Base Access Privileges Improvement Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, today I introduce the ``Base Access Privileges Improvement Act,'' which would standardize and streamline access to military installations for designated support personnel across the nation. I thank my colleague Congressman Donald Norcross (D- NJ) for his support as the bill's original cosponsor.

Every day, civilian workers access military bases to provide services, transport goods, or conduct job fairs for departing service members or military spouses. Unfortunately, from state to state--or even installation to installation--there are different standards for unescorted civilian access set by the service branches or base commanders. This can be a maddening bureaucracy for support workers requiring routine base access to do their jobs.

The ``Base Access Privileges Improvement Act'' would create an overarching set of access standards for civilians with legitimate need to access military installations on a recurring basis or for a scheduled purpose. For example, the bill would allow truckers delivering household goods for military families to use their Transportation Worker Identification Credentials, which is issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and requires passing a federal background check, for proving their identity to get on base. The bill would also require that the U.S. Department of Defense provide expedited, unescorted base access privileges for veterans accessing services at the installation, civilians working at a construction job site on base, State labor regulators for applicable workers' compensation or minimum wage laws, and members of federally recognized labor-management committees.

As chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, I know full well that our military installations are secure for a good reason. However, for those civilians who are already appropriately vetted and cleared, we must ease the bureaucratic hurdles for base access so they can do their job in support of our nation's military, military families, and veterans. Military bases can maintain the highest level of scrutiny for those seeking access while still equalizing the requirements across the nation. The ``Base Access Privileges Improvement Act'' would ensure just that.

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