NDAA Includes Funds for Joint Base

The 2015 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes both funding and protection for Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

The resolution passed by the House Armed Services Committee last week authorizes $5.9 million in Military Construction funding for an Air Force fire station project and $26 million for an Army Reserve Center.  3rd District Congressman and committee member Jon Runyan says the NDAA also protects the facility's KC-10 tanker aircraft mission, which he says is vastly superior to the C-130.

"The C-130 only has the ability to refuel so many planes, just because of the booms that are on the back," Runyan said.  "The KC-10 can refuel all the planes across our platform and refuel allies' planes, also."

Language in this year's version of the NDAA specifically prohibits any action or use of funds to divest or transfer any KC-10 aircraft during the coming fiscal year.

Runyan also hopes the resolution will help dissuade other members of Congress from pushing for further rounds of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), which he says simply don't make sense.

"I've had members of the <Department of Defense> sit in front of us and say, 'Our numbers of personnel are really low and we can't sustain this,' but then in the next sentence they say we need a BRAC because now we have too many facilities," Runyan said.  "But you just said that we need more people, and now you want to reduce the overhead of your facilities and your basing to the current number, which you admit is too low.  So it's a flawed philosophy, I think."

For more information on the NDAA, click here.