The House of Representatives passed H.R. 3082, the Fiscal Year 2010 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill, which includes $9.1 million in new federal funding for the Connecticut Air National Guard at Bradley Airport requested jointly by the five members of the Connecticut Congressional delegation in the House. The annual appropriations bill passed the House of Representatives by a final vote of 415-3.
Congressman John B. Larson, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said, “Connecticut’s Air National Guard serves a vital role in our national defense. This critical funding will provide our brave men and women in uniform with a state-of-the-art 24-hour command and control center to support their new mission, meeting security requirements and protecting our classified missions. I am proud to support this program that will give our National Guard the support they deserve and improve infrastructure at Bradley Airport.”
The joint request by Connecticut’s House delegation resulted in an additional $9.1 million to upgrade the Connecticut Air National Guard’s TFI -cNAF BEDDOWN facilities. The funding, if approved by the Senate, will be used to build facilities needed to support the 103rd Airlift Wing’s Component Numbered Air Force (cNAF) Air Operations Command Center.
This mission, assigned to the 103AW following the removal of their A-10s through the 2005 BRAC process, will engage the CT Air National Guard in high tech, highly-skilled work that will support the planning operations, intelligence, logistics, combat service support, and communications-electronics needs of air combat operations around the globe.
While this project is currently planned for 2011, acceleration to 2010 is needed to adequately support the training of personnel to meet the needs of their new mission – and without acceleration, there will be a gap in the 103AW’s ability to adequately accomplish this important mission.
This legislation must now be considered by the Senate and signed into law by President Obama.
Categories: CT AIR NATIONAL GUARD
