Two draft military funding bills are making their way through Congress after being approved by the House Appropriations Committee.
The committee approved a draft of the 2023 iteration of the annual National Defense Appropriations Act on Wednesday and the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act on Thursday. Both include provisions for projects and initiatives in Hawaii.
At the top of the agenda for Hawaii’s congressional delegation was funding to drain the underground Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility after fuel from the facility contaminated the Navy’s water system that serves 93,000 residents.
“The Committee included my request to create a $1 billion Red Hill Recovery Fund to fix, defuel and close Red Hill as safely and quickly as possible, continue to address the continuing health and other concerns of affected residents, and restore our aquifer,” U.S. Rep. Ed Case (D, Hawaii) said in a news release Thursday.
The $1 billion proposed for the fiscal 2023 defense appropriation comes on top of $1.1 billion in emergency funding secured by the Hawaii congressional delegation earlier this year for the current 2022 fiscal year. The committee also included provisions requested by Case to improve the oversight of the military’s handling of Red Hill.
Case included a provision in the military construction bill for an additional $100 million to support planning and design for building new facilities to remove and relocate the fuel currently at Red Hill.
The construction bill also includes $1.3 billion in funding for the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan, a $21 billion multiyear effort to upgrade the Navy’s four public shipyards. Of that, $621 million is marked for the construction of Dry Dock 5 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. The shipyard is Hawaii’s largest industrial employer with some 6,000 local employees.
The dry dock project replaces an older dock that is now too small to service the new Virginia-class submarines that are replacing older, smaller Los Angeles- class subs. The defense appropriation includes funding for two new Virginia-class submarines that would be maintained at the Pearl Harbor shipyard.
Notably absent from either bill was the Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii, a $1.9 billion missile defense radar the delegation has aggressively pushed for, doing so in the face of objections from the Pentagon itself. The Pentagon has spent the past two years trying to defund the project. Lockheed Martin received a contract to build it in 2018 after a false missile alert frightened Hawaii residents during a time of heightened tension with North Korea.
The controversial program proved divisive from the start as the military struggled to find a place to put it and costs stacked up amid pushback from local communities. However, while funding for the defense radar is frozen, the two bills fund other missile defense projects in Guam and call on Pentagon leaders to come up with an alternative system for Hawaii.
The construction bill will also approve $29 million in funding for a new Hawaii National Guard facility in Kapolei and calls on the Army to address aging infrastructure at its Hawaii facilities. It includes $4 million for the initial planning and design of an upgrade to the water systems at Fort Shafter and Tripler Army Medical Center.
The contamination of the Navy water system has severely strained relations between military leaders (particularly in the Navy) and neighboring communities in Hawaii. In addition to military families, the contamination affected civilians living in former military housing areas such as the Kapilina Beach Homes. Navy officials were apparently unaware their system served those areas.
The Honolulu Board of Water Supply has shut several wells to prevent the potential spread of contamination during a year in which Oahu already is dealing with drought and water shortages. Although fueling operations have ceased at Red Hill, its massive tanks still sit a mere 100 feet above a critical aquifer that provides the drinking water for most of Southern Oahu.
Honolulu Council Chairman Tommy Waters and Vice Chairwoman Esther Kia‘aina wrote a letter to President Joe Biden in January blasting the Navy’s handling of the crisis and warning that it could have long-lasting consequences.
“We believe the Navy’s mishandling of the Red Hill crisis is jeopardizing national security interests and the overall relationship between the U.S. military and the people of Hawai‘i,” they wrote. “The State of Hawai‘i and the City and County of Honolulu have historically supported the United States military’s strategic positions and assets in our communities for decades. This support, however, is not unconditional.”
The defense appropriation includes $293 million for environmental restoration of former military sites, including the removal of unexploded ordnance and discarded military munitions in Hawaii and elsewhere, as well as a provision directing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s office to work with the Hawaii governor’s office to address the growing rift between the military and local residents.
“The military must foster a better relationship with the local community to repair the damaged trust caused by Red Hill and build the support needed for various defense initiatives in our state,” Case said. “A positive relationship between the military and the people of Hawaii is needed to prepare and respond to the threats posed by China, Russia and North Korea in the Indo-Pacific.”
Though both bills have been approved by the Appropriations Committee, they are subject to change as they make their way to the House floor and eventually to the White House for approval.
