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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: KIMBERLY NIELSEN
September 16, 1999 (202) 225-3415
 
HOUSE VOTES FOR JONES’ EDUCATION LAND TRANSFER
Defense Authorization Bill Seeks to Rebuild Military, Secure Weapon Labs  
 
Washington, D.C. — By an overwhelming vote of 375 – 45, the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Authorization bill, S. 1059.  Included in the bill is a provision introduced by Congressman Walter B. Jones (R-NC), to provide for a transfer of land from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point to help establish a training program between Cherry Point Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP) and Craven Community College. 
 
 Jones secured language in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Authorization Act for the transfer of 20 acres of land to extend the New Bern Campus of Craven Community College to serve as grounds for the Institute for Aeronautical Technology.  The transfer was retained in the final version, which passed the House yesterday, after the House and Senate conferred on their separate authorization bills.
 
 “This vote is an important one for the State of North Carolina,” Jones said.  “The Institute will provide an opportunity for Craven Community College and Cherry Point to work together to promote the defense and aviation so important to the state.”

 S. 1059 includes important provisions to rebuild our military and enhance the quality of life for military personnel and their families in Eastern North Carolina.

 Major provisions of the bill include:
 

  • a 4.8 percent pay increase for military personnel and future pay raises designed to lessen the gap between civilian and military pay.
  • reforms and improvements to the retirement pay benefit.
  • $182.7 million to reduce growing depot maintenance backlogs in the active and reserve components.
  • $35 million in Impact Aid spending for the education of military children.
  • an additional $368 million to develop and field effective theater and national missile defenses to counter rapidly evolving ballistic missile threats and to protect Americans at home and abroad.

 The bill also includes provisions to help ensure accountability at our nation’s weapons laboratories and establish procedures to prevent the illegal transfer of technology to foreign countries.

 A complete text of S. 1059 is available on the House Armed Services Committee web page at: www.house.gov/hasc.press.htm.   
 
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