Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: The Office of Economic Adjustment, through relationships with defense communities built over the course of years, is uniquely situated and technically staffed to effectively administer the Community Investment Program of the Department of Defense and to help States and communities maintain strong relationships that address community challenges while simultaneously supporting military readiness. Installation readiness and resiliency does not stop at the fence line, and often requires coordination and planning with other organizations of the Department of Defense, the Armed Forces, other Federal departments and agencies, and communities surrounding military installations.
The Community Investment Program enables States and communities to organize, evaluate, and plan for appropriate community investments that support the sustainability, readiness, and growth of a military mission at an installation by— addressing impacts that mission growth may have on everything from housing, schools, transportation, utilities, access to medical services, and other public services; providing funding to construct, renovate, repair, or expand public schools located on military installations to address capacity and facility condition deficiencies; and improving accessibility and safety of access to medical facilities for wounded warriors, veterans, staff, and all other eligible beneficiaries.
The Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program authorizes the Secretary of Defense to make grants, conclude cooperative agreements, and provide supplemental funds to address deficiencies in community infrastructure supportive of a military installation. The Defense Manufacturing Communities Program authorizes long-term investments by the Secretary of Defense in critical skills, facilities, research and development, and small business support by designating and supporting consortiums in order to strengthen national security innovation.
The Office of Economic Adjustment continues to help communities affected by base realignments and closures to address issues by assisting in land use planning to respond to unanticipated environmental contamination and the availability of new parcels of land for redevelopment. Industry resilience projects support critical military missions by building a more competitive and resilient defense industrial base, creating closer civilian-military partnerships, and promoting community and economic development that support key military missions, including by— promoting industry resilience, with funding that helps protect critical production capabilities and expand markets for defense suppliers; enhancing military modernization, by helping defense suppliers become more innovative and invent, develop, and deploy technologically superior products for the Armed Forces; and preserving military readiness, by helping communities, companies, and workers become more agile and responsive to the fluid military needs and requirements.
The Military Installation Sustainability Program of assistance provides technical and financial assistance to States and local governments to analyze and implement actions necessary to foster, protect, and enhance military installation sustainability that alleviates and prevents incompatible development and other manmade or natural threats to installation resiliency including— compatible use and joint land use studies; compatible use plans; and military installation resilience reviews.
Reductions to the budget of the Office of Economic Adjustment will adversely affect the defense community missions the Office supports, harm small businesses, impede efforts to rebuild schools for children of members of the Armed Forces, and compromise readiness and infrastructure resiliency efforts.