Your San Antonio Chamber of Commerce is proud to continue its long-standing advocacy efforts to sustain and grow invaluable military missions in Military City, U.S.A. An enormous part of that effort is to make others aware of the importance of securing funding for projects that enhance military value while also benefiting surrounding civilian communities.
As part of our SA to DC Military Affairs Council agenda in February 2020, we sought to ensure the Defense Community Infrastructure Program (DCIP), which carries the potential to significantly increase state and community investment in infrastructure that supports military missions, was fully funded. First authorized in the FY19 NDAA, DCIP allows the Department of Defense (DoD) to provide state and local governments matching grants for the purpose of developing off‐base infrastructure supporting military installations. This legislation acknowledged that the mission‐critical infrastructure and military value of our installations do not stop at the fence line. We were excited to find that Congress funded $50 million of the authorized $100 million for the program in FY20 and the Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) was designated as the administering agency for the program.
In early May 2020, the long-awaited guidance for the Defense Community Infrastructure Program (DCIP) was posted and according to the grant description, the priority focus of DCIP was for "military family quality of life, military resilience, and military value” (in that order). The award floor was $25,000 and ceiling was $25 million, and the guidance outlined the criteria, process and timeline for the funding that had a quick turnaround obligation by September 30.
The final list of approved projects from across the nation was announced in September. However, San Antonio did not have eligible projects to submit based on the initial guidelines. After careful review, a shortfall was identified to the guidance for eligible proposals in addition to a need for resolution of the matching funds which OEA stated as a 50% requirement, while the law called for a 30% match. The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) inserted language into the next National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that specifically directs funds to “mission resilience, military value, and quality of life” (in that order), as well as correcting the local match to 30%. However, the DoD General Counsel provided an opinion during the original DCIP proposal process that precluded infrastructure owned by public utilities and other local government organizations that is on property leased from the installation it serves.
Title 10 Section 2391 requires that a community infrastructure project “be located off of a military installation; and owned by a state or local government; or a not-for-profit, member-owned utility service.” We believe the exclusion of projects on lands leased to an otherwise eligible entity was likely an oversight when the program was first authorized. As written, the law effectively eliminates a significant number of community infrastructure projects that happen to be proposed for land leased by DoD across the United States.
“Locally, we have well run public utility companies that have projects supporting the military missions as well as the people who provide those missions,” wrote Richard Perez, Chamber President and CEO, in a November letter written to Hon. Adam Smith, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. For instance, CPS Energy is currently working on projects to harden the power distribution system across San Antonio and Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA). This mutually beneficial endeavor physically hardens electrical substations that provide power to JBSA and provide physical protection against vehicles or other risks that could endanger the power source. The project also buries overhead power distribution lines which mitigates the risk to military crews in case of a flying mission accident. In addition, there are potential projects between San Antonio Water System (SAWS) and JBSA that will ensure safe and reliable water sources to the installations.
Additionally, Perez wrote, “We believe the underlying premise of DCIP is for the DoD to have a vehicle to invest in public infrastructure that supports military mission resilience and military value. When infrastructure sits on long-term ground leases on DoD property, that infrastructure should, in our view, be eligible to compete for DCIP funding.”
The Chamber advocates for amending current law during the upcoming Conference Committee deliberations on the 2021 NDAA to include community infrastructure off of a military installation or on military lands under a long-term lease, when the infrastructure located on the that lease premises provides support to the installation.
We are hopeful that this amendment will be made so that future projects will be eligible that develop deeper partnerships that cross over military installation boundaries, leveraging local civilian resources, and securing successful and important relationships between our military and community members. This change will not only impact San Antonio’s important military missions, but surely open doors to future opportunities in the long run across the state and the nation.
