls across the military construction account, one defense lobbyist expressed skepticism that the services have enough short-term projects to immediately execute a cash injection in the neighborhood of $20 billion.

"I don't think they could get [programs] to the category of shovel-ready that quickly," the lobbyist said.