The military says it needs nearly $10 billion to fix storm-ravaged bases, but the White House still hasn't asked Congress for the money

Associated Press

• Tyndall and Offutt Air Force Bases and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune took major damage from storms in 2017 and 2018.
• The services have said they need nearly $10 billion to repair those facilities and others, but the White House still hasn't requested the money, and negotiations over the funding have stalled.
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WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump toured the storm-ravaged Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida on Wednesday, he vowed it would be rebuilt.

"We'll have many more people working at Tyndall than you had before the hurricane, so get ready for that," Trump later said at a rally a few miles from the military base.

But months after natural disasters wrought havoc on the site and several other military posts, the White House has yet to formally ask Congress for the funding, and talks have stalled between the two branches of government on a disaster aid package to address the problem.

Hundreds of millions of repair dollars are at stake for Tyndall, Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Negotiations over an aid package for those repairs have snagged on the amount of aid Puerto Rico should get, causing gridlock that is frustrating military leaders, lawmakers and residents of affected areas.

The delay has also caused a domino effect for military construction projects outside these three devastated communities stateside. As funding ran out for recovery efforts last month, the Air Force halted and moved funding from 61 critical infrastructure projects across 18 states and five overseas locations, while the Marine Corps did likewise.

Without a direct request from the White House budget office, the military has gone to Congress with its needs. The services have assessed $4.7 billion in damage at Tyndall, $3.7 billion at Lejeune and other East Coast facilities, and at least $700 million at Offutt.

Unlike the White House, Congress hasn't waited to act. The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed its military construction and Department of Veterans Affairs spending bill with $300 million for Offutt rebuilding, though that bill, too, has yet to become law. "We have to have relief for all the damage to our bases. It's very serious," said the panel's top Republican, Rep. Kay Granger of Texas.

Lawmakers have reprogrammed $400 million for the Marine Corps to address its most pressing infrastructure needs, and both the GOP-led Senate Appropriations Committee and Democratic-led House Appropriations Committee drafted disaster aid packages with $1.1 billion for the Air Force and $315 million for the Marine Corps.

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