The House Appropriations Committee has approved a measure that increases military construction funding for Army projects by almost $154 million but accepts a proposal from the Pentagon to reduce by $19 million family housing construction. 

Construction funding is part of a measure totaling more than $279 billion for fiscal 2022 prepared by the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on military construction and veterans affairs. That is an increase of $28 billion over the fiscal 2021 budget and $1.2 billion over the Biden administration’s request for 2022. 

The full committee approved the measure June 30 on a 33-24 vote.

In boosting construction funds, the subcommittee says it is providing “critical investments” in housing, child development centers and barracks and installations’ resilience and recovery from national disasters. This is in addition to funds provided by private developers and companies for privatized housing developments located on or near government property. 

The bill includes $10.9 billion for military construction projects across all the services, a level that is $2.8 billion over the 2021 budget and $1 billion over the administration’s request. This includes funding for seven child development center projects that address insufficient access to child care for many military families and the poor condition of many existing facilities, the subcommittee says in a report. It also includes projects for barracks. 

For the Regular Army, the panel provides $898 million. There also is $335 million for the Army National Guard and $77 million for the Army Reserve. 

Among the bigger projects, the panel approved $81 million for barracks at Fort Meade, Maryland; $60 million for a cyber instruction facility at Fort Gordon, Georgia; $55 million for a joint operations center at Fort Polk, Louisiana; $55 million for a propulsion systems lab at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; $52 million for a simulation center at Fort Irwin, California; $51 million for ammunition storage in Hawaii; $34 million for a reception barracks complex at Fort Jackson, South Carolina; and $25 million for a welding facility at Anniston Army Depot, Alabama.