House Bill Passes, Would Fund Fort Meade Projects

The House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that, if passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama, would fund more than $500 million in improvements at Fort Meade.

The 2014 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act passed the House of Representatives in a nearly unanimous 421-4 vote. The bill includes $431 million in funding for a high performance computing center for the National Security Agency and $85 million for a facility to support U.S. Cyber Command, both at Fort Meade. The funding is part of $10 billion in the bill for military construction projects nationwide.

The bill also provides $63 billion for Veterans Affairs programs, and mandates that the department take steps to eliminate its backlog of disability claims cases.

Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Baltimore County Democrat who represents the Fort Meade area, said in a release he voted for the bill despite disagreements with Republicans on budget cuts beyond those required under sequestration.

“Although I disagree with the underlying budget message this bill supports, we can’t vote on political philosophy at the expense of our veterans and military families,” Ruppersberger said in the release. “I continue to urge House leaders to work on a new, bipartisan budget framework that ends sequestration and responsibly reduces government spending.”