Letter to Secretary Mabus

Letter

Earlier this week, all six members of the Hampton Roads Congressional Delegation urged Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to consider using emergency authorities under section 2803 of Title 10 United States Code to address deficiencies in Little Creek's electrical distribution system. A .pdf of the letter can be found here; Section 2803 of Title 10 United States Code can be found here.

Full text of the letter is below:
October 24, 2011

The Honorable Ray Mabus
Secretary of the Navy
1000 Navy Pentagon
Washington, DC 20350-1000

Dear Secretary Mabus,

Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia, has grown from an installation that principally supported the naval amphibious force with approximately 10,000 personnel in 2001 to a diverse, multi-focused naval force of more than 20,000 today. Unfortunately, Little Creek's electrical distribution system has not expanded to support the addition of new units and a doubling of assigned personnel.

This lack of capital investment and mission-critical modernization has caused a significant degradation in the availability of reliable electrical power to the facility's assigned units. Last fiscal year, for example, more than 100 work hours were lost and property damaged as a result of electrical service interruptions and brown outs. Earlier this month, the base lost power for eight hours.

We understand that a $30-million military construction project would correct this problem, and it is currently being considered for the fiscal year 2013 military construction program. Assuming that Congress authorizes and appropriates funds for this project, however, the upgraded system will not be available until 2014. In our judgment, this project should be given a higher priority owing to the unreliable power distribution system's adverse impacts on the base's operational support to assigned units and personnel. Already, we understand the Navy has provided notice to relocate amphibious ships temporarily from Little Creek to Naval Base Norfolk, as well as other tenant activities.

We encourage you to consider the use of such emergency authorities that are available to you, to include section 2803 of Title 10 United States Code (titled Emergency Construction), owing to the urgency of awarding a contract to remedy Little Creek's electrical distribution system's deficiencies and resulting mission degradation.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Senator Jim Webb
Senator Mark Warner
Congressman Randy Forbes
Congressman Scott Rigell
Congressman Bobby Scott
Congressman Rob Wittman