The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee this week approved more than $37.8 million in funding for construction projects at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade and the Naval Academy in Annapolis. It also moved up the schedule for building new barracks at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade.
The funding, part of a national$94 billion military construction project, must now go to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not been scheduled. Then the spending faces a conference committee with the House of Representatives to reconcile differences.
The Senate funding includes $26.7 million for the Wesley Brown Field House at the Naval Academy. The 140,000-square-foot athletic facility is named for Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown, the academy’s first black graduate, who participated in the groundbreaking for the building March 25.
The $45 million field house will contain facilities for physical education, athletics, club sports and personal fitness. It will also have a medical facility close to outdoor playing fields.
These so-called “earmarks” for Maryland military construction were put in the appropriations bill by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who serves on the committee.
The bill also provides $11.1 million for a classified material conversion facility at the National Security Agency. Mikulski?s spokesperson, Melissa Schwartz, could supply no further information, since it was “classified.”
According to the NSA, the Classified Material Conversion unit is in charge of declassifying, processing and destroying secret material from the intelligence community and government contractors. This includes paper, circuit boards, CDs and other materials.
“This is accomplished through standard industrial conversion or destruction processes using numerous recycling and reclamation procedures in strict accordance with environmental, safety, and security standards,” an NSA spokesman said in an e-mail. “The existing facility infrastructure and processing equipment has reached the end of its programmed life cycle.”
The new facility will have new technology to “improve operating efficiency and ensure environmental compliance,” the spokesman said.
The Senate version of the appropriations bill also moves upconstruction of the advanced individual training barracks by two years, from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2008. The barracks house members of all the armed forces at the Defense Information School, and improvements are “much needed,” said Melanie Moore, public information officer at Fort Meade.
The school trains members of all the services in public affairs, media relations, broadcasting and multimedia.
