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Bill includes $430M for Stewart projects
President signs spending legislation
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The omnibus spending bill signed by President Bush this week included more than $430 million in projects for Fort Stewart.
Here are the big ticket items slated for Fort Stewart this year:
• Barracks and dining facilities: $121 million
• Brigade complex: $30 million
• Brigade/battalion headquarters: $36 million
• Child development center: $20 million
• Company operation center: $75 million
• Infrastructure: $59 million
• Physical fitness center: $28 million
• Shoot house: $2.3 million
• Vehicle maintenance shop: $67 million.
The cash for the fort has been making its way through
the congressional authorization and appropriations process for more than a year and Fort Stewart has already lined up budget requests for the following fiscal year.
Fort Stewart's Deputy Garrison Commander Mike Biering told the Fort Stewart Growth Management Organization Tuesday that the work in the bill just signed would not be completed within one year and the contractors, their families and people drawn by the population increase will remain in the area for an undeterminable length of time.
In the following fiscal year, Biering said Fort Stewart is programmed for more than $352 million in further projects.
"To show you how massive this is," Biering said, Fort Bliss is the only other installation, which comes close to this amount. Bliss is getting more because they're standing up two
new brigade combat
teams. For example, Fort Benning is getting about half that."
A fifth maneuver brigade is being brought to Fort Stewart in the "Grow the Army" initiative.
Other parts of the omnibus bill authorize $542.5 billion for the base budget and $68 billion in war-related costs, for a combined total of $611.1 billion for the Depart-
ment of Defense and national-security related programs in the Department of Energy.
It provides a 3.9 percent pay raise for all military personnel across the board, a half percent more than
the President's budget request, and a total of
$115 billion for military personnel, including costs of pay, allowances, bonuses, death benefits, and
permanent change-of-station moves. It also reauthorizes over 25 types of bonuses and special pays aimed at encouraging enlistment, reenlistment, and continued service by active-duty and reserve military personnel.
The bill authorizes $24.4 billion for the Defense Health Program, which includes the $1.2 billion necessary to cover TRICARE fees, and adds $13.7 million for recovery operations in North Korea for American POW/MIAs.

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