Press Releases
Funding would address significant damage from two earthquakes earlier this year
Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was joined today by Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Representative Paul Cook (R-Calif.) in a bipartisan letter urging congressional appropriators to fully fund the Navy’s fiscal year 2020 appropriations request for recovery efforts at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
“While the Senate version of the FY20 Defense appropriations bill included $585 million in emergency funding for repairs, the Navy continues to evaluate the extent of the damage and has updated its needs assessment to $627 million in defense appropriations and $1.153 billion in military construction appropriations.
“We urge you to provide as much funding in final FY20 appropriations bills as the Navy requested to continue China Lake’s recovery efforts.”
Full text of the letter is available here and below.
The Honorable Richard Shelby
Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Vice Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Nita Lowey
Chairwoman
House Committee on Appropriations
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Kay Granger
Ranking Member
House Committee on Appropriations
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairmen and Ranking Members:
As the Senate and House Appropriations Committees reconcile their respective Fiscal Year 2020 Defense and Military Construction Appropriations bills, we write in support of the Navy’s updated funding request of $1.78 billion for earthquake recovery efforts at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
China Lake was the epicenter of two major earthquakes in July that severely damaged the installation and the City of Ridgecrest. While the Senate version of the FY20 Defense appropriations bill included $585 million in emergency funding for repairs, the Navy continues to evaluate the extent of the damage and has updated its needs assessment to $627 million in defense appropriations and $1.153 billion in military construction appropriations.
We urge you to provide as much funding in final FY20 appropriations bills as the Navy requested to continue China Lake’s recovery efforts. We thank you for your consideration of our request.
Sincerely,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
Kamala D. Harris
United States Senator
Kevin McCarthy
House Republican Leader
Paul Cook
Member of Congress
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