Hearing of the Military Construction Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee

HEARING OF THE MILITARY CONSTRUCTION SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

FISCAL YEAR 2005 MILITARY CONSTRUCTION BUDGET

June 16, 2004 Wednesday

CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE JOE KNOLLENBERG (R-MI)

WITNESSES: GENERAL PETER J. SCHOOMAKER, ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF; GEOFFREY G. PROSCH, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE ARMY FOR INSTALLATIONS AND ENVIRONMENT

LOCATION: B-300 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

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REP. SANFORD BISHOP (D-GA): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And let me add my words of welcome to General Schoomaker and Mr. Prosch.

I was very interested to hear you mention the Residential Community Initiative. And we are very pleased in my area that Fort Benning will be among the first in the current RCI privatization round. And it's my understanding that 90 percent of the family housing at Fort Benning is classified as substandard by Army standards. And so I think it's critical that our men and women and their families have the best that we can offer as soon as possible.

Can you share with us the status of the Benning project, the final number of family housing units that are planned and the projected costs? And if you don't have it, you can submit that to me at a later time, if you don't have those exact figures.

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REP. BISHOP: We've heard about that.

Okay. Now, one other question with relationship to the RCI. It's my understanding that traditionally there have only been a small number of firms that have been involved with the RCI program as the developers. And this is since the inception of the program. And it's my understanding that the same few firms are being used over and over again for the privatization projects. And I understand that they (have a ?) complex and pretty large undertaking. That could limit the number of firms that would be deemed qualified. But I know that there are other firms, from my service on the VA, HUD and Independent Agencies Subcommittee, who have worked in the housing area. In fact, there are a large number of firms who have done large projects -- (off mike) -- projects in the housing area.

Can you kind of tell me what steps will be taken by the Army -

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REP. BISHOP: -- to assure that there's a level playing field for determining qualified firms in the competition for major work, as well as for the smaller -- (inaudible) -- subcontractors as well?

The problem seems to be that those-I think there are three firms that have been utilized in the past over and over again. The preparation of the documents to bid sometimes run in the $40(,000) to $50,000 range. And other companies that would be interested feel like-that you're going to just give it to the same three, so why go through the expenditure of $40(,000) to $50,000 to submit a proposal that's going to disregarded?

So can you give any kind of assurances that other firms other than those same three will be considered for (bidding ?) projects in -- (inaudible) -- privatization, assuming that you're able to get the -- (off mike)?

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REP. BISHOP: You say seven --

MR. PROSCH: Seven.

REP. BISHOP: -- as opposed to three?

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REP. BISHOP: Right, but (the locally ?) -
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REP. BISHOP: But the overall general contractors (all ?) -- they may come from Michigan. I understand they have maybe two or three as general contractors from -- (off mike). The people that have been complaining to me have not all been from Georgia. There have been some from New Jersey. They said, you know, "We want to do it. We've got experience doing this kind of work." But the history is-the track record is that, you know, nobody gets -- (off mike).
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REP. BISHOP: Will you yield just a minute?

REP. EDWARDS: Sure. Glad to.

REP. BISHOP: I just wanted to make sure that I was clear. What I was suggesting was not that the size of the firm was the important factor, because I know these are large and complex projects. But I was suggesting that firms that had had tremendous projects with other government agencies, like HUD, or who had extensive experience and size and bonding capacity and all of that, but now were interested in doing these RCI projects with the Department of Defense are not going to necessarily have a level playing field, because they didn't have the Defense experience. And that was what-that would be what -- (off mike) -- they've done the same size projects, you know, for HUD, you know, many, many, many times.

MR. PROSCH: I will make you an offer, sir.

REP. BISHOP: Yes, sir.

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REP. BISHOP: All right.

REP. EDWARDS: Thank you.

REP. BISHOP: Thank you, sir.

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REP. SANFORD BISHOP JR. (D-GA): It will be.

REP. KNOLLENBERG: And we're going to try to close things down entirely a couple, three or four minutes afterwards. So I think --

REP. BISHOP: It will be less than that.

REP. KNOLLENBERG: All right. That's great. Good.

REP. BISHOP: General Schoomaker and Mr. Prosch, yesterday we heard from General Nyland, assistant commandant of the Marines, that the Marines are -- (inaudible) -- currently have about 10 percent of its work from other services, primarily the Army. Of course, the Marine base, in addition to its work on the amphibious assault vehicle, recently began its heavy-armor modifications to the Army and the Guard humvees, which are destined for Iraq and Afghanistan. And of course, we believe that the Marine base -- (off mike) -- (expanding ?) the work with the Army in armor-proofing a wide array of vehicles. I think they came from Fort Stewart from the units that Mr. Kingston was talking about -- (inaudible).

I'd like to really get your views on how we might go even further with the Marines doing some of the logistics and the armor-proofing work for the Army, and how we can expand that (and/in ?) -- (inaudible). It would help your budget, in terms of facilities and installations, in doing this work-to do it at the Marine base in Albany, down the East Coast. (Off mike.)

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REP. BISHOP: Do you see that expanding?

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REP. BISHOP: Thank you.

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