President Releases FY 2014 Budget – Includes Funding for Federal Construction Programs

Military Construction The president’s FY 2014 budget request for military construction on the whole provides a slight gain over FY 2013 funding levels. The president’s proposal includes about a $400 million – or approximately 5 percent – increase for direct service military construction accounts. Additionally, family housing construction and operation and maintenance accounts under the administration’s budget are set to provide approximately $90 million - or 5 percent – more than last year. However, while the administration does call for another base realignment and closure (BRAC) round in 2015, its budget proposal would not begin the BRAC process until 2016 and would reduce existing BRAC accounts by nearly 16 percent or about $85 million in 2014. Additionally, a new BRAC round would likely face stiff Congressional resistance. Most tellingly, Congress rescinded $135 million in unspent funds from prior BRAC funding in its FY 2013 appropriations bill last month. AGC remains committed to advocating that as the needs of the Department of Defense (DOD) shift—after a decade of overseas wars come to a close—DOD facilities should reflect these changing needs to better support America’s troops. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—Civil Works The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Program construction accounts would experience a slight decrease of $160 million – or about 3 percent – under the president’s 2014 budget request when compared to FY 2013 appropriations levels, albeit without including Hurricane Sandy aid. The administration’s proposal would cut the Corps construction account by $324 million or 19 percent, while increasing the operations and maintenance account, which supports dredging ports and harbors, by $176 million or 7 percent. The Mississippi River and Tributaries account would see a $27 million – nearly 11 percent – increase. AGC continues to maintain that through regularly investing adequate funding to maintain our nation’s inland waterways, ports and coastlines and to protect cities from floods and storm damage, our economy will grow, jobs will be created and the need for large disaster assistance aid will be diminished and more lives will be saved with improved construction precautionary measures. Federal Facilities On April 10, in conjunction with the release of the president's FY 2014 budget, the General Services Administration (GSA) Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini and Public Building Service Commissioner Dorothy Robyn met with AGC and other industry stakeholders for a small roundtable discussion about GSA's budget request. Specifically, the president's FY 2014 budget request for GSA includes $816 million for the new construction and acquisition account – more than $760 million above the FY 2012 and FY 2013 funding levels – and $1.3 billion for the repairs and alterations account – an increase of over $1 billion compared to FY 2012 and FY 2013 levels. GSA also provided details concerning specific projects for which the administration proposes funds. AGC will continue to advocate for robust investment in federal facilities as a means to help produce taxpayer savings by reducing the government's footprint, both through space consolidation and energy sustainability opportunities. For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at (703) 837-5325 or christiansonj@agc.org.