Funds for Fairchild approved

About $670,000 for the planning and design of a new office building at Fairchild Air Force Base is included in the 2005 Defense Authorization Bill, approved Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives, a spokeswoman for Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, said.

The $422 billion legislation, which passed the House by a 391-34 vote, also would increase military pay, including a 3.5 percent across-the-board pay raise for members of the armed services, imminent danger pay and family separation pay, said April Isenhower, Nethercutt’s press secretary.

The Fairchild complex would replace four 50-year-old buildings that now house the survival school and include offices for the school’s commander, squadron commander, support personnel and the flight surgeon.

“This funding secures the long-term future of one of Fairchild’s core missions,” Nethercutt said Thursday.

He added that even after the mission support complex is complete, additional investment will be required to build a water survival facility and a new dormitory, further bolstering Fairchild’s role as an Air Force training center, Nethercutt said.

In addition, the military authorization bill increases annuities to military survivors under the Survivors Benefit Plan. Survivors of military retirees will see their annuities increase from 35 percent of retirement pay to 55 percent by 2008.

“The program was not providing military survivors the level of benefits they were promised or that they deserve,” Nethercutt said. “Military survivors lose as much as one-third of their Survivor Benefit Plan annuities thanks to the unfair ‘Widow’s Tax’ at age 62. This bill corrects this problem.”

Isenhower said her office “has been hearing more about this issue than any other.”

Also, the bill would provide more than $2 billion for equipment, including armored Humvees and body armor, to protect troops. Apparent shortages of these items have been of particular concern to families of National Guard and Reserve forces in Iraq or about to be deployed there.

The legislation still has to be funded through the 2005 Military Appropriations Bill, Isenhower said. Nethercutt sits on the House Defense Appropriations Committee.